First person personal pronouns and their psychic referents.
This paper presents a psychoanalytic description of the psychic referents for the personal pronouns I, me, myself. The referents are related to memorial processes of experiences of satisfaction is early bodily dialogues. Later interpersonal dialogues, bodily and verbal, factual or fantazised, add to the memories available as potential referents for the pronouns. The linguistically spoken pronoun has a narrower referential field because a speech act can only tap a limited number of memories. The 'I'/'me' of each spoken sentence is a selected libidinal and narcissistically organised self-perception at the service of an exchange with the interlocutor at hand, the specific 'you' of that linguistic act. The linguistic 'I' is a transient pronominal function linked to memories about oneself and others. It reveals in the selection of referential sources, libidinal and narcissistic regulatory functions in the service of satisfaction of wishes, defence, and modulation of self-esteem.
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D004532:Ego; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007802:Language; D007804:Language Development; D008037:Linguistics; D008297:Male; D008568:Memory; D009769:Object Attachment; D011573:Psychoanalytic Interpretation; D011574:Psychoanalytic Theory; D012649:Self Concept