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The One Question You Need to Understand Who You Are
There is one question that, perhaps more than any other, gets to the root of who we are and what motivates us: “What did I need to do in childhood to win the support and approval of my parents?” We might - to sharpen the picture - need to lean on a few subsidiary enquiries…
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FURTHER READING
You can read more on this and other subjects in our articles, here: t.ly/JYcLU
“There is one question that, perhaps more than any other, gets to the root of who we are and what motivates us:
What did I need to do in childhood to win the support and approval of my parents?
We might - to sharpen the picture - need to lean on a few subsidiary enquiries:
To please my father, I needed to…
To please my mother, I needed to…
Not to upset my mother, I needed to…
Not to upset my father, I needed to…
Whatever might be claimed, no family ever gives its offspring unconditional love; there is always, more or less subtly, something that one has to do and to be - and other things that must at all costs be skirted…”
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CREDITS
Produced in collaboration with:
Deanca Rensyta
www.deancarensyta.com
Title animation produced in collaboration with
Graeme Probert
www.gpmotion.co.uk
Переглядів: 30 085

Відео

When Love Isn't Easy
Переглядів 72 тис.18 годин тому
Enjoying our UA-cam videos? Get full access to all our audio content, videos, and thousands of thought-provoking articles, conversation cards and more with The School of Life Subscription: t.ly/exaeV Learn, heal and grow. Get the best of The School of Life delivered straight to your inbox: t.ly/8R7jq FURTHER READING You can read more on this and other subjects in our articles, here: t.ly/1SI_x ...
Is Everyone Else Normal? Feeling Painfully Different
Переглядів 132 тис.14 днів тому
Much is said about the virtues and pleasures of individuality but let's also admit to how frankly lonely and frightening it can be to find ourselves (yet again) in a peculiar minority, where the differences between us and others strike us as bewildering rather than emboldening, how do we alleviate these isolating thoughts? Enjoying our UA-cam videos? Get full access to all our audio content, vi...
How Repressed Emotions Make Us Sick
Переглядів 857 тис.21 день тому
The most curious and hazardous feature of the way we’re built lies in the difficulty we have registering what we actually feel. Enjoying our UA-cam videos? Get full access to all our audio content, videos, and thousands of thought-provoking articles, conversation cards and more with The School of Life Subscription: bit.ly/3UcYvQn Learn, heal and grow; get the best of The School of Life delivere...
Why We Think We Are Losers (But Actually Aren't)
Переглядів 165 тис.28 днів тому
Many of us are haunted by a harsh inner critic: one who is particularly fond of telling us that we are a loser. Here’s why such a critic exists - and how we can silence them. Enjoying our UA-cam videos? Get full access to all our audio content, videos, and thousands of thought-provoking articles, conversation cards and more with The School of Life Subscription: 9qq0.short.gy/aQ2Y3L Learn, heal ...
Why We Should Refuse to Get Into Arguments
Переглядів 180 тис.Місяць тому
We should resist invitations to argue by recognising them for what they are: attempts by the other party to rescue themselves from unbearable feelings. Enjoying our UA-cam videos? Get full access to all our audio content, videos, and thousands of thought-provoking articles, conversation cards and more with The School of Life Subscription: 9qq0.short.gy/SJtYvX Learn, heal and grow; get the best ...
The Lengths We Go To Avoid Love
Переглядів 183 тис.Місяць тому
The idea of trying to avoid love sounds paradoxical in the extreme: why do we take active measures to sabotage love? Enjoying our UA-cam videos? Get full access to all our audio content, videos, and thousands of thought-provoking articles, conversation cards and more with The School of Life Subscription: 9qq0.short.gy/DxKw9z Learn, heal and grow; get the best of The School of Life delivered str...
Why Nice People Repel Us
Переглядів 200 тис.Місяць тому
