Xavier University

Ateneo de Cagayan
Cagayan de Oro City

PSY 1 - UNDERSTANDING THE SELF

Submitted by:

Guiling, Anna Azriffah Janary S.

Submitted to:

Ms. Janet Ibale

EA

October 12, 2018

There is no soul, it is an illusion created by our unfounded trust in cause and effect. Because our
consciousness is constantly changing there is no ‘self’ which remains the same. In a nutshell, this is
what the bundle theory is all about. Hume begins by setting up the theory of self which argues that
there is a permanent soul:
“There are some philosophers, who imagine we are every moment intimately conscious of what we call
our Self; that we feel its existence and its continuance in existence; and are certain, beyond the
evidence of a demonstration, both of its perfect identity and simplicity…”(309a) Hume cites
‘impressions’ as emotions, physical sensation and any discernable perception. Hume’s first attack on
the self argues that there is no impression of the self. And if there is one, it is constantly in flux and
hence there is no constant and non-changing thing which we can call the self.  “If any impression gives
rise to the idea of self, that impression must continue invariably the same, through the whole course of
our lives’ since self is supposed to exist after that manner. But there is no impression constant and
invariable.”(310a) Hume says that in an extremely deep sleep with no dreams that our perception of
self ceases to exist. This means that if we remove all of our perceptions there is nothing left, no self.
This brings up the question, what is it then that we think we are perceiving when we perceive the self.
He answers:
This thing which we refer to as the self, is nothing more than the perceptions which are available to our
memory. We take these perceptions and recombine them into meaning and substance using our
previous experience as a guide. Unfortunately, Hume says that this previous experience relies entirely
on the principle of cause and effect which itself is not proof of its truth. We view them as a distinct
thing but they are only “connected together by resemblance, contiguity, or causation.”(311a) Ex. Half
circle Hume’s empiricism asserts no idea without a corresponding sense impression. Therefore we
cannot have a concept of something we’ve never experienced before. For example: I have an
idea/concept of an apple in virtue of the fact that I’ve perceived an apple many times before. Hume
then uses the ship analogy to show that the idea of identity is a function of the brain and of our mental
reasoning which is not supported by reality. “A ship, of which a considerable part has been changed by
frequent reparations, is still considered as the same; nor does the difference of the materials hinder us
from ascribing an identity to it. The common end, in which the parts conspire, is the same under all
their variations, and affords an easy transition of the imagination from one situation of the body to
another.”(311b)If any impression gives rise to the idea of self, that impression must continue invariably
the same through the whole course of our lives, since self is supposed to exist after that manner. But
there is no impression constant and invariable” The illusion is an effect of the way in which our
impressions manifest themselves, or as Hume puts it, of the relations that exist between our
impressions. When examined closely, our experience actually consists in a series of “still shot”
impressions of the world. If we experienced the world as a series of random, stilted impressions, then
we would have no notion of identity or personal identity. Without memory of previous cause and effect
relationships repeatedly happening we would not have made the conclusion that there is a self. Hence,
there is no consistent unchanging self.
 SIGMUND FREUD’S THEORY ON THE SELF

Freud was an Austrian neurologist who is widely known for founding psychoanalysis, a method

for dealing with psychopathology through the communication between a patient and a psychoanalyst

(Kryn, 2018).

His theory on the self stems heavily from his research that eventually led to the develo pment of

the methodologies behind psychoanalysis. The psyche of a person can be divided into three “minds”:

the conscious, the preconscious, and the unconscious minds. The conscious mind is the forefront of

activity, focusing on what captures a person’s interest at the moment, i.e. spontaneous events. The

preconscious mind is a person’s memory, and what they can retrieve from it (McLeod, 2018). It is the

unconscious mind, however, that sparked the highest level of interest in Freud.

Simply put, the unconscious mind is where all of the instinctual needs of a person are stored. For

example, some events and desires can be far too primal and unsettling for his patients, and Freud

believed that these were pushed far back into the unconscious mind, a process he called “repression”,

and were further mediated by the preconscious mind. These ideas lead into the development of Freud’s

model of the id, ego, and superego.

The id was similar to the unconscious self: unadulterated needs of a purely instinctual nature. In

contrast, the ego sought to appease these needs in a socially acceptable way. In a way, the ego

supervised the id, and thus was required to operate in both the conscious and unconscious minds.

Lastly, the superego, which was developed during early childhood, ensured that a person’s moral

standard was observed. It operated on a morality principle, and motivated a person to behave in a

socially and morally acceptable manner (Carbajal et al, 2018).

invariable impression and perception of the self, and since it cannot be evidently proven, the theory

says that a self doesn’t exist. We also remember Freud with his psychoanalysis theory where he

discussed the three components of the unconscious mind, namely the Id, which is the part of the

unconscious that seeks pleasure, the Ego, the part that creates balance between the desires of the Id and

its limits, and the Superego, the one that incorporates the morals of the society. Looking at these

theories, we begin to draw another perspective on which these two are incorporated and tied together to

create another perspective of the self. We start by analyzing how Hume said in the bundle theory that

the self is nothing but a bundle of perceptions which naturally shift and change overtime. This means

that our perceptions of our past self, which include the experiences, insights and awareness that we

unconsciously and consciously have towards it, help shape and mold the present self. In connection to

this unconscious part that is involved in the process of having been able to experience the past, we start

to involve Freud’s Psychoanalysis theory. If the perceptions of the mind that involve the unconscious

parts of our thinking shift, this means that what constitutes the unconscious mind also shifts.

