Alterity: Learning Polyvalent Selves, Resisting Disabling Notions of the Self

Autor/in	Walker, Wayland
Titel	Alterity: Learning Polyvalent Selves, Resisting Disabling Notions of the Self
Quelle	In: New Directions for Adult and Continuing Education, (2011) 132, S.43-52 (10 Seiten) PDF als Volltext Verfügbarkeit
Sprache	englisch
Dokumenttyp	gedruckt; online; Zeitschriftenaufsatz
ISSN	1052-2891
DOI	10.1002/ace.430
Schlagwörter	Personality Problems; Popular Culture; Mental Disorders; Adult Students; Postmodernism; Films; Individual Differences; Misconceptions; Critical Theory; Definitions; Adult Learning; Learning Theories; Adult Education; Social Bias; Attitudes toward Disabilities; Personality Theories; Individual Psychology; Psychopathology; Trauma + Suchen Sie Ihr Suchwort? Popkultur; Mental illness; Geisteskrankheit; Adult; Adults; Student; Students; Erwachsenenalter; Studentin; Schüler; Schülerin; Postmoderne; Film; Individueller Unterschied; Missverständnis; Kritische Theorie; Begriffsbestimmung; Adulte education; Adult training; Erwachsenenbildung; Learning theory; Lerntheorie; Education; Adult basic education; Personality theory; Persönlichkeitstheorie; Individualpsychologie; Psychopathologie
Abstract	This article queries how one type of human difference--alterity, the experience of multiple distinct consciousnesses, or "alters," by one person--is pathologized in American culture. This experience is inscribed as a mental illness, labeled now as dissociative identity disorder (DID) and formerly known as multiple personality disorder (MPD). In this analysis, the notion of the modernist subject or self as a linear, cohesive, unitary consciousness is challenged as a method of suppressing difference. Alternative language is proposed for talking about the self. Those who experience alterity can be said to experience polyvalent selves. If a singular self is commonplace, then polyvalent selves are queer, unusual, different, and worthy of study because such difference represents a creative and dynamic uncertainty that cannot be easily suppressed, explained, or interpreted away by modernist institutions and theories. Utilizing a postmodern and public pedagogy framework, the author analyzes cinematic texts that depicted alterity to identify messages in popular culture that might be disabling to adult learners who experience alterity. The films reviewed consistently depicted alters as distinct and separate entities who, despite inhabiting the same body, communicate with difficulty. They also usually depicted alterity as a diseased condition caused by trauma that must be remembered in order to heal a putatively shattered self. (ERIC).
Anmerkungen	John Wiley & Sons, Inc. Subscription Department, 111 River Street, Hoboken, NJ 07030-5774. Tel: 800-825-7550; Tel: 201-748-6645; Fax: 201-748-6021; e-mail: subinfo@wiley.com; Web site: http://www3.interscience.wiley.com/browse/?type=JOURNAL
Erfasst von	ERIC (Education Resources Information Center), Washington, DC
Update	2017/4/10