Foundations of Indian Psychology, Volume 1

Section 2

Self and Personality

Introduction

The representation of psychic structure and agency constitutes a major conceptual challenge for psychologists. The challenge has been responded to from different vantage points leading to different problems, methods and applications. In general, while ‘self’ was treated as the perceived and experiential aspect of subjectivity, ‘personality’ was treated as the manifest and socially accessible part of self-experience. The objective part of the personality, which appeared to be known to the person as well as to others, was treated extensively, and a variety of theories and assessment methods were proposed. This became a preoccupation for differential psychology which specialized in the tapping of ...