The cult of authenticity

 

                                                    Screenshot from HBR Seminar, Tomas Chamorro-Premuzic

A couple of days ago, I listened in to a webinar introducing a new book: Don’t Be Yourself: Why Authenticity Is Overrated (And what To Do Instead). It’s by Tomas Chamorro-Premuzic, a professor of business psychology.

“Authenticity” is one of these words - like “diversity” or “inclusivity” or even “sustainability” - which is horribly over-used without much thought, whether for brands or personal development in business. So much so, that the author speaks of “The cult of authenticity”, which he dismantles in his book.

But let me take a step back. I suspect most of us growing up in the Western world have had this notion drummed into us from an early age. It may not have been labelled “authenticity” or have appeared on coffee cups and T-shirts, but the idea of expressing your individuality has long been with us as something innately Good. I still remember a song (Danny Kaye, I think?) from Tubby the Tuba. “Be yourself, you can’t be anybody else ... or you’ll always be a nobody ... be yourself - or else.” 

But what has happened with the rise of this cult is a simplification. One of those ghastly binaries. You’re either authentic or fake. And you’re only “allowed” to be authentic by the powers that be if your values and beliefs are on the approved list. As Dr Tomas said, your “whole authentic self” is not going to be welcome at work if you’re a misogynist Nazi in your spare time.

The most blindingly obvious thing to me, having studied psychology and Jung in particular is that most of us don’t actually know who we are. I have an inkling, but also know that it’s a work in progress. There are some who’d argue that there is no such thing as the self, and that we go through life wearing a series of masks or personas. Depending on context.

And that’s probably the main thing I took out of the seminar. Dr Tomas called for "less focus on expressing your authentic self and more on understanding others” and mentioned that the Authenticity Cult “typifies the egotisitcal self-absorbtion that characterises our times.” 

I scribbled this down - I’m not sure whether it’s from the book or someone else: “Maturity requires you to understand where the right to be you ends and your obligation to others begins ...”

Finally, I asked a question, which didn’t really get answered. What is the difference in emphasis between “authenticity” and “genuineness”? I’m still not sure - both can apply to objects and people. But genuine has more connotations of sincerity, integrity, human values, while authenticity feels more about provenance, lack of fakery and factual accuracy.

If you harshly light every last corner of a house, the house will be uninhabitable. It’s like that with your soul; if you light it up, shadows and darkness and all, people will become ‘uninhabitable.’ Werner Herzog