WHO IS DAVID LESTER?

David Lester is a British-American psychologist, suicidologist, and emeritus professor of psychology

at Stockton University. He was born on June 01, 1942 in London, England. And had slept in an air raid
shelter for his first three years.

EDUCATION: Lester received his BA from Cambridge University in 1964, and his M.A.
from Brandeis University in psychology in 1966. He went on to receive another M.A. from Cambridge
University in 1968, and received his first PhD the same year at Brandeis. In 1991, he received his
second PhD, this one in social & political science at Cambridge.

CAREER: From 1967 to 1969, he had been an assistant professor of psychology at Wellesley
College. In 1971, he became a psychology professor and head of the psychology program at
Stockton University, which had just begun that year, and eventually became a distinguished
professor there in 2008. He established the Psychology and Criminal Justice programs at Stockton.
He retired from Stockton in 2015 and was awarded an emeritus professor title there.

RESEARCH: He is known for his work on suicide research, and has been dubbed "the world's pre-
eminent suicide researcher.’’ He has published over 100 books and 2,650 papers on the subject as
of 2018. His research has been published in at least 158 American journals and 47 foreign journals,
with 74 colleagues in 34 countries.

FUN FACT:
He originally wanted to be a physicist, but got his BA at Cambridge University in psychology. He
then immigrated to the USA in 1964 for graduate study with Abraham Maslow at Brandeis University.
He has researched and written about suicide since then, but also about topics such as murder, the
death penalty, life after death and the fear of death. He also has a badly written, unpublished
detective story (on www.drdavidlester.net), but decided that he had better stick to scholarly writing.

MULTIPLE SELF THEORY OF THE MIND

Since publishing his version of the multiple self theory of the mind, he has come across
others who have had a similar ideas and commentators who describe multiple selves in
their discussion of human behavior. His goal in the present essay is to assume that the
reader has read the formal presentation of the theory and here present the work of
others who have proposed a similar idea and some interesting applications of a multiple
self theory of the mind.
INTRODUCTION:

In formal language, Lester has presented a multiple self theory of the mind with 12
postulates and 49 corollaries. Other theorists' perspectives are presented in this piece,
including Robert Lifton's concept of the Protean Self, shifting in African American female
professionals, and academic teaching personae.

On Multiple Selves refutes the idea that a human being has a single unified self.
Instead, David Lester argues, the mind is made up of multiple selves, and this is a
normal psychological phenomenon. Lester expands on his earlier work on the
phenomenon, illuminating how a "multiple-self theory of the mind" is critically necessary
to understanding human behavior.

Most of us are aware that we have multiple selves. We adopt different "facade selves"
depending on whom we are with. Lester argues that contrary to the popular
psychological term, "false self," these presentations of self are all part of us, not false;
they simply cover layers of identity. He asserts that at any given moment in time, one or
another of our subselves is in control and determines how we think and act. Lester
covers situations that may encourage the development of multiple selves, ranging from
post-traumatic stress resulting from combat to bilinguals who speak two (or more)
languages fluently.

In Lester's multiple self theory of personality, Lester makes it clear that each multiple
self in the individual's mind is a complex organization of psychological contents
(thoughts, feeling, emotions, and behaviours)

Prologue: What Is the Self?

1.A Multiple Self Theory of the Mind On Multiple Selves refutes the idea that a human
being has a single unified self. Instead, David Lester argues, the mind is made up of
multiple selves, and this is a normal psychological phenomenon. Lester expands on his
earlier work on the phenomenon, illuminating how a "multiple-self theory of the mind" is
critically necessary to understanding human behavior.

