do blind people develop a different sort of self, as a result of never having a self image to weld it to....?

Question

ie: everyone else through childhood use of mirrors forms a fabricated imagined self which he thinks of as himself, and which he assumes rests on the top of his neck. but that is only an 3rd party bystanders view of what he looks like. i was wondering what a blind persons experience of self was like...having not gone through the process of forming a fabricated self, that is the result of memorising your image in a mirror to use as the reference point for your internal self image.

it seems i'm onto something of a loser here!
unfortunately i dont think that most people are aware that what they experience as a self...is merely a fabrication, made up of memories that is always being slightly modified over time by new layers of memories being laid down.
an intrinsic part of that fabricated self..being the internal self image built out of looking at oneself in a mirror repeatedly over time.
most people think [when they look out at the external world] that they are looking out from inside some sort of face with eyes....they are performing a magic trick of placing an external view of their face in the place where they imagine their head should be...effectively living with an imaginary face/mask where there should be crystal clear nothingness.

you might understand what im getting at if you read a book called on having no head.

obvious/dp/1878019198/sr=8_1_1/026-0512195-6837221?ie=UTF8&s=books

it seems i'm onto something of a loser here!
unfortunately i dont think that most people are aware that what they experience as a self...is merely a fabrication, made up of memories that is always being slightly modified over time by new layers of memories being laid down.
an intrinsic part of that fabricated self..being the internal self image built out of looking at oneself in a mirror repeatedly over time.
most people think [when they look out at the external world] that they are looking out from inside some sort of face with eyes....they are performing a magic trick of placing an external view of their face in the place where they imagine their head should be...effectively living with an imaginary face/mask where there should be crystal clear nothingness.

you might understand what im getting at if you read a book called on having no head.

obvious/dp/1878019198/sr=8_1_1/026-0512195-6837221?ie=UTF8&5=books

Answer 1

They probably don't actually 'visualize' themselves. The self "image" of themselves are probably just codes of touches and texture to them. Like... umm... imagine that we can't 'hear'. No one would even know they exist. :)

Answer 2

Of course, they develop something that we who have two (or one) eyes and see things are desperately loosing: sense of humor. I don't know your town, but elsewhere there are Thyflological Places (they call it so from Greek 'thyphlos', blind) for knowing better the World of Blindness. There are also Thyplologic Museums ('to see and touch') where blind people exposes his Art experiences: they can paint, they can sculpture. The way to paint is touching the hair of artist's brushes.
They choose the colors by using special tubular painting creams with the name of the tint or blending written in Braille alphabet. What I saw is astonishing. Perhaps somewhat ' fauvist' (and sometimes creepy) but awfully creative. In those Thyphlologic Museums blind people find Universe's Monuments to know by tact: tridimensional models or mockups of about 3/4 feet that include Eiffel Tower, Kremlin, Brandenburg Gate, Freedom Statue over the Hudson, Taj Mahal, Chichen Itzà Pyramid (Mexico), Parthenon, Amphitheatre at Rome, the Alhambra (Grenade)... etc. They are musicians of a rare sensibility. My own grandmother was blind and played Beethoven with energy.
Jazzman Tete Montoliu used to say: "It's not that I'm blind, the matter is that I can't see". Nuance. In Thyphological Museums you find also historic machines to educate the fingers of blind people. "Astronograph", with Zodiacal signs, a Clock, the Braille's "Motivator", a puzzle with America's Map, Llorens System for writing (some more, originated in England) ; the Klein Engine with Printing Types, Foucault's Raphigraph and I'd bore you with information. Find "Typhological" in your PC, and see (or touch) what's near your dump. You'd be surprised. They've got anybody's self, but remember the jazz pianist Montoliu, born blind and a genius: The matter is, only, that they can't see.

Answer 3

You have got to realise that a blind person would not see anyone else either...
There "self image" would centre around the voice and possibly smell.

And as they only hear and smell others this would be their natrual way to distinguish beween different people - and would also define themselves.

Although none of this has anything to do with personallity - which a blind person would value much more than most people.
Let's face it - most people are shallow and would not consider speaking or being friendly with someone who they did not find attractive - especially the case with women - for who looks are more important than for a man.

Answer 4

the creation of a sense of self emerges around about the 12 month stage in a child's development.
while it is true that one of the earliest manifestations of this is the ability to regognise onesself in the mirror, this is not what creates the sense of self. It is merely a bi-product.

The sense of self is built and modified not by the physical act of seeing oneself but rather a deeper understanding of interaction with ones worl and those who inhabit that world.

These arethings that blind people are just as good at as sighted people.

Someone who has a poor self image of their body for example, only has that poor self image due to outside forces, not the fact she/he can see himself as fat in a mirror.

If everyone in media were fat and pale as was widely propagated in times gone by (Rubens painting for example) then being fat would give that person more self esteem and a better self image.

Thus it is our interaction with others that make us feel how we feel about ourselves, and parents have a profound impact on this

Answer 5

Ramana Maharishi's philosophy is a ways previous the same old religious recommendations and social bindings. His definition of genuine self consciousness is the hardest to achieve because it meant finished dissolution of self as with out that the duality won't be able to be conquer.... even as the self itself is thoroughly dissolved and merged into the Almighty (Brahman), the position is the case for any rights or responsibilities for someone body, concepts or soul?

Answer 6

Life is a book to a blind person. They probably even imagine the looks of humans in general different than we see.

Answer 7

for people not born blind, they have a decent sense of how people and things look. it just becomes less important.

I think most are probally nicer to epopel due to not judging them on how they look. and there is no racial profiling or prejudices by most blind people because they can't tell what race someone is

my grandmother went blind when I was 2 weeks old. She could still picture how each of her kids and grand kids looked (expect for me and my little cousins). and even when she could see she was never judgemental to others.

Answer 8

HUH? Blind people like temporarily abled bodied people have trouble with self esteem, especially when you get idiotic questions like this one that are incomprehensible.

99 per cent of people who are blind HAVE SOME SIGHT. A totally blind person is very rare.

Blind people go through the same experiences TABS do, except with have to put up with all the tabs who have dumb myths about us , which perpetuate into hiring us . Blind people DO HAVE ESP to compensate. We dream just like you do, we ' see ' things in dreams like you do.

And no most blind people do not have extras to compensate for their lack of site.

Answer 9

Self image goes way beyond the just visual.

Answer 10

There are none so blind about themselves, as those who can see, do have all their physical senses, but totally refuse to face themselves... so, why pick on the visually impaired?