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One of the biggest questions we ever face is one we ask ourselves: “Who am I?” Our answer to this is what makes up our identity. How we choose to label ourselves is a story we tell to ourselves and each other about our priorities, values, and self-worth. However, many common ways we define our identity—whether by relationships, accomplishments, or worldview—can change suddenly, which can lead to an identity crisis: an intense emotional period of feeling lost, unsure, and ungrounded. We also face constant tension between how we choose to define ourselves and how the labels of others define us. The process of confronting assumptions about our identity within ourselves is often called self-discovery.
But the worst and final form of alienation, toward which indeed the others tend, is man’s alienation from his own self.
Remembering our past, carrying it around with us always, may be the necessary requirement for maintaining, as they say, the wholeness of the self.
