ABSTRACT
This chapter focuses on the foundational conception of the self provided by psychologist William James and then shows how sociologists Mead and Cooley extended this view. It integrates the various perspectives into a comprehension of self as a projection of personhood, a pattern of commitment and connection that carries individuals through events. Human bodies are not always granted personhood. For example, when we die, our rights and responsibilities as a person may pass with us. However, persons are not just categories or abstractions; they are individuals. James's listing of self-related objects also makes clear the point that the self is not merely a psychological territory that is, some way in which we think about ourselves. Human beings, in James's view, are gregarious creatures who desire to be noticed or, rather, who desire to be noticed in positive ways. The 'spiritual self' is James's term for a person's inner or subjective being, his psychic faculties or dispositions.