Why might kindness be so hard to bear? Why should warmth prove - on occasion - comprehensively repulsive? Why might nausea descend in the face of emotional maturity? Enjoying our UA-cam videos? Get full access to all our audio content, videos, and thousands of thought-provoking articles, conversation cards and more with The School of Life Subscription: 9qq0.short.gy/zqGz6G Learn, heal and grow:...
Why We Behave As We Do
Переглядів 99 тис.Місяць тому
A key principle governing the natural world is that animals adapt to thrive in particular habitats; what we call an animal’s character is essentially a set of traits that gives it maximal opportunity to flourish in specific circumstances. We humans are - in the end, beneath a layer of civilisation - not so different. Enjoying our UA-cam videos? Get full access to all our audio content, videos, ...
Why Unloved People Hate Themselves
Переглядів 195 тис.2 місяці тому
What happens to a child who is not loved properly? The answer one might expect is that they start to hate the person who doesn’t give them the love they need. Far from it. The reality is that the child becomes filled with shame. But what is shame? And how does it impact your adult life? Enjoying our UA-cam videos? Get full access to all our audio content, videos, and thousands of thought-provok...
The Conditions of Love
Переглядів 121 тис.2 місяці тому
When looking at the odder aspects of other people’s and our own behaviour, there is one simple-sounding question we should always keep close to the front of our minds: what did you need to do in your family of origin in order to be loved? and might you still, by extension, unconsciously be operating under these conditions. Enjoying our UA-cam videos? Get full access to all our audio content, vi...
5 Questions to Ask Yourself Every Evening
Переглядів 390 тис.2 місяці тому
It is estimated that some 70,000 separate thoughts hurry through consciousness from the moment we wake up to the time we slip into sleep. To help us understand those thoughts we've produced five questions to direct our minds to areas which we tend to neglect, and from where trouble can most intensely arise when we do so. Enjoying our UA-cam videos? Get full access to all our audio content, vide...
The True Cause of Obsessive Thinking
Переглядів 313 тис.2 місяці тому
The True Cause of Obsessive Thinking
How to Become a More Interesting Person
Переглядів 340 тис.3 місяці тому
How to Become a More Interesting Person
2 Unexpected Ways to Stop Sabotaging Yourself
Переглядів 358 тис.3 місяці тому
2 Unexpected Ways to Stop Sabotaging Yourself
6 Historical Hangovers Making Us Miserable Today
Переглядів 179 тис.3 місяці тому
6 Historical Hangovers Making Us Miserable Today
Our Secret Wish Never to Find Love
Переглядів 145 тис.3 місяці тому
Our Secret Wish Never to Find Love
What Is It to Be Emotionally Mature: Part Two
Переглядів 108 тис.3 місяці тому
What Is It to Be Emotionally Mature: Part Two
What Is It to Be Emotionally Mature: Part One
Переглядів 235 тис.4 місяці тому
What Is It to Be Emotionally Mature: Part One
When Love Isn't Easy
Переглядів 158 тис.4 місяці тому
When Love Isn't Easy
Remember That EVERYONE Is Lonely
Переглядів 141 тис.4 місяці тому
Remember That EVERYONE Is Lonely
Are you a Sadist or a Masochist - and Why?
Переглядів 118 тис.4 місяці тому
Are you a Sadist or a Masochist - and Why?
How To Cope with an Imperfect Partner
Переглядів 127 тис.5 місяців тому
How To Cope with an Imperfect Partner
A Guide to Self Transformation
Переглядів 235 тис.5 місяців тому
A Guide to Self Transformation
How Relationships Reveal Our True Selves
Переглядів 552 тис.5 місяців тому
How Relationships Reveal Our True Selves
How to Know If You Have Real Friends (And What to Do If You Don't)
Переглядів 203 тис.5 місяців тому
How to Know If You Have Real Friends (And What to Do If You Don't)
How to Prepare for the Worst
Переглядів 90 тис.6 місяців тому
How to Prepare for the Worst
How to Be Strong and Resilient
Переглядів 201 тис.6 місяців тому
How to Be Strong and Resilient
Why People get into Unhealthy Relationships
Переглядів 147 тис.6 місяців тому
Why People get into Unhealthy Relationships
A West African Philosophy of Calm
Переглядів 452 тис.6 місяців тому
A West African Philosophy of Calm

КОМЕНТАРІ

  • @truthseer6082
    @truthseer6082 Годину тому

    Thank you for this

  • @redsparks2025
    @redsparks2025 Годину тому

    In my broken family it was less about support and approval but more about not getting scolded. So this lesson only applies to those that did not grow up in a broken family.

