Your Identity is Constructed by the Other

What if I told you that your sense of self, your I, your identity, is not who you really are? What if instead of it being subject (that is an expression of your subjectivity), your ego is an object of imposition from outside people and society at large? This is what spirituality and psychoanalysis show is the case.

Jacques Lacan, a famous 20th century French psychoanalyst, wrote a theory of human subjectivity that was revolutionary. As complicated as it is written, it can be beautifully summed up in what Lacan calls the mirror stage: a stage whereby an infant looks into a mirror and identifies with the image their parents designated for them. This metaphor symbolizes the way our sense of self functions. It is not our own creation or construction, it is the product of the Other’s construction.

In this episode, I speak about what it means that our identity is constructed by the Other and what spiritual and psychological solutions there are to finding your own authentic self: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/soulara-a-spiritual-and-mental-health-podcast/id1864222533?i=1000756797107