“I” to the nth Degree
Besides the Ghost, the Organism, and Thou (see earlier posts), another type of “I” exists: the “I” that comes forth in a relationship with another. Since we generally assume that “I” exist as a unique and willful individual, we assume that I am consistently myself with others, or that any variations I exhibit are of my own choosing. Wrong.
Every relationship calls forth an “I” depicting itself as me. I say “depicting” because these “I”s are unique to each relationship—none of them are ultimately me. The “I” that shows up with one friend will be different from the “I” that show up with another; both will be different from the various “I”s that show up with my family members, and so on. And not only are they different, there is no unified “I” controlling these variations: they just happen in the space generated by two Organisms interacting.
Note that we like some of the “I”s, but not others, which parallels the relationships we like and dislike. Not surprisingly, we like being around others whose presence calls forth an “I” that we like. And we dislike those relationships in which the “I” that shows up is unappealing to us.
Again, using the term “I” might get confusing here, so I suggest the need for designating these called-forth “I”s: Manifestations, Roles, Incarnations? Any preferences or recommendations?