In An Anthropologist On Mars, Oliver Sacks discusses the nature of colour in his first chapter. He posits that colour is not out there, in the so-called real world, not a question of light’s wave-length, but that colour is “constructed by the brain.” By exploring the various ways in which radically injured brains adapt to circumstances, he discovers that it is the brain’s role to create or construct “a coherent self and world.”
Later, in a discussion of memory, Sacks references Gerald Edelman’s view that “every perception is a creation, every memory is a re-creation.”
Both these examples suggest that the nature of the self is far more malleable and ‘constructed’ than we normally believe. Like language, the self we have constructed, in any particular context, is based on an attempt to adapt to social consensus. We are driven by family, society and environment to be who we think we are. While this view is critical to survival, recognizing it as a survival instinct is a first step in realizing its limitations.