Authenticity, I suggest, is a continuum, a spectrum of stages, that may never end, since the self is a largely unknown thing, and that exploration of self, if done with regular determination, is always going to be revealing “new stuff”.
Jung developed his theory of autonomous complexes in 1908, through word association experiments at the Burghölzli psychiatric clinic in Zurich. By measuring subjects’ reaction times to stimulus words and noting hesitations, slips, and emotional reactions, Jung discovered patterns suggesting emotionally-charged “hot spots” in the unconscious.
This article explores Carl Rogers’ 19 propositions of understanding of human behaviour, each proposition is examined, criticisms explored.
Carl Rogers’ phenomenological theory of personality and behaviour forms the core of his person-centred approach, viewing the individual’s subjective “phenomenal field”, as the primary determinant of behaviour and growth.
Almost all children suffer a sustained and often targeted string of traumatic micro, and macro-aggressions, from the moment they are born.
Most psychotherapies begin with the assumption that you have a stable “self” that has developed maladaptive patterns. Integrative Genomic Schema Therapy (IGST) starts from a different premise: what you call “your personality” may be a survival scaffold built over a pruned authentic self.
A pure DNA‑Self schema is the adaptive, genetically specified core that would have become the dominant self‑concept in a safe, validating environment. Unlike Early Maladaptive Schemas (EMS), which are maps of environmental threat, pure DNA‑Self schemas are maps of innate potential.
Schema theory emerged from early 20th century psychology, with foundational publications in the 1930s and formalization in the 1950s-1970s.
Our Theory of DNA-Self, includes the concept that, due to a small child’s ability to forget upsetting or uncomfortable moments, adults may well find that they actually have two masks. One will be hidden, and highly automated.
The DNA-Self theory proposes that each new-born enters the world with a pre-populated schema network, this is a complete developmental blueprint encoded in genetic material, shaped by prenatal environment, containing latent traits, skills, and associated needs awaiting activation through exploration.