"Constructive Urge for Self-Presentation-Mediating between the Past and the Future".

Abstract

I further develop the dialogical self theory (DST) by elaborating on temporal dimensions, emphasizing the human need for self-presentation. The self is seen as the subjective center of a multicentered semiotic net, one that mediates between the past and future. A person is an operational entity that occasionally reconstructs him- or herself through the negotiation of internal and external "I-positions." The conceptual differentiation of a future time zone is proposed by means of elaborating on the zone of distant development (ZDD). The ZDD, along with the zone of proximal development (ZPD), constitutes the future. The ZDD is distanced from the ZPD by an undefined time gap, and the former constructs and involves space around, and even beyond, the semiotic horizon. Major aspirations projected to the ZDD provide a general sense to life in the present time. Future-directedness is revealed in the constructive urge for self-presentation. Humans want to matter and to leave a trace of themselves behind, especially in other people's lives. The strive for self-presentation is considered one of the most significant urges for people; it is expressed in taking care of others, spreading ideas, creating art, craftsmanship, and so forth. People desire to be signified in a surrounding semiotic system, even after death. So they insert their legacy-signs in the external environment, forming their representatives. The strive for self-presentation emanates from the bilateral nature of interaction between the self and one's surrounding environment. Also, this strive reveals another semiotic visible field of the indissoluble connection between personal and social identities. In essence, the urge for self-presentation drives procreative thinking and actions.