DEVELOPMENTAL CRISIS IN EARLY ADULTHOOD: A ...

10.2 Early Adult Crisis and the Self: Reflections
The self was conceptualised in Chapter 2 as a cognitive system of
paradigmatic and narrative schemas that fit together to define “me”. Limiting
this review to the cognitive self was not an intentionally partial move – it was a
reflection of the social and cognitive psychology literature upon which the review
was based. What this literature did not cover, and what the thesis
correspondingly initially lacked, was the idea of a public self, manifest not in
cognition but in characteristic patterns of behaviour. This is probably because
this area is dealt with under the term ‘personality’ rather than ‘self’. The
limitation became clear in Study 1, when there was repeated mention of a
cognitive inner self and a behavioural outer self. To deal with this fact, the
Jungian construct of the persona was imported into the analysis. The persona
proved to be a complementary construct to the cognitive self. It accounts for the
shaping of a public front to self, while the cognitive self accounts for the private
realm of self-knowing. It helped to account for a host of pre-crisis features
including pre-crisis masculinisation, conformist homogeneity, inner-outer
dissonance, a sense of passivity and loss of control and a sense of
depersonalisation.
Another result of not initially taking into account the public self was a lack
of consideration of the false self or its counterpoint the authentic self. The
phenomenological salience of the experience of being false or authentic was such
that it necessitated some interpretative framework. Fortunately, the persona
provided for an understanding of the experience of being false or genuine, as
described by Laing (1967). If an inner self (i.e. one’s own values, desires and
interests) is expressed in outer-self behaviours, then one feels genuine. If the
inner self is not expressed, because it is thought to be socially inappropriate, and
instead outer-self behaviours are based on the demands of others, then the
behaviour feels false.
The data and the construct of the persona point towards a self that has more than
cognitive components. It has public layers, expressed through action, and also private
layers found in thought and affect. The process of self-disclosure and self-expression
involves the bringing of private layers to the public layers and brings with it a sense of
authenticity. This occurs over the course of crisis, and is a major source of integration
and equilibration. The loss of a persona also brings a sense of control and
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