How to Find Your True Self According to Philosophy
Soul Gum
by Victoria Hutchins
4.9 • 560 Ratings
🗓️ 18 May 2025
⏱️ 49 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Is the self something we find—or something we create? We’re constantly told to “be ourselves,” but the world teaches us fast that we also need to be likable, marketable, and hot. No wonder we’re all confused. In this episode, we dive into how different philosophers—from Socrates to Simone de Beauvoir to Carl Jung—understood the search for the true self and how their insights can help us stop performing and start living more honestly. If you’ve ever felt like you’re performing your personality instead of living it, this one’s for you.
EPISODE OUTLINE
00:00 Intro
05:49 Sigmund Freud
09:08 Attachment theory (Bowlby & Ainsworth)
10:55 Carl Jung’s theory on masks and shadows
12:15 The chill girl mask (Gone Girl)
13:34 Shapeshifter (MAKE BELIEVE)
14:38 The masks vs. the Self
15:04 Rousseau’s natural vs. social man
17:15 Using logic to hide from passion
17:55 For the ones who left (MAKE BELIEVE)
19:37 Freud, Jung & Rousseau reflection questions
21:48 Sartre: owning your agency as authenticity
23:08 Sartre’s concept of bad faith
24:12 Simone de Beauvoir on social class
26:41 The upper limit theory (Gay Hendricks)
27:25 But also, the playing field isn’t level
27:48 Sartre & de Beauvoir reflection questions
29:27 Heidegger: inauthenticity due to death denial
31:33 Authenticity vs. ethics and compassion
33:23 Authenticity vs. self-protection
34:01 Kant’s categorical imperative
34:48 Socrates: dying on the hill of authenticity
35:26 Socrates and Kant reflection questions
36:46 Nietzsche on creation of the true self
37:17 Does everyone have a calling?
38:19 Jealousy as a clue to your passions
38:33 The “love it for you, want it for me” folder
39:53 Nothing grows if you don’t water it
40:18 Nietzsche reflection questions
41:50 Lightning round recap
EPISODE LINKS
• Carl Jung, The Archetypes and the Collective Unconscious (1959) and Modern Man in Search of a Soul (1933)
• Jean-Paul Sartre, Being and Nothingness (1943)
• Simone de Beauvoir, The Second Sex (1949)
• Authenticity episode of In Our Time: Philosophy
MY LINKS
• MAKE BELIEVE is out everywhere now
• Get a signed copy of MAKE BELIEVE from Blue Willow Bookshop
• Find me @thedailyvictorian on Instagram
• Find me @thedailyvictorian on TikTok
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | authenticity seems simple. Any Disney movie or Dr. Seuss book or Dove campaign will tell you, |
| 0:07.5 | just be yourself. The harder question is, how do we do that? How are we supposed to just be ourselves |
| 0:14.7 | in a world that is constantly teaching us to conform and shrink and perform? And how do you even know which parts of you are you |
| 0:23.2 | and which parts of you are masks you wear to keep yourself safe? And is there even such a thing |
| 0:28.6 | as the real you when the only constant in life is change? If you've outgrown who you were |
| 0:34.8 | and you're not quite who you're becoming. |
| 0:38.5 | Maybe you're left wondering, who even am I? |
| 0:41.6 | How to become your true self? |
| 0:43.6 | Let's talk about it. |
| 0:46.8 | Welcome back to Soulgum, the self-development podcast with philosophical, psychological, |
| 0:53.5 | and spiritual flair. I'm your host, |
| 0:56.8 | Victoria Hutchins. My goal is to give your soul something to chew on. And today, we are talking |
| 1:05.2 | about authenticity. Like the rest of the millennial and Gen Z female English-speaking world, I am re-watching girls right now. |
| 1:15.5 | And in the very first episode, Season 1, Episode 1, Lena Dunham's character, Hannah Horvath, |
| 1:20.9 | is talking to her parents and explaining why she can't meet with them to talk about her spending, basically. |
| 1:27.8 | And she says, I can't tomorrow. |
| 1:30.5 | I have work. |
| 1:31.9 | And then I have a dinner thing. |
| 1:33.6 | And then I am busy trying to become who I am. |
| 1:38.7 | And I just love that because that's exactly what coming of age and your 20s and early adulthood feels like. |
| 1:46.3 | Like there is a constant, loud, never-ending onslaught of things to do and emails to answer |
| 1:51.9 | and logistical things in your life to stress out about. |
... |
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