Abstract

According to the classical approach, the self was regarded as a pure unchanging spiritual entity, with a cognitive content which is the consequence of self-awareness that characterises human being. Against this classical conception, the convergence approaches of phenomenology, developmental psychology or neuroscience highlighted the fact that the self is the result of the ongoing dynamics of experiences we have as embodied agents, e.g. the dynamic coupling between the embodied agent and the world, the dynamics of the primal emotions and feelings, as well as the dynamics of neural processes. Hence, the self appears as an embodied self, embedded in a certain context having a pre-reflective character, resulting from the direct coupling of the person with the natural or social environment. In conclusion, according to the contemporary approaches, the self is a multifaceted phenomenon, which should be understood from the perspective of the various dynamic relationships mediated among body, brain, and environment.