My lay understanding of the cut across all things comes out of self-psychology, though I don't know if that's where this description comes from in particular. The idea there is that "self" becomes those pieces of consciousness that the mental/biological homeostasis apparatus has control over, basically. So as an infant a person will be in unbearable mental distress and a caretaker will comfort them. But the caretaker, not being "self", is always imperfect. Eventually, the infant learns to perform functions previously performed by the imperfect caretaker, integrating into the self what was previously external. Through these therapeutic failures and adaptation, the "self" is formed as an independent concept, separate from the external world.
This theory also suggests that the concept of self is inherently based on betrayals, no matter how minor and understandable (parents can't read minds). This leaves the options of trusting a world that will disappoint that trust or distrusting the world, isolating the self and trying to be mentally self-sufficient (which may or may not be possible, which is where this starts overlapping with theories of ablism). This conflict between needs and sufficiency creates the cut between the self and other, and colors all action and perception.
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regna
(no subject)
Date: 2010-09-03 12:14 pm (UTC)This theory also suggests that the concept of self is inherently based on betrayals, no matter how minor and understandable (parents can't read minds). This leaves the options of trusting a world that will disappoint that trust or distrusting the world, isolating the self and trying to be mentally self-sufficient (which may or may not be possible, which is where this starts overlapping with theories of ablism). This conflict between needs and sufficiency creates the cut between the self and other, and colors all action and perception.