William James on Self, Conversion, and Saintly Love

The Two Selves: James's Division of the Psyche

William James saw the human psyche as awesomely complex. To begin with, he divided it into two selves:

The phenomenal self (the experienced self, the "Me" self, the self as known) and the self-thought (the "I" self, the self as knower).

There is the "Me," which is the objective, detached term that we use and that we see — the empirical self. And then there is the "I," the constant flow of subjective thought that a person has about the self, which makes the person perceive the self, moment by moment, in a certain way:

"Personality implies the incessant presence of two elements, an objective person, known by a passing subjective Thought and recognized as continuing in time. Hereafter let us use the words ME and I for the empirical person and the judging Thought." (James, 1890, Vol. 1, p. 371.)

James's discussion of the I-Self is philosophically complex. He points out that we form a holistic sense of self by compounding the I of yesterday with the I of preceding days, aggregating them into one whole. On the contrary, however, the I is constantly fluctuating and is made up of a series of pointillist "I"s that differ according to context. The convert, for instance, is different in the moment after conversion than before. The person thinks in a different way; his reference to himself is different.

The Me-Self: Material, Social, and Spiritual Dimensions

The Me-self is further divided into three different, interrelated aspects:

The material self (anything toward which we feel some sort of physical ownership, such as our bodies, our families, and our possessions), the social self (our feelings about our social relations), and the spiritual self (our feelings about our own subjectivity).

A person has many different social selves, because he perceives himself in numerous ways and is consequently perceived by each of his acquaintances in a diversity of ways. Similarly, a person's self-esteem is shaped by his goals and the level of achievement he sets for himself, while there is a disjunction between ideal self and real self — seeing oneself in one abstract way while functioning, in actuality, as a quite different human being.

Conversion as Transformation of the Whole Psyche

The conversion experience is one that transforms the whole person. This includes both the I and the Me. It therefore has to shape every aspect of the psyche. With regard to the Me, it must thoroughly penetrate all spheres of empirical life: a person's relationship to others in all its material dimensions (bodies, family, possessions); the social self (that is, the conversion experience must reshape the feeling of the many different social selves a person holds); and the feelings of the spiritual self. By penetrating and influencing each of these dimensions, the person — who is made up of a holistic whole — becomes transformed and "converted." The "I," in turn, therefore changes, since each reciprocally affects the other. The "I" — namely, the way a person perceives himself — shapes the "Me" (the objective self). In this way, an authentic conversion experience involves a new and special kind of relationship with the self.

Conversion is consequently also a penetration into the "unseen," since it not only alters the outside appearance, namely the phenomenal self, but also makes its way into the self-thought. We may articulate it this way: conversion starts from the self-thought. The person is shaken into a certain experience that impacts his inner self, his spirit, and his internal mechanisms of thinking about the world. A person is most closely in touch with this subjective "I," this passing stream of inner self. It is this which compels him to view himself in a certain way. He knows that the empirical Me exists, but it is the "I" that determines the way he perceives himself and that is most immediate to him.

The "I," however, shapes the "Me," because the inner perception of the person causes him, in turn, to behave in a certain way and conduct his affairs — or his relationship to his physical world — in a certain manner. It is the "I" that determines his self-esteem and the goals he strives for, and it is also the "I" that determines the quality and quantity of his possessions (for instance, whom he chooses to marry, if he decides to marry at all; or how many children he has, if any). Finally, the "I" also shapes his social contacts — a person becoming a monk, for instance, may decide to become a hermit. In this way, changes from the inside transform the outside, and the outside, in turn, reinforces the activity of the conversion from the inside. There is a cyclical effect: the inside (the I) causes change in the empirical phenomena (the Me), causing a person's relations and external circumstances to react to the individual in a certain manner, which in turn reinforces the conversion experience in that individual.

This may be what James means when he observes:

"…when the will has done its utmost towards bringing one close to the complete unification aspired after, it seems that the very last step must be left to other forces and performed without the help of its activity." (p. 208)

In other words, conversion is inseparable from changes that act on all levels of the psyche. It requires the whole psyche to complete the conversion process, and it does so by I and Me synchronizing and acting in loops upon each other, with a person's different systems — consider systems theory — abetting and intensifying the experience.

Such experiences are philosophically reasonable, but whether they are morally helpful is a different matter altogether, depending possibly on what a person defines as "morally helpful" and on whether the results aid or stunt his potential. Since inner conversion shakes the whole self (both inner and outer), a "morally helpful" transformative experience would seem to be one that has a positive impact on the whole person, helping him grow in a constructive direction. Affecting the psyche and initiating from within (from the "I"), such experiences therefore appear to be, strictly speaking, a psychological phenomenon.

References

James, W. (1890). The Principles of Psychology (2 vols.). New York: Henry Holt. (Reprinted Bristol: Thoemmes Press, 1999.)

James, W. The Varieties of Religious Experience. Retrieved from