Is ‘Returning to Your True Self’ a Fantasy? — 3 Misconceptions People Who Say That Overlook
4月 25, 2026菅原隆志35 min read
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“Returning to your true self”
Some people say this is a fantasy, and that’s understandable. Why? Because it’s something you can only really understand by going through the process yourself. For example, you may be brainwashed by something cult-like. And unless you have the experience of suffering for a long time and then breaking free from it, you won’t understand its essence. That’s the idea (though that doesn’t mean it applies absolutely). So in some cases, people without that experience are more likely to misunderstand it.
So what, exactly, are they misunderstanding? In this article, I’ll briefly explain only part of it. It was written with the help of ChatGPT.
If you ask me, I think the one harboring such a fantasy is the person themselves.
That way of thinking really gets to the heart of the matter. In other words, the very people who dismiss “the true self” as a fantasy areactually trapped in the fantasy of the “reality” they themselves believe in —that’s one way to look at it. This contains the following philosophical paradox:
◆ The act of deciding something is a “fantasy” is itself a fantasy To dismiss your own discomfort or inner impulse as “fantasy” or “something that doesn’t exist” depends heavily on your own experience and framework of thought. In other words, that too is a kind of “constructed reality,” andit can also be called a fantasy of the “self-image” that the person believes in unconsciously.
◆ The trap of absolutizing reason that negates the self People who say “that’s just a fantasy” tend, for better or worse, to rely strongly on “reason”.But that reason, too, is shaped by upbringing, society, and historical context; it is by no means a neutral viewpoint.
◆ The contradiction of using the word “fantasy” to point at everyone but yourself When you say another person’s feelings are a “fantasy,” you are often believing that only your own feelings are “reality”. But in truth, your own “reality” is also just one story filtered through subjectivity.
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