We tend to believe that we only have one “I” or one ego, but in practice we have as many different notions and images of ourselves as there are contexts with which we identify.
The identity of Latin Identitas. atis (formed by idem –the same- and ens, entis –being, thing, object, essence, entity-); Is the set of traits of a subject or community that are specific to it and they give it certain differences and particularities with respect to the rest of the individuals. It is also identified with the concept of soul (in Latin anima, ae = vital principle).
Psychologically speaking, identity is the awareness that a person has of being himself, to be different from others. This identity is made up of images and identifications with specific aspects of the personal past, which arise from the question about ourselves (who am I?) and which provide the individual with their own, individual and changeable structures, which differentiate them from the rest of the individuals. .
In this PsychologyOnline article, we will talk About identity and change
As J. Krishnamurti reflects, identification is the matrix in which the “I” develops. The “I” process begins and continues in the identification with your own self-created limitations. We identify with all types of objects, people and situations that feed the perception of who we are; the idea that we live of ourselves. Without identifications the “I” does not exist. It also does not exist without memory.
In its fear of not being, or in its need to feel something fixed, the mind clings to its identifications in order to achieve a feeling of control and well-being that calms it.
According to J. Krishnamurti, the “I” manifests itself in the division between thinker and thought. But it happens that without thought, without memory, there is no sense of self. From where Krishnamurti concludes that the self does not exist or rather that the thinker and the thought are one and the same thing.
The “I” is not a static entity and is fed by the mental confusion generated by that same idea of ourselves with which we live that distances us from the reality that we are. We identify with something we are not (the self as a partial idea of what we are) and that alienation from the totality of what we are manifests in pathological symptoms that make the individual feel unhappy.
No possessions the “I” does not exist since the “I” are the possessions, mine, my friends, my values, the name… In its fear of not being, or in its need to feel something fixed, the mind becomes She attaches herself to the things with which she identifies in order to achieve a feeling of well-being that calms her in the face of the conflicts of daily life.
If we carry the attention towards us, we can realize how the mind works and thus put an end to separation, duality and be able to live ourselves without mental fragmentations (me and not me). When man realizes the movement of his own mind, he will see the division between thinker and thought and will discover that without thought, there is no real thinker, or ‘I’. That’s when there is the pure observation of ourselves, which is direct discernment without any vestige of the past. This timeless discernment causes a radical and profound change in the mind that allows us first to see the reality of who we are and by extension to see the truth of the world in which we live.
The fact of maintaining a certain concept of ourselves closes our mind to feelings that do not fit with the vision of ourselves that we have, so that these rejected feelings are projected outside. If I feel good and argue with another, that other is the bad one. I am unable to see that evil is also part of me… (realizing that the positive and the negative are part of me ends the alienation that the self produces and therefore the self ends).
The therapy in which the idea of the self is worked on is based on the words of the Buddha: ‘you are not that’. Or also ‘you are that with which you identify and… also the other that you reject. You have an idea about yourself, but you are not that idea… you could say that you are that and that (you are what you think you are but also what you reject about yourself). When one identifies with something specific, one rejects the opposite and the opposite is also part of who one is. Eliminating what is unwanted, what I don’t like about myself, is a kind of alienation since the positive and the negative are what make up who I am.
Without work of understanding there is no true action, and without action there is no change, and therefore there is no improvement. When I understand that the thinker does not exist, that he appears only when there is thought, I have taken a giant step in the process of self-knowledge and of… self realisation
The self does not exist without perceptions. Hume.
If there is no self, how can it be immortal? Hume
There is no permanent, fixed, solid self, but rather a series of changing patterns of experience. Tara Bennett-Goleman.
If the SELF were to vanish, or more accurately, to be revealed to be a mere useful fiction, there would no longer be that subject-object duality, but simply a continuous stream of perception. Alan Watts.
The true worth of a man is determined by examining to what extent and in what sense he has achieved freedom from the self. Albert Einstein.
When perceptions are suppressed for some time, in a deep sleep for example; During all that time I am not aware of myself, and it can be said that one truly does not exist. David Hume.
This article is merely informative, at PsychologyFor we do not have the power to make a diagnosis or recommend a treatment. We invite you to go to a psychologist to treat your particular case.
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