The Cognitive Self and the Psychoanalytic Self: Can We Put Ourselves Together?
Author(s)
Westen, Drew
Abstract
“The self” has received renewed interest in two independent literatures: social cognition and psychoanalysis. This article reviews these two perspectives on the self and suggests common ground as well as considerable limitations of each approach. Several dimensions of self are delineated, drawing on aspects of two perspectives. Issues of consciousness of representations are addressed as well as organization of representations, motivational processes related to representations, and subjective sense of self as a thinker, feeler, and agent continuous through time. Distinguishing multiple dimensions of self-structure that may vary independently confers greater theoretical, clinical, and empirical clarity to a domain that has historically been conceptually problematic.
