Michael Lacewing (University of London): Self-awareness and self-improvement

Abstract

Our emotions and desires (passions) are important as representations or ‘intuitions’ of the moral and prudential good, and hence of our reasons for action. But they can be inappropriate/incorrect, and it is not easy to recognise when this is so. To secure the good life, we need to correct these passions, if possible. This form of self-improvement requires self-awareness – awareness of one’s passions and their meaning. However, social psychology, developmental psychology, and psychodynamic models of mind provide evidence that our passions are not transparent. I focus on the implications of the psychodynamic model and specifically the influence of defence mechanisms that distort our experience of the world and ourselves. I begin by identifying the weaknesses in Tiberius’s (2008) otherwise excellent account of self-awareness that result from her exclusive focus on the challenge from social psychology, and then develop a positive account of the requirements of self-awareness and, therefore, self-improvement.