Q.What is self? How does the Indian notion of self differ from the Western notion?

The self is the totality of an individual's conscious experiences, ideas, thoughts and feelings about herself or himself. It forms through interaction with people and includes a personal identity (name, qualities, beliefs) and a social identity (links to one's group or culture).

The cultures differ mainly in where the boundary between self and others is drawn. In the Western view this boundary is relatively fixed, with clear dichotomies between self and other, man and nature; the self and the group stay as two separate entities (individualistic). In the Indian view the boundary is shifting — the self can expand to fuse with the cosmos or include others at one moment and withdraw into the individual self the next; it is not separated from one's group (collectivistic).

What is self?

From childhood we spend a great deal of time thinking about who we are and how we differ from others. Psychologists use the notion of self to capture this. In technical terms, self refers to the totality of an individual's conscious experiences, ideas, thoughts and feelings with regard to herself or himself. A newborn has no idea of its self; the idea emerges gradually as the child interacts with parents, friends, teachers and other significant people, and gives meaning to those experiences. The structure of self is therefore modifiable in the light of our own and others' experiences.

The self shows up in two ways:

• Personal identity — the attributes that make a person different from others, such as one's name, qualities (honest, hardworking), potentialities (singer, dancer) or beliefs.
• Social identity — the aspects that link a person to a social or cultural group, such as being a Hindu, a Muslim, a North Indian or a South Indian.

The self can also be understood both as a subject (the 'knower' or actor that actively engages in knowing itself — "I know who I am") and as an object (that which gets observed and comes to be known). Several kinds of self develop through our interactions — the biological self, the personal self (concerned with personal freedom, achievement, comfort) and the social or familial/relational self (values cooperation, sharing, family and social relationships).

How the Indian and Western notions differ

Several features of the self are linked to the culture a person lives in. The most important difference is the way the boundary is drawn between the self and the other.

• In the Western view, this boundary appears to be relatively fixed. The Western outlook holds clear dichotomies — between self and other, man and nature, and subjective and objective. The self and the group exist as two different entities with clearly defined boundaries, and members of a group maintain their individuality. Such cultures are described as individualistic.
• In the Indian view, the self is characterised by a shifting boundary. Our self at one moment expands to fuse with the cosmos or to include others, and at the next moment it withdraws completely and focuses fully on the individual self (our personal needs or goals). The Indian view does not make such clear dichotomies. Here the self is generally not separated from one's own group; rather both remain in a state of harmonious co-existence. Such cultures are described as collectivistic.

Figure 2.1 in the chapter illustrates this: the Western perspective shows the individual and the group as two separate triangles with a clear gap, while the Indian perspective shows the individual embedded within the group.