The Mainstream of Consciousness: An Interactions Analysis of a Phenomenological Concept*

William James' concept of a personal “stream of consciousness” was carried in a phenomenological direction by Alfred Schutz, who showed that people create their individual and interpersonal reality through selective attention to one another. This idea is discussed here from a symbolic-interactionist standpoint, wherein the various “streams” become one “mainstream” of social thought, consciousness and action. Fundamental concepts of interpretive sociology such as the self, meaningful objects, interpersonal encounters and relations, and social reality, are examined through observations of a jazz ensemble during rehearsals, using James' original ideas and their further development by Schutz.