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> On the other hand, the self-sufficiency and self-mastery promoted in much self-help are, as critics suggest, illusions. We do not make ourselves, and we canno
by spraak 10y ago
> On the other hand, the self-sufficiency and self-mastery promoted in much self-help are, as critics suggest, illusions. We do not make ourselves, and we cannot validate ourselves. Imagining that we can will bring not independence or confidence or trust, but, ironically, a lot of anxious searching for the approval of others—or a return to the self-help literature for the key to that elusive autonomy.
What?! How then can we validate and make ourselves? Is the author a proponent of submission to a god? I don't understand how there is any other way to be validated, because one can never truly be validated from the outside anyways - there will always be external critics.
Edit: formatting
- pjmorris 10y agoThere's a step short of submission to a deity: peer-review. I suspect the author meant something more like 'We do not solely make ourselves, and we cannot solely validate ourselves.'
- spraak 10y agoThat's still validation from the outside, from which one will never receive the clearest, most honest review, though I admit it can be helpful on the journey. The highest clarity comes from within, which is what all paths of truth teach (and in fact, what self-help books are often based on, inspired by, or try -- and sometimes succeed at -- teaching)
- pjmorris 10y agoI have found my highest clarity to occasionally be obscured by clouds, hence my tendency to look outward once in awhile.
- spraak 10y agoYes, me too. Though I don't think it will be the ultimate return. I do believe that someone else who has reached the unreachable can point the way, but that at that point it will still come from within.