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Is the Ambivalence a Sign of the Multiple-Self Nature of the Human Being? Interdisciplinary Remarks

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Abstract

Ambivalence is a constituent feature of human beings. The aim of this article is to systematise the fundamental sources of ambivalence (neuropsychic, socio-cultural and situational) and highlight that ambivalence can be considered as an external sign or manifestation of a complex and multiple internal human nature; that is, a human being constituted by multiple selves. In this paper the self is viewed as a principle of organization and integration for action, that is, as a complex neurological process and not as a static entity. The purpose is to show how by assuming ambivalence and the multiple-self, social and anthropological theories can offer a more realistic view of human beings.

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Notes

  1. Mead is well aware of this difference between the predictability and unpredictability of all human action, even in the midst of a powerful relational collapse: “The ‘me’ does call for a certain sort of ‘I’, insofar as we meet the obligations that are given in conduct itself, but the ‘I’ is always something different from what the situation itself calls for” (Mead 1982: 205).

  2. This situational explanation of the violence of Zimbardo (2007) and Collins (2008) assumes that there are no ontologically violent or peaceful people, but rather what we would call a superimposition of states. If a subject discovers that by being violent he obtains more approval in the social context, he will opt to maintain that conduct for as long as possible, as does the subject that chooses to be peaceful. This does not prevent his evaluations of the suitability of his self from changing. However, not every self is “chosen”: violent and uncontrolled outbursts are activations of the neurological mechanisms of aggression that facilitate the collapse of the wave package in aggressive selves, and which –when they disappear– produce feelings of ambivalence and shame.

  3. Here it is symptomatic that the latest neuro-scientific research has highlighted two different areas of the brain that are activated in the “external” decision-making process (strongly determined by the contextual circumstances around the subject at any given time) and the “internal” decision-making process (dependent on the subject’s own preferences) (Nakao et al. 2012; Wagner and Northoff 2014).

  4. I would like to thank Esther Romero for this assessment.

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Acknowledgements

I wish to thank the brilliant and helpful comments of the reviewers that have allowed me to see some gaps in my argument. They also made very useful comments which have substantially improved the text. Of course, the author has the ultimate responsibility for the failures in the argument.

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    Jesús Romero Moñivas

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Moñivas, J.R. Is the Ambivalence a Sign of the Multiple-Self Nature of the Human Being? Interdisciplinary Remarks. Integr. psych. behav. 52, 523–545 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12124-018-9440-z

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