Varieties of Conscious Experience and the Subjective Awareness of One’s “True” Self

Abstract

The subjective awareness of one’s true self is considered a fundamental aspect of authenticity. It is theorized to reflect an experienced disconnect between one’s conscious awareness and actual experiences. In this brief review, I describe some of the early theorizing on the construct and the research that this theorizing has inspired. I then review an emerging direction of research specifically focused on the relationship between subjective feelings of being disconnected from one’s true self and tendencies to become mentally detached from present experience (i.e., mindwandering). This work offers new insights into the nature of subjective true self-awareness; it elucidates for the first time how disruptions to people’s ongoing mental connection to present experience relate to the experience of true self-awareness and it invites theorizing about aspects of authenticity in ways that do not require evaluations of a self-concept. I end the review by speculating on how this work might inspire new empirical and theoretical directions in the psychological study of authenticity and feelings of true self-awareness.