In Search of the Self
By John F Doherty, Public Discourse.
Our culture’s crisis of the self is a crisis of faith in our personhood; its cause is our ignorance of the God who best reveals what a person is.
Self-expression now preoccupies the thoughts of a large number of Westerners. Being “true to themselves” defines their religion, politics, and even sexual choices.
On the internet, countless people cultivate their “digital footprint” or “public persona”—not as a pastime, but as an existential necessity. They express to the world whatever they are thinking; they put icons on their social media profiles to show “solidarity” with political causes. Some lash out in rage if anyone remotely questions their self-image—such questions make them feel “unsafe,” as if their very being were under threat.
Whence comes this anxiety? Some say from centuries-old philosophical movements or recent politics. But perhaps people are protecting their “selves” because, not knowing what or where the self truly is, they are grasping at other things to give meaning to their lives.
This is what the late antique thinker Augustine of Hippo, were he alive today, might tell us, drawing on his book The Trinity and its groundbreaking analysis of the human psyche. In this exploration of the natures of God and man, Augustine gives us tools to uncover the roots of today’s anxiety for the self and find a better path to happiness.
Mind, Word, Love
We first connect with reality through our senses. Some experiences delight and attract us, like the fragrance of a flower. Others repel, like the pain of blinding light. Then there are higher, emotional experiences: we feel shame at failure and joy in the presence of a beloved. All these stimulate our desires and form the stuff of our memory and imagination.
Animals also have experiences that move them to act; but man’s desires move him further. To find shelter a beaver will build a small den from sticks, but a carpenter will carefully cut and sand wooden beams to construct an elaborate house. A caribou will migrate hundreds of miles for grass to eat, but he won’t travel the globe for the finest grass, as a gourmand might fly from New York to Paris for the finest filet mignon.
Why do man’s desires go beyond animals’? Because they are fundamentally deeper in kind.
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