From Self-Recognition To Self-Awareness To Self-Identity To Self-Actualization
Freshmen psychology students are exposed to the concept of animal cognition at some point as they immerse deep into the semesters. One topic they are introduced to in the subject is "mirror self recognition", or MSR. This is a test that determines whether animals can recognize themselves in the mirror - and their ability to do so tells us whether they are aware of their own existence as a distinct, objective entity.
Ethologists, the folks who study animal behavior, begin by placing a mirror before unsuspecting animals to study their reaction. Most animals look at the reflection and presume it must be someone else - a conspecific. Some animals let loose a burst of social interaction with this creature in the mirror, but then become confused and / or frustrated by the other party's seemingly strange antics. Some others go behind the mirror to investigate if somebody is playing tricks. After a few minutes, a few days or a few weeks of playing with the mirror, it enters the brain (mind?) of very few animals - belonging to an exclusive club actually - that what they are seeing in the mirror is their own body. A "mapping" takes place between the image they see reflected in the mirror and their body. And when the penny drops, they gleefully begin preening, exploring their body in the mirror, including parts that they normally do not get to see; such as their hind side. By this time the animals have gotten used to the novelty of the mirror object.
_*Now comes the crucial, the MSR test. Ethologists must have a fun time putting marks on the bodies of animals who reach this stage of abstract mapping. These marks are placed on parts of the body such that they can be seen only with the help of a mirror, not otherwise - such as on the cheeks or the forehead. When the mirror is placed before them, then if the animals spontaneously touch these marks - wondering where on hell these marks came from -, bingo! We finally get a clue that the animals do recognize themselves in the mirror.
_*Up until this point of time, just a few handful species have been found to be members of this club. Those who have made the mark are us humans of course and our extended family members, the chimpanzees and the orangutans. The Gorilla, surprisingly, despite being our very close relative, does not even throw a second glance at its reflection. Now whether it behaves so because it is too lazy to bother about self-awareness, or because it finds the antics of us human beings a tad silly, is not yet known. Just what thoughts cross the Gorilla's mind when it chances upon itself in the mirror? We don't know. Some souls are above such basal solipsism as self-awareness and "me" and "my mind", you see, so immersed are they in the awareness of being one with the cosmic ocean.
_*Outside the Great Apes family, thus far only elephants, bottlenose dolphins and European magpies have been found to possess the trait of recognizing themselves in the mirror. Such a motley club it is, this set of taxonomically divergent species who have the capability of becoming self-aware. Why is there no self-awareness amongst the species that take up space in the animal kingdom chart, between the magpies and the dolphins and the elephants and the Great Apes? Is this concept of self-awareness a boon for those who have it and a bane for those who do not? Or is being self-aware a curse and not being self-aware a bliss?
_*Freshmen students enjoy subjecting their pet dogs and cats to the MSR test and see them failing it. They also enjoy subjecting any toddlers in the family to the test, and verifying that the tiny tots do not recognize themselves before they are about 18 months old, but that they begin to become aware of how beautiful or handsome they are once they cross the 18-month threshold of age. These infants become self-aware to the extent that they try to remove the marks that the elders put on their faces and other parts of the body, irritated obviously at someone trying to spoil their pristine self-image. And we thought that we become so self-conscious about our body, especially when before the mirror, only when we touch pre-pubescence.
_*The fact of the matter is, that self-recognition begins within one-and-a-half years of our taking on the human form. May be even earlier. It is just that it perhaps takes us one-and-a-half years to rise above primal sensory perceptions and hunger pangs and creature comfort, and to begin sensing the contours of objects such as mirrors. It must be very surreal, those days when the eyes are still getting used to things, still trying to see the form of one object as distinct from another. Like those pictures that have animals and people hidden in them, and you don't discern them at first? There's nothing but a collage of colors and patches. And then...aha, here's this figure looming out from the disparate fragments. The lenses of the eyes take their own time to fine-tune with the 3-D world of objects.
_*Moving along the dimension of Time, at some stage we begin objectivizing ourselves, as an entity distinct from the rest of the cosmos. Like a drop of water detaching itself from the rest of the ocean, staying back on the pebble while the waves recede from the shore to merge back with the ocean.
