The Unconscious, Self-Consciousness, and Responsibility
Article Sidebar
Main Article Content
Abstract
Abstract: In this article I argue that (1) introspective self-consciousness is an activity of narrative re-appropriation of the products of the cognitive unconscious; and (2) this activity has an essentially self-defensive character, being ruled by the primary and universal need to construct and protect a subjective identity whose solidity is the ground of the intrapsychic and interpersonal balances of human organism. Finally, in this framework firmly based on psychological sciences, I reconsider John Locke’s link between responsibility and self-consciousness.
Keywords: Identity; Responsibility; Self-consciousness; Self-narration; Unconscious
Inconscio, autocoscienza e responsabilità
Riassunto: In questo articolo sostengo che (1) l’autocoscienza introspettiva è un’attività di riappropriazione narrativa dei prodotti dell’inconscio cognitivo; e (2) questa attività ha una natura essenzialmente difensiva, essendo governata dal bisogno universale e primario di costruire e proteggere un’identità soggettiva la cui solidità è il fondamento degli equilibri intrapsichici e interpersonali dell’organismo umano. Infine, in questo quadro saldamente fondato sui dati delle scienze cognitive, riconsidero il nesso istituito da John Locke fra responsabilità e autocoscienza.
Parole chiave: Identità; Responsabilità; Autocoscienza; Narrazione di sé; Inconscio
Downloads
Article Details
Issue
Section
Authors retain copyright and grant the journal right of first publication for the printed and the electronic version simultaneously licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License that allows others to share the work with an acknowledgement of the work's authorship and initial publication in this Journal.
Authors are able to enter into separate, additional contractual arrangements for the non-exclusive distribution of the journal's published version of the work (e.g., post it to an institutional repository or publish it in a book), with an acknowledgement of its initial publication in this journal.
Authors are permitted and encouraged to post their work online (e.g., in institutional repositories or on their website) as it can lead to productive exchange, as well as earlier and more extensive citation of published work (cf. The Effect of Open Access). After the conclusion of the double blind peer review procedure, they can self-archive any version of their work: the published version as well as the pre-print (pre-refereeing) and the final draft post-refereeing.
How to Cite
References
BALINT, M. (1992), The Basic Fault: Therapeutic Aspects of Regression (1968), Northwestern UP, Evanston (IL).
BOWLBY, J. (1980), Attachment and Loss. Vol. III. Loss: Sadness and Depression, Hogarth Press, London.
BYRNE, R.W., WHITEN, A. (1988), Machiavellian Intelligence: Social Expertise and the Evolution of Intellect in Monkeys, Apes and Humans, Oxford University Press, Oxford.
CARRUTHERS, P. (2009), Mindreading Underlies Metacognition. In: «Behavioral and Brain Sciences», vol. XXXII, n. 2, pp. 164-176.
CARRUTHERS, P. (2011), The Opacity of Mind, Oxford University Press, Oxford.
CASTEL, R. (1973), Le psychanalysme, Maspero, Paris.
DEHAENE, S., CHANGEUX, J.-P. (2011), Experimental and Theoretical Approaches to Conscious Processing. In: «Neuron», vol. LXX, n. 2, pp. 200-227.
DENNETT, D.C. (1991), Consciousness Explained, Little, Brown and Company, New York.
DI FRANCESCO, M., MARRAFFA, M. (2013), The Unconscious, Consciousness, and the Self Illusion. In: «Dialogues in Philosophy, Mental and Neuro Sciences», vol. VI, n. 1, pp. 10-22.
FIVUSH, R. (2011), The Development of Autobiographical Memory. In: «Annual Review of Psychology», vol. LXII, pp. 559-582.
FONAGY, P., GERGELY, G., JURIST, E.L., TARGET, M. (2002), Affect Regulation, Mentalization and the Development of the Self, Other Press, New York.
FRANKFURT, H. (1971), Freedom of the Will and the Concept of a Person. In: «Journal of Philosophy», vol. LXVIII, n. 1, pp. 5-20.
FRANKFURT, H. (1988), The Importance of What We Care About, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge.
FREUD, S. (1930/1961), Civilization and Its Discontents. In: The Standard Edition of the Complete Psychological Works of Sigmund Freud, vol. XXI, Hogarth Press and the Institute of Psychoanalysis, London.
GOFFMAN, E. (1961), Asylums: Essays on the Social Situation of Mental Patients and Other Inmates, Doubleday, New York.
GRIFFITHS, P.E. (2004), Instinct in the ’50s: The British Reception of Konrad Lorenz’s Theory of Instinctive Behavior. In: «Biology and Philosophy», vol. XIX, n. 4, pp. 609-631.
HAMLIN, J.K. (2013), Failed Attempts to Help and Harm: Intention versus Outcome in Preverbal Infants’ Social Evaluations. In: «Cognition», vol. CXXVIII, n. 3, pp. 451-474.
HASSIN, R.R., ULEMAN, J.S., BARGH, J.A. (eds.) (2005), The New Unconscious, Oxford Uuniversity Press, Oxford.
