SELF-compounded and confounded!

This is Part 31 in a series of articles about the “self.”
SELF is one of the most used words in the language.
Used alone it’s pretty simple; most people get it.
But Self has many compound versions that are confounding to many.
And why not?

Some of them sound like they mean the same thing.
Some of them have so little distinction as to amount to the same thing in casual conversation at least.
But some of them, while appearing to be the same thing, actually have slight but important differences.

It depends whether we’re talking as psychologists in their lingo or as regular people in plain language.
But even when we are speaking colloquially, it’s best to get the definitions right or we can get off track or misidentify a condition or state.

COMBINING FORMS–compound words

SELF—(The ones in red we’ll deal with in detail soon!)
ABSORPTION:         Preoccupation with one’s own emotions, interest or situation
ABUSE:                      Behavior which causes damage or harm to oneself
ASSERTION: Confident and forceful; expression or promotion of oneself or one’s views
ASSESSMENT: In relation to one’s own abilities or character
ASSURANCE:           Confidence in one’s own abilities or character
AWARENESS:     Conscious knowledge of one’s character, feelings, motives and desires
CENTERED: Preoccupied with one’s self or character
CONCEPT:                The global understanding a sentient being has of himself. It presupposes self-consciousness.
It is more general than self-esteem which is the purely evaluative aspect of the self-concept. (Random House Dictionary)
COMPOSED:             Openly admitting to having certain characteristics
CONFIDENCE:         A feeling of trust in one’s abilities, qualities and judgment
CONSCIOUS: Nervous or awkward because of being unduly aware of oneself and one’ s actions (especially of an action); deliberate and with full awareness
CONTROL:                Ability to control one’s emotions or behavior in different situations
DECEPTION: Action or practice of deceiving oneself into believing that a false or unfounded feeling, idea, or situation is true
DEFEATING: Unable to achieve the end it was designed to bring about
DEFENCE:                 Physical or psychological response to real or perceived attack
DENIAL:                    Of one’s own internals or needs
DEPRECATING:       Modest about oneself
DETERMINATION: Process by which a person controls his own life
DISCIPLINE:             Ability to control one’s own weaknesses
DOUBT:                     Lack of confidence in one’s worth or abilities
ESTEEM:                   Confidence in one’s abilities; self worth, value, (affective or emotional)
This is the evaluative aspect of the self-concept: it can be positive or negative, high or low.
EVIDENT:                  Obvious; not needing to be explained or demonstrated
EXPLANATORY:     Clearly understood
EXPRESSION:           Especially in music, writing, dance and art
FULFILLING:            (Of an opinion or prediction) bound to be proved correct or come true (or false) as a result of behavior caused by its being expressed
HELP:                         Use of one’s own efforts/resources to achieve things without relying on others
IMAGE:                     The idea of one’s abilities, appearance and personality
IMPORTANCE:        An exaggerated sense of one’s own importance.
INTEREST:                One’s personal interest or advantage especially when pursued without regard for others
MADE:                       Having been successful or rich by one’s own efforts
POSSESSED:              Calm, confident, and in control of one’s own feelings
PRESERVATION:     Of oneself from harm or death
WORTH: An evaluation of one’s work to the self and others.

This list is certainly not exhaustive. Some other combining forms related to the self include…
self-
abandonment
affirmation
alienation
containment
contradiction
examination
improvement
indulgent
inflicted
pity
supporting
surrender
sustaining
taught
reliance
restraint
revealing, and
sacrifice.
Many of these are self evident (!) with regard to their meanings.
We’ll probably get to them all at some point!
Here are some more! SELf:
abnegation
absorbed
actualization
addressed
adhesive (yes, we cut that one earlier!)
aggrandizement
appointed
assurance
assured
centered
denial
destruct
described
winding
titled
sustaining
service
serving
willed
taught
styled
sacrifice
rule
righteous
restraint
respect
reliant
monitoring
pity
regulatory
proclaimed
preservation
possessed
portrait
made
inflicted
interest
indulgent
improvement
imposed
important
image
hood
help
government
fulfilling prophecy
expression
explanatory
evident
destruction
destructive
determination
discipline
doubt
educated
effacing
destruct
described
denial
deprecating
congratulatory
defense
control
deception
(There may be some duplicates in there!)
We could go on–but we won’t!
You get the idea!
By ‘SELF’ we mean the conscious reflection of our being or identity as separate from the environment which includes other people.
The two most important and elemental concepts are those of the ‘self concept’ and ‘self esteem’ but they are often confused with self-awareness, self-confidence, self-conscious, and self-image.
Soon, we’ll focus on the some of these in coming posts in more detail.
If any of this stuff causes you a problem with regard to your own self-hood and you’d like to discuss it privately, safely and freely, email me.
daleyfrank0@gmail.com
Get self-involved!
(OK, that’s a joke!)
Frank
P.S. This is ‘way too much information! I know.
It’s just to show you that there is a lot to this self stuff.
If you’ve got have a “self-x” thing you are struggling with just comment below or email me and I’ll get right to it!
daleyfrank0@gmail.com
Frank