February 18th, 2010 | 
Author: Over the coming months a large amount of what I post on this site — both as blog posts and page content — will relate to that most human of all questions, “Who Am I?”
The answer may continue to be elusive but the thought brings to mind that quote variously attributed to Goethe, Webber, Cooley, and Bierstedt, among others:
I am not who I think I am
I am not who you think I am
I am who I think you think I am.
Most of us need to think on that a little before it comes into any kind of focus. It relates strongly to the whole “looking-glass self” concept put for by Cooley early in the 1900s and has a lot to do with how we see ourselves:
1.We imagine how others view us.
2.We imagine how they will judge us based on that view.
3.We develop our self through our ideas on how others judge us.
“The way we imagine ourselves to appear to another person is an essential element in our conception of ourselves.” said Robert Bierstedt in reference to the “I am not who I think I am…” quote above.
Whether you examine the concept of self psychologically or philosophically you find opinions and questions but few, if any, answers. It is, therefore, a suitable topic for this site.