Self, Me, & I

George Herbert Mead concentrated one of his theories on distinguishing the differences between the self, me, and I. And to do this, you have to somewhat be aware that you in fact are part of a greater society and have to be able to recognize the differences between yourself and others. What Mead says about the Self is that "the self has the characteristic that is an object to itself, and that characteristic distinguishes it from other objects and from the body...the bodily experiences are for us organized about a self." To me, this means that the body is more of the physiological characteristics, and that the self is more of just the mental part and what's going on in your brain. The self is all of your thoughts and what makes you function on a day to day basic. Mead is basically saying that your physiological body and mind are two separate things. Mead claims that the I "is the response of the individual to the attitude of the community as this appears in his own experience." So this is basically you're initial reactions and personalized thoughts that you have about the generalized other. It is the innate or instinct that we have as humans, but we don't always follow through with it and we do what we believe would be more socially acceptable instead of deviating. Mead states that the Me is "the adjustment to that organized world which is present in our own nature is on that represents the 'me' and is constantly there." In other words, the Me is your thoughts, beliefs, behaviors, and interactions towards others, and what the socially acceptable things may be. This may or may not be what Mead was getting at, but to me I see the "Me" and "I" as sort of Freud's theory of the ego and superego. The "I" would appear to be the ego, where really you feel like telling your boss off because he's a psychopath, but then the "Me", or superego, kind of tells you that that may not be the best idea because you don't really feel like losing your job today and living out on the streets because you can't afford to pay rent. Here is a short, kind of funny video distinguishing the differences between "Me" and "I" that gets the point across pretty well.