Episode Details

Coronavirus Crisis:  Carpe Diem

Episode 16:  Who Am I, Really?  Identity and Resiliency

May 18, 2020

Welcome to the podcast Coronavirus Crisis:  Carpe Diem, where you and I rise up and embrace the possibilities and opportunities for spiritual and psychological growth in this time of crisis, all grounded in a Catholic worldview.   We are going beyond mere resiliency, to rising up to the challenges of this pandemic and becoming even healthier in the natural and the spiritual realms than we were before.  I’m clinical psychologist Peter Malinoski your host and guide, with Souls and Hearts at soulsandhearts.com.  Thank you for being here with me.  This is episode 16, released on May 18, 2020 entitled Who Am I, Really?  Identity and Resiliency

In the last episode, we discussed the main sign of psychological health.  I asked you to send in your thoughts about what is that main sign.  In the Resilient Catholics Carpe Diem community space at Souls and Hearts, which we launched a week ago, I was having a great exchange with Kathleen which spurred me on to some further consideration about integration, resiliency and especially identity.  Really want to thank you, Kathleen.  

Alright, I want to take you back with, way back to the beginning human history, come on with me to Genesis 3.  We’re picking it up in the middle of the story.  Adam and Eve have fallen to Satan’s temptation and eaten the fruit of the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil. Let’s listen to the story but be thinking about the theme of identity – Who Adam and Eve were, and how they saw themselves.  That’s what I want you to keep in mind.  So put your listening ears on, and get ready -- It’s story time with Dr. Peter.

Then the eyes of both were opened, and they knew that they were naked; and they sewed fig leaves together and made themselves aprons.  And they heard the sound of the Lord God walking in the garden in the cool of the day, and the man and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the Lord God among the trees of the garden. But the Lord God called to the man, and said to him, “Where are you?” And he said, “I heard the sound of thee in the garden, and I was afraid, because I was naked; and I hid myself.”

Here we see a radical shift in both who Adam and Eve really were – they had been in a state of grace and now they have fallen into sin.  Also, though, you have a radical shift in how Adam and Eve see themselves.  They hear God walking in the garden, gently calling out to them – and God, being all know, He knew exactly where they were.  In his gentleness, in His consideration for them, he didn’t want to startle them or disconcert them any more than they already were.  He was calling out to let them know He was coming. 

And their response – to be afraid, to hide from him.  Their identities were devastated.  Think about what just happened.  

Very difficult to underestimate the catastrophic psychological effects of the fall.  We get the physical effects of the fall, the effects of the fall on our bodies -- 

Subjective identity includes the experiences (and how we recall those experiences), the close relationships, and values that come together to form one’s subjective sense of self.  You might say subjective identity is who we feel ourselves to be, in the given moment.  For some that sense of identity is more consistent and stable, and for others, it may vary more from day to day.  

Conscious Subjective Identity  Who we profess ourselves to be.

Unconscious Subjective Identity – Parts of us that hold assumptions about us that are not available in conscious awareness.  There are moments when these unconscious assumptions break into conscious awareness – particularly when we are stressed, tired, overwhelmed.  These moments are when our regular defenses open