Perspectival Selves in Interaction with Others: Re-reading G.H. Mead’s Social Psychology

Abstract

Perspectives may be understood broadly as perceptual and conceptual orientations to a situation with a view to acting within that situation. Taking the perspectives of others generally is held to be of considerable importance not only for the development and maintenance of good interpersonal and community relations, but also for the development of individuals as persons capable of entering into such relations. To explain perspective taking, the social sciences have posited many versions of empathic, intentional, and interpretive theories. Empathic approaches (e.g., Rogers, 1957) stress the importance of comprehending the actual and experiential situation of the other and imaginatively and affectively placing one’s self in that situation. Intentional approaches (e.g., Collingwood, 1961) typically emphasize the development of accounts that attempt to uncover the thoughts that lie behind others’ actions. Most empathic and intentional theorizing assumes that understanding the perspectives of others involves simulating how one would feel, think, and act in their situations, including their mental states. Typically, the simulation of others’ perspectives is thought to issue from a general psychic similarity of human subjects that permits both empathic resonance and analogical inference between one’s own experience and understanding, and those of another.