Who Are You ‘Really’? Personalities, Narratives And Psychology’s Crisis
Human beings are a complicated bunch.
I, for one, consider myself to be an introverted person.
I dislike big groups, don’t get any energy at all from meeting new people and two of my most favorite things in the world are quiet libraries and silent nature.
My former flatmate in Budapest, on the other hand, saw me as an extrovert.
As he pointed out, when in my comfort zone, I often behave, well, extroverted.
How to explain this? Do I have a split personality? Am I an extrovert who is too shy to be himself all the time?
Or: my higher-level self understands that competitiveness and arguing are things to avoid.
Yet, I sometimes behave otherwise.
How to reconcile these conflicting patterns of behavior?
Who am I ‘really’?
Let’s see if we can solve this puzzle.
Being myself
It’s intuitive to think that people have different personalities and that those personalities can be solidly defined.
For instance, if Donald Trump would suddenly start to make sense, we would say that wouldn’t make sense. Donald wouldn’t be Donald…