HOLT, R. (1989), Freud Reappraised. A Fresh Look at Psychoanalytic Theory, Guilford, New York
HRDY, S. (2009), Mothers and Others, Harvard University Press, Cambridge (MA).
JERVIS, G. (1984), Presenza e identità, Garzanti, Milano.
JERVIS, G. (1993), Fondamenti di psicologia dinamica, Feltrinelli, Milano.
JERVIS, G. (1998), Colpa e responsabilità individuale, in: RAI, «Il Grillo», 06/02/1998 URL - <http://www.emsf.rai.it/grillo/>.
JERVIS, G. (2007), The Unconscious. In: M. MARRAFFA, M. DE CARO, F. FERRETTI (eds.), Cartographies of the Mind, Springer, Berlin, pp. 147-158.
KING, M., CARRUTHERS, P. (2012), Moral Responsibility and Consciousness. In: «Journal of Moral Philosophy», vol. IX, n. 2, pp. 200-228.
KOHUT, H. (1997), The Restoration of the Self, International Universities Press, New York.
LAPLANCHE, J., PONTALIS, J.-B. (1967/1973), The Language of Psycho-Analysis, The Hogarth Press and the Institute of Psycho-Analysis, London.
LOCKE, J. (1694/1975), An Essay Concerning Human Understanding, Clarendon Press, Oxford.
LOFTUS, E.F., KETCHAM, K. (1994), The Myth of Repressed Memory, St. Martin’s Press, New York.
MACMILLAN, M. (1997), Freud Evaluated, MIT Press, Cambridge (MA), II ed.
MANSON, N. (2000), A Tumbling-ground for Whimsies? The History and Contemporary Role of the Conscious/Unconscious Contrast. In: T. CRANE, S. PATTERSON (eds.), The History of the Mind-Body Problem, Routledge, London, pp. 148-168.
MARRAFFA, M., PATERNOSTER, A. (2013), Sentirsi esistere. Inconscio, coscienza, autocoscienza, Laterza, Roma-Bari.
MARRAFFA, M. (2011), Introduzione. Giovanni Jervis e la genealogia nascosta della coscienza umana. In: G. JERVIS, Il mito dell’interiorità, Bollati Boringhieri, Torino, pp. XI-LVI.
MARRAFFA, M. (2011), Precariousness and Bad Faith. Jervis on the Illusions of Self-Conscious Subjectivity. In: «Iris. European Journal of Philosophy and Public Debate», vol. III, n. 6, pp. 171-187.
MARRAFFA, M. (2012), Remnants of Psychoanalysis. Rethinking the Psychodynamic Approach to Self-Deception. In: «Humana.Mente», vol. XX, 2012, pp. 223-243.
MARRAFFA, M. (2013), De Martino, Jervis, and the Self-Defensive Nature of Self-Consciousness. In: «Paradigmi», vol. XXXI, n. 2, pp. 109-124.
MARRAFFA, M. (2014), Introduzione. Giovanni Jervis: la ricerca della concretezza. In: G. JERVIS, Contro il sentito dire. Psicoanalisi, psichiatria e politica, Bollati Boringhieri, Torino, p. LXV-LXVI.
MARRAFFA, M., SIRGIOVANNI, E. (2013), Coscienza e responsabilità. In: M. DE CARO, A. LAVAZZA, G. SARTORI (a cura di), Quanto siamo responsabili? Filosofia, neuroscienze e società, Codice, Torino, pp. 83-100.
MCADAMS, D.P., OLSON, B.D. (2010), Personality Development: Continuity and Change over the Life Course. In: «Annual Review of Psychology», vol. LXI, pp. 517-542.
MEYER, S., SHORE, C. (2001), Children’s Understanding of Dreams as Mental States. In: «Dreaming», vol. XI, n. 4, pp. 179-194.
MOSCOVICI, S. (1961/2007), Psychoanalysis: Its Image and Its Public, Polity Press, Cambridge.
NICHOLS, S., STICH, S.P. (2003), Mindreading, Oxford University Press, Oxford.
NISBETT, R., WILSON, T.D. (1977), Telling More than we Can Know: Verbal Reports on Mental Processes. In: «Psychological Review», vol. LXXXIV, n. 3, pp. 231-259.
PIAGET, J. (1926/1929), The Child’s Conception of the World, Routledge, London.
POLLO, S. (2007), L’uso pubblico del naturalismo. In: «Etica & Politica», vol. IX, n. 2, pp. 144-147.
RICHERSON, P., BOYD, R. (2005), Not By Genes Alone, University of Chicago Press, Chicago.
SCHWITZGEBEL, E. (2014), Introspection. In: E.N. ZALTA (ed.), The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy, URL = <http://plato.stanford.edu/archives/sum2014/entries/introspection/>.
SPENCE, D.P. (1962), Narrative Truth and Historical Truth, W.W. Norton, New York.
SYMONS, D.K. (2004), Mental State Discourse, Theory of Mind, and the Internalization of Self-Other Understanding. In: «Developmental Review», vol. XXIV, n. 2, pp. 159-188.