Hi, I'm writting a dissertation for one of my classes and I need some information to build my introduction. So here's the question: how do we define ourselves? Just to make it clearer, this is what I thought. My idea was kind of like immatation. At the begining of our lives, probably after 1st grade (maybe), people start affecting us in all sorts of ways and we store all this information in our brain. After a while, we start taking bits and pieces to make our own persona. But this persona isn't a constant it keeps changing and changing, or should I say new additions are added to what you've "created", until perfection is reached I guess. Now I might not be right, that's why I'm asking all of you for help. Thank you
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At a genetic level, I believe we first start being "defined" at conception. Even conditions in the womb start having effects on not only our physical, but mental formation, as well as emotional proclivities. At a conscious level I suppose one might argue we start defining ourselves at the point of our first memories. One point of contention - I do not believe that there is any perfection to be reached. Just as biological evolution can never reach an apex, nor can emotional or mental states of being.
To cosmictraveler: I'm done my dissertation, I'm not going to send something to my teacher that doesn't make sense, I'm just trying to get feedback. Everyone does it, when you finish something you ask your friends or whoever to see if it's good. That's what I'm doing here.
By the way my dissertation is in french if you want me to post it I will; and the question I ask is only a minimal part of the dissertation itself.
If you want me to translate the whole text, no. Because the dissertation is a critique about a perspective of a book and it's four pages long. The question I ask is the idea of the opening of the dissertation and a "generalisation" of the question or statement that I have to critique. So I'll be glad to translate the introduction of the dissertation which is basically the same idea as my opening post just written differently.
Poste away, mon ami. What you've posted en anglais, implies you've already decided there are developmental phases that a "personality" develops in. I can read la francais, so can 1 or 2 others here, i think. (sorry about the no diacritics)
I'd have to know a little more about the style of the paper you're writing. Why exactly do you need to "define yourself" in order to critique a book? A four-page paper doesn't leave room for a lot of personal information; how does that even fit in with the subject matter? Your pondering of developmental psychology is interesting, but how does it relate to your assignment? I think we may be losing something in translation here. In English, a "dissertation" is, by definition, lengthy. Four pages is just a "paper," and not a particularly long one at that.
Ok the reason I'm asking how do we define ourselves is to introduce the notion that people in our surrounding affect us in different ways, and in the end it "creates" who you are (basiccaly thats how I see it, but I also think we can chose how to organise all this information, but we can talk about this later). Anyway, to be able to explain why I chose that idea, you guys need to know a little bit more about the assignment. The book I had to read, "ce que disait Alice" written by Normand de Bellefeuilles (or What Alice Said, for a translation). It has 35 short stories divided in 7 chapters, each chapter finishes with a story that implies Alice. The Alice series are the memories of a man who remembers his grand-mother (Alice) through his youth. What I am asked is as follows: can we say for sure that Alice is sometimes a positive figure and sometimes a negative figure for the narrator? Usually what we call a "dissertation critique" (or critique dissertation, in english, I guess) is comprised of an introduction, a developement and a conclusion (just like every text). Now the introduction of a critique dissertation is composed of an opening, the question, the position (kind of like a thesis) and the method of approach (I guess I can call it that, you basically state how you are going to proceed to prove your "thesis". In my opening, I use the concept that it is the people around us who defines us to link with the question but in a more general view. Now what I wanted to discuss and see if the concept stands. I hope this clearifies the assignment and the goal of the thread.
