YOU are Narcissist’s Tradition, His Reflexive Self

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In the study of identity, reflexivity refers to the human capability of turning the attention of consciousness back upon itself—being aware of the

fact that we are aware, thinking about thinking, or more mundanely, perhaps, providing accounts of our selves.

Giddens’s model of selfhood consists of three components: the unconscious, practical consciousness, and self-reflexivity. The realm of the unconscious is of primary importance for the development of self—identity as it is here where relationships of basic trust are initiated.

The experience of trust at an unconscious level in infancy provides the individual with a secure orientation toward the world that protects her or him from engulfment when threats to identity inevitably come.

It is only in posttraditional societies that the self becomes a genuinely reflexive project. Traditions once provided people with fairly rigid and temporally constant points through which to navigate a sense of self and thus facilitated self-reflexivity within fairly narrow existential parameters; narrow because much of what might be questioned is effectively answered by the givens of tradition.

(Encyclopedia of Identity)

Further Readings

Adams, M. (2007). Self and social change. London: Sage.

Adkins, L. (2003). Reflexivity: Freedom or habit of

gender? Theory, Culture & Society, 20(6), 21–42.

Alexander, J. (1996). Critical reflections on “reflexive

modernization.” Theory, Culture & Society, 13(4),

133–138.

Beck, U., Giddens, A., & Lash, S. (1994). Reflexive

modernization. Cambridge, UK: Polity Press.

Giddens, A. (1991). Modernity and self-identity.

Cambridge, UK: Polity Press.

Giddens, A. (1992). The transformation of intimacy.

Cambridge, UK: Polity Press.

Plumridge, L., & Thomson, R. (2003). Longitudinal

qualitative studies and the reflexive self. International

Journal of Social Research Methodology, 6(3),

213–222.

Threadgold, S., & Nilan, P. (2009). Reflexivity of

contemporary youth, risk and cultural capital. Current

Sociology, 57(1), 47–68.

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