Who am I? Am I a writer? Am I a philosopher? Am I a saint? Am I an asshole? Am I good? Am I bad? Am I a giver? Am I a taker? We often base our identity off of static, unchanging moral value judgements that we then project our personality upon. It is inherent in the human being to seek to understand ourselves, as it would be terrifying to not understand that which we are. However, how much of this so called “self-understanding” is merely the understanding of arbitrary concepts outside of the Self? How much of this has been processed and spit out by the herd, the state, and mass culture? How much of “you” is really just “them”?
Carl Jung dives into these questions in his essay “The Undiscovered Self” where he argues that the individual must have a firm, deep understanding of and inner grounding within the Self in order to avoid being controlled by outside forces like the Herd and the State. I appeared on a 2-part series regarding “The Undiscovered Self” on former guest Mynaa Miesnowan’s podcast, Every Trivial Fact, where we laid out an in-depth analysis and summary of the essay.
All links to the different platforms are located at Mynaa’s website.
Into the Absurd 