Who do you think you are? (What is it about self-perception?)

Who do you think YOU are?

So when you again happily find yourself in the arms of that person you know deep-down is trouble after you have reprimanded yourself many times previously, suddenly your mind changes:

"They’re not that bad really, their faults are endearing and one more time won’t make a difference…"

They are that bad, the faults aren’t and never were endearing and yes, my friend, you know it probably will make that negative emotional difference.

Basically, self-deception reigns as the body gets its jollies.

We’ve all been there.

You convince yourself that when you changed your name to Master Bates through Deed Poll that you were ‘a master of superior wit; an ironic liberal in a world of fascist straight-faced bastards.’ Nope, wrong.

This is a psychological state that the world of academic psychology calls "Cognitive dissonance": contradicting thoughts prompt the mind to develop new thoughts or beliefs, or to change existing beliefs, to reduce the amount of conflict between contrasting thought.

Self-perception questioning occurs also when you witness self-deception exuding from other people. You know that egotistical little oddball in your seminar group that think themselves to be god’s gift to humanity? If self-deception is so pervasive, then what’s to say that you haven't deluded yourself of key characteristics in an attempt at self-esteem preservation?

You convince yourself that when you changed your name to Master Bates through Deed Poll that you were "a master of superior wit; an ironic liberal in a world of fascist straight-faced bastards".Nope, wrong. People are, rightly or wrongly, much more critical than that.

Are YOU a fat head?

However, "surely those people must be stupid to be so horrible; their opinions are unjustified because they Just. Don’t. Get. Me".

With all the psycho-babble excuses we have flying around, it sometimes seems that we have all become so self-absorbed that such internalisation causes exactly the antithesis of what it is supposed to achieve: basically, we can’t see ourselves for shit nor sand. With our heads shoved so far up our own backsides, or perhaps more leniently shoved in the proverbial self-denial desert, we lose sight of exactly who we are.

With our heads shoved so far up our own backsides or perhaps more leniently shoved in the proverbial self-denial desert, we lose sight of exactly who we are.

In fairness, there is a difference between self-awareness and being a pathological fat-head and crossing this boundary is a slow process and fortunately, it is not all that frequent. However, this does occur and when it does, boy do we know about it...

You often hear of people going travelling to "find themselves". As a comedian I saw recently said: "Imagine getting that far and discovering that you are, in fact, a prick."

Would this realisation encourage a change? Or would the shortcomings be attributed to an external, all-powerful force:

"I am Master Bates because the harsh world has forced me to hide behind humour to disguise my vunerable identity…"

Rather than take the blame for our negative characteristics (and we all have them), it is so much easier to blame an all-encompassing force rather than face our own shortcomings:

"It’s not my fault; they just don’t get me."

Add Comment

You must log in to submit a comment.