Dilemmas of the American Self PDF
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Dilerrllllas 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.
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