'The Binds of Love' vs 'Cave Allegory'

Paper Summary:

This paper presents Benjamin's model for childhood developmental stages, showing a sense of self (as learned from the mother) in relation to the other (the individual objective identity). Plato comparably defines these aspects of self in relation to his prisoners in the cave, as they clearly are mimicking what the shadows are teaching them on the wall after birth. However, according to the paper, identity in Benjamin's view can also come from outside sources that reveal the other that denies the immediate lessons one is taught as a new born.

From the Paper:

"This study will compare Jessica Benjamin's theory of `self' and the `other' within the scope of Plato's Cave Allegory. By analyzing the slow maternal sense of identity a child learns within a developmental mode, one can realize how Plato's Cave Allegory reveals a similar pattern within an evolving sense of self. Benjamin reveals the idea of self as being a series of illusions brought about by a maternal influence, but not without the basis of self being dissolved by refusing the `other'. In this way, Benjamin's freedom or imprisonment of the infant mind is readily comparable to Plato's Cave Allegory as a symbolic representation of the discovery of self and the other. The Cave Allegory is a lesson in the fundamental principles of perception and knowledge that Plato imparts on the reader. "

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