The Extended Self

Each self-model -- each phenomenal self -- has its own holism and integrity, yet also stands in containment and overlapping relations with a host of other selves.

An individual person has a localized self -- and also an extended self, which includes various aspects of the "inanimate" world they interact with, and also aspects of various people they interact with.

If you put me on a deserted island for 10 years, a lot of my self would disappear -- not just because it needs stimulation from others, but because my extended self actually resides collectively in my brain and body, in the brains and bodies of others, and in the environments I and these others habitually inhabit.

This is/was obvious to many other cultures, and feels slightly odd to some of us now only because we live in an unprecedentedly individualistic culture.

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