  • @nizasiamehenry
    @nizasiamehenry Годину тому

    Here it goes again!⚡⚡⚡

  • @blendz-3ther
    @blendz-3ther Годину тому

    i am yet a child. apparently i am loved. but there is no love to prove this.

  • @tekboi1984
    @tekboi1984 2 години тому

    I've been really struggling for almost 5 yrs.. not sure what to do... If I don't figure it out soon, I will probably lose everything I've built and worked for.

  • @user-ye1iu7qy6s
    @user-ye1iu7qy6s 2 години тому

    Basically every single mothers kid

  • @Pinpadprompts
    @Pinpadprompts 2 години тому

    Niccolo why you have to do me like that at the end there.

  • @8na9
    @8na9 2 години тому

    they start playing overwatch

  • @ace0f_hearts
    @ace0f_hearts 2 години тому

    Maternal deprivation - it's theorised to be criminogenic

  • @franzbecker1889
    @franzbecker1889 2 години тому

    The only Solution is Jesus Christ. He lived and died for us out of Love to Humankind. The statement „no one loves me“ is factually and thankfully untrue. Christ does love us. Turn to him and seek him. Good bless.

    • @goldenboy3154
      @goldenboy3154 2 години тому

      I’m glad that works for you and your family but don’t preach at trauma victims. It’s morally corrupt.

  • @jaym9846
    @jaym9846 2 години тому

    Government's job is to print money (for Green Energy, EVs, Nation Building, Wars, etc). FED jobs is to make sure the resulting inflation is limited to a rate of "2%" per year. Basically they want to boil the frog slowly to avoid mass panic. They're doing good job as debt has reached $34,000,000,000,000 without much notice.

  • @clementgavi7290
    @clementgavi7290 2 години тому

    Jostein Gaarder wrote a fantastic book called Sophies' World which is a kind of dialog between a mysterious unknwon and invisible person and the young Sophie who receive letters with questions in her mailbox. One of the question Sophie has received is 'Who are you?' 'It follows Sophie Amundsen, a Norwegian teenager, who is introduced to the history of philosophy as she is asked "Who are you?" in a letter from an unknown philosopher.' Reading this book can help.

  • @nemanjat1096
    @nemanjat1096 2 години тому

    The pleasure of knocking on your neighbors door for coffee invitation

  • @fen4554
    @fen4554 3 години тому

    There were two sets of rules in my house. The ones before 12pm and the ones after. It wasn't unlike having a world and a mirror shadow world.

  • @Milestonemonger
    @Milestonemonger 3 години тому

    My father had a very short fuse and a bad temper. To this day, (I'm 59) I avoid conflict and situations that had a potential to escalate. This fear made me weak. Only recently, I allowed myself to be disagreeable and feel comfortable saying No.

  • @user-rl6wr2ny7f
    @user-rl6wr2ny7f 3 години тому

    As much as I agree with all the points here i do think it is important we do not swing too far in the opposite direction. I had many anxiety induced physical issues but then I was injured after a procedure and after a clear spell(I learnt how to manage my stress). Now I am, by some, being told It is due to childhood trauma not the error of medical professionals. So as much as handling stress, managing and reconciling trauma is critical for well being we need to still see the individual as susceptible to both mental and physical issues. The mere instance of one can not exclude the other.

  • @urnotaryan
    @urnotaryan 3 години тому

    I've never heard a voice that sounds more like a psychiatrists as this one

  • @bAa-xj3ut
    @bAa-xj3ut 3 години тому

    👍👍👍👍👍👍👍👍👍👍👍👍👍👍👍👍

  • @camrynkallio1214
    @camrynkallio1214 3 години тому

    I told my grandma I didn't believe her when she told me she loved me and she decided the best way to handle it was to completely stop telling me. Note: she still tells everyone else she loves them including family members, friends, and even strangers. Except she never tells me or my mom (her daughter).

  • @antoninolandolina8174
    @antoninolandolina8174 3 години тому

    What if the answer to the questions is "nothing"? What if you got raised and ignored, with anything you did being "praised" without that praise meaning anything at all?

  • @nhmooytis7058
    @nhmooytis7058 3 години тому

    When I don’t know who I am I just look at my drivers license. It even shows where I live!

  • @SMH_WOW
    @SMH_WOW 3 години тому

    Me and my dad were the opposite when it comes to this. Now hebdied of alchol poisoning nit listeni g to sn6ine having broken allbthe bridgrsbto our fsmily because our family did us both wrong.

