Anthony Bourdain

[golden]

So, @golden, do you think our persona's are built, or do we just move toward and try to form an environment that we like, while simultaneously dropping most of the "adapted-for-security-in-non-opitimal-environments" parts of our behaviors?

This seems like it should not be an either/or question, especially since what comes before the “or” is simplistic, and what comes after is very complex. Also because I’m not sure in practice why it should be one or the other, setting aside how the proposition was weighted.

A classic work related to this topic is Erving Goffman’s “Presentation of Self in Everyday Life” (1959). Goffman spoke in terms of performativity in the social environment, and I could apply his arguments to say that the environment and the building of the self are part of the same dynamic.

In Bourdain’s case, we have a media persona, and I incline to see that as a complex construction. There was a time when his seemingly only shtick was to show up on some cooking show and be irascible and say something cutting. That’s what he was getting money for. But over time he expanded his persona. Unless you take that persona as a one-for-one index to his private self, it is one way of seeing how the persona is somewhat artificial.

So for typology’s sake I do think it’s interesting to look for information that shows what this person was like before he took on a media mask. Whether he was continually invested in his image or not, the image takers were, so they took and propagated images supporting it and built narratives around it.

[Adam Strange]

This seems like it should not be an either/or question, especially since what comes before the “or” is simplistic, and what comes after is very complex. Also because I’m not sure in practice why it should be one or the other, setting aside how the proposition was weighted.

A classic work related to this topic is Erving Goffman’s “Presentation of Self in Everyday Life” (1959). Goffman spoke in terms of performativity in the social environment, and I could apply his arguments to say that the environment and the building of the self are part of the same dynamic.

In Bourdain’s case, we have a media persona, and I incline to see that as a complex construction. There was a time when his seemingly only shtick was to show up on some cooking show and be irascible and say something cutting. That’s what he was getting money for. But over time he expanded his persona. Unless you take that persona as a one-for-one index to his private self, it is one way of seeing how the persona is somewhat artificial.

So for typology’s sake I do think it’s interesting to look for information that shows what this person was like before he took on a media mask. Whether he was continually invested in his image or not, the image takers were, so they took and propagated images supporting it and built narratives around it.

Thanks for the lead. I found the book and will read it.

This seems to be a very Fe way of looking at the world. The reason I say this is that I very much manage my image at the start of relationships (Fe-role for the first twenty minutes), but very quickly fall into my own assertive self.

I also don't think my foundational "self" is constructed. Rather, it seems to be a rock that is covered with draperies which are gradually being removed.

I should add that personality studies seem to indicate that people have the values of their parents when they leave home, but over time become someone very different (themselves). The most interesting part of these studies is the fact that identical twins raised and living apart converge to a very similar point.

[consentingadult]

I also don't think my foundational "self" is constructed. Rather, it seems to be a rock that is covered with draperies which are gradually being removed.

That's what mid life crises are for: to rid yourself from your socially constructed self and become the essence of what you already are, an individuated person. That we are not the roles we play. Not that the socially constructed self is something bad, but it is just a phase of life we have to go through in order to understand what doesn't work for us.