Rex and Mark discuss the false self in regards to the spiritual life and identity. Relying on the wisdom of Merton and Nouwen, they unpack how we construct a false self and how to discover our true identity in Christ.

TRANSCRIPT

0:00

Welcome to Jessup think I'm your host Mark Moore and your co host Rex Gurney. And on the show today, Rex, we're going to talk about the false self and the true self, which is probably actually a good topic because I worked really hard and bringing my false self in here.

0:14

Yes, we're gonna do I was hoping to interview your false self today. And that way we can hopefully get to the true self Okay, behind there the truth self that finds its identity in God,

0:26

the issue is, I don't know what voices is it is really connected to the false self or the true self actually, well, what

0:31

we're gonna discover that today, and and our hope for this episode is for pre listeners, that you can start to grasp these concepts as a concept in the spiritual life. And how we so easily build a life around a false self, that finds identity wrapped up in in everything society says you should be and Mrs. identity in Christ, and who we really are and who we've been called to be. So we hope you enjoy the show and get a lot out of it.

1:12

All right, Rex, we're, we're definitely are we talking to the real Rex or the false? You

1:17

know, I'm already confused. Actually. I'm hoping that by the end of this podcast, through, you know, either just self talk or perhaps seeing right to lead from you to figure out what's what's up

1:30

basically a counseling session. Okay, so so listeners, you're, you're invited into this counseling session, but we want to Dr. Mark, and we want to talk about this concepts within the spiritual life of the false self and the true self. What does that language come from Mark? And that language, really, for me kind of comes from two riders that we've talked a lot about on the show, Thomas Merton and Henry now, the language itself has a background in psychoanalysis, right, or psychology. And that's really I think, where Merton and now in our are not stealing, but maybe borrowing the terms are they're definitely re directing them. It's kind of interesting in the 60s, which both Merton and now and would have been writing heavily in the 60s, in the 60s in psychoanalysis, false self and true self. There's kind of this movement by a professor and a psychologist named Winnicott that our our false self was the self that that placated to everyone else around them like placated to our parents placated to teachers, whatever expectation Yeah, and just people we want the right honor form to those. And our true self was that kind of an unrestrained self, the self that wanted to scream when it wanted to. So

2:55

the wild man would be my true self and right, complacent Rex

2:58

would be my wanting to fight when I wanted to bite, you know, one two punch. And so it's kind of interesting, that it's it put this position on your true self is that selfie? You know, society has been telling you to, to contain

3:14

it historically. I mean, you can actually look at that philosophically, because right, I think a lot of the philosophically speaking, the whole romantic movement was sort of like that, like, you know, Rousseau and the noble savage and civilization has corrupted us. So really, right, you know, and then that sort of find yourself wild man movement, which actually impacted even some churches to where Oh, yeah, really, we all have to go out and put more paint on our faces, and do all sorts of politically incorrect things in order to, right somehow connect with that with, interestingly enough, I would say connect with someone else's expectation of a false,

3:53

right. Yeah, someone else's vision of Riot should be exactly. And yeah, and that's what was they're saying. So I think Merton and now when took that, took that terminology, and said, Well, that doesn't see