Psychoanalysis: The I, the Self, and the Other.

Philosopher Martin Heidegger presents a kind of equation to his fundamental philosophies:

Questioning <--> Language <--> Thinking

Thinking <--> Questioning <--> Language

Language <-->Thinking <--> Questioning

This philosophy supports Saussure’s theory that language is not fixed, however, it contrasts it by stating that our language does have influence over our thinking. We think in language. We form questions from our thinking. Therefore we question and understand through our language. The Puritans, however, take this too far in their interpretations of divine intervention manifest in physical occurrences.

            This creates tension when we are trying to understand something else. We are a self. In that self, we have an “I” this “I” is the same “I” as the one that learned to tie tennis shoes and ride a bike. However, this “I” has grown tremendously and has evolved since the “I” we had when we were little. Because of this, the “I” is always Other to the self. Laccan does not think that we can ever comprehend the totality of the “I”, therefore the totality of the self. The self, then is always Other to our existence. How can this be? How can we grow in any way or build any type of relationships? It is in acknowledging the Other and transforming it to other that we can begin to let other people into our self, into our totality. Our totality is created by others and by our relationship with things that are Other, also.

            A recent example I witnessed this process was in the screen adaptation of Kate Stockett’s The Help. Overall, I felt the movie was an excellent adaptation of the book, however, I have one qualm. This qualm resides in the relationship between Cecelia Foote and Minnie the maid. In the book, the reader learns about Cecilia’s background and her inability to adapt to high society in Jackson. She is Other to the culture she married in to. This same culture that refuses to receive Celia has another Other constantly challenging it. This second Other is that of the African American families and individuals that work in the homes of the elite class in Jackson. The African American families are Other, they are different, foreign, dirty, diseased and subservient. They are not welcomed into the “I” of any person.

            This relationship changes however, with two women. One is Celia Foote and the other is Skeeter. Skeeter seeks to build a relationship with the women plagued as “the help” by recognizing the situation and working to address it from a common thread rather than as her, a white elite condescending herself to the Afircan American women. Instead, she acknowledges the ties that they have and works with them to move forward. She begins welcoming them into her totality (and vie versa) and in this way transforms her “I”, therefore her “self”.

            The relationship that is misconstrued in the book is the relationship between Minnie and the Footes. In the book, Celia struggles building a relationship with Minnie because she immediately jumps the separation and desires to enter a relationship of friendship rather than worker and employer. This relationship is impossible without some form of acknowledgment of the Otherness of the situation. Without acknowledging that something is Other, it cannot enter our totality. However, it is imperative not to seek welcoming something into our totality as Other. Something that is Other is always Other, something Other cannot be entered into our totality. Our “self” is dependent on our relationships with what is Other, but what is Other is not a part of our totality. In order to fully embrace Minnie as other rather than Other, she must acknowledge the commonality and seek to move forward. The screen adaptation fails to relay this process that the book includes, instead it jumps immediately to friendship.