Finding One’s Authentic Identity Essay -- Psychology

Deep inside all of us, we know there is someone who we were born as, grow up as, and will die as. We can feel when we are being true to ourselves, and conversely we can feel when we are pretending to be something other than our individual selves. However, many people spend a lifetime searching to find exactly who this person is, and how to be this person all the time. However, it is difficult to determine how much of our identity is a non-changeable permanent part of ourselves, and how much has been cast over us like a cloak via external influences including culture, religion, disabilities, family, friends, pop culture, and the media. These perceptions, assumptions, and roles inevitably affect how we develop as people, and often cloud our authentic identities. Unfortunately, many people look to others to define themselves. This often results in being placed in roles we cannot excel in (Kubler-Ross & Kessler). These days, when surgery can alter everything from gender and body shape to face image and height, we feel as if we can change our inner identity. Books and self-help workshops have become very popular as people embark on lifelong journeys of personal growth. People are no longer comfortable to stay within fixed roles as perhaps our parents and grandparents once did, suggesting that we now have a greater choice over our identities than before. In Philippine culture, the family is the basic unit of society. Personally, my culture has greatly shaped my personal identity because I am a small part of something much greater than myself. In a traditional Filipino family, the father is considered the head of the family and is â€Å"viewed as the provider of the family† (Enriquez). On the other hand, the mother is responsible for domes... ...Disabled People: Issues for Discussion." World Rehabilitation Fund. (1980): n. page. Web. 29 Apr. 2012. . 4. Funk, Robert. Disability rights: from caste to class in the context of civil rights. New York: Praeger, 1987. 7-30. Web. 5. Kitchen, Rob. 'Out of Place', 'Knowing One's Place': Space, power and the exclusion of disabled people. 3. 13. 1998. 343-356. Web. 6. Kubler-Ross, Elisabeth, and David Kessler. Life Lessons. New York: Scribner, 2003. Print. 7. Saroca, Cleonicki. "Filipino Women, Migration, and Violence in Australia: Lived Reality and Media Image." Kasarinlan: Philippine Journal of Third World Studies. 21.1 (2006): n. page. Web. 28 Apr. 2012. .