Self-Image

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The most important psychological discovery of the century may be what psychologists call the "self-image"—a mental blueprint each of us carries about ourselves. Though often vague to our conscious mind or even completely unrecognizable, this self-image exists in remarkable detail.

It represents our own conception of "the sort of person I am" and dictates much of our behavior and capabilities. What's fascinating is how this blueprint forms: not through conscious design but through the unconscious absorption of our past experiences.

Our successes and failures, our moments of triumph and humiliation, and especially the ways others responded to us in childhood—all these experiences silently shape the self we believe ourselves to be. We construct this mental self-portrait without realizing we're the artists, using materials gathered from a lifetime of interactions with the world.