By this, we draw three major ideas. Firstly, we arrive at the idea that Id, the Ego, and the Superego also

shift as the perception shifts. Secondly which is also in line with the first one, we begin to understand

that these three components of the unconscious mind are dependent on the shifting combined

perceptions of the self based on the past experiences of a person. This implies that first, whatever we

identify as our pleasure and how we tend to seek it change (Id), second, our ability to control the

instinctual demands from the id which happens in the way of satisfying the Id’s demands and

compromising to reality at the same time also changes, but lastly, our ability to distinguish between

reality as well as what is right or wrong also shifts. Basically, this means that nothing is permanent in

our unconscious mind, everything changes about it when our perception and impression on our self

change. The third major idea is the thought that past experiences shape and create the present self

through the interplay of the unconscious mind and the perceptions on which this mind is dependent on.

Since these perceptions that we have refer and talk about the past experiences of a person, this also

means that the three components of the unconscious mind is basically dependent on these ‘past

experiences’. This means that the origin of a person’s desires, aspirations, and impulses in his present

self has everything to do with the person’s perceptions of his past experiences.
 CONCLUSION
The self is a very complex subject to talk about. The experiences, the aspects of the mind and the body,

and the whole general idea of a living entity with complex inner and outer characteristics are all needed

to be taken into account. Defining the self is definitely a not an easy task. Philosophers’ took this task

responsibly as they made sure that they were accountable enough or they were able to explain the

complexities and explore the edges of their ideas as to what the self is and what constitutes it. These

philosophers gained some support one way or another because of their intelligent justification and

logical and rational explanation of their own theories and ideas. But despite the effort and brilliant

ideas, we cannot shy away from the fact that there are discrepancies, inconsistencies and gaps on how

these philosophers made their theories on the self. This is exactly why there was and is still an uproar

from the people in regards to these theories. On the part of Hume, it is easy to say that he was opposing

his self. His theories and statements are contradicting each other. Hume said that there is no self, but he

had a brilliant alternative on how the self is constructed. In looking at Hume's bundle theory of the self,

quite a few philosophers have tried to show how Hume is wrong by presenting a more plausible theory

of self. For Hume, when a person has knowledge of something, it is only meaningful if it can be traced

back to sense impressions. Since he finds it meaningful to define the self as a bundle of experiences, he

clearly does not deny the existence of the self. Thus for Hume, the self is only coherently thought of as

a set/bundle of experiences. However, if people do experience themselves, then at least one member of

the self is itself only expressible in terms of the totality of the set which it belongs to. This totally

highlights Hume’s failure to stitch his theory together in a more believably manner. Sigmund Freud

also had his fair share of the criticisms. Firstly, we ask: How do we measure or test the libido? This

cannot be verified even until now, thus, making it really hard to know as to what extent Freud meant

about the application of his theory. He also failed to realize that individual wants are powerless versus

one’s needs. Also, it was very hypocritical for Freud to make a theory about the workings of the mind

of children without even studying children ever in his life. To conclude this paper, we say that through

studying both Hume’s and Freud’s theories, we arrived at three important findings. Firstly, at the idea

that Id, the Ego, and the Superego shift as the perception shifts. Secondly, the understanding that these

three components of the unconscious mind are dependent on the shifting combined perceptions of the

self based on the past experiences of a person. Lastly, the thought that past experiences shape and
create the present self through the interplay of the unconscious mind and the perceptions on which this

mind is dependent on.

References

A. Online Sources

Kryn, R. (2018, October 6). Sigmund Freud. Retrieved from

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sigmund_Freud.

McLeod, S. (2018). What are the most interesting ideas of Sigmund Freud?. Retrieved from
https://www.simplypsychology.org/Sigmund-Freud.html.

The Freudian Theory of Personality. (n.d.). Retrieved from http://journalpsyche.org/the-freudian-

Carlson, C. (2006, February 6). David Hume - There is no Self [blog post]. Retrieved from
http://utintrotophilosophy.blogspot.com/2006/02/david-hume-there-is-no-
self.html.

Hume’s Bundle Theory of the Self. (n.d.). Retrieved from https://schoolworkhelper.net/hume

B. Class Readings

Chaffee, J. (2016). Who Are You?. In The Philosopher’s Way Fifth Edition (pp. 122-127). Pearson.

Chaffee, J. (2004). The Philosopher’s Way. Retrieved from

http://utintrotophilosophy.blogspot.com/2006/02/david-hume-there-is-no-self.html.

Carbajal, F., Fabrigas, S., Navarro, J., Navidad, P., Jainani, V. (2018, June 20). Consciousness,

Identity,and the Self.

Carbajal, F., Fabrigas, S., Navarro, J., Navidad, P., Jainani, V. (2018, June 30). Who Are You?.

Bracken, B. Historicaln Roots of Contemporary Issues Involving Self-Concept. In Handbook of Self-

concept (pp 1-30).