“The Self,” “I,” and “a Single-Consciousness-and-‘I’” Consciousness in the Study of Human Life and Experience V

• Published in: Qualitative inquiry Vol. 19; no. 6; pp. 419 - 430
• Main Authors: Witz, Klaus G., Lee, Hyunju
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Los Angeles, CA SAGE Publications 01-07-2013; Sage Publications; SAGE PUBLICATIONS, INC
• Subjects: Biological and medical sciences; Childhood; Consciousness; Developmental psychology; Elderly; Empathy; Ethics; Fundamental and applied biological sciences. Psychology; Human Nature; Memory; Methodology; Miscellaneous; Psychology. Psychoanalysis. Psychiatry; Psychology. Psychophysiology; Qualitative analysis; Qualitative research; Self; Self esteem; Social psychology; consciousness-and-“I”; I; self; subjective; consciousness; portraiture; Social environment; Human; Consciousness; Intelligence; Subjective experience; Cognition; Personality; Personality development; Social development; Theoretical model; Cultural environment; Self concept; consciousness-and-I
• ISSN: 1077-8004; 1552-7565
• DOI: 10.1177/1077800413482095

This article discusses some thrusts and implications of Witz and Goodwin’s (2012) conception of “a single consciousness-and-‘I’ from childhood to old age” for getting a much larger understanding of the human being in Qualitative Research and Inquiry. Already portraiture tacitly assumes the human being to be essentially unlimited and capable of being subjectively understood by empathy and reflection (Section 1). The bulk of the article argues that the conception of the single consciousness-and-“I” explicates a vision of universal human nature. Namely, it suggests that there is an astronomical amount of subjective experience of “I” (or of “I being,” “I-feeling,” “self-feeling”) that goes on in a person on a scale of seconds, minutes, hours every day and that there is a harmony, a unity, almost oneness between these processes and the unfolding in the individual of self-understanding and higher (moral, metaphysical) aspects and other “quests” connected with this (Section 3).