Among the different takes on consciousness one goes that we become conscious when our minds begin to model humans close to us. As you model others in your mind

Among the different takes on consciousness one goes that we become conscious when our minds begin to model humans close to us. As you model others in your mind continuously over time, you end up modeling their minds, which leads to creating a model of yourself embedded in them; consciousness as a sort of feedback loop. Yes, it implies that we are essentially conscious through others and no man is truly an island. As the article mentions, it might explain the lack of autobiographical memories in early years. It also explains how treating a person as if they were X results in them eventually behaving as if they are X, especially if you are of consequence to them (a parent, a teacher) or if this treatment is persistent in their life. Since their model of themselves is partly your model of them, it adjusts correspondingly to whatever label they are assigned.