As a health professional, this will be a useful term to learn and apply in your social interactions. The steps include:

1. We imagine how we must appear to others.
2. We imagine the judgment of that appearance.
3. We develop our self through the judgment of others.

The “self” is produced through our interactions and our judgments or perceptions of the interactions. It is through thousands of these interactions and judgments that we develop a sense of who we are, which is our “self.” As a healthcare practitioner it is important to know your “self” and have some self-awareness to be an effective caregiver. A problem occurs when an individual fails to accurately imagine how he is appearing to others. The four windows within the Johari Window illustrates this phenomenon, especially in the case of the “Blind Self.”

Window 1 – Known Self: Things we know about ourselves and others know about us.
Window 2 – Hidden Self: Things we know about ourselves that others do know.
Window 3 – Blind Self: Things others know about us that we do not know.
Window 4 – Unknown Self: Things neither we nor others know about us.

When we misinterpret how others are viewing us it is similar to the blind self. We develop a sense of self that is based upon inaccurate judgments and we have a distorted view of ourselves. For example, a nurse imagines they are smarter and a more skilled clinician than their colleagues. They imagine that their peers view them as the best nurse on the unit and that everyone wants to ask them for advice. As a result of these judgments, they freely give unsolicited advice to other nurses and have an air of superiority. As a result of their misinterpretations, other nurses sometimes avoid them. Their self-awareness is lacking and this may impact their relationship with their colleagues and even with patients.