The Woes of Social Psychology, and Why Amara Should Be in the Class With Me

I feel like, in general, my social psychology professor doesn't like me. Sometimes she ignores me outright (I admit that I ask annoying, somewhat philosophical questions that would take up the entire class period to answer, but alas), sometimes she gives negative feedback like, "but that's not really answering the question."

For instance, we were given a problem. Suppose there was a baby, who never saw another human being. Who grew up on a desert island (she meant deserted, but never mind). Who had food, water, and shelter and survived to adulthood, would this person, this human being have a sense of self?

As a class, we decided that the human would have self-awareness. He/she/it would look into a pool of water, and recognize that yes, that is me. However, would he/she/it know anything beyond that?

(I immediately thought of Tarzan during this discussion, but didn't mention it).

Now, realize, this person wouldn't know language, at least, we think she/he/it wouldn't know. But I suspected that yes, this human would have language, just not anything recognizable by us. He/she/it would know--that's a tree. That's a rock. That's something separate from me (my social psychology professor argued that that is vocabulary, not language, something very different). 

About thirty minutes after class, after everyone decided that the person wouldn't have a sense of self because self comes from other people, I realized something big from being around a bunch of cognitive behavioral therapists at Stanford. Our sense of self is constantly regenerating despite our self because we are constantly talking to ourselves--about ourselves. In depressives it's called rumination. In normal people, well, it's just consciousness. Even if I never met another person, I would still have thoughts about myself, the content would just be different. I wouldn't be able to compare myself to my social psychologist, by saying, "She's thinner than I am. She's smarter than I am." I would say something similar like "blah, ah, eh..." Etc. I don't think being alone can stop us from talking about ourselves to ourselves. It's like breathing. Try to stop thinking. It's impossible.

I wish someone would lean over, and say, "Great idea, [Jae]." And then shake my hand.