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Identity

Rival

Si m'ait Dieus
Staff member
Premium Member
What is most crucial to your identity? For example, what would you say it is that motivates most of your life that without it you'd lose your sense of self? How would other people who know you answer this? What would it take for you to no longer recognise yourself?
 
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PoetPhilosopher

Veteran Member
That's a hard one because I've already changed a lot about myself. My family knows me as liking certain foods, though. If I were to suddenly say they were terrible, they'd probably ask if I was coming down with a fever.
 

Spirit of Light

Be who ever you want
What is most crucial to your identity? For example, what would you say it is that motivates most of your life that, without it, you'd lose your sense of self? How would other people who know you answer this? What would it take for you to no longer recognise yourself?
What is most crucial to your identity?
My spiritual belief

what would you say it is that motivates most of your life that, without it, you'd lose your sense of self

My spiritual belief

How would other people who know you answer this?
I do not know, probably the same answer I gave :)

What would it take for you to no longer recognise yourself?
Fully ending my ego. by that no longer hold on to any form of self image.
 

Heyo

Veteran Member
What is most crucial to your identity? For example, what would you say it is that motivates most of your life that without it you'd lose your sense of self? How would other people who know you answer this? What would it take for you to no longer recognise yourself?
I identify as a human. That may change after I've loaded my mind up into silicon.
 

ChristineM

"Be strong", I whispered to my coffee.
Premium Member
What is most crucial to your identity? For example, what would you say it is that motivates most of your life that without it you'd lose your sense of self? How would other people who know you answer this? What would it take for you to no longer recognise yourself?

Humour and compassion are what drives me, oh and fast cars.

Losing any would lose me.

Other peeps can answer for themselves. Take me as i am or go away (see how polite i was there! :)
 

Meow Mix

Chatte Féministe
Words I probably use the most often when talking about myself:
Scientist/physicist
Humanist
Nontheist
Feminist
Amateur philosopher
Bibliophile
Introverted (extroverted tendencies)
Feminine (tomboyish tendencies/rambunctious)
Lesbian
Empathetic/altruistic
Rational, but emotive
Aphonic

Now what could I give up and still feel a sense of self?

That’s tough. Probably:
Aphonic
Bibliophile
Nontheist
Lesbian

Only in that I’d still be me if I could speak, I’d still be me if I had other hobbies, I’d still be me if I became convinced by theism (younger me was a theist anyway), and I’d still be me if I happened to be attracted to men.

I don’t know if I’d still be me without the others.
 

Debater Slayer

Vipassana
Staff member
Premium Member
I consider these, in no particular order, to be the defining descriptors of my identity, which is not to say I haven't changed before or won't change again:
  • Secular humanist
  • Feminist
  • Skeptic
  • Sarcastic and able to have a sense of humor even when severely distressed
  • Empathetic, sometimes excessively so
  • Extroverted
  • Meticulous, sometimes to a fault.
Aside from the first three, I would say the rest have more or less been constant throughout my life, especially the sarcastic sense of humor, empathy, and meticulousness.
 

Meow Mix

Chatte Féministe
Buddhist. Socialist. Animal lover. Vegan/vegetarian. Music nut. Runner. These pretty much describe me, removing any one would be a chunk of me gone.
I think others would use all these terms, except the first, as they result in overt activities.

You forgot being my *****!
 

Hermit Philosopher

Selflessly here for you
What is most crucial to your identity? For example, what would you say it is that motivates most of your life that without it you'd lose your sense of self? How would other people who know you answer this? What would it take for you to no longer recognise yourself?


Curiosity. The will to understand what is before me.

I do not know how others see me …eccentric, perhaps. But only if they do not see the value in the peace that is found through asceticism and solitude.

I suppose that if I suddenly woke up and had become a shopaholic, I would very much not recognise myself.


Humbly
Hermit
 

Brickjectivity

Turned to Stone. Now I stretch daily.
Staff member
Premium Member
What is most crucial to your identity?
Practice and skill. I realize this now that I'm nearer to 50. Once someone can ride a horse that is part of their identity. Learn to do this and that, and practice it. It doesn't have to be a practical skill, either. Playing a videogame is a skill, so it can be part of your identity. Friendship is a skill, too. All of these are things are good and strengthen the self.

For example, what would you say it is that motivates most of your life that without it you'd lose your sense of self?
I believe that I did at one point start losing my will to move forward but not my sense of self. As I came to understand who I was I was also unhappy about it, but that was my mid-life-crisis. I have moved on, carrying the weight of who I was and am. I have realized, too, the importance of practicing skills. They may not be identity, itself, but they are a big part.

How would other people who know you answer this?
I have heard different things. Some people say its our flaws which endear us to others. I can partly see that, but some flaws are not endearing to all. Different people find different flaws endearing which I would find repulsive. Some friends would say that it is being loved by God or loving God. Some are all about their children or other things they have invested in such as careers.

