 561
Late in his life, Michelangelo began carving 
what many art historians consider his most 
mature and provocative sculpture, the Flo -
rentine Pieta,  an enormous 8-foot statue he 
intended to place at the top of his own tomb. 
After working intensely for a decade on 
this monumental project, the artist entered 
his studio one day and, in a fit of rage, as -
saulted the sculpture with a sledgehammer. 
He broke off the hands and legs and near -
ly shattered the work before his assistants 
dragged him away. Why would Michelan -
gelo attempt to destroy one of his greatest 
creations, a sculpture considered among the 
finest works of the Renaissance?
How would a personality psychologist 
answer this question? A trait researcher 
might infer that Michelangelo was highly 
impulsive and dispositionally prone to ag -
gression. A biologically oriented researcher 
might speculate that he had a deficiency in 
the monoamine oxidase A gene, low levels 
of serotonin, and an atypical pattern of ac -
tivation in the frontal and temporal lobes. A 
motivational researcher might assume that 
Michelangelo’s goals shifted and the Flo -
rentine Pieta  came into conflict with other 
important life goals. Yet none of these ex -
planations provides a completely satisfac -
tory account of Michelangelo’s seemingly 
irrational act.It is only through a consideration of self- 
processes—  identity, self-  esteem, and self-  
regulation—  that one can begin to under -
stand Michelangelo’s behavior. An analysis 
of Michelangelo’s “self” allows us to for -
mulate hypotheses concerning a heightened 
sense of perfectionism and shame that likely 
accompanied his reputed narcissistic tenden -
cies, a failure to live up to his own expecta -
tions and those of his father (who equated 
sculpting with manual labor), a breakdown 
in self-  regulation, and an identity crisis due 
to his impending death and an (arguably) in -
accurate self-  perception that his accomplish -
ments were inadequate compared to those of 
his greatest rivals, Leonardo da Vinci and 
Raphael.
Many aspects of human behavior are in -
explicable without the notion that people 
have a self. In fact, an understanding of the 
self is necessary for a complete understand -
ing of personality processes—  the processes 
that generate and regulate thoughts, feel -
ings, and behaviors. An understanding of 
the self helps explain not only such excep -
tional behaviors as Michelangelo’s destruc -
tive act but also many aspects of everyday 
social life: Why do some individuals feel shy 
in social contexts, whereas others do not? 
Why are some individuals boastful in some 
situations but insecure in others? Why are CHAPTER 26
Naturalizing the  Self
Richard  W. Robins