Others in Mind
Social Origins of Self-Consciousness

“An utterly unique voice, passionately combining the scholarly and the personal. A book that first of all engages, but also informs. What could be more interesting than how we learn about ourselves through others?”
—Michael Tomasello, Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology, Leipzig, Germany

“Bold in its reach and profound in its implications, this highly original book makes the startling claim that fear of rejection by others drives human self consciousness and an obsessive concern for self. Rochat argues paradoxically that the extended dependency of human infancy on the attentiveness of others for survival and care produces at once a deep need for affiliation and a pervasive terror of rejection. This theme is persuasively worked through for many of the most important concerns of the self in social, cultural, and moral spheres throughout life.”
—Katherine Nelson, CUNY Graduate Center

“So many talk about the self, so few get beyond clichés. This bold book delivers. Bringing together a wealth of research, Rochat forges a comprehensive vision which is truly original. Psychotherapy clinicians, like other readers, will find their grasp of human reality never again the same.”
—George Downing, The Psychiatric Teaching Faculty, Salpetriere Hospital, Paris

"Examines the human propensity for self-consciousness..."
--The Chronicle of Higher Education

"...Rochat presents a bold challenge for psychology, one that stresses the importance of group living and the sharing of resources as essential for human survival...[Essential]..."
—S. Krippner, Saybrook Graduate School & Research Center

"...thought provoking, learned, and also daring... Others in Mind is an elegantly written essay that will inform, provoke, and inspire thought about the origins of human self-consciousness... It will reward the scholarly reader with new perspectives on a topic of classic and continuing importance."
—Ross A. Thompson, PsycCRITIQUES [March 17, 2010, Vol. 55]