Conceptualizing the ‘self’

Abstract

The idea of ‘the self’ has been a critical one for Fonagy and colleagues for over 30 years. Consideration of the theory of the self is essential for understanding how Fonagy and colleagues believe thoughts and feelings are constructed, the relationship between conscious and unconscious aspects of the self, and their account of what we glean and protect ourselves from within present or past experience. This chapter will begin by considering broader currents in social science and psychology that made the concept of ‘self’ salient at the point that mentalization theory was being developed, and the ways that Fonagy and colleagues have conceptualized the self. We discuss the concept of ‘alien self’, introduced by Fonagy and colleagues to describe the experience of desires and elements of personal experience that disturb self-representations. We will then explore the account they offer of sexuality and aggression, as two inevitable and especially potent components of the alien self.