The Social Construction of Self Knowledge: A Commentary on the Legacy of Melvin Pollner

Like other approaches in the social sciences, social constructionist studies have too often construed the self as some manner
of mental image, or representation, we privately carry of our own identity. While socially shaped, this image is understood
as an essentially personal possession about which its possessor can legitimately claim a categorically privileged form of
knowledge. This residual commitment to theoretically privileging the first person perspective on the self inhibits our appreciation
for the extent to which the validity of self-knowledge is a dynamic and ongoing collective accomplishment rather than a strictly
private personal assessment. This essay briefly reviews a selection of canonical contributions to the social constructionist
literature on the self, demonstrating specifically how they theoretically privilege the first person perspective. It then
demonstrates how the work of Melvin Pollner provides conceptual resources for effectively overcoming this unfortunate tendency.