What Does It Mean To Be Your Authentic Self Summary

In the article “What Does it Mean to Be Your Authentic Self?” by Judith Johnson, she poses the question, “How do you know who you really are, let alone how to be true to yourself?” (Johnson 1). Johnson proceeds to describe the categories that make up a socially constructed self which consist of race, religion, gender, and occupation. Johnson emphasizes that these traits are not what make you who you are, instead “...they are simply categories of relative identification and the preferences of our egos.” (Johnson 1). Johnson also elaborates on her personal struggle with being her authentic self. She explains how she followed the wishes of her socially constructed self and strayed away from being her true self. Johnson elaborates on how difficult it can be to be your true self as well as what it means to be your authentic self. Johnson ends with the notion, while you might not ever be able to fully achieve the practice of being true to yourself,

It can be said that this self is a socially constructed one that has an ego that is only attentive of what others think about them. This topic can be compared with the idea of Bad Faith in which there are two types. The first being in Internalized Bad Faith, which is being in Bad Faith to yourself by not being your true self, and then the second: Externalized Bad Faith where others are not accepting of your true self. When Johnson reveals how she personally struggled with distinguishing her authentic self and her socially constructed self. She was blinded by how others would perceive her, thus being in an Internalized Bad Faith by adjusting her beliefs to please others. This also poses the question, if Johnson had always been her authentic self, would she have been outcast by others putting her into an Externalized Bad