ABSTRACT
This chapter looks at ideas of developing self through interaction with other, and it is based upon my own experience of trying to become part of an academic grouping that I valued but was new to me. I start by recount ing my experiences of negotiating group membership, and then interpret these through introspection and an exploration of supporting literature. The development of one’s own reality is presented as a dialectic process of managing the tension between notions of selfhood and individuality, and the subconscious pressure to conform to group reality, such that self, as the ‘I’, develops in opposition, and feelings of inclusion or exclusion are partially indicative of selfdevelopment. This line of enquiry questions the postmodernist view that a lack of a unitary truth or knowledge indicates a lack of underlying process, suggesting instead that collectivity necessitates a perceived degree of unity in meaning, theory, and knowledge, and it is this that fosters the affective bonds of inclusion.
