ABSTRACT
This chapter extends the discussion of moral and psychosocial self-realisation within the contexts of a world characterised by an always-on condition of semi-permanent, persistent connectivity. The aim of this chapter is to develop an extension and strengthening of the psychological dimension of Honneth’s framework by synthesising it with Kohut’s psychological theory of the selfobject. The original contribution here is the development of a synthesis of ethical personality and self-psychology, with a view to extending towards a depth psychology approach, and its application to interaction in contemporary always-on connectivity. In the course of this chapter, a number of questions are specifically addressed: how do persons develop and maintain their identity, their sense of themselves as practical, moral beings with unique characteristics (and acting in distinctive moral spaces) in the social media world? To what extent is it necessary to develop the psychological aspects of Honneth’s model of self-realisation to more fully account for fragmentary notions of personhood found in the always-on? How might we start to engage a depth approach to account for the structuring presence and mythic content of connectivity in order to begin the work of developing an affirmative and workable mutuality in online contexts?
