"Even though Timmy didn't know it at the time, he had little choice but to fit in."
To me, Jeffery D. Wilhelm and Bruce Novak's discussion of the True Self and the False Self drew immediate comparisons to Jacques Lacan's theory of the mirror stage. In a nut a shell, the mirror stage is a process of objectification initiated by an infant, wherein the infant creates an ideal image of him or her self (subsequently ratified by those around us). Effectively we have two selves: the outer and the inner. For the purpose of this blog entry, I am connecting the Outer Self to the False Self and the Inner Self to the True Self.
In Wilhelm and Novak (chapter 7), the point is made that the False Self is the product of an individual trying to comply with the rules and expectations of a parent or a teacher figure. Under the guise of the False Self we either are slaves to the Other's wishes, or we pretend to be slaves in order to manipulate the Other to do what we want (see 152). Either way, it is not a very healthy relationship.
What Wilhelm and Novak recommend is for students to find a balance where they can manipulate the tools they are given in a way that does not make them carbon copies (or clones) of their instructor. Hopefully, as teachers, if we can effectively engage our students to develop their own opinions and positions, we can help them recognize the things in their life that are trying to manipulate them (such as television advertisements). I know this must all sound rather idealistic, but the better equipped they are in truly expressing themselves, perhaps the better able they will be in recognizing the importance of being who they are and not what others want them to be.
We can all recognize the consequences of idealizing the False Self. Self image is a particularly troubling subject for many teens. Clearly there are objectives that must be meet in the classroom. Even so, on top of all the other pressures they are facing, teens should not feel ashamed to be who they are in class.
In Wilhelm and Novak (chapter 7), the point is made that the False Self is the product of an individual trying to comply with the rules and expectations of a parent or a teacher figure. Under the guise of the False Self we either are slaves to the Other's wishes, or we pretend to be slaves in order to manipulate the Other to do what we want (see 152). Either way, it is not a very healthy relationship.
What Wilhelm and Novak recommend is for students to find a balance where they can manipulate the tools they are given in a way that does not make them carbon copies (or clones) of their instructor. Hopefully, as teachers, if we can effectively engage our students to develop their own opinions and positions, we can help them recognize the things in their life that are trying to manipulate them (such as television advertisements). I know this must all sound rather idealistic, but the better equipped they are in truly expressing themselves, perhaps the better able they will be in recognizing the importance of being who they are and not what others want them to be.
We can all recognize the consequences of idealizing the False Self. Self image is a particularly troubling subject for many teens. Clearly there are objectives that must be meet in the classroom. Even so, on top of all the other pressures they are facing, teens should not feel ashamed to be who they are in class.
Remarkably I found the old Concerned Children's Advertiser Ad on YouTube:
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