Identity and the self

Abstract

My friend Jamal used to tell me this expression and I loved it, since I really did identify with it. Sometimes one really feels like taking a break and leaving the self aside for a while, just to rest from one’s worries, fears of the future, decisions that need to be made, etc. … But the self will just not leave us! No matter where we go and no matter what we do, the self is with us, regardless of whether we think it’s good company or not. And if fact, any other option would be worse, since it would mean that either we are dead or that we have lost our personal identity and thus our sense of reality.