It will be proposed that the self is best explained by that which is being referred to as an “autopoietic-narrative emergence” model of selfhood. ‘Autopoietic’ refers to a biological system’s ability to self-organize, and hence its ability to autonomously create boundaries which facilitate the emergence of a self. Narrative refers to the ability to tell stories about oneself, both to oneself and to others, which in turn fashions a particular sense of selfhood for the individual narrator. The proposed model replaces the ‘proper self’ of traditional metaphysics with a more synoptic phenomenological bio-psycho-social account of selfhood. The strength of the proposed theoretical framework is its ability to account for a number of divergent psychological conditions while retaining a single model of the structure of selfhood.
Ultimately, it will be suggested that a uniquely human self is the fluctuating center of a streaming narrative system which emerges from the interactivity of biological and cognitive subsystems and which is fully immersed in a dynamic web of social relationality—all of which imbue it with a ‘real-ness’ despite its abstracted and virtual nature. Moreover, it will be demonstrated that ‘otherness’ plays an integral role in the emergence of a person’s selfhood and in his/her unique process of self-identification, not only on the psycho-social narrative level but on the biological levels as well.
Therefore, in short, the purpose of this essay will be to: 1) examine how the study of schizophrenia can be a useful tool for expanding our knowledge and understanding of the nature of human selfhood; 2) put forth the conceptual foundations of an adequate model of selfhood; and 3) demonstrate how the proposed model of selfhood is able to account for both the ‘normal’ and ‘schizophrenic’ experiences of self.