PoppyI came across this post while looking into disidentification. The post, in part, has an exercise in disidentification. There are a lot of “I” statements in the exercise and then this paragraph:

Through the process of disidentification you become more and more your own manager. You find yourself becoming more free from concerns about the expectations or judgments of other people. The self is the inner director.

There is little in this exercise, as I see it, that involves disidentification. In fact, just the opposite it increases identification with an idealized self.

Disidentification is a natural result of open-ended inquiry into the nature of the self. Who am I? What am I? Exploring my beliefs, attitudes and convictions is part of the process of disidentification.

The process of disidentification often begins with a situation in which we are totally charged, reactive and identified with some self-image from the past. These processes are psychodynamic slices of a larger overall process for the seeker of true nature.

This manager and director of the self mentioned above is the central identification. The deeper implications of disidentification are clearly seen in the Buddha’s questioning of the existence of self.

 

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