To the extent that our postmodern society is “graying” (older average age), this selective self may become more prevalent. It may be appropriate not only for people who are growing older (all of us), but also for people who are faced with the challenges of postmodern life (most of us). I would suggest that the selective self is particularly appropriate when coupled with the notion of an appreciative self—the fifth type of postmodern self—to which I turn later in a later essay.
Conclusions
So how does the Johari Window help us as a guidebook in these postmodern circumstances? In what ways does the New Johari Window serve even more effectively in our new Century as a human interaction tool of analysis and understanding? How do these emerging senses of self play out in the Johari Window and in our new century? To answer these three questions, I turn in the coming essays first to a brief description of the three fundamental challenges of our postmodern condition to which I have already frequently alluded: (1) complexity, (2) unpredictability and (3) turbulence. I suggest, in a preliminary way, how the Johari Window helps us address these three challenges—especially in an interpersonal context—and how each challenge relates to one or more of the five senses of self. What, then, is the nature of these three challenges that create these five different senses of self—and how does each relate to our New Johari Window?
