On the self image presentation and discussion

I don’t recall ever pondering over my own self image. Self image is a topic essential to daily life, although frequently overlooked.

Upon being presented with the challenge of kicking off our class’s semester-long intensive look at self image, I felt a bit uninterested in the chosen topic. I didn’t know what we would talk about, and I was in the first group. As time came closer to present I realized that it actually was a blessing to go first. We had a blank canvas. We could start the topic in a way we would like to see it go.

I previously viewed self image as a one dimensional subject of its own, but in presenting the topic I had to realize that it is a central psychological concept influencing self identity and all social interaction. Essentially, every person is whatever he perceives himself to be. The difficulty in presenting wasn’t to repeat what I had thought about. The challenge was trying to make everyone else think it through for himself. I liked when our group led the discussion because I felt like we helped everyone become a little more involved in speaking about how self image affects things such as friend and family trust, self confidence and eating disorders.

After seeing how the significant the topic is and how the class is reacting in discussion, I’m more interested in the topic and how others in the class perceive it also. I look forward to branching out more into the subtopics and taking the discussion further as the presentations progress.