Young Writers Society

This is not an essay; this is a soliloquy, or free-roam of thought. I'm trying to "break the chains of reason." You don't have to do this with me if you don't want to. It's a bit- well- involved.

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How does one acquire "self-perception"?

In other words, how could I ever perceive myself, un-objectively, for all that I am? I mean- after all we've done as people (not much), there is still no such thing as a complete physical, moral, mental, and spiritual looking glass! I can only see myself through others in some blind, comparative sort of way.

For example, I would never realize I am "not cool" until others deemed themselves "cool." Essentially, I might say, I'm not much like you, so I must not be- well- you. And since you're "cool" (and I'm nothing like you), I must be "not cool."

Or, on a heavier note, I would never realize I was "male" until I'd witnessed a female. Strange, that. This... relativism... is a universal concept- but, more so- it's the very concept of a concept. Someone had to make the concept of a concept in order for there to even be concepts!

Anyway... on to relativism! We say something's chaotic because it's "not orderly." But who said orderly was orderly; who defined "orderly"? For that matter, who defined "definition"? Does "definition" need a definition?

Well, let's see what a "definition" is. (Mind you, this is a soliloquy, not an essay. Which means my thoughts use reason, but disregard reason as a preconception.) Try not to get lost.

Definitions are, by definition, the "distinctnesses of something's nature." Using observation, I can (of course) distinguish between a rock and a tree. But can I distinguish between myself and others?

Sadly, in our modes of self-perception, we often find a specimen of narcissism. The definition (there it is again!) of narcissism is "self-centeredness arising from failure to distinguish the self from external objects, either in very young babies or as a feature of mental disorder." Notice I said that we (almost everybody) have only a specimen of narcissism, not (I hope) actual narcissism. In short, we are walking mirrors!

Most of what we are is a product of what we aren't. So what is self-perception but perception in general! ?

Put another way: Since we develop and grow and become and create according to what we experience, then we have only to look at our experiences in order to see ourselves.

Now, some of you may be thinking this is heresy (against your selfish narcissism), but it isn't. And here's why: The "self" part of the equation is solved (our experiences = ourselves), but the "perception" part is a bit open-ended; you're the one who arbitrates perception.

Think about it... How do you truly know people?

Is it just their faces? Of course not.

Is it their voices? Not really.

You know them by their attitudes and moods and words and actions, all of these things epitomized by their perception. What a world of discovery!

One's perception is one's outlook on life. And since we are life, then it is safe to assume that self-perception is only perception in the end...

But what is perception?

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Like if you like it, vice-versa, etc.

lol, how can I start this review? I originally typed 'this is cool' but then I remembered the first part of the soliloquy x)

So I'm actually at a loss for words x) How do you critique someone's thinking process?
Well, I have to say that I really liked how you italicized and put stuff in parenthesis, that really helped with the smooth reading.

Usually I like this kind of stuff, but my head's a bit foggy today so I might not have grasped all of this :p
I see that you've titled this #1, so good luck with the next soliloquy!
So sorry if this wasn't much help x)

I like thought processes.

I don't like the books I had to read for my worldviews class.

This read like one of those.

I'm torn.

I'll stop using too many spaces, now.

It's true that self-perception is based on others. We wouldn't know much about ourselves if we never had the chance to react to other people, since our character is partially defined by that. (I say partially because character's really what you do in secret--if you put on a bold face, but cry alone in your room, your real character's different from what you're showing the world. But you probably already knew about that, since you've written something like this, so I digress.)

This is a veerrryyy interesting topic. I assume you're not involving any sort of god but the self in this equation? Because that's how it came across to me.

Myself, I believe we have worth in God and all that good stuff, but that would lead to a religious debate and we're talking about existentialism here, so back to topic.

I guess I'm not very familiar with it, because "we are life" threw me. What birds and plants and animals? I don't believe that people themselves are the definition of life, life is what people have.

You could say that self-perception is a perception of a certain aspect of life, from the "we are life" view.

Overall, interesting. Veeerrryyyy interesting.