–Share your thoughts on how recognizing our dependence on the social other changes how we understand ourselves.
If I can be a self apart from others, then presumably I can understand myself through a solitary self-sustained contemplation of selves (with “me” being one example).
If, by contrast, I cannot be a self apart from the social other, then my capacity to understand requires others. Therefore, I can only come to understand myself—if I ever can—by responding to others.
To the extent that solitary contemplation is fruitful, it cannot be construed as self-sustained.