We live in difficult times for authenticity. The influence of the globalized consumer society, which seeks to standardize the “self,” is very strong. In fact, in many cases, it has succeeded: some people think that being authentic simply means standing out from others. This leads them into a terrible delusion: detecting the same and striving to be different.
I have bad news: that’s not authenticity, it’s eccentricity. In this regard, the philosopher Zygmunt Bauman explained that everyone wants to make their life an original path, a work of art; but the insecurity of not achieving it, caused by high social standards, never leaves us. In this struggle, the possibility of finding authenticity is highly questionable. He meant that being authentic is not the same as simply striving to be different.
Authenticity comes from within and doesn’t need to be shouted from the rooftops. Another bad news we should accept as soon as possible is that if we don’t know who we really are, we’ll never know what we truly want, and we’ll spend our entire lives chasing other people’s dreams.
What is authenticity really?
For humanistic psychologists, being authentic means being aware of what we feel and think, being able to accept and express it. These psychologists based their thinking on the Latin meaning of the word “authentic”, “authenticus” , which means to be original, but also to respond to oneself.
However, if we dig a little deeper, we discover that Latin borrowed it from the Greek “authentikós” , which meant primordial or everything related to absolute power. It, in turn, derives from “authentés”, which literally means “one who acts on their own, who takes the initiative, and who is the absolute master of their actions.”
This semantic journey provides us with a very important psychological clue: authenticity is based on personal freedom. Therefore, we cannot be authentic when we only pretend to be different from others, because that implies that we are allowing the “norm” to curtail our freedom of choice.
Phrases about authenticity to understand what it really means to be authentic
1. The individual has always had to struggle to avoid being overwhelmed by the tribe. If you try, you will often feel lonely and sometimes frightened. But no price is too high for the privilege of being your own master – Friedrich Nietzsche
2. Being yourself, in a world that day and night does everything possible to make you someone else, means taking up the hardest battle any human being can fight, and never giving up – EE Cummings
From the moment we are born, the individual is at odds with the social. Society attempts to fit us into pre-established molds by assigning us roles that entail certain patterns of thought and behavior. These molds are often too narrow because they are unable to contain the extraordinary complexity of the individual. Our daily struggle, according to the German philosopher and American poet, is to find a balance amidst this dichotomy, although sometimes this balance is precarious because those around us will always try to push us into the molds.
3. The privilege of a lifetime is to become what you really are – Carl Gustav Jung
4. To be what we are, and to become what we are capable of becoming, is the only end of life – Robert Louis Stevenson
Both Jung and Stevenson agreed on their view of authenticity: it is one of life’s highest goals. For the psychoanalyst and the writer, life is a journey of personal discovery, a journey in which what often matters is not so much what we have achieved as the person we have become in pursuit of those goals. Life is not a sprint; it does not involve taking a lane to chase after others. It is a journey of introspection, to be enjoyed slowly, as we discover for ourselves who we really are and what makes us happy.
5. No one can long wear one mask for himself and another for others without finally being perplexed as to which is the true one – Nathaniel Hawthorne
6. Be yourself, not someone else’s idea of what you should be – Henry David Thoreau
In these quotes about authenticity, both the novelist and the philosopher warn us of the danger of playing two roles: the social persona and the intimate one. In the long run, the two roles become so intertwined that we can end up losing touch with our inner selves, forgetting our passions, burying our dreams in a drawer, and killing our hopes. When we conform to others’ expectations of us and continually seek their approval, we end up building layers over our inner selves, so it’s not surprising that we end up losing touch with that most intimate part of ourselves. The end result is often a profound existential emptiness because we dedicate ourselves to fulfilling social expectations while disregarding what we truly desire.
7. Whoever is authentic assumes responsibility for being what he is and recognizes that he is free to be who he is – Jean Paul Sartre
8. You’d better keep yourself clean and shiny, you’re the window through which you see the world – George Bernard Shaw
Both the French philosopher and the Irish critic emphasize the repercussions of authenticity. Being authentic doesn’t mean committing sincerity; it means recognizing who we are and expressing it assertively, taking full responsibility for our decisions, behaviors, and attitudes. Being authentic means maturing, aware that this will be the prism we use to view the world. Unfortunately, many people confuse authenticity with thoughtlessness. They think being authentic means saying whatever comes to mind and doing whatever they want without considering the consequences. That’s not being authentic; it’s being immature. Even in authenticity, there’s one rule to be observed: your freedom ends where someone else’s begins.
9. Look for that special quality that makes you feel most alive, that comes along with an inner voice that says, “This is the real me,” and when you have found it, follow it – William James
10. To find yourself, think for yourself – Socrates
How can we be authentic? How can we begin to shed those social masks? William James and Socrates give us a clue with these profound quotes about authenticity: look within. It’s about spending more time alone with ourselves, disconnecting from the outside world to connect with our inner selves more often. The noise and speed of modern life prevent us from truly thinking, from reflecting on who we are and what we really want. Modern life is designed to never leave us a single free minute, to keep us continually running nowhere, like a hamster on its wheel. We just need to take small breaks for introspection, to correct our course from time to time. It’s a change that’s worth it.
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