Jordan Peterson - How to Know You're Being Authentic Or Fake
Summary
TLDRIn this insightful discussion, the concept of 'subception' by Carl Rogers is explored as a means to detect inauthenticity within oneself. The speaker suggests detaching from one's thoughts and words to identify what is truly 'you.' They propose an exercise where one observes the internal reaction to their speech, using the autonomic nervous system's signals to gauge authenticity. If a statement makes you feel weak or like you've betrayed yourself, it's likely inauthentic. The speaker uses dramatic examples, like from 'The Lord of the Rings,' to illustrate the importance of genuine self-expression over relying on cliches or societal expectations for communication and personal growth.
Takeaways
- đ§ Carl Rogers introduced the concept of 'subception', which is akin to a sixth sense that allows us to perceive our internal reactions and states.
- đŽïž The autonomic nervous system plays a crucial role in providing us with information about our body's state, which can indicate authenticity or inauthenticity.
- đ€ Detaching from our thoughts and words is a method to identify what truly represents us, as much of what we think and say are influenced by external sources.
- đŁïž Authenticity can be gauged by how our words make us feel; if they make us feel weak or like we're betraying ourselves, they may not be genuine.
- đ A two-week exercise of observing how our statements affect our internal state can help us discern between authentic and inauthentic communication.
- đ€ The advice is to stop speaking if a statement makes us feel weak, and instead, search for words that resonate more truthfully with our being.
- đȘïž The script uses the metaphor of a swamp from 'The Lord of the Rings' to illustrate the importance of choosing our words carefully to avoid slipping into chaos or inauthenticity.
- đ§ Attention is considered a higher-order function than intellect because it shapes and teaches our intellect, highlighting the importance of being mindful of our speech.
- đ The use of cliches in communication is criticized as it often represents dead ideas and can serve as a shield to avoid genuine self-expression and potential criticism.
- đ± Encouraging original thought and self-expression, even when it's risky, is essential for personal growth and authentic communication.
Q & A
What is subception according to Rogers?
-Subception, as described by Rogers, is like a sixth sense or a form of proprioception. It refers to the internal awareness of one's body and reactions, especially as it relates to detecting incongruence or inauthenticity in oneself.
How can one use subception to detect inauthenticity?
-By paying close attention to bodily sensations and autonomic responses, one can detect feelings of weakness or internal discord when speaking or thinking inauthentically. These sensations are often experienced in the midsection and signal a form of existential inauthenticity.
What practical method does the speaker suggest for identifying inauthentic thoughts or words?
-The speaker suggests detaching from one's thoughts and speech, then observing bodily responses. If something you say makes you feel weak or uncomfortable, it likely indicates inauthenticity. The rule is to stop talking and try to find more authentic words.
How does Nietzsche's idea relate to inauthenticity in speech?
-Nietzsche observed that everyone has perjured themselves at least once in an attempt to maintain their good name. This aligns with the concept of inauthenticity, where people say things to impress others, fit into groups, or hide aspects of themselves, thus betraying their true self.
What does the swamp scene in 'The Lord of the Rings' symbolize in this context?
-The swamp scene where Gollum and Frodo carefully step across a swamp of dead souls symbolizes the need to tread carefully through life, testing one's words and thoughts to ensure they are solid and authentic, avoiding the chaos of inauthenticity.
Why does the speaker believe attention is a higher-order function than intellect?
-The speaker argues that attention teaches intellect. By paying very close attention to what you say and think, you can separate genuine thoughts from inherited or false ones, highlighting the importance of awareness over pure intellect.
What role do cliches play in inauthentic speech and thought?
-Cliches are seen as dead ideas or inherited thoughts that aren't truly representative of the speaker's authentic self. They allow people to hide behind familiar phrases, avoiding genuine communication or thought, often as a defense mechanism.
How can using cliches be a form of self-defense?
-By relying on cliches, individuals protect themselves from criticism because the criticism applies to the cliche rather than their own original thoughts. This creates a false sense of having 'gotten away' with something.
What happens when someone is brave enough to express an original thought in writing?
-When someone expresses an original thought, it may be rare and fragile, like a small green shoot emerging from a layer of cliches. This exposes the person to vulnerability, and criticism of this genuine thought can feel deeply personal, making it difficult for the person to continue.
Why is it important to expose genuine thoughts despite the risk of criticism?
-Exposing genuine thoughts is crucial for authentic communication and personal growth. Although it can be painful to face criticism, it is a necessary part of developing original, meaningful ideas and moving away from inauthentic speech and thought.
