When in Offenbach’s opera “The Tales of
Hoffmann”, Hoffmann falls in love with Giuletta, the latter asks for his
reflection so that “He will always be with her”. Not knowing that on her turn Giuletta
is under the influence of the sinister Capitaine Dapertutto, Hoffmann naively
gives her what she asked for, but when he looks in a mirror and sees that his
reflection has gone, he realizes that he has not only lost his soul and self
image, but that he lost his identity. Since Giuletta has hand over Hoffmann’s
reflection to her master, Hoffmann’s identity and so his life is now in Departutto’s
hands.
For Hoffmann it’s a dream and when he wakes
up he realizes that his relationship with Giuletta is symbolic for his
relationship with his real love Stella, and that he must break with her. But is
this tale of Hoffmann not more than a story that is good by way of
entertainment in a book or the libretto of an opera?
Take a mirror and look in it. What do you
see? You think you see yourself as you are, that you see an objective image of
yourself. However, on a Dutch website I found that less than half of the Dutch
women are not satisfied with their reflections. They have too many wrinkles, or
so they think. They are too thick, or so they think. Etc. You know what I mean.
The same website says that 60% of all women in the world feel unhappy, insecure
or anxious when they look in the mirror. How can it happen? The example
illustrates that apparently it is not because you see an objective image in the
mirror. You don’t see simply yourself in the mirror but you see there your
Self. The reflection has a meaning for you: It shows who you Are.
A century ago the American sociologist
Charles Cooley developed the concept of looking
glass self. It involves the idea that your self-image arises in an
interaction between how you see yourself and how others see you. First, so
Cooley, you develop an image of how you think that others see you. Then you
interpret how you think that others judge you (positively, negatively or
otherwise). Third, on the basis of these processes you judge yourself: You feel
pride, embarrassment, chagrin, or whatever it maybe. So your self-image develops.
The judgments on which it is based need not be correct, but if you don’t know
that it is false, you behave according to your self-image. For instance, when
looking in a mirror, you see only that you have wrinkles, if they are judged
important in society (otherwise you wouldn’t give attention to them) and you
think that others see them on your face and that they think that you look old
because of them. You feel insecure because of that, because present (Western)
society says that being young is better. So you want to do something about it.
Wrinkles apparently belong to your image and to your identity (in your view),
and you want to change that. But by doing so, in fact you do what Hoffmann did.
The case of wrinkles is just a little example, but in order “to belong to it”
(to society, to the group of people around you that you consider relevant to
you) people increasingly adapt their self images to what they see as how these
images “must” be. Acting that way, you deliver your identity to others and let
them make and manipulate your identity. (Another option would be to follow your
own principles and have the relevant others take you as you are; see my blog http://philosophybytheway.blogspot.com/2013/04/the-other-directed-man.html).
But your reflection, and with that your
Self, is not only in a mirror. It is everywhere, certainly nowadays, and it is
caught everywhere. Take the social media. Look around in a train, in a
restaurant, even during a break in the opera: People are so longing for
contact, that at every dull moment they take their smartphones and check their
apps and social media. Messaging, liking, chatting with our “friends” have
become part of us. And just for fear of losing our identity we give it away. We
are prepared to give any information – sometimes the most intimate information
– to our preferred social media in order to avoid that the contact is broken
off, including such personal information as private telephone numbers. “Give it
to us, it’s safe with us”, the social media say. But behind your back – or
openly – they use your private data for their malicious or sometimes a bit less
malicious aims, and influence your behaviour. The recent abuse of telephone
numbers given to Facebook is a case in point. We do like Hoffmann in his dream who
gave his reflection to Giuletta but in fact gave his identity to Dapertutto, if
not to Faust.
References
- John F. Cuber, Sociology. A Synopsis of Principles. New York:
Appleton-Century-Crofts, 1963; pp. 253-254.
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