Varieties of Conscious Experience and the Subjective Awareness of One’s “True” Self

Abstract

The subjective awareness of one's true self is considered a fundamental aspect of authenticity. It is theorized to reflect an experienced disconnect between one's conscious awareness and actual experiences. In this brief review, I describe some of the early theorizing on the construct and the research that this theorizing has inspired. I then review an emerging direction of research specifically focused on the relationship between subjective feelings of being disconnected from one's true self and tendencies to become mentally detached from present experience (i.e., mindwandering). This work offers new insights into the nature of subjective true self-awareness; it elucidates for the first time how disruptions to people's ongoing mental connection to present experience relate to the experience of true self-awareness and it invites theorizing about aspects of authenticity in ways that do not require evaluations of a self-concept. I end the review by speculating on how this work might inspire new empirical and theoretical directions in the psychological study of authenticity and feelings of true self-awareness.

Stalking the True Self Through the Jungles of Authenticity: Problems, Contradictions, Inconsistencies, Disturbing Findings—and a Possible Way Forward

“…My suspicion is that the notion of true self arises partly from experience of false self (Vess, 2019). Most people have had the experience of having to act in some false manner, pretending to be something they were not, acting in a way contrary to their beliefs, performing actions that they regretted or were ashamed of, perhaps even earnestly trying to act differently so as to please family or employer.…”

“…They want to distance themselves from their actions or experiences. To use Vess's (2019) conceptualization, they seek to dis-own some of their acts and disown the version of self implied by them. And indeed, when people apologize and feel guilty and regret some action, that often means that they repudiate the version of the self who performed that action.…”

“…Instead of invoking a match to a true self, authenticity might be understood in terms of taking ownership of one's experiences (Vess, 2019) or one's actions (W. S. Ryan & Ryan, 2019). To be sure, using a metaphor such as ownership is a sign that the concept is not fully understood (e.g., Landau, 2018).…”

“…Instead, his analysis seems closest to how W. S. Ryan and Ryan (2019;also Vess, 2019) have discussed both autonomy and authenticity and to the currently popular conception of mindfulness. Ryan and Ryan use the metaphor of "owning" one's actions (see also R. M. Ryan & Deci, 2017;Vess, 2019).…”

“…But we do not have to claim that it actually exists, other than as a goal-idea to aspire toward. • • Some actions help the self achieve the desired reputation, while other actions fail or even detract, so people's feelings of authenticity will fluctuate (W. S. Ryan & Ryan, 2019;Sedikides et al, 2019;Vess, 2019). Within-person state fluctuations in authenticity are to be expected if the ostensible true self is actually the desired reputation.…”