this post was submitted on 26 Dec 2025
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I mean as in Spy x Family. Everyone has a secret they hide from everyone else, even their closest people.

Do you think real life is like that?

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[–] FaceDeer@fedia.io 15 points 17 hours ago (1 children)

I think I'd go further and say that there isn't really any such thing as a person's "true self." People present different aspects of themselves in different circumstances. It's like asking which orientation you should hold an object against a light to see the "true shape" of its shadow.

[–] RaoulDuke25@lemmy.dbzer0.com 4 points 14 hours ago (1 children)

I believe thats whats called in Buddhism as having No Self. You are who you are at that moment.

[–] FaceDeer@fedia.io 2 points 14 hours ago

Could be, I'm not deeply familiar with Buddhism. There's still a core "something" in there that's casting the shadow, but it's not something that can be interacted with directly so I don't know if it would fit the normal definition of a "self". You can only directly interact with the shadows it casts and those shadows are situation-dependent. It doesn't think or act in isolation.

I suppose one could just pick some specific set of circumstances and call the self that emerges under those conditions the "true self." For example you could call the version of you that emerges when you're lying in bed alone at night thinking about the dumb stuff you did during the day your "true self." But that's a bit arbitrary.