All: Are there aspects of self-concept or identity that are unchangeable?

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[–]HeimdeklediROAR 2 insightful - 3 fun2 insightful - 2 fun3 insightful - 3 fun -  (3 children)

I agree with Buddhism that the self is an illusion. So I guess the answer is no, I don’t think any aspects of what we experience as the self are unchangeable.

[–][deleted] 1 insightful - 1 fun1 insightful - 0 fun2 insightful - 1 fun -  (2 children)

I'm not a Buddhist, but I also agree with the perspective that the self (the "I") is an illusion that we create. Given that, would you say then that you would be able to change any part of yourself if you desired to do so, or maybe even just changed how you saw yourself if you tried?

I studied psychopathy for an art project years ago that took over a year, and one of the things I found fascinating was that psychopathic people are able to pass lie detector tests and fool experienced interviewers and interrogators. What researchers found is that rather than lying per se, psychopathic people can convince themselves of a false truth, so they will tell themselves a falsehood and believe it, so the reason they don't seem like they're lying is because in a way, they aren't. That insight really makes me wonder then that perhaps we really could change any way that we saw ourselves if we wanted.

[–]HeimdeklediROAR 2 insightful - 3 fun2 insightful - 2 fun3 insightful - 3 fun -  (1 child)

No, I don’t believe in free will so I think our capacity to change is limited by can actually happen. For instance most people won’t be able to rid themselves of emotion, or love someone on command, or instantly use their willpower to overcome bodily urges like addiction. So I think people have limitations on their ability to change even if we have no idea what an individuals actual limitations are. Everything that has already occurred MUST have occurred and the people in the past actually had no ability to choose to do things differently even though from their perspective it seems like they “chose” a course of of action from many different possible course of actions.

[–][deleted] 1 insightful - 1 fun1 insightful - 0 fun2 insightful - 1 fun -  (0 children)

Hmm... The examples of what you believe people can't change (emotions, addiction, love) all seem like the direct byproducts of biological processes. What's been discussed in the other comments has been belief that some things rooted in reality may contribute to less changeable aspects of our self-concept, so that makes me wonder if the closer to physical reality an aspect of self-concept is, then the less changeable it is, which makes sense in my mind.

I appreciate your metaphysical and spiritual perspective in this, it's a different take than what others have talked about and it's a perspective I haven't examined this subject through the lens of. It's interesting, I have to get out of my own head a bit more to try to understand this more--thank you for the interesting thoughts on this!