Sep 5, 2023
The False Self goes beyond its defensive quality and becomes the entirety of emotional and relational life. Accommodating the “world-as-it-is” as the “world-as-it-should-be-for-me” leads to brittleness of structure and functioning. The ordinary “knocks” in life become shattering or life is lived to avoid any major challenges. The person is found, or finds himself, “wanting” in some quality, as though something is missing in his self.
Adrian Sutton, “The False Self” in Approaches to Psychic Trauma