Disidentification Will Help Us Find Shared Sense of Purpose

“I have emotions but I am not my emotions. I have desires but I am not my desires. I am not my mind and thoughts. My intellect is undisciplined but teachable. I am a center of pure awareness and power.”

The quote above is pulled from a clinical practice of disidentification put to use by Roberto Assagioli (1888–1974). Though it was not a new idea and probably directly pulled from theosophy and yoga sutras at the time, Assagioli was still an interesting character.

An Italian physician and psychiatrist, Assagioli contributed to three psychological revolutions in his lifetime as an active clinician: psychoanalysis, humanistic psychology, and transpersonal psychology.

He also has a large body of published work, including several books on the topic of disidentification, the topic which I am presenting here.

In his book Act of Will, Assagioli writes, “The habitual state for most of us is to be identified with that which seems, at any one time, to give us the greatest sense of aliveness, which seems to us to be most real, or most intense.”

Here I want to talk about disidentification — learning to be aware of our expression of our identities with other people. But just the superficial identities, not our identities in the shadow psyche or unconscious mind or collective unconsciousness of humanity.

Just the ones we consciously talk about, if only to ourselves. Because those identities will be the easiest to grapple with.

It seems that the mind has a hierarchical system for deciding which types of things to be identified with. Like a continuum on which it decides what will provide a greater or lower sense of aliveness.

The most basic identity when engaging with other minds, is ‘I am generally correct about what I believe’.

This correctness falls in a category that includes other similar identities such as:

‘No one understands what i’ve been through’

‘If they only knew how I really feel’

‘It’s up to me to save [x]’

…etcetera and including God complexes and spiritual emergencies. Things in this category are the super-ego identities.

Below the super-ego identities, in order of decreasing sense of aliveness, I’ve listed some other categories of identification. A caveat though is that this order is not by any means a law.

Faith: luck, love, the future, death, god, magic

Trust: friends, family, acquaintances, language

Society: justice, fairness, freedom, morals

Place: city, state, organization

Body: foods, diet, drugs, health

Disciplines: hobbies, practices

Trends: generation, idiosyncrasies, taste

So those are some of the first major levels of identities, and in each level there may be millions of forms. The categories could go on and on as well, and may change in the future or depend on the society.

It can be a minefield to talk about these affiliations with others. They are things that are closely intertwined with who we ‘are’, our repetitive thoughts, and our daily grievances.

We get less possessive about things in the lower categories. So when testing our identities it will be beneficial to start lower. For example, have an honest meditation or conversation about the food we grew up eating, or the trends of our generation.

There is an ancient term for the illusion of who we think we are. In Vedic literature the term ‘ahankara’ is used to mean the state of mind created by identifying with something. The illusory function dictating our feelings and giving way to actions.

The word ahankara is usually used as a pejorative, like ego, pride or arrogance. But just like those qualities, it can be positive with careful use. But an ahankara that is out of control is a mind that believes the illusions to be real. For example, an out of control ahankara might believe that it’s true self is a conservative, a liberal, or an American. But finding your true self belonging to a nation, would be as if finding a Louis Vuitton pattern on the chambers of your heart.

I’m talking about disidentifying now for the sake of future cooperation and shared purpose we are going to need to survive. Because it really could be as important as avoiding an existential threat. We humans need to check our ahankas, and maybe stop creating new ones. What if we were to think of ahankaras more like the weapons they end up wielding after it’s too late.