Loss of Self-Consciousness: an urgent need to better study this multidimensional and dynamic variable of social dimensions of flow and autotelic personality
Résumé
Background
Among the components of Flow, Loss of Self-Consciousness (LoSC) is probably one of the most complex dimensions of autotelic experience to grasp. It is multidimensional and it potentially contributes to the self's growth in complexity (Csikszentmihalyi, 1990).
Aims
The objective of this research was to identify the different theoretical conceptions of LoSC in the literature, in particular from two perspectives (state vs dispositional):
-LoSC State: temporal, linked to intense concentration during a precise task
-LoSC Dispositional: related to a level of development of Self-Complexity
Method
Our research is based on the PRISMA method, from a query conducted in several databases: ["loss of self-consciousness"∼] AND "autotelic experience" AND "flow experience" AND "optimal experience" AND "Csikszentmihalyi" AND "complexity" AND "integration" - "cerebral flow" - "viscous" - "fluid" - "hydrodynamic" - "collision" - "anisotropic
Results
We found 338 references published between 1975 and 2021, of which only 55 correspond to our objective. This confirms that LoSC has been studied little (compared to the 608 empirical research papers published between 2000 and 2021, identified by the European Flow Researchers’ Network (Peifer al. 2022)).
These results indicate that most papers are focused on the state perspective of LoSC, and very few (only 10 papers, published between 2011 and 2021) are focused on the dispositional perspective of LoSC.
Conclusion
There is an urgent need and scientific interest to better study LoSC: a key concept to better highlight the social dimensions of flow and autotelic personality (Heutte et al. 2021).