The Self from a Radical Interactionist's Perspective: Its Basic Components, Phylogenesis, and Ontogenesis

Abstract

The radical interactionist (RI) perspective is based on three root images: (1) collective act, (2) the self, and (3) social habitat. Considerable attention has already been devoted to all these root images, except for the self, which is still in need of exposition. During this exposition of the self, its basic operating components are not only explained, but also contrasted with those examined from a traditional symbolic interactionist (SI) perspective. It is concluded that the idea of the self as conceived from the newer perspective of RI surpasses the view of the self from the much older SI perspective; the RI conception of the self offers a more consistent and less confounding explanation of its basic operational components, phylogenesis, and ontogenesis. Unlike this SI view of the self, which operates on the principle of sociality, the RI view, which operates on the principle of domination, accomplishes this explanation without succumbing to romantic idealism.