Description:
The concepts of ”I” and ”me”, called by Mead ”the two phases of personality” have been subjected to different interpretations. My definition starts with the temporal dimension. The ”I” and the ”me” are seen as two corresponding functions arising in the human subject when taking the Other’s attitude towards Self. Thus both are social in origin. A frame of reference emerges where the ”I” is the subjective, active and present aspect, and the ”me” is the objective, passive aspect in past tense. Consciousness (especially of the Self) consists in the two functions being erected as one system, where the ”I” has the active capacity, always being partly guided by the ”me”. Dialectic functions of this Self concept are discussed, focusing social human construction of time as a consciously experienced phenomenon. Other aspects are (1) the conversational, stressed by Mead, (2) that the pair is conceptually interdependent and (3) that identity always contains non-identity and transcendence as well.