For us human beings, the trait of self-awareness grows upon us automatically, whether somebody thrusts a mirror before us or no. For us human beings, self-recognition is de facto a part of the bigger picture of self-awareness. Without being "conscious" about it, this self-awareness leads to self-critique and self-evaluation. There begins a comparison between who and what one is vis-a-vis the conspecifics, the other human beings around us. Remember the child who quietly watches his grandfather reclined on the rocking chair, thick specs in place, reading the day's newspaper? And then when grandfather gets up to take a walk around the house, this child scampers to the rocking chair, climbs on it, wears the specs, holds the newspaper in his tiny hands, puckers up his face like grandfather, and reclines in the exact same position as grandfather? Ever wondered what motivated the kid to mimic somebody? Or remember the girl who observes her mother preparing for the day? How her mother dresses her usual dress, how she stands before the mirror and turns sideways - first left, then right - to ensure that everything is okay, how she applies to her face whatever it is that she applies, carefully patting her hair at the end, and then with that special gesture, how she picks up the purse to walk briskly out to the place of work? And then when the mother is gone, this daughter goes through the same ritual down to the last dainty detail, as if she were her mother's clone? What made the girl mimic another person? You see, this is the age when we subconsciously are beginning to transition from self-awareness to self-identity. The concept of self.
As children, we are in the process of giving shape to our idea of who and what we are, in the context of the world around us. A process which begins in the mind and which, once begun, will continue till the last breath. And all through this time, the idea of who and what we are will keep on getting shaped and reshaped, much like the clay that we roll and knead and poke and pinch and pull and do things with it to create those beautiful figures. Each time the shape is still being formed, caught in those tiny fingers, there is a sense of discomfort and turmoil. But when the final shape is acquired and the figure firmly anchored on the table, there is a sense of stability and harmony and being at peace and equilibrium with the rest of the world.
And then we destroy the clay figure and do it all over again. Again and again. And this what we do with our self-identity. Our self-identity keeps on being shaped and re-shaped as we grow in age and experience. But unlike the clay that forgets its past figure, the self-identity remembers its past, and also has a vague visualization of what it wants to be in the future. That is because self-identity rides piggyback, in a continuous motion, on the forward-moving thread of time. Life continues to happen to us as we grow up. We go to school and college or remain away from formal education. We get ourselves a job or loaf about. We fall in love or stay away from it. We get married or remain single or go through the stages of marriage, divorce / widowhood / remarriage / singlehood over and over again. We breed progeny or remain issueless. We settle down in one place or remain vagabond. We get ourselves into trouble with the law or sidestep the muck, nose pinched between the two fingers. We bring upon ourselves the latest flavor of the latest disease, or try to get by with the occasional cough and sneeze. We enter into body-amputation accidents, or manage to scrape past with a cut here or a bruise there. And while all this is happening, we are exposed to new ideas, new thoughts, new values; stuff which make us expel all that we had held dear till then. In discarding the old and imbibing the new, our self-identity continues to be shaped and reshaped, like the clay figure we destroyed and would remold, back when we were kids.
Not to mention the continuous barrage of direct sermons and subtle hints that the people around drill into us, through all the sensory channels - visual, auditory, olfactory, gustatory, and tactile. "Who do you think you are? Why don't you fall in line?" "How dare you presume this; when all the rest of us know for sure that that is right?" "What gives you the right?" "This is how things are always done around here, and this is how they shall always be." "Do what I say, or else." Just a sliver of the barrage of statements, these, delivered in a tone of matter-of-fact, self-righteousness, accusation, or plainly authoritatively. But very powerful and very impactful, drumming upon the ears right from the time we begin to become self-aware and begin exercising the option of making choices. Statements issued by some parent, some senior, some relative, some friend, some peer, some mentor, some role model, some lover / spouse / intimate partner, some community leader, some government official... the list of people who influence the shaping of the clay is huge as it is myriad. Some of these people thrust upon us by virtue of birth or through circumstance, and the rest coming into our life of our own volition.
Why? What propels the tiny little lemming to be part of the herd that rushes seemingly unthinkingly towards the edge of the precipice? As the edge comes closer, what thoughts cross its mind? Does it ever think of turning back, and to hell with what the rest of the community will think? As it draws in breath and jumps, does it regret the decision? What definition of self-identity drives it to take this step? That peer pressure overrides preservation of own life? Or is suicide part of its genetic code any way? Have the lemmings been subjected to the MSR test? Are they self-aware at all?
