Table Of ContentDilerrllllas
of the
American
Self
Dilemmas
of the
•
encan
Self
JOHN P. HEWITT
Temple University Press
Philadelphia
Temple University Press, Philadelphia 19122
Copyright © 1989 by Temple University. All rights reserved
Published 1989
Printed in the United States of America
The paper used in this publication meets the minimum
requirements of American National Standard for Information
Sciences-Permanence of Paper for Printed Library Materials,
ANSI Z39.48-1984
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Hewitt, John P., 1941-
Dilemmas of the American self / John P. Hewitt.
p. em.
Includes bibliographical references.
ISBN 0-87722-656-3 (alk. paper)
I. Social psychology-United States. 2. Symbolic interactionism.
3. Self. 4. Culture. I. Title.
HM25I.H493 1989
302-dc 20 89-5179
CIP
Contents
Preface Vlt
I
The Ubiquity of the Self 3
II
Social Theory as Cultural Text 19
III
A View of American Culture 66
IV
Modernity, Society, and Community 109
V
A Theory of Identity 149
VI
Strategies of Self-Construction 191
VII
In the Last Analysis 231
Notes 247
Bibliography 261
Index 269
v
PREFACE
This book is an attempt to revise our understanding. of the person in
American society. Social scientists and social critics have typically re
garded individualism as the most significant problem of American cul
ture, and they have portrayed the self as transformed, disorganized, under
attack, or in decline as a result of individualism and of other powerful
forces of modernity. I think matters are far more complex. Although in
dividualism is a powerful force in American culture and society, there
are countervailing tendencies toward a communitarian view of life and its
possibilities. And over the course of American history the experience of
self is better characterized by images of ambivalent responses to a divided
culture than by images of change or decline.
In this effort to rethink and reconstruct our basic interpretations of self
and society I have drawn upon two different streams of thought, hoping
to make a contribution to each as well as to reach a wider and less spe
cialized audience. One stream is social psychology, particularly the socio
logical version known as symbolic interactionism. This approach to social
psychology is a contemporary heir to the pragmatism of William James,
Charles S. Peirce, John Dewey, and especially George Herbert Mead,
philosophers whose work is itself an expression of American culture and
in many respects integral to an understanding of it. Symbolic interaction
ism stresses the centrality of meaning and symbolic communication in the
formation of human conduct, and one of its chief achievements has been
the elaboration of a theory of the self. The other stream consists of a more
heterogeneous body of literature that has examined American society and
culture and depicted their impact upon the person. David Riesman, Allen
Wheelis, Carl Rogers, and Christopher Lasch are a few of the diverse con
tributors to this literature. These and other authors have often couched
their discussions of self and society in scholarly terms, but their ideas have
also influenced a wider audience, through their best-selling books, the
media, and the college classroom.
The social critique of individualism, narcissism, and other features of
American culture, and symbolic interactionist self theory, are topics not
customarily addressed by one scholar within the pages of a single book.
Although many practitioners of social psychology have read critiques of
American culture and its alleged transformation, corrosion, or destruction
of the self, they have not yet fully grasped the implications of this litera-
VB
viii / Preface
ture for social psychology. And contemporary social and cultural analysts
seem largely to have forgotten pragmatism and to be oblivious to social
psychology and symbolic interactionism. By joining these streams I hope
to advance them both.
My own intellectual roots lie in symbolic interactionism, but this book
departs in scope, style, and substance from much contemporary interac
tionist work. The continued development of symbolic interactionist self
theory depends upon a willingness to theorize in new ways about the re
lationship between society and the person, upon the revitalization of the
concept of culture, and particularly upon a grasp of American culture.
George H. Mead, who gave sociologists their understanding of the self in
society, wrote from within the framework of American culture. Symbolic
interactionists, who have kept the flame of Mead's ideas alive, have found
little place for the concept of culture in their analyses of human conduct,
let alone for the special themes of American culture. My hope in this book
is to reinvigorate and extend the interactionist theory of the self, in part
by removing those chains that bind it to an expression of a particular mo
ment of the culture that spawned it. I want to add to the tradition of social
psychology Mead created.
At the same time, analyses of American individualism and of the in
exorable decline and fall of the self (or, in some versions, of the wonderful
opportunities for self-actualization that lie ahead) have been restricted
by their own chains binding them to American culture. Critical scholars
and intellectuals, through an exaggerated and usually pessimistic attention
to individualism, have distorted our understanding of American culture
and of the problems and prospects of the person. American culture is
best characterized not as relentlessly individualistic or as lacking in the
capacity to conceive of or discuss community, but as torn between in
dividualism and communitarianism, thus creating serious, felt difficulties
of social adjustment and personal meaning. This body of literature has
also suffered because of its theoretical approaches to the self. Christopher
Lasch, for example, attempts to force an understanding of American cul
ture and the person into the psychoanalytic concept of narcissism; Robert
Bellah and his associates seem to fit their understanding of person and
society to no discernible sociological or social psychological theory. Sym
bolic interactionist social psychology provides a theory of the self useful
in understanding the problems and prospects of the person in American
society.
This book is addressed not only to symbolic interactionists and to other
Preface / ix
sdlObrs interested in the self and its vicissitudes but also to a larger audi
t'lKe willing to risk immersion in its scholarly discourse. I have sought to
,:onvcy the main ideas of a symbolic interactionist reading of the social
psychology of the self and of American culture in terms and images that
will be of interest beyond the scholarly world. Although this is primar
ily a theoretical work, I have risked some imprecision and simplification
in order to convey my view of self and society more vividly. And I have
explained concepts familiar to specialists so that the book as a whole
will be accessible to non-specialists. I have done so in the conviction that
social scientific analyses, wherever possible, should be understandable to
a literate general audience and to students.
I am indebted to many people who have directly or indirectly contrib
uted to this book-to those whose work I have used (and I hope not
misused) in these pages and to my present and former teachers, students,
and colleagues. Jerry Platt has been a very supportive and encouraging
department chair, and Jane Cullen of Temple University Press an enthusi
astic and helpful editor. lowe a special debt to Charles H. Page, a teacher
and colleague who has been unfailingly supportive of me for over twenty
five years. I began work on this book just as my daughter, Elizabeth A.
Hewitt, entered college, and work on it continued as my son, Gary L.
Hewitt, started his college career two years later. As they have grown in
tellectually (and graduated) during these years they have both cheered and
challenged me, and my work has gained from their intellectual presence
as well as from their love. And Myrna Livingston Hewitt, wife as well
as colleague, has through her love and quiet confidence made this book
possible.
