Student 26

May. 2, 2000

"Theories of the Self...The True ‘Me’ ”

Many different people and cultures have a number of different ways of presenting ”the self”. Some use art; some use literature or poetry; and others choose to use music. During the Romantic Period, self-expressionism was seen through art and music. The psychological theories of Freud and Jung present the self through the mind and what types of people there are. Rilke demonstrates “the self” through literary compositions, and the Asians practice Hinduism to find their true self. Self-expressionism is used worldwide to portray emotions, feelings, and most of all, who a person truly is.

The Romantic Period, which ran approximately from 1800 to about 1870, was a great time of self-expressionism. Music and art are two mediums used to express artist’s feelings of themselves and their surroundings.

Music is one of the most important ways of conveying Romanticism. It is used to express great floods of emotions and is detached from any other language. Instead of painting, music states that “no color is as Romantic as a tone.” One of the earliest composers, Ludwig van Beethoven, used music as an escape for his emotions. There were many times in Beethoven’s life that were difficult. One example was that Beethoven was deaf. He portrayed his feelings of anger and frustration through one of his pieces, Brahms Piano Concerto #2. The rhythm goes from slow to fast with no transition. This immediate contrast is the hallmark of Romantics music.

The art that is from the Romantic Period comes from the rival of interest in Old Medieval times. This type of art uses deep rich colors and rejects order and reason. The values of this type of art are from intuition, emotion, and imagination. The use of strong light and shade contrasts, also known as chiaroscuro and also painterly brushstrokes are used to convey the techniques of their works. Some of the subjects used during this time period include legends, nature, violence, heroic struggles, sublime landscapes, and or wild animals. A French Romanticist, Theodore Gericault, was known to be the founder of Romanticism. “The Raft of the Medusa” painted in 1819 was based on the real event of a heroic struggle. A government ship transporting slaves to Africa supposedly developed a plague among its passengers. After the terrible storms that accompanied this trip, and being put on a big raft and pulled behind the ship, there were 15 survivors. Gericault used diagonal lines to depict the action of the event. He also used crashing waves and the dark sky to show that man and nature were linked. The artist also put himself in the painting to show his own emotional involvement.

Thomas Cole, an American painter, was famous for his Romantic landscape paintings. “The Oxbow” painted in 1836 was from the top of Mt. Holyoke in Massachusetts. This painting portrays the two sides of the American Romantic Landscape: the dense, stormy wilderness and the pleasant, pastoral valleys. The fading storm in the background suggests that the wild will eventually give way to the tame and civilized (Stokstad 973-74).

Another concept of the self is from two men, Freud and Jung. Even though Freud and Jung have two different perspectives for the “self”, they both succeed in portraying self-expressionism. Freud believes that there are aspects of the self: the id, the ego, and the superego. The id is the animal instinct inside of the person. The Ego, the “I”, is the executive trying to please the whole person. This part plays the “balancing act.” The third part is the superego. This part of the person or “self” contains morals and guilt. All of these are at war with one another, and are better with the self if completely balanced.

Jung, on the other hand, believes that total unity is the self. The self is central and all systems are held together by this. To be balanced in life, Jung believes that there should be an understanding of the two personalities: extroversion and introversion. It is thought that people possess both types of attitudes in their personality, only one is more dominant that the other. Also Jung believes that there should also be unity with the four functions: sensing and intuiting, thinking and feeling. Just like Freud, Jung believes that balance between these things bring unity and wholeness to the self. Musicians and artists are usually extroverted and intuitive, but by being balanced with these traits, their works are better and they are more successful.

The Asian views of the self consist of a culture that incorporates Hinduism into the lives of everyday people. It is believed that all people have a degree of Hinduism in them. Reincarnation is an important aspect of this belief. If a person fulfills his or her prior mission in life, the less Karma that person will have. If the person has Karma left when he or she dies, that person will live again and will have another chance to more perfectly fulfill the mission that wasn’t completed. Another belief of Hinduism is in the Cosmos. This is the individual self or the Atman, who always has and always will exist. Believing in this, the person is supposed to grow in the self and in self-knowledge. The more people know about themselves, the more he or she understands the Cosmos. A person who is balanced and in unity had absolute knowledge. With this reveals why, how and who fits in the world.

As an individual, trying to find my true self, my “world” is at constant battle. My personality and traits are at constant war with trying to balance all of these aspects of the self. I find myself relating to many aspects of the art during the Romantic period, self –expressionism through the thoughts of Freud and Jung, and also a small part of Hinduism. In my self-portrait, I chose the colors that I thought most portrayed what is in my mind. These colors are rich and bright and have meanings that reflect my “self.” On one side of my face, I used red. This shows the anger, confusion, and passion that I have in my life. The other side, which is painted blue, shows the sadness and calmness that is sometimes a part of me. The colors are balanced and when meeting in the middle, portray the happiness that comes when these traits and colors are balanced. The colors of the spirals are all different due to the inner conflicts that surface. The spiral shape shows the process of growth and change. This craziness that is the “hair” also shows that there is a strong need for variety, novelty, and change. The saran wrap around the head shows my transparency. The people who truly know me can easily see through me when I try to hide my emotions. Sometimes, though, I don’t try to hide them and they all come out at once (it isn’t a nice thing, either!) The shapes hanging around the head portray my simplicity on the outside. Even though they are plain, like me, they have meaning and each of them is a little of everything my personality is. All of these meanings conflict at points in my life, but most of the time there is a balance of feelings and emotions. The cross shape is used to hold the head, which is the extrovert part of me, and the simple shapes, which is the dominant introvert, as in Jungian views. This shape symbolizes the difficulty of making decisions and all of the hard choices in my life. The head hanging from this shape is like a puppet would hang. The puppet does exactly what the person makes it do. Hanging the head from this shape shows that these hard decisions in my life are usually based on the people around me. This is one of my traits that I like the least.

Using ideas from other time periods, other people’s perspective and also other cultures have helped me to learn more about my true self. My self portrait shows that I am and extrovert on the inside with my glitter and color, which are rich, just like in Romantic period art. Sometimes these extrovert characteristics come out, shown with my colorful, spiral hair. On the outside, though, I am a true introvert, being plain and simple as with the shapes shown. When these characteristics are not in balance, just like Freud and Jung say, I am not at best with my “self.” Being balanced with everything a person does in life seems to be very important in many different aspects. It is easier to live and be happy when life is free of conflict, but that isn’t how the real world is. If a person tries to balance emotions and feelings by expressing them through art or music, psychological beliefs, and cultural beliefs, it will give them a chance to find the time to dwell on the happiness and easiness around them.

Bibliography

Stokstad, Marilyn. American History. Vol 2. New York: Harry N. Abrams, Inc., 1995.