ABSTRACT
Personal pronouns – ‘I’, ‘you’, ‘us’, ‘them’ and their siblings throughout world languages – are
universally felt to be somewhere at the ‘centre’ of self. Julian Jaynes, as we saw in Chapter 5,
identifies the metaphorical creation of a mind-space within which the ‘analog I’ could
metaphorically move as the revolutionary step on the way to consciousness, self and subjectivity
as we know it. Without the development of language, of course, and the possible social relations
that its uses enable, none of this could happen. ‘Language may not be the source of the self, but
it certainly is the source of the “I” ‘, writes Antonio Damasio.1This is another way of saying that
the social and psychological fact and use of pronouns as key elements of self have to be understood
culturally. Bearing in mind that James Strachey translated Freud’s ‘I’ as ‘ego’, Freud concluded
that ‘Where id (It) was, there ego (I) shall be. It is a work of culture – not unlike the draining of
The primary function of pronouns, like that of names, is locative. Knowing who you are and
where you stand at any point in time are the most important tasks of selfhood. In answer to the
question ‘Who are you?’ you are likely to offer your name. ‘I am Vivienne Murphy,’ you might say,
‘and I am the sister of Kate who is giving the party. I am also your daughter’s teacher.’ With each
answer you locate yourself in a network of relations in such a way as to say something significant
about your social identity. You might go on to speak about your family, your political activities,
your views on particular issues, your interests and dislikes, and so on. For your interlocutor, your
identity clarifies with each additional piece of information. You might feel that, even with all the
information you have given, he has not grasped your identity in the way you would have liked:
you have not, you might feel, impressed him. ‘Nice meeting you,’ he might say and walk away
having lost interest in you. What you are, you might think, does not sum up who you are.
