In phenomenology, the terms the Other and the Constitutive Other each identify a cumulative, constituting factor in the self-image of a person - the acknowledgement of being real. As such, the Other is dissimilar to and the opposite of the Self, of Us, and of the Same. Otherness, the characteristics of the Other, is the state of being different from and alien to the social identity of a person and to the identity of the Self. Another way of describing "The Other" is to portray oneself at the centre of focus and "The Other" on the outside.