In life, a constant stream of microaggressions – of disagreements, and being corrected, told to change our thinking or behaviour –Â tend to cause microtraumas, which, ultimately are micro-rejections of the individuals true self.
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”.
Rogers’ phenomenological theory complements DNA-Self Theory by providing a relational framework for reclaiming pruned natural DNA-Originated potentials, but assumes greater accessibility to innate growth drivers than childhood chronic trauma may allow ,ost people to access.
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.
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.
