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Having an alter ego can reduce anxiety, benefit confidence: research

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Re: Having an alter ego can reduce anxiety, benefit confidence: research

#121

Post by nefitty »

amelius wrote: post #113

Are there any downsides to this technique? E.g. will you become less authentic, and will you become a stranger to your friends, family and perhaps even yourself? Will people think you have lost your mind?

I think social interaction is just us donning a series of different masks anyway, so the concept of authenticity seems to be point at something nebulous at best.

Am I less authentic when I’m on an antidepressant that helps me cope with life? Am I less authentic if I’m forcing myself to be polite to a coworker I don’t like? Am I more authentic when I’m alone and dancing to some song I like?

This reminds me of some content analysis research done on leaders. It basically splits the private life (journals, etc), public life (meetings, conversations) and the performative life (speeches, etc). I guess one could argue that the only time we approach authenticity is when speaking to ourselves...

Re: Having an alter ego can reduce anxiety, benefit confidence: research

#122

Post by site-packages1 »

There was a joke about this in the show The Office, American version. I don’t remember the specifics, but Andy was auditioning for an a role and it required him to put his eyes in the emergency eye wash . He was deathly afraid of this, which was characteristic. So the advice given to him was to play a character auditioning for a role that wasn’t afraid of the eye wash.

Re: Having an alter ego can reduce anxiety, benefit confidence: research

#123

Post by jabirali »

laurent92 wrote: post #79
simplicio wrote: post #67

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I ended up doing this, more or less for the same reason. I've found it kind of useful though, as I'm terrible at remembering names and faces, so if someone calls out to me the name they use gives me a clue where I know them from.

It’s a bit like in gmail, where you can add a + and it allows you to spot spam mail. So, if someone calls you John+firstjob, you know where they’ve known you.

I'm curious, does this still work? Since GMail is likely the largest email provider in the world, I would have expected spammers to simply filter out the `+.*` by now.

Re: Having an alter ego can reduce anxiety, benefit confidence: research

#124

Post by JoblessWonder »

lefstathiou wrote: post #14

True Story: the guy who leads our sales team is a super star named John (legal name). He’s fearless, organized, focused, determined “and Canadian” as he would say. Any way, while he was a rising junior his GF came to the office one day and I heard her call him Jake (nowhere in his name legal name). I asked “who the hell is Jake?” to which she replied “oh, that’s what we call John back home”. I looked at him and he sa…

My dad does the same thing. "Bill" (his real name) hates social settings, yoga, and emotions. "Fred" (his alter ego) is more than happy to try out any of those things. Just don't ask John.

It certainly works pretty well for him. At the local gym he even had a Jake/John moment where everyone knew him as Fred and not Bill and got confused when my mom tried to reach them about something.

Re: Having an alter ego can reduce anxiety, benefit confidence: research

#125

Post by wtroughton »

Anyone familiar with Breaking Bad? Walter White goes under the alias of Heisenberg. When he’s Walter, he’s anxious and fearful. It’s such a contrast compared to the calm, calculated Heisenberg.

The writers did a phenomenal job of using an alter ego to slowly change the character from Mr. Chips to Scarface.

Re: Having an alter ego can reduce anxiety, benefit confidence: research

#126

Post by GaryNumanVevo »

hnarn wrote: post #95

It’s a variant of the suggestion often given in therapy and recently popularized by Jordan B Peterson I believe — and no matter what you may think of him as a person, it is a good strategy — “Treat yourself as someone worth taking care of”. Meaning: look at yourself as you would look at your own child, a pet, or anyone you would have the responsibility of looking after. It’s easy to miss meals, not dress yourself wel…

JP did a great job of packaging self-care and advice for disaffected young men, it's unfortunate he was put into a coma attempting to treat his addiction to benzodiazepines for 8 days in Russia. :(

I also struggled to buy nice things for myself, especially clothing I wore the same converse for like 6 years until they fell apart. Definitely something growing up poor did to me.

EDIT: Whoops I completely messed up the time period he was in a coma.

Re: Having an alter ego can reduce anxiety, benefit confidence: research

#127

Post by alchemism »

themonoid wrote: post #112
mr_overalls wrote: post #17

I've long been fascinated by the complex imaginal techniques of tantra in Tibetan Buddhism, in which you vividly imagine yourself as a yidam, or tutelary deity. Via intense concentration on elaborate self-visualization, repetition of the yidam's mantra, and ritualized hand gestures (mudra), you take on the form, attributes and mind of the yidam for the purpose of transformation - to recognize that one's own mind is n…

If you're using tantra (vajrayana) for ego-oriented material benefit, then that's called "spiritual materialism." According to Tibetan Buddhism, the vajrayana can be dangerous for you and those around you. Edit: I apologize. I realize that was very heavy handed. I felt obligated to throw out the usual warnings about Buddhist tantra.

Not everyone is a Milarepa of course, but it does go to show you that a well-timed path-switch can be advantageous across lifetimes.

Re: Having an alter ego can reduce anxiety, benefit confidence: research

#128

Post by alchemism »

ta1234567890 wrote: post #71

The comments here reminded me of Tulpas: https://www.businessinsider.com/hearing-voices-in-your-head-... We are capable of holding more than one identity in our minds and switching between them. Some people use that ability to create "characters" (tulpas) that they interact with or even allow to take over their bodies. Apparently some people go as far as replacing themselves with a tulpa they've created (they call th…

This is also the foundation of so-called Chaos Magic. It uses the 'mental frameworks' of any belief system to obtain results by becoming a temporary adherent of it. Switching frameworks would be done with physical objects, e.g. a pair of spectacles.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chaos_magic

Re: Having an alter ego can reduce anxiety, benefit confidence: research

#129

Post by hnick »

pc86 wrote: post #70
rriepe wrote: post #61

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is funny, but I think the real insidious reason is that it takes away the "saying your name" psychological advantage.

What's insidious about that, exactly?

Every good magician knows that True Names hold great power!

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/True_name

Re: Having an alter ego can reduce anxiety, benefit confidence: research

#130

Post by mleonhard »

hnarn wrote: post #95

It’s a variant of the suggestion often given in therapy and recently popularized by Jordan B Peterson I believe — and no matter what you may think of him as a person, it is a good strategy — “Treat yourself as someone worth taking care of”. Meaning: look at yourself as you would look at your own child, a pet, or anyone you would have the responsibility of looking after. It’s easy to miss meals, not dress yourself wel…

Using budgeting software helped me get over my cheapness. I've been happy with YNAB for many years.
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