Knowing Self, Changing Self: The Interplay of Reality, Fantasy, and Friendship

This book uses philosophy, psychology, and autobiography in an innovative exploration of self and self-knowledge. It argues that our sense of who we are is an ever-changing response to the world of interpersonal experience, an essential project that is always subject to revision and change. It explores self-knowledge through linked topics. What characteristics make an individual identifiable and unique, and how are they experienced introspectively? What insight can be gained through the metaphors of acting and roles? How does fantasy plays a crucial part in self-definition and self-exploration? How do trust and fear define our perception of others and what is their contribution to our sense of self? The second half of the book uses the friendship of the authors, a philosopher and a psychologist, to investigate how one’s ability to navigate the world, along with one’s self-knowledge, changes through mutual care, respect, and complementarity—and through an explicit dialogic focus on self and self-understanding.

Table of Contents:
Part 1: Knowing Self (by Thomas Morawetz) Introduction: On the Examined Life Chapter 1: On the Social Bases of Self-Knowledge “Who Am I?” Identity and Recognition Attitudes Trust and Fear Self-knowledge as Knowledge Fantasy Selves Chapter 2: On Truth and Falsity, Fantasy and Self-Knowledge What You See… Aspects and Ingredients of the Self Parameters of Self-image Discontent and Quiet Desperation Culture and Fantasy Deeper into Fantasy Chapter 3: On Acting, Roles, and Essences Acting: Two Meanings “Real” Actors The Audience Deeper into Identification Roles and Selves Cosplay Chapter 4: On Recognition The Importance of Recognizability Recognizing Oneself Anonymity Recognition, Power, and Fear Impersonation and Deception The Technology of Self-creation Part 2: Changing Self (by Thomas Morawetz and Scotty Enyart) Chapter 5: On Friendship Others and Alter Egos (TM) Beginning Again (SE) Contrast and Complement (TM) Learning and Giving (SE) Voices in the Wilderness (TM) Chapter 6: On Professional Identity Revising the Self (TM) Therapy: Inroads, Strengths, Deficits (SE) Change: Transparency and Opacity (TM) The Therapist’s Role (SE) The Self as Indirect Object (TM) Chapter 7: On Culture What is Culture? (TM) Origins (SE) Frames, Contexts, and Cultures (TM) The Deliberate Cultural Pursuit of Self-knowledge (SE) Culture and Personal Trajectories (TM) Chapter 8: On Feeling Judging and Feeling (TM) Ways of Knowing and Feeling (SE) The Self and Humanism (TM)

About the Author :
Thomas Morawetz is the Tapping Reeve Professor of Law and Ethics at the University of Connecticut School of Law. Scotty Enyart works in private practice at The Enyart Group.

Review :
In Knowing Self, Changing Self, Morawetz (Univ. of Connecticut School of Law) and Enyart, a practicing psychologist, explore self at the intersection of philosophy and psychology. The result is a fascinating read that blends both historical viewpoints and practical applications. One of the main themes that runs throughout is how much of ”knowing self” is a matter of fact and how much a matter of interpretation. Rather than judge interpretation as somehow less valuable than fact, the authors suggest that self as interpretation is equally vital to understand. In the tradition of such works as Mayeroff’s On Caring (1971), this book demonstrates the power of understanding self through shared friendship and the ability to care for others as much as for self. It is refreshing to have a work that balances conversation on the role of trust and fear (many works discuss one or the other but rarely both) in navigating through the self-exploration process and coming to understand self. . . this thin but powerful volume is well suited to counseling and philosophy and of much value to helping professionals. Summing Up: Recommended. Advanced undergraduates through faculty and professionals.