What would it take for you to no longer recognise yourself?
Parkinson's. I've seen this disease up close in my mom. She first began to lose her abilities, such as her ability to speak up audibly, then to drive, to operate a stove, to use a remote control, then to walk, then to eat. All along she was losing herself as well as her ability to reason and to know when and where she was. When she died her face was thin like a tree, like a mask. She forgot her adult self and thought she was a child. What she always did remember was, ironically, my face. She never stopped recognizing me! She remembered people such as myself and her child self and her mother but not her adult self.
 

Saint Frankenstein

Wanderer From Afar
Premium Member
What is most crucial to your identity? For example, what would you say it is that motivates most of your life that without it you'd lose your sense of self? How would other people who know you answer this? What would it take for you to no longer recognise yourself?
I'm a child of God. All that other stuff doesn't really matter.
 

Shadow Wolf

Certified People sTabber
What is most crucial to your identity? For example, what would you say it is that motivates most of your life that without it you'd lose your sense of self? How would other people who know you answer this? What would it take for you to no longer recognise yourself?
As I want to challenge that based on identity being more fluid than that with us having shed many previous identities throughout our life and always replacing them with new, I will just state thinker through of things (those who say "over thinking" are just lazy and sloppy thinkers).
Being able to drive a car. Gary Numan did that one to me.
Asperger's is another big one, as without that I basically would be entirely a different person, and in ways I don't think I'd like. So no "cure" for that one for me. Contrasted to being trans, in which if I could be cis female I'd take that opportunity. But a "cure" that, and getting rid of the dysphoria and fully detransition, that's another entirely different person and not in way I'd like.
 

JustGeorge

Not As Much Fun As I Look
Staff member
Premium Member
I don't know what my identity is anymore. I don't really recognize myself. And I've realized 50 different people would describe me 50 different ways, so none of its real, anyways.

I went through an experience a few years back in which we were part of a group that's membership contained mostly upper middle class highly formally educated people. (We were lower income, both of us drop outs.) Now, there's one thing I know I am not, and that's not stupid. But no matter what I did, they saw:

photo.jpg

It wouldn't matter if I stole @Meow Mix 's science notes, memorized and recited them, they would have heard:


And it was one of the weirdest experiences ever. It absolutely killed my self esteem, but it showed me just how little the idea we have of ourselves matters... people see what they want.
 

ADigitalArtist

Veteran Member
Staff member
Premium Member
I have a lot. I'm definitely a Gemini (descriptive not prescriptive) so I have about a thousand and one hobbies and activities that makes the whole of what makes me happy. Very few relating to each other.

There's two things I think that if I lost would damage me the most.

Number one is family. I am a family person and my family is one of the most important things in my life. If I had no family anymore that would do a serious number on me.

Number two is ability to creatively express myself through one art form or another. It's something I've done since I was little and it's an activity that, while it can be tedious and frustrating to do well, is also somehow calming and restorative at the same time.

Like the others I'm also a lot of other things.
A gamer,
Feminist,
Survivor,
Neurodivergent,
A medic,
An animal lover,
A bunch of other things.
 

Unveiled Artist

Veteran Member
What is most crucial to your identity? For example, what would you say it is that motivates most of your life that without it you'd lose your sense of self? How would other people who know you answer this? What would it take for you to no longer recognize yourself?


My mental and physical freedom and creative expression. I had many chances I could have lost my freedom. I've seen a couple-friend's whole life was turned upside down after his mother passed and sister committed him to the hospital. He's been living in a group home for near thirty years (he's 57 I think). I value my freedom and ability to think and not indoctrinated in mental health stuff that did worse for me than anything else. Creative-drawing, some writing, movement, and things like that.

Anything that limits what I do, where I can go, how I see myself, and so forth in many respects I rather die than say live prisoned.

I don't know how others would answer this about me. One time I told my friend I can't even do my work and sit for a good five minutes to concentrate. She just said that's just your personality.
 

F1fan

Veteran Member
It's kind of a hard question because there are things about myself, and any of us, that are natural traits or personality traits, and then a category of things that we chose and decided for ourselves. For example I'm a non-theist but have been aware since about 8 years old that i had serious reservations about the ideas about God and religion. I just had serious doubt and none of the natural attraction to religion that the vast majority of humans have.

So I'd say I have no choice but to be a non-theist but I did choose to be Buddhist.
 

Vee

Well-Known Member
Premium Member
What is most crucial to your identity? For example, what would you say it is that motivates most of your life that without it you'd lose your sense of self? How would other people who know you answer this? What would it take for you to no longer recognise yourself?

What is most crucial to your identity? - My beliefs

For example, what would you say it is that motivates most of your life that without it you'd lose your sense of self? - Having a hope that things will get better and one day life will make sense

How would other people who know you answer this? - They would probably just say I'm a perfectionist, annoying, control freak :) Probably not a very helpful answer.

What would it take for you to no longer recognize yourself? - If I started to accept injustice as normal, I can say the real me would be gone
 
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