Common threads, diverse solutions: Concluding commentary

Abstract

In this concluding article, we summarize some of the major themes and highlight several unresolved issues. We focus first on the structure or representation of self. The major issues that emerged here were: (1) the existence and representation of a primitive, presymbolic self; (2) the existence, origins, and developmental course of multiple selves; (3) the role and representation of affect in early self. Several unifying propositions are offered both to integrate across commonalities and to demarcate theoretical differences. Next we consider functions of self, including both what self uniquely contributes to the organism and how its functions might change developmentally. We propose that the core function of self remains invariant; to define, locate, demarcate the world from a consistent perspective by organizing, integrating, and representing experiences from that vantage point. Inherent in this process, however, is the establishment of boundaries that define self with respect to the world and others. These boundaries may change with age as a function of the changing structure of self. The earliest boundaries may define for the infant the physical boundaries between self and world, followed by social and causal boundaries, then personal and psychological boundaries. In the final two sections we address issues of enactment of self in observable behavior: how do we know that the infant or young child has a self, and that the self looks like X? And we address the question of mechanisms of early self-development. Here we also suggest that insights gleaned from the study of nonnormative influences, whether biological or environmental, may shed light on our descriptions and explanations of the early self.