Do humans have spren

[High prince of geeks he/him]

I'm not talking about bonded spren, but do humans have spren for themselves. Jashan turned soulcasted several thugs in wok, that implies that she went at least partially into shardsmear and convinced that thugs spren into turning the man crystal or fire. And in the beginning of wor Jashan lectures Shallen on how you appearance and how you hold yourself can influence how people view you. That sounds a lot like a spren to me. And if human spren do exist is it just how everyone views that person, or how that person view themselves. For example would shallen's spren be more how Kalladin and others viewed her or how she she really was?

[RShara she/her]

I think that humans are too complex to have separate spren.  They have their Cognitive identity/shadow/DNA instead.  The little flames that represent human minds that Shallan sees in Shadesmar, I would say are the visual representations of that.  Humans aren't really a single idea, or thought, or sterotype, and don't see each other as that, so I don't think there could be an Ideal of a human anywhere.

[Shadowspren he/him]

The stick viewed itself as a stick... the spren that made it that thought of themselves as what they made up.

The spren view themselves based on your personality... not by how someone else defines you.

for example, if you took the bead that represented Shallan, it wouldn't say I am an opportunist foreign girl who is secretly trying to assassinate her betrothed... that's how Kaladin views her. 

It would represent who she is... at least that's what I think.

 

And didn't Kaladins mother say that everything has spren?

Edited May 21, 2014 by Zaci-chan

[Kurkistan he/him]

To paraphrase Hessina: humans don't have spren, they have souls. Fire != Bead.

[Meg]

I'd like to throw in the full quote in it's context (the important part is emphasized by me). It's from TWoK, Chapter 37, Sides: 

 

“Mother, look at this,” Tien said. Late-afternoon sunlight streamed through the leeside window, bathing the table. “From this side, the rock sparkles red, but from the other side, it’s green.”

“Perhaps it’s magical,” Hesina said. Chunk after chunk of longroot plunked into the water, each splash with a slightly different note.
“I think it must be,” Tien said. “Or it has a spren. Do spren live in rocks?”
“Spren live in everything,” Hesina replied.
“They can’t live in everything,” Kal said, dropping a peel into the pail at his feet. He glanced out the window, watching the road that led from the town to the citylord’s mansion.
“They do,” Hesina said. “Spren appear when something changes—when fear appears, or when it begins to rain. They are the heart of change, and therefore the heart of all things.”
“This longroot,” Kal said, holding it up skeptically.
“Has a spren.”
“And if you slice it up?”
“Each bit has a spren. Only smaller.”
Kal frowned, looking over the long tuber. They grew in cracks in the stone where water collected. They tasted faintly of minerals, but were easy to grow. His family needed food that didn’t cost much, these days.
“So we eat spren,” Kal said flatly.
“No,” she said, “we eat the roots.”
“When we have to,” Tien added with a grimace.
“And the spren?” Kal pressed.
“They are freed. To return to wherever it is that spren live.”
“Do I have a spren?” Tien said, looking down at his chest.
“You have a soul, dear. You’re a person. But the pieces of your body may very well have spren living in them. Very small ones.”
Tien pinched at his skin, as if trying to pry the tiny spren out.
“Dung,” Kal said suddenly.
“Kal!” Hesina snapped. “That’s not talk for mealtime.”
“Dung,” Kal said stubbornly. “It has spren?”
“I suppose it does.”
“Dungspren,” Tien said, then snickered.

 

As a side note I add that one (I remembered that because of the dungspren Kal mentioned): 

 

 

Rutthed

Serious question: are there poopspren, and how would they fare in indoor plumbing situations?
Brandon Sanderson

Well, it depends on how you're defining spren. In the books, they don't make a distinction, but there are several varieties. At the basic level, everything has an identity—a soul, you might say, but more than that. This is based on how it is viewed, and how long it has been viewed that way. Feces would have this, but wouldn't have a very strong cognitive identity because of its transitional nature.

Other types of spren, the type that characters see and interact with, are cognitive ideals or concepts which have taken on literal personification over time. These are usually related to forces or emotions, and don't relate to this particular topic.

And that's far more than I ever expected to say on this...

 

source

 

[Tien'sPetLurg she/her]

Fear spren. Glory spren. It would be hard to play poker there.

[Kurkistan he/him]

A good point, but all is not lost for the bluffer: Control of your emotions (or at least how much you let them show) seems to be able to keep spren away. When Shallan sees that single fearspren on Jasnah's desk she concludes that she's terrified and hiding it well, not that she's a teeny bit scared.

[Swimmingly he/him]

Step one: Become poker player

Step two: Hire a Soother and Rioter to control your emotions so you attract certain spren.

Step three: Profit.

[Tien'sPetLurg she/her]

Maybe you could draw Shallan-style the cards you want people to see Or you do it Elantris style. Dang, now I want this all in my real life!

[Swimmingly he/him]

Just being a soother or rioter would be so helpful in real life. You could throw a penny and riot curiosity, for example - and you'd make a killing as a door-to-door salesman. Hell, you could probably make people addicted to your presence just by making them feel extremely, inexplicably happy every time you walked into the room.

[timemagetim he/him]

i would agree that there is no single human spren but that the many parts of the body have different spren inside them. things like skinspren, nailspren and heartspren. If bacterial infections and the like attract rotspren why wouldnt a functional heart attract heart or blood spren?

[Kurkistan he/him]

And this is why I don't like to talk about "things" having spren. They don't. Saying that they do is what leads to this kind of confusion.   
 

Meg already linked to this, but here it is again as a refresher:

Source:

Rutthed:
Serious question: are there poopspren, and how would they fare in indoor plumbing situations?

Brandon:
Well, it depends on how you're defining spren. In the books, they don't make a distinction, but there are several varieties. At the basic level, everything has an identity--a soul, you might say, but more than that. This is based on how it is viewed, and how long it has been viewed that way. Feces would have this, but wouldn't have a very strong cognitive identity because of its transitional nature.

Other types of spren, the type that characters see and interact with, are cognitive ideals or concepts which have taken on literal personification over time. These are usually related to forces or emotions, and don't relate to this particular topic.

And that's far more than I ever expected to say on this...

 

We don't call these "souls" (Cognitive aspects, by our jargon) spren on other worlds because they aren't spren in the "created by a Shard and representing some Spiritual ideal" sense that we mean when we talk about the ones that characters see.

 

---

 

So yes, people's parts likely have their own Cognitive aspects that are quite possibly represented discretely in Shadesmar, for instance. But comparing those aspects to rotspren is not the way to go about it.

[Tien'sPetLurg she/her]

If there are headache spren, I have them. I need a spren swatter.