RE: How to suppress parts of myself, to blend in.
November 14, 2012 at 5:47 am
(This post was last modified: November 14, 2012 at 5:48 am by Edwardo Piet.)
I take "be true to yourself" to mean: don't make a bad habit of pretending to feel or believe things that you don't actually feel or believe.
Now, that's how I interpret it personally but how am I supposed to know that that's the correct interpretation when it's so vaguely defined/ill defined?
Because on the face of it, yes, it's complete nonsense. We have to be ourselves by definition, so to advise people to be themselves or to be their "true" selves is silly nonsense unless it is clearly explained what is actually meant by such a rather weird piece of a "advice". To simply throw it around as if it actually means anything and that people should automatically know what you are talking about despite its vagueness and seemingly tautological redundancy, or its nonsensical idea that the "true self" is different to the "self" - is a mistake in my view.
Now, that's how I interpret it personally but how am I supposed to know that that's the correct interpretation when it's so vaguely defined/ill defined?
Because on the face of it, yes, it's complete nonsense. We have to be ourselves by definition, so to advise people to be themselves or to be their "true" selves is silly nonsense unless it is clearly explained what is actually meant by such a rather weird piece of a "advice". To simply throw it around as if it actually means anything and that people should automatically know what you are talking about despite its vagueness and seemingly tautological redundancy, or its nonsensical idea that the "true self" is different to the "self" - is a mistake in my view.
