Who Am I? - Reflection 13

After reading the article “Understanding the Self” a few concepts stuck t me. These concepts hold many truths in what I think of and some of the beliefs that I hold. One concept was, “To thine own self be true…” This is a quote that I heard a long time ago and I’ve repeated it and tried my best to live by it. To me, it means that many things tend to change and not be what you expect them to be and though you may face different things in life stay true to who you really are. Sort of like not forgetting about from whence you came. Another concept that stuck with me was that Goffman believed that often times our mannerisms are simply a “front” that we put up in hopes that it will satisfy the expectations we feel others have for us at the moment. One of the most important concepts that I got out of reading this article was at point number two when the author was describing how humans typically are. One of those points was that “We protest loudly about those matters in life that offend us but remain silent and even unthankful about those things that please us” and I thought to myself that this is so true. People are typically ungrateful for what they have and they often times don’t show appreciation for the good in their lives. I also understood that at one point philosophy and psychology were considered one until psychology evolved enough on its own to be considered a separate entity. Another concept in the article that I gave some thought to was whether or not there is only one self or multiple selves that make up on person. This statement may bring some controversy because people will only believe that they are one self. In reality though, the article made a point by putting out that if there was to be a video camera that followed you throughout the course of one week we wouldn’t only see one self. You would act differently in different situations amongst different people. It’s not that you would be a completely different person each time but there would be slight differences. So it may be safe to say that there is more than one self. I know that I do not act the same around everyone. That doesn’t necessarily mean that I suffer from some type of disorder. It just means different times different behaviors; I’m not saying that I act like a completely different person each time. Now that would just be a disorder.
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