Abstract
This chapter presents a synthesis of some theoretical approaches that have contributed to a new scientific perspective on the human subjectivity. Because of their ability to interpret and narrate what impinges on them, people are now considered as endowed with a greater agency than previously. The model—“to make oneself self”—was designed to serve as a basis for developing counselling interventions that are intended to help clients define for themselves their major life perspectives. It describes human subjectivity as a dynamic system of subjective identity forms (SIF). A SIF is both a collection of ways to act, interact and dialogue and a view of oneself (and of other people) in a certain setting. Human agency plays a role in the SIF system’s dynamism, as it originates notably in the tensions between two types of reflexivity. The dual one—which relies on identifications—is a stabilizing factor. The ternary one—which implies intra or interpersonal dialogues—is a sense-making process, during which individuals (re)interpret their past and present commitments and outline some future perspectives that could possibly give their lives a meaning. To understand how these reflexivity processes are linked with actions, the metaphor of the production of an “identity” movie (= of a dynamic SIF’s system) is used in relation with contextual action theory. Individuals record some actions (as does a movie camera) and integrate these “marked” actions in a system of goals organized in different levels of consciousness. Actions are “marked” by associate emotions and feelings, for example, anger, joy, or sadness, which can expand and form self “evidences” such as self-efficacy beliefs, self-esteem, interests or values. Language plays a major role in the process of editing and directing the identity movie. It translates and interprets affects from proto-self to extended consciousness: inner speech translates emotions into feelings by forming action goals. It also puts the SIFs through trials of action, which prompts emotions. Social language is used to translate (to edit) feelings into SIF via an integration of action goals into personal goals. Different examples stemming from counselling interventions are given to illustrate these processes.
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Guichard, J., Pouyaud, J. (2015). Processes of Identity Construction in Liquid Modernity: Actions, Emotions, Identifications, and Interpretations. In: Young, R., Domene, J., Valach, L. (eds) Counseling and Action. Springer, New York, NY. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4939-0773-1_6
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