First Moments of Self-awareness in Childhood: A Phenomenological Approach

This thought-provoking volume explores the phenomenon of childhood experiences of sudden moments of self-awareness. Locating them as meaningful developmental events, it draws on, and is illustrated by, detailed analysis of individuals’ narratives of inner experience and recollections of childhood. Uniquely highlighting the relevant writings of literary figures such as C.G. Jung, Vladimir Nabokov, Ian McEwan, and Henning Mankell, Dolph Kohnstamm explores the construction of selfhood, and the effects it has on time, space, and the other. Together with a chapter assessing the role of the default brain network in the development of self-conception, it both supports and challenges theories of development. First Moments of Self-awareness in Childhood offers a new conception of children’s development of a sense of individuality and will be of great interest to scholars and students of psychology, philosophy, and sociology.

About the Author

Dolph Kohnstamm is Professor Emeritus in Developmental Psychology, Leiden University, Netherlands. He is the author of works including Parental Descriptions of Child Personality , Temperament in Context , and Jean Piaget, Children and the Class-Inclusion Problem .