Reading this, I kept thinking about how convenient it is to outsource our defects to “past versions” of ourselves — as if the earlier self were a separate species we can diagnose and move beyond. It feels cleaner that way. More contained. But sometimes I wonder if that move is just another layer of avoidance — a way to narrate growth without actually dissolving the pattern.
What if the defect isn’t something we outgrow, but something that keeps reconstituting itself in subtler forms? Not disappearing — just refining its disguise.
At what point does calling something “my past self” become a way of protecting the current one?
I believe this can be a useful tool in many cases. The difficulty, I believe, is how to do that without falling into the mistake of avoiding responsability (which is another important tool for change)
Reading this, I kept thinking about how convenient it is to outsource our defects to “past versions” of ourselves — as if the earlier self were a separate species we can diagnose and move beyond. It feels cleaner that way. More contained. But sometimes I wonder if that move is just another layer of avoidance — a way to narrate growth without actually dissolving the pattern.
What if the defect isn’t something we outgrow, but something that keeps reconstituting itself in subtler forms? Not disappearing — just refining its disguise.
At what point does calling something “my past self” become a way of protecting the current one?
I believe this can be a useful tool in many cases. The difficulty, I believe, is how to do that without falling into the mistake of avoiding responsability (which is another important tool for change)