Let's take a step back and ponder our own self-identity in the context of the lemmings' action. Are we sure we have constructed our self-identity carefully, and not embedded any code of self-destruction into it?
At some stage in our life, while playing with the clay to shape and reshape and giving rise to yet new figures, our fingers pause, to ponder and reflect and introspect. What the hell am I doing? Has it all been worthwhile? What was the whole goddamn point? Have you, at times, caught yourself evaluating your life by certain parameters of "success" and "failure"? That I have this, this and this, to such, such and such extent, so therefore I am "successful"? But that I don't have that, that and that, to so, so and so extent, and so therefore I am a "failure"? In certain cases, we plunge into bouts of what is known as "existential crisis"... questioning how we lived our life, how all the various factors influenced the figures that the clay came to acquire, and whether we have really lived life "the way it should have been lived". This wild swing between thoughts of nihilistic, it-was-all-pointless-and-absurd... to the self-actualized, aha-what-a-fruitful-journey-it-has-been... continues for a while, before we (hopefully) finally settle down to some stable - or semblance of stable - equilibrium in between the two extremes.
_*From self-recognition to self-awareness to self-identity to self-actualization... is a long journey! Especially for the drop of water that decided to stay back on the pebble while the wave receded back into the ocean! But take this journey it does. According to metaphysicians, all along this journey, somehow, somehow, the water-drop does not "forget" and remains intuitively "aware" of its core existence as a soul. The soul that is aware of its invisible link with the source it has come from, and where it will finally return. It is also said that the journey can be very enjoyable if one remains in touch with one's soul at all times, and not lose sight of its existence, howsoever absorbing and engaging the clay-shaping activity might be.
_*Mystics say that the soul boxed within our body - remember the drop of water that stayed behind on the pebble? - has this special connect with the cosmos. While you and I get busy, building our self-identity in the visible world around us, the soul maintains its own self-identity by continuing to focus on the invisible threads that are woven throughout the universe and of which it is but one of the innumerable knots. And while you and I go about our daily routine on the Solstice Day and the days around it, so absorbed we are in working hard to hide our vulnerability and sense of smallness, and so engrossed we are in our efforts to snatch that word of praise and appreciation from certain people who have a significant hold on our sense of wellbeing, that we become blissfully ignorant of the earth underneath shifting in a very special way. But the soul: it "feels" this shift happening.
To the ancients, the two solstices that take place every year were the most auspicious events in their calendar, much before organized religious structures established themselves. By being at the Stonehenge on this auspicious occasion, the thinking must be that the special setting will somehow bring them closer to the state of self-actualization by making it easier to experience for themselves those invisible threads and those invisible knots.
While we are progressing from phase to phase, before the water-drop merges back with the cosmic ocean so to speak, the soul is silently observing, without reacting, without being judgmental. While we indulge in the pastime of shaping new figures with clay, the soul remains immutable. While we drown in the ocean of emotions and feelings, the soul remains dry and aloof. These properties of the soul can be put to good use by keeping in touch with it at all times. And the best technique for keeping in touch with the soul is - good old meditation.
_*Here is one other relevant aspect of Nature's diversity. Children in the Autism spectrum recognize themselves in the mirror - though in later childhood -, but some of them are unable to observe their own behavior from the standpoint of the others, and require appropriate behavioral intervention to do so. From self-recognition to self-awareness to self-identity, somewhere along the way, a different hue of self-identity gets developed.
Nature never ceases to surprise!
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4 comments:
Another great article; it was worth the wait!!!
I was thinking of transitioning from identity crisis to existential crisis and finally moving towards complete nihilism! haha
But then we have to rremain rooted in the positive! And so we talk about swinging towardds self-actualization...
Great article!
I had watched "Carnival of Souls" movie as a child. may be about twnetiy years ago. Watching this clip brought back those memories. I was scared when I saw those ghosts waiting for the woman in the bus.
I found it strange that she couldn't recognize her own people. As you said, she refused to identify herself with them.
The more I read, the more I realize that there is so much about the world that I do not know.
Ana
I agree with Ana the other commenter about we not knowing anything much, whatever be our pretenses to be experts.
I know of a gentleman who was treated for mental health. It later became known that he was suffering from the problem of not being able to recognize faces. Which is not a mental health, as it is now realized.
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