There is a profound irreconcilability or dissonance between first-and third-person perspectives on the self once objectified and valued. This dissonance shapes behaviors in crucial ways, as individuals try to reconcile their own and others’ putative representations about them. These two representational systems are always at some odds or in conflict, always in need of readjustment. It is so because these systems are open, and they do not share the same informational resources: direct, permanent, and embodied for the first-person perspective on the self; indirect, more fleeting, and disembodied for the third-person perspective on the self.
A main property of this dissonance is that it tends to feed into itself and can reach overwhelming proportions in the life of individuals. More often than not, this dissonance is a major struggle, expressed in the nuisance of self-conscious behaviors that hinder creativity and the smooth “flow” of interpersonal exchanges.
Others in Mind, p. 41
Vanessa Vaile on 17 Jun 14'Power' in its most generic sense simply means the capacity to bring about significant effects: to effect changes or prevent them. The effects of social and political power will be those that are of significance to people's lives. When these effects of power are such as to affect people's interests adversely we speak of power being held or exercised over them - and the social scientist's quest is to try to reveal what this involves. There are other ways of identifying social and political power: for instance, as collective power to achieve shared goals (as when people co-operate to promote a cause or pursue a campaign), or as positive or beneficent power, where power serves others' interests "