Outlines
đ Detecting Authenticity Through Subception
The paragraph discusses the concept of 'subception' introduced by Carl Rogers, which is akin to a sixth sense that allows individuals to perceive their own inauthenticity or incongruence. This internal perception is likened to proprioception, the awareness of one's body's state and position. Rogers believed that the autonomic nervous system, which communicates various bodily states, could be utilized to assess one's authenticity. The speaker suggests an exercise where individuals detach from their thoughts and words to identify which of their thoughts and expressions are truly their own. This process involves observing how certain statements make one feel weak or strong, with the former indicating a sense of falsehood or self-betrayal. The speaker emphasizes the importance of paying attention and using this awareness to guide one's speech and actions towards authenticity.
đ§ Beyond Intellect: The Power of Attention
This paragraph delves into the idea that identifying oneself with one's intellect is a common mistake, especially among intelligent people. The speaker argues that attention is a higher-order function than intellect because it is the foundation upon which intellect is built. By paying careful attention to one's speech without automatically defending it, one can discern that much of what is thought and said is not genuinely one's own but rather borrowed ideas or cliches. The speaker uses the metaphor of 'dead souls' to describe these unoriginal thoughts and emphasizes the importance of originality in communication. The paragraph also touches on the fear of exposing one's true thoughts and the tendency to hide behind cliches to avoid criticism. The speaker encourages embracing original thought and the vulnerability it requires for genuine communication and intellectual growth.
Mindmap
Keywords
đĄInauthenticity
đĄCongruence
đĄSubception
đĄAutonomic Nervous System
đĄDetachment
đĄIntellect
đĄAttention
đĄClichĂ©s
đĄSelf-Betrayal
đĄExistential Inauthenticity
Highlights
Rogers' concept of 'subception' is introduced as a form of internal perception similar to proprioception.
Subception helps in detecting inauthenticity or incongruence by listening to the body's autonomic responses.
The exercise of detaching from one's thoughts and speech to identify authentic self-expression is suggested.
Most thoughts and speech are influenced by external sources rather than being a true reflection of self.
Authenticity can be gauged by whether speech makes one feel weak or strong internally.
Nietzsche's view on self-betrayal in speech to maintain a good name is mentioned.
The importance of paying attention to internal reactions when speaking to ensure authenticity is emphasized.
The concept of 'shutting up' when feeling weak from inauthentic speech to find stronger, more genuine words.
The analogy of walking on a swamp in 'The Lord of the Rings' to illustrate the careful selection of thoughts and words.
Attention is posited as a higher-order function than intellect because it teaches and guides intellect.
The tendency of intelligent people to identify too closely with their intellect is critiqued.
The use of cliches in speech and writing as a form of camouflage or self-defense is discussed.
Cliches are likened to dead souls or ideas that do not contribute to genuine self-expression.
The fear of exposing original thoughts due to the risk of criticism and the importance of overcoming this fear.
The necessity of genuine self-expression for authentic communication and thought is highlighted.
The transformation in undergraduate essays from cliches to original thoughts as a measure of personal growth.
Transcripts
now how would you detect your own
inauthenticity or you in your own in
congruence well Rogers had this idea
that he called sub ception which was
maybe something that you might regard as
a sixth sense it's sort of like proprio
centric perception and that's the
perception that you have of your body as
its reacting and localized in time and
space and so it's sort of like touch the
feeling but it's it's it's your sense of
how you're reacting internally and where
you are a lot of that is observed by the
autonomic nervous system which is
reporting to you about various states of
being in your body Rogers believed that
you could use the information that's
being provided to you from your body
sort of bought them up to determine when
you were being inauthentic or no
incongruent and I've thought about this
for a long time and tried to sort it out
in a practical manner and what I've
concluded is this you could try this for
a couple of weeks it's an extremely
interesting exercise so you sort of have
to detach yourself from your thoughts
and your and and what you say so you got
to assume you start by assuming that
what you say in what you think is not
necessarily you and of course that's
just the case because a lot of what you
think in fact most of what you think and
most of what you say are the opinions of
other people there are things you've
read or things people have told you and
you know that that's a benefit in some
ways because you get all those thoughts
that other people have spent a long time
formulating but it's a disadvantage in
that it's not exactly you okay so you
detach yourself from that you're no
longer your thoughts or or or the things
that you say or maybe you're no longer
all of them and now what you're gonna
try to find out is which of your
thoughts and things that you say are you
and maybe so you cannot utilize the rest
or maybe so that you can correct the
rest because they're not representative
of yourself as a as an integrated being
they don't take everything into account
my sense has been that you can tell when
you're saying something that's not
authentic by feeling out whether or not
it makes you weak or strong now you know
sometimes when you're conversing with
people you can say something that
embarrasses yourself now Nietzsche said
for example everyone has perjured