In Lester's multiple self theory of personality, Lester makes it clear that each multiple
self in the individual's mind is a complex organization of psychological contents
(thoughts, feeling, emotions, and behaviours)

Multiple selves (or multiple personas) refers to the different ways that individuals
interact with the different situations and circumstances in their lives.
Most of us are aware that we have multiple selves. We adopt different "facade selves"
depending on whom we are with. Lester argues that contrary to the popular
psychological term, "false self," these presentations of self are all part of us, not false;
they simply cover layers of identity. He asserts that at any given moment in time, one or
another of our subselves is in control and determines how we think and act. Lester
covers situations that may encourage the development of multiple selves, ranging from
post-traumatic stress resulting from combat to bilinguals who speak two (or more)
languages fluently.
For example, a person takes on these different styles of interactions as a parent, as an
employee, as a friend, as a son or daughter, or as a spouse. Think about if you
answered your phone with a business-like voice and it was your best friend, however
she didn't even recognize you until you identified yourself because of the difference
between your "business-like" persona and your "friend" persona. This, however, is not
the same as dissociative identity disorder in that the individual does not lose track of his
own identity or personality, it simply involves the modifications of reactions and
interaction patterns with the world.
2
Lester's multiple self theory of the mind: summary of the postulates and corollaries4

DEFINITION: Personality consists of the hypothetical structures and processes in the

mind that explain (1) the consistency of our behavior over time, (2) the inconsistencies
in our behavior in different situations and from time to time, (3) the similarities between
our behavior and that of others, and (4) the differences in our behavior from that of
others.
DEFINITION: A subself is a relatively autonomous and organized set of psychological
processes in the mind (such as thoughts, emotions and desires) that co-exists with
other similar sets.

POSTULATE 1: The mind can be conceptualized as consisting of several subselves

COROLLARY 1a: Not every individual has a multiple self.

COROLLARY 1b: Having a unified self or a multiple self has no bearing on the
individual's psychological health.

POSTULATE 2: At any point in time, one subself is in control of the mind. It may be said
to have executive power.

COROLLARY 2a: When one subself has executive power, the other subselves are said
to be suspended.

COROLLARY 2b: When one subself has executive power, some of the other subselves
may be monitoring what is being processed by the executive subself, but others may
not. Clinical investigation of the individual is necessary to determine which subselves
are monitoring the executive subself and which are not.

COROLLARY 2c: A subself may have executive power for anywhere from seconds to
hours or longer.

COROLLARY 2d: Selfhood is whichever subself has executive power at the time.

COROLLARY 2e: The existence of subselves accounts for the occasional inconsistency
in the behavior of individuals. The behavior of an individual may differ when each
subself has executive power.
COROLLARY 2f: Subselves can account for the co-existence of two conflicting desires
or forces in the mind.

POSTULATE 3: There are several possibilities for subselves that are common to all
individuals.

COROLLARY 3a: One common set of subselves consists of one or more core selves
and one or more façade selves.

COROLLARY 3b: For some people, the façade self may become so pervasive that
people come to believe that it is their real self

COROLLARY 3c: Other common sets of subselves are the topdog/underdog,

introjected subselves, and regressive subselves.

COROLLARY 3d: Subselves may be defined in terms of social group membership or

personality attributes and, in some people, there may be mixed types.

COROLLARY 3e: Some subselves may occur in pairs with complementary attributes,
whereas other subselves may occur in pairs with similar attributes. It is a clinical
question as to whether individuals have such pairs, what is the genesis of these pairs
and why some complement each other while others do not.

POSTULATE 4: The subselves function in a manner similar to a small group of

individuals.

COROLLARY 4a: Some subselves collaborate in groups or teams, while others may be
isolates; some appear in many situations while others may appear on only rare, special
occasions; some are domineering while others are submissive.

COROLLARY 4b: Subselves may form coalitions within the larger group. These
coalitions may improve or impair the functioning of the mind.
COROLLARY 4c: In some productive organizations of subselves, one subself acts as a
leader, analogous to the conductor of an orchestra, coordinating the contributions of the
other subselves.

COROLLARY 4d: Egalitarian groups of subselves typically result in greater satisfaction

for the individual.

COROLLARY 4e: The individual's subselves can reorganize themselves in new ways as
they develop and as the situation changes.

COROLLARY 4f: Groups of subselves are best limited to at least four and to no more
than ten.

COROLLARY 4g: Multiple selves may lead to more rational decisions than a unified self
in some situations.

COROLLARY 4h: The interactions between multiple selves may be usefully described
using the concepts that have been proposed to describe family dynamics.

