FALSE VS TRUE

SELF
The true self is the core of who
you are, the original you,
unshaped by upbringing or
society. This doesn’t mean that
finding your true self means
regressing back to childhood
- just as you have grown
physically, your true self has
grown too. How ever it is
usually strongly guarded by
the false self and at first , it
might be difficult to reach.
The false self can also be
called your adapted self.
This is the part of you that
have altered behavior,
repressed feelings, and
pushed your needs aside to
fit in with others.
 Each of us creates a “false self”
to protect our “true self” when it
feels frightening to be genuine in
the world. If our false self
becomes dominant, it begins to
bury the very qualities it was
originally designed to protect.
These buried qualities often hold
the key to deeper love,creativity,
and meaning in our lives.
The Great psychoanalytic theorist
D.W. Winnicott used the term “false
self” to describe the defensive
structure a young child creates
when his or her mother can’t
respond to him or her with empathy
and care. No parents is perfect, but
if this lack of empathic response is
chronic, the child is forced to create
a false self that meets the mother’s
needs.
 The more child comes to feel
that his or her true self isn’t
appreciated or cherished, the
more the false self becomes
dominant. Winnicott describes a
terrible poverty of an inner life
that arises from the ascendency
of the false self, a loss of our
innate vitality, joy, and creativity.
This principle help explain how people
seem at ease or are constantly in
tension and so act in dysfunctional
ways. It also indicates how treatment is
not about exposing the fragile true self,
which most of us naturally fear, but
helping the individual move on, both
letting go of the unhealthy positions of
the false self and building a healthty
replacement.