The Developmental Psychology of Personal Identity. A Philosophical Perspective

By integrating contemporary philosophical theories inspired by John Locke and William James with empirical and neuropsychological research, the book explores the construction of personal identity. Drawing on Chomsky-inspired developmental psychology, Jean Piaget's constructivism, Lev Vygotsky's sociocultural perspective on development, and John Bowlby's attachment theory, the book utilizes psychological data to reconstruct the trajectory of the self as a 'Lockean person' (i.e., a morally responsible agent). The book connects the emergence of self-consciousness through bodily experiences and emotions to the construction of a narrative self. The outcome of this constructive process of self-recognition is a fundamentally fragile individual, constantly vulnerable to threats of disintegration or regression. Overcoming these challenges requires the mobilization of significant cognitive and emotional resources, which are not always readily available to everyone. The interdisciplinary approach integrating philosophy and cognitive sciences that is characteristic of the book opens up new avenues for understanding identity, self, autobiographical memory, and personality. Among the contemporary authors considered, all fully inscribed within the realm of philosophy and cognitive sciences, we find Peter Carruthers, Peter Fonagy, Gyorgy Gergely, Daniel Stern, Michael Tomasello, Dan Sperber, and Pierre Jacob.