As above indicated analysis takes place through the conflict of responses which isolate separate features of the object and both separates them from and relates them to their responses, i.e., their meanings. The response becomes a meaning, when it is indicated by a generalized attitude both to the self and to others. Mind, which is a process within which this analysis and its indications takes place, lies in a field of conduct between a specific individual and the environment, in which the individual is able, through the generalized attitude he assumes, to make use of symbolic gestures, i.e., terms, which are significant to all including himself. While the conflict of reactions takes place within the individual, the analysis takes place in the object. Mind is then a field that is not confined to the individual much less located in a brain.
Significance belongs to things in their relations to individuals.
It does not lie in mental processes which are enclosed within individuals. The Mead Project. All rights reserved. The text of the document presented here is in the public domain. The hypertext version is copyrighted and represents an official communication of The Mead Project.