COROLLARY 4i: Groupthink can be avoided by assigning at least one subself to the
role of devil's advocate. POSTULATE 5: There are many forms of psychological
disturbance which can arise from the conceptualization of the mind as consisting of
many subselves.

COROLLARY 5a: The system principle of a subself may be pathological.

COROLLARY 5b: Psychological disturbance can arise from symptoms of pressure,

intrusion, and invasion between subselves.

COROLLARY 5c: Psychological disturbance can arise when one subself has executive
power exclusively.
COROLLARY 5d: It can be healthy for one subself to maintain overall control of the
group of subselves while allowing each subself to have executive power from time to
time or delegating duties to other subselves. It may be pathological when this “chairman
of the board” is impaired in its role, for this may lead to conflict, struggles and even war
between the subselves, rendering the person's mind chaotic.

COROLLARY 5e: Psychological disturbance can arise when the individual has difficulty
setting and shifting set (changing which subself has executive power) appropriately in a
situation.

COROLLARY 5f: Psychological disturbance can arise when the content of the
subselves is pathological.

COROLLARY 5g: The healthiest individuals may have one subself that is in charge of
the set of subselves.

COROLLARY 5h: Some subselves may cease to be useful as the individual matures
and may need to become less influential in determining the individual's life.

COROLLARY 5i: Subselves that may be unhelpful for some tasks and impair
performance and development may be useful in other situations.

COROLLARY 5j: The possibility of attributing negatively-valued aspects (thoughts,

desires, emotions or behaviors) of oneself to one or more subselves may enable the
individual to maintain high self-esteem since the negative aspects of one subself do not
color the other subselves.

POSTULATE 6: The concept of subselves is useful for psychotherapy and counseling.

COROLLARY 6a: One useful tactic in psychotherapy is to have the client identify and
provide names for their subselves.
COROLLARY 6b: Some subselves are more useful in the psychotherapeutic process
than others

COROLLARY 6c: It is important in psychotherapy to know the relationships among a

client's network of subselves, that is, the alliances and coalitions that exist and how they
change from time to time and situation to situations.

COROLLARY 6d: Some subselves may become enmeshed, and the psychotherapist
must help the client create sufficiently impermeable boundaries. Alternatively, some
subselves may become disengaged, and the task then is to recognize them and
encourage them to express themselves.

POSTULATE 7: Some subselves may be in a dissociated state about which the other
selves have delusional, minimal or no knowledge.

COROLLARY 7a: The concept of dissociated subselves can explain such phenomena
as multiple personality, possession, mediumship, reincarnation, and auditory
hallucinations.

POSTULATE 8: Kelly's REP Grid technique may be useful for describing and measuring
the content of subselves.

POSTULATE 9: The set of subselves which constitute the mind of an individual

changes with age

COROLLARY 9a: There are subselves formed by the introjection of the desires and
thoughts of powerful others (in particular, parental figures) and imitation of their
personality and behavioral styles

COROLLARY 9b: Subselves may be formed as a result of early experiences.

COROLLARY 9c: Subselves may be formed by the encountering of possible subselves

exemplified by other people.
COROLLARY 9d: There are probably regressive subselves in most, if not all, individuals
which are the subselves that they had at an earlier stage in life.

COROLLARY 9e: Individuals can seek to create new subselves for the future

COROLLARY 9f: Individuals form fewer possible selves as they age. Aging narrows the
possibilities for the individual as he or she moves toward completing their specific
system principle.

COROLLARY 9g: Subselves are selected to become more or less permanent members
of the plural self, depending on their usefulness in helping the individual succeed.

POSTULATE 10: The individual eventually tries to integrate the subselves.

COROLLARY 10a: The integration of subselves is a task for the second half of life.

COROLLARY 10b: One form of integration is the elimination of all subselves but one.

COROLLARY 10c: One form of integration is the fusion or merging of the separate
subselves into a single unified self.

COROLLARY 10d: One form of integration is peaceful and harmonious co-existence,

cooperation, and collaboration between the subselves.

COROLLARY 10e: It is a clinical issue as to which individuals choose each path of

integration and what determines this choice.6 Conclusions and Final Thoughts