WEEK 05 NOVEMBER 08, 2021

MATERIAL SELF
INTRODUCTION: MATERIAL SELF
We are living in this world of sale and shopping The Material Self according to James primarily is about our
spree. We are given a wide array of products to purchase bodies, clothes, immediate family, and home. We are deeply
from a simple set of spoon and fork to owning a restaurant. affected by these things because we have put too much
Almost everywhere, including the digital space, we can find investment of our self to them.
promotions of product purchase. P r oduct advertisements are MATERIAL SELF INVESTMENT DIAGRAM
suggestive of making us feel better or look good. Part of us
wants to have that product. What makes us want to have
those products are c onnected with who we are. What we
want to have and already possess is related to our self.

Belk (1988) stated that “we regard our possessions

as parts of our selves. WE ARE WHAT WE HAVE AND WHAT
WE P O SSESS. There is a direct link between self-identity with
what we have and possess. Our wanting to have and possess
has a connection with another aspect of the self, the material
self.
1. BO DY
WILLIAM JAMES • The innermost part of our material self is our BODY.
SELF Intentionally, we are investing in our body.
• Conceptualized SELF as having 2 aspects - the “I” and the • We are directly attached to this commodity that we
“me”. cannot live without.
o I: thinking, acting, and feeling self • We strive hard to make sure that this body functions
well and good.
o ME: Physical characteristics and psychological
• Any ailment or disorder directly affects us.
capabilities that makes who you are.
• We do have certain preferential attachment or
intimate closeness to certain body parts because of
MATERIAL SELF its certain value to us.
• Refers to tangible objects, people, or places that carry • There were people who get their certain body parts
the designation my or mine. insured.
• Two Subclasses • Example: Mariah Carey was reported to have
1. Bodily Self: Body placed a huge amount of insurance of her vocal
2. Extr acorporeal (Beyond the Body) self: This is when cords and legs (Sukman 2016).
you get to extend yourself to other people.
2. CLO THES
Rosenberg (1979) has referred it as the EX TENDED • Herman Lotze’s “Philosophy of Dress” James
SELF. believed that: Clothing is an essential part of the
material self.
SELF / EMPIRICAL SELF [Three Parts] • Lotze book: Microsmus any time we bring an object
1. MATERIAL SELF: All those things you would call yours. into the surface of our body, we invest that object
2. SO CIAL SELF: Tied to those occasions when other people into the consciousness of our personal existenc e
recognize us. How you present yourself in public. taking in its contours to be our own and making it
part of the self.’ (Watson 2014)
3. SP IRITUAL SELF: A person’s inner or subjective being (≠
• The fabric and style of the clothes we wear bring
Soul). Your emotions and views on things sensations to the body to which directly affect our
• P URE EGO - The only "I" self. James thought it was attitudes and behavior. Thus, the clothes are placed
like your soul. in the second hierarchy of material self.
• Clothing is a form of expression. We choose ad wear
clothes that reflect our self. (Watson 2014)
 WE ARE WHAT WE HAVE
• Russel Belk (1988): “we regard our possessions as part of
ourselves. WE ARE WHAT WE HAVE AND WHAT WE
P O SSESS.”
• The identification of the self to things started in our
infancy stage when we make a distinction among self and
environment and others who may desire our
possessions.
• Material possession gains higher value in our
lifetime if we use material possession to find
HAPPINESS, associate these things with
significant events, accomplishment, and people
in our lives.

RELIGIONS OF CONSUMERISM
“Vast numbers of us have been seduced into believing that having
more wealth and material possessions is essential to a good life.
We have swallowed the idea that, to be well, one first must be
well off.” and many of us, consciously and unconsciously, have
learned to evaluate our own well-being and accomplishment not
by looking inward at our spirit or integrity, but by looking outward
at what we have and what we can buy. Similarly, we have
adopted a world view in which the worth and success of others is
judged not by their apparent wisdom, kindness, or community
3. INTERMEDATE FAMILY contributions, but in terms of whether they possess the right
• Our parents and siblings hold another great clothes, the right car and more generally, the right "stuff”.
important part of our self. What they do or become Ri chard M. Ryan. University of Rochester
affects us.
• When an immediate family member dies, part of us HOW TO DISCONNECT?
dies, too. When their lives are in success, we feel • Wisdom from various people
their victories as if we are the one holding the • Stop shopping on some level
trophy. In their failures, we are put to shame or guilt. • Treat children as children, not as consumers
When they are in disadvantage situation, there is an • Love your family, friends, and yourself more than your
urgent urge to help like a voluntary instinct of saving stuff.
oneself from danger. • Spend time in your core humanity rather than in stuff to
• We place HUGE INVESTMENT in our immediate place around your core humanity
family when we see them as the nearest REPLICA of
our self. ONIOMANIA
• an obsessive or uncontrollable urge to buy things.
4. HO ME can affect either sex or gender, but the vast majority of
• Home is the earliest nest of our selfhood. compulsive shoppers are adult females according to Emil
• Home is where the heart is. Kraeplin
• Our experiences inside the home were recorded and • O r igin
marked on parts and things in our home. → O nios: for sale
• There was an old cliché about rooms: “If only walls → Mania: insanity
can speak”.
• The home thus is an extension of self, because in it,
we can directly connect our self. WILLIAM JAMES’ COMPOSITION OF THE ECONOMIC AND
MATERIAL SELF
INVESTMENT MATERIAL AND ECONOMIC SELF
• Having investment of self to things, made us attached to • a total of all the tangible things you own.
those things. We also tended to collect and possess • All those things you would call yours. Your clothes and
properties. other "things" you own.
• The collections in different degree of investment of self, • James’ Material and Economic Self
becomes part of the self. 1. Body: innermost part
• As James (1890) described self: “a man’s self is the sum 2. Clothes: identification of ourselves (we are what we
total of all what we CAN call his.” wear)
• Possessions then become a part or an extension of the 3. Immediate family members: when they die, part of
our self is gone
self.
4. P r operty and or wealth: those which are saturated
• Possessions then become a part or an extension of the
with our labor.
self.
• The more investment of self-given to the particular thing,
the more we identify ourselves to it.