A lot of psychological advice in many spheres of life have to do with the true self and authenticity.
An article I recently read says that some people find the notion of a
True Self to be radically subjective. It also has trouble with indeterminacy of the self, which I don't really see as a problem. The article also puts the conception of the true self in a thin and a thick conception.
I want to get a sense of what people in general believe.
- What is the true self?
- What does it mean for a person to be authentic?
- What is meant by someone not being authentic?
- What is your conception of what is authentic, and what is not?
I just have some general observations, rather than answers to your questions.
Jung and Maslow wrote extensively on the subject of true self and authenticity. Jung called it "individuation," and later Abraham Maslow called it "Self-actualization" and put it at the peak of his triangular "Hierarchy of Basic Needs." In Chapter 11 of "Motivation and Personality," Maslow did a study of "self-actualized" people and tried to come up with a list of basic traits that they all demonstrated in their lives. It's interesting reading.
But I have to go with a later psychologist named Nathaniel Branden, who wrote a classic book on the subject of self-esteem called "The Six Pillars of Self-Esteem." Branden noted that Maslow put Esteem as a "stage" in his "Hierarchy of Basic Needs": The stage between Love/belonging and Self-actualization. But Branden disagreed. He said that self-esteem is something you spend your entire life working on. He said that it's not a stage to be achieved, but rather an ongoing life process.
For my own part I would add that, when you think about it, self-esteem kind of becomes an outward manifestation of inward self-actualization. The two kind of go hand-in-hand. And to the extent that self-actualization is kind of ephemeral and hard to define, self-esteem may be the more "tangible" manifestation of those things.
Of course, as soon as you mention self-esteem, people will ask "But what about the fake kinds of self-esteem?" But Branden goes into all that, talking about the different types of self-esteem. Also Maslow, in his writings on the Esteem phase, came up with some interesting observations on the types of self-esteem and how they manifest themselves.
Anyway, to sum up: When I think of things like authentic self, true self, individuation, self-actualization, etc., my mind tends to go to self-esteem and the process by which you build that. It's kind of a life-long process: You can have a measure of self-esteem as a kid, given the limited world of children. And then as an adult your world broadens out and your self-esteem is deepened by working on many of the same things that are required for an "Authentic self," that is by incorporating your weak cognitive functions, becoming more balanced, facing your fears, etc.
So I tend to see self-esteem as a proxy for (or manifestation of) authentic self, perhaps to the point that they become pretty much the same thing.