Serendip is an independent site partnering with faculty at multiple colleges and universities around the world. Happy exploring!

Reply to comment

Molly Tamulevich's picture

maternal instincts

I was thinking about the baby as well, and whilethink a baby is cute and I should pick it up and care for it, I wonder why that is. I know there are people who abandon children or abuse them. Does that mean that their I-function is defective or just different? I want to know if the I-function is really an I-function if it effects more than one person. Wouldn't it be more of a We-function if it produces the same kind of concious decisions in more than one individual? Also, in the story about the baby, I wonder how many women would have the caring response asopposed to men. The same with the Rothko painting. I want to know how much of my I-function is a product of biology and how much comes from my lived experience. I think that if a woman responded indifferently to a baby, she would be seen as extremely abnormal whereas a man would just be insensitive.I know that sometimes my I-function produces a primary response that I immediately hide. What is that? Is that a secondary response? If so, what mechanisms are responsible for controlling the end result of the I-function's reactions?

Reply

To prevent automated spam submissions leave this field empty.
4 + 13 =
Solve this simple math problem and enter the result. E.g. for 1+3, enter 4.