themselves at least once in the attempt
to maintain their good name something
like that it's not an exact quote but
I've got the gist of it right so maybe
you're saying things to impress someone
or you're saying things to remain part
of your political group or your social
group or whatever or maybe you have
attributes personal attributes that
might be positive that you're ashamed of
and so you're not going to speak about
them
so there's a falseness about your self
representation watch for two weeks and
see make a rule that if you start to say
something and it makes you feel weak
it's hard to describe exactly what that
means to to me what it means is that I
can feel things coming apart sort of in
my midsection so I think it's an
autonomic phenomena and the the
subjective sense is of a falsehood it's
like I've just stepped off the solid
ground and onto something that it
doesn't support me well and it it feels
like a self betrayal so that's
existential inauthenticity you can feel
it right away and then the rule is shut
up
if that happens stop talking and then
feel around and see if you can find some
words that you can say in that situation
that don't produce that sensation and
it's like you see this played out in
different forms of drama so there's
there's a scene in The Lord of the Rings
for example where I believe it's Gollum
and Bilbo say it's the Lord of the Rings
it's yeah it's Bilbo it's Lord of the
Rings not The Hobbit because the hobbits
Frodo right so it's Bilbo there I forgot
it wrong it's the other way around
okay so Gollum and Frodo yes are going
across this swamp and the swamp is full
of essentially full of dead souls and
they have to step very carefully in
order to not fall off the track and the
stones are sort of hidden underneath
surface and the implication there is
that in order to follow a trail properly
you have to pick your your ground very
carefully and you have to test it to see
if it's solid or you'll slip off into
this well essentially what it is is
chaos you'll slip off into chaos and
that's a dramatic representation of what
I'm what I'm suggesting to you it's like
all you have to do is notice but and you
have to pay attention and so to some
degree what you're doing in fact is
you're making your capacity to pay
attention super ordinate to your
capacity to think and to speak because
you know you might ask yourself well
exactly what are you well I said you can
identify yourself with your intellect
and that's very very common it's sort of
like the worst sin of intelligent people
but that isn't all you are and there are
lots of reasons for making the
assumption that attention is a higher
order function than intellect because
attention is what teaches intellect so
if by if you pay very very careful
attention to what you say without having
the automatic without bringing the
automatic assumption that what you say
is you to bear on the conversation and
then also to feel like you have to
defend it once you say it you'll find
very rapidly that very much of what you
think and say has absolutely nothing to
do with you it's just it's the dead
souls that are in that little scene that
I described to you sort of manifesting
themselves in your head they're dead
ideas that other people have created and
some of them might be applicable to you
you know you might have the right to
them so to speak but lots of them won't
and you're using the words as camouflage
or self-defense or as an attempt to
attain status in the status hierarchy or
can make yourself look smarter than you
are or there's all sorts of reasons or
to hide what you think from other people
I see this in undergraduate essays all
the time so because the essays are full
of cliches and you know it's not all
that obvious why a cliche is a bad thing
but a cliche is a bad thing in the same
way that being possessed by the dead is
a bad thing it's like a cliche isn't you
it's something else it's like the crowd
it's like the other it's it's not living
it has nothing to do with you and part
of the
that students use cliches is because
it's easier than than using your own
genuine creative formulation so you can
just default to cliche use but there's
something more insidious than that is
that if you write an essay that's
nothing but a string of cliches and you
get criticized then you're not being
criticized what's being criticized is
the cliches and you can hide behind that
and the part of you that's wise but but
but treacherous thinks well the
criticism doesn't really apply to me
because you know I didn't really say
what I thought and then there's this
kind of sense you get that you've gotten
away with something which is a terrible
thing
so when I read undergraduate essays what
I see very frequently is especially the
first essay it's just nothing but
cliches it's awful it's it's dull you
can hardly stand reading it because
there's nothing in it that's gripping or
alive and then maybe the second essay
you can see there's a layer of cliche
and then now and then the person will be
brave enough to poke up a thought of
their own it'll just sort of poke up
somewhere maybe in three pages in it's
like this little green chute that's
barely alive and the person is brave
enough to pop it up in the hope that you
know maybe it won't get walloped down
with a sledge hammer and so one of the
things I try to do is to point that out
it's like look you know this is
something there's a real thought here
it's a real original thought it's
something that you have the right to
because it's derived from your own
experience and your own knowledge and
you've formulated it in an original and
compelling way but the problem with that
is that if you get criticized for that
you're just gonna pull right back into
your shell right because that hurts
because it's actually part of you that
you've exposed and that's a terrifying
thing to expose yourself like that but
it's it's it's an absolute prerequisite
to genuine communication and thought
Voir Plus de Vidéos Connexes
5.0 / 5 (0 votes)