Transcript Analytical Psychology

Boston College
Woods College of Advancing Studies
Being Your Authentic Self
Alumni Association Dean’s Series
February 15, 2016
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Introduction
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I want to be my AUTHENTIC SELF?
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‘
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“Masquerade! Paper Faces on Parade, Every Face a
Different Shade, Hide your face so the world will never find
you.” Lloyd Webber
But what do we mean when we say that?
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What the Psychologist’s say….
Positive Psychology
Organizational Psychology
• Dr. Martin Seligman:
• Four Pillars
– cultivating strengths and virtues
– Focusing on meaning and
purpose
– Self Awareness
– Relational Transparency
(Genuineness)
– Balanced Processing (Fair
Minded)
– Internalized Moral Perspective
(Ethical Action)
Analytical Psychology
• Making conscious what is
unconscious to us
• Working through the tendency
toward self denigrating
• Working through tendency to
giving in to urges/drives
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And the Philosophers
Existentialism
“degree to which one is true to one's own personality, spirit, or character, despite external
pressures”.
Sartre resist the “pressure to appear to be a certain kind of person, the pressure to adopt a
particular mode of living, the pressure to ignore one's own moral and aesthetic objections in
order to have a more comfortable existence”
Nietzche “… elevates himself over others in order to transcend the limits of conventional
morality in an attempt to decide for oneself about good and evil, without regard for the virtues
Music philosophy of various subculture be that subculture jazz, hip hop, punk, house, techno
or show tunes, being authentic in this sense is the opposite
of being a poser or “try hard”
Soren Kierkegaard the authentic person,
“… must make an active choice to surrender to something
that goes beyond comprehension, a leap of faith into the
religious.”
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Authenticity in reality
 “… inverse correlation between one’s sensitivity to what others think
of them and the ability to be authentic. …
 Very often, our actions in a given moment are intended to avoid
certain consequences. And so we alter or mitigate our
communications or behavior …
 These tendencies diminish our authenticity and they constrain our
growth and self-esteem.” Schwartz, LICSW
 Movement from:
– what was once a suspicion of one's inner voice or internal narrative … in
favor of some external objective good as the standard to live by
 to …
– a focus on personal feelings as the guide to right and wrong coupled with
… the “inner moral authority of some pure inner voice” found in “each
person’s unique inner self”. Brooks ‘Road to Character’
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Another approach…
 Judeo-Christian, Jesuit Environment
 environment that asks of us to be reflective and discerning, but also
persons of decision and action
 self-in-relationship, self as it appreciates the world and Other.
 lens is a faith stance, i.e., that our deepest, truest beliefs, our thirsts and
hungers are in relation to and in communion with one another and the
ultimate Other, God
 we are faced by the overwhelming nature of caring while being
challenged by the world around us, frequently without feeling the support
we need to live that authentic self.
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Where we are at today Vs Know Thyself
• Subjectivism
– takes something about
every human being i.e.,
unique and
unrepeatable, and
emphasizes to point of
distortion but failing to
emphasize the
complementary truth that
every individual is part of
a larger community;
personal identity comes
from both self and
community
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• Objectivism
– that human knowledge
and values are objective:
they exist and are
determined by the nature
of reality, to be
discovered by one's
mind, and are not
created by the thoughts
one has
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Know Thy Self
 Self-knowledge is achieved through studied awareness of activities
one engages in,
– first and foremost, through the workings of our minds
 genuine self-knowledge is not only possible but attainable
– learn how to be keen and judicious observers of ourselves
 self-knowledge through relationship
– i.e., we observe the world, others with whom we interact; through our
relationships.
– aspects of the truth about ourselves revealed
– we weave what we observe into how we reflect upon it and act.
– How St. Ignatius came to a deeper understanding of his call, his
vocation, and to a deeper spiritual life
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Fuller Self knowledge
 To live more fully into a life of virtue … leads to
happiness.
 How do we attain to such virtue?
 Virtue is:
– enabling capacity which allows us to act well on a
consistent basis.
 First a permanent possession;
 Second, put in place only after dedicating a consistent
effort on our part
 Formed by habitually acting in accord with the
virtue we want to develop.
(Good moral habits)
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Temperance Example
 Triggering Events
– Reflection
– Creating a strategy ahead of time
 TEARS
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Thoughts
Emotions
Actions
Reactions (positive and negative)
Strategy
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For All and For the Christian
 For ALL
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Practice of virtue requires the capacity uniquely human REASON
to come to know ourselves,
to reflect,
to discern the choice of action,
to act in accord with that reflection on what is morally good, causes us to be happy
we will be performing human good and doing so in a thoughtful, continuous way.
 For the Christian, it will be a life lived in a way that offers an answer to
“What makes for a meaningful life in a particular way?” (Rohlheiser)
 The principle runs through all life (Lewis)
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Give up yourself, and you will find your real self.
Keep back nothing in the practice of Virtue
You will be your truest you.
You will be happy.
You will be whole.
 You will be AUTHENTIC.
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