The Narrative Self

Vollmer, Fred

doi:10.1111/j.1468-5914.2005.00271.x

Cited by 19 publications

(10 citation statements)

References 3 publications

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“…They consider the self in the postmodern era erased and dismantled, saturated (Gergen 1991) by the many voices of humankind. The postmodern self is flexible or “protean” (Lifton 1993; Martin 1994), fluid, nonlinear, heterogeneous, multiple, and fragmented, a realm of narrative and discourse rather than a permanent, real thing (Harré 2001; Vollmer 2005). The quest for self‐presentation has replaced the quest for meaning (Tseëlon 1992).…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

The Cyber Worlds of Self‐Injurers: Deviant Communities, Relationships, and Selves

Adler

2008

Symbolic Interaction

105

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We explore how self-injurers, a group of deviants who primarily were loners, now use the Internet to form subcultural and collegial relations. Drawing on virtual participant-observation in cyber self-injury groups, over eighty face-to-face and telephone in-depth interviews, and over ten thousand e-mail postings to groups and bulletin boards, we describe and analyze the online subcultures of self-injurers. Via the Web, they have become cyber "colleagues, " simultaneously enacting two deviant organizational forms and challenging the idea that deviant loners can exist in a cyber society. We further analyze these individuals and their interactions to compare and contrast the venues that they use, the communities and relationships that they form, and their relation to real life. We contribute to symbolic interactionism through our social constructionist stance toward the creation of virtual communities and relationships, our focus on identity and stigma, our view of social organization as grounded in the panoply of human interpersonal relationships, our contrast of the competing reality claims posed by virtual as opposed to the solid world, and our discussion of the modern versus postmodern self.The cyber world represents a new frontier, one that extends what has often been colloquially referred to as the fourth and fifth dimensions: time and space. Just as Melbin (1978) analyzed the night as a temporal frontier, the cyber world is a domain that occurs in a new form of space both "out there" and "in here"; it is simultaneously public and social, while remaining private and solitary. It is a postmodern form of space, created by technology and populated by disembodied people in a virtual universe detached from the physical locations known as place. These spaces are

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confidence: 99%

The Cyber Worlds of Self‐Injurers: Deviant Communities, Relationships, and Selves

Adler

2008

Symbolic Interaction

105

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“…In many regards, the concept of ''secret selves'' is similar to the postmodernist notion that identity is mutable, situational, and unstable (Harré 2001;Hillis 1999;Vollmer 2005). This ''disembodied self'' is increasingly realized by the changing nature of social relations via the advent of new communication technologies.…”

Section: Online Communities and ''Real-world'' Embodimentmentioning

confidence: 99%

Deviant Identity in Online Contexts: New Directives in the Study of a Classic Concept

Maratea

Kavanaugh

2012

Sociology Compass

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This article provides an overview of emerging research into the concept of deviant identity by highlighting major new directions in cyber‐deviance scholarship. We suggest that the examination of deviance in online settings offers unique new insights into the processes of identity construction and reinforcement, role play, and the social organization of deviant communities. We conclude by considering developments that may advance the literature on deviant identity in real world spaces, as well as expand the conceptual utility of deviance for other subareas of sociology.

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“…A character gives coherence to a discrete sequence of choices, providing the impression that life is a meaningful whole. At the same time, this narrative biography is a fiction of the brain, and there is a continuous process of adjustment to adapt memories to fit the changes of a narrative identity (Vollmer, ). With that, the brain is constantly executing boundary work, each action and each normative assessment has to be weighed and delegated to either side of the boundary between the I that I am, and the I that I am not.…”

Section: Senses Of the Individual Selfmentioning

confidence: 99%

Making sense of the self: an integrative framework for moral agency

Pesch

2019

J Theory Soc Behav

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The self is conceptualized in a multitude of ways in different scholarly fields; at the same time moral agency appears to presuppose a unitary conception of the self. This paper explores this tension by introducing ‘moral senses’ which inform the normative evaluations of a person. The moral senses are featured as innate dispositions, but they inevitably recruit discursive categorizations in order to function. These senses forward both an ‘individual self’, by experiencing a unitary body, mind and character, and a ‘social self’, that is similarly experienced as a body, a mind, and a character. This social self is enabled by the capacity to internalize other people's feelings and intentions and the need to have otherworldly explanations for observable reality. This integrative framework of moral senses provides an understanding that helps to address the challenge of moral heterogeneity and plurality.

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The Narrative Self

Cited by 19 publications

References 3 publications

The Cyber Worlds of Self‐Injurers: Deviant Communities, Relationships, and Selves

The Cyber Worlds of Self‐Injurers: Deviant Communities, Relationships, and Selves

Deviant Identity in Online Contexts: New Directives in the Study of a Classic Concept

Making sense of the self: an integrative framework for moral agency

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