ABSTRACT
Although the old humanist model of self with its emphasis on self-discovery has been abolished, the view of self as wholly invented by language and society has also come under increasing criticism in recent debate, and it is obvious now that it cannot stand unchallenged. As critics have pointed out, it cannot account for individual or collective change or indeed for individual differences of character, why one person will act differently in a given situation from another (Flax 1993; Mischel 1977, introduction; Worthington 1996). Also, recent work in developmental psychology indicates strongly that there are senses of self which pre-date the acquisition of language and point to the importance of inherited or innate characteristics (Gibson 1995; Neisser 1993; Stern 1985). Further, recent research on identical twins separated at birth and reunited later in life, seems to indicate a significant role for genetically inherited characteristics in the formation of personality and the development of lifestyle (see, for example, Tellegen et al. 1988). What this work shows is that although language and social discourse are crucial factors in the formation of personal identity, the role of genetic and innate characteristics should not be over-looked. In other words, we
should be thinking of a model of self which is both given and created, discovered and invented.