  • @leightonolsson4846
    @leightonolsson4846 3 години тому

    So true about family having more effect than culture. There is more variation within the populations than between the populations.

  • @Jeff-kn8ux
    @Jeff-kn8ux 3 години тому

    We need Jesus

  • @xilfp7g813
    @xilfp7g813 3 години тому

    I have always felt a very deep sense of shame all my life, and I never understood it. I thought it was because of the way i dressed so i changed it but still couldn't shake it off but i saw this few weeks ago and it clicked then. Everything made sense, thank you.

  • @alfredoparrilla9508
    @alfredoparrilla9508 3 години тому

    Might turn out into a killer

    • @goldenboy3154
      @goldenboy3154 2 години тому

      Can we not make out like childhood trauma victims are going to fail and be criminals? That’s exactly how they become one, putting this toxic bullshit out here.

  • @Mike-vr4lw
    @Mike-vr4lw 3 години тому

    You know after i watched this video i dont seem so messed up . Ya see we're all messed up 😂we are not alone 😊❤

  • @oscarlamont9403
    @oscarlamont9403 3 години тому

    Beautiful, enlightening and helpful. Thank you Alain. Love you

  • @severusm.2331
    @severusm.2331 3 години тому

    Wow. A very precise description of the origin of narcissism. Thank you. I like especially the alternative angle to look at the "wrong doing" to the narcissistic person as a child!

  • @meierlinksd4996
    @meierlinksd4996 3 години тому

    Okay, I'll take a shot at this, as everyone else has. I needed to be normal. To not be so afraid of everything, including just going down a slide. To learn emotions are deceiving. To have emotional control. To think before speaking and acting. To have a more rational and psychological well mind. To truly understand there is very little we can control. To be more social, to truly understand that is way the world works. To develop determination, to not give up so quickly. To develop resiliency, for that is how high achievers get anything done. To know that structure and discipline in every aspect is not the enemy ... laziness and fear are your proper enemies. To know and understand that structure and discipline are the other things that make high achievers .. not "talent" or "gifts". To know that fantasy, faerie tales, imagination, dreams, and daydreams are illusions and anchors that would tie me down, that would keep me living and developing as a human being. To see them as a crutch that would turn into a wheelchair if I was not careful. To learn that taking responsibility and accountability with things is more right than wrong, even when it does not feel that way. I can keep going on with my failures to learn and become anything more than a creature of flesh and bone, but I will stop and end the point with this one ... To learn how to grow the hell up and be a proper gentleman. How did I do? Did I cover a lot? Did I uncover this "wounded, inner child?"

  • @joshuaharrison9331
    @joshuaharrison9331 3 години тому

    new zealand exists btw.

  • @shoresoffreedom
    @shoresoffreedom 3 години тому

    nice video but it doesn't answer the question in the title

  • @Fkamynk
    @Fkamynk 3 години тому

    Jesus is the only one who can redeem this type of pain

  • @mattskionet
    @mattskionet 4 години тому

    Rather than take Socrates at face value I recommend reading I.F. Stone's, The Trial of Socrates. Stone does a brilliant job of showing Socrates and Platos biases and making the counterarguments they prefer to ignore. It's the Roger Ailes' & Rupert Murdochs we ought to worry about--people who get rich by keeping the masses ignorant.

  • @AmandaMiller-tq2qc
    @AmandaMiller-tq2qc 4 години тому

    Hallelujah!!! I’m the favorite, $60,000 every week! Now I can afford anything and also support the work of God and the church.

    • @WakeMceachron
      @WakeMceachron 4 години тому

      Oh really? Tell me more! Always interested in hearing stories of successes.

    • @AmandaMiller-tq2qc
      @AmandaMiller-tq2qc 4 години тому

      This is what Ana Graciela Blackwelder does, she has changed my life.

    • @AmandaMiller-tq2qc
      @AmandaMiller-tq2qc 4 години тому

      After raising up to 60k trading with her, I bought a new house and car here in the US and also paid for my son’s (Oscar) surgery. Glory to God.shalom.

    • @MichaelClark35536
      @MichaelClark35536 4 години тому

      I know Ana Graciela Blackwelder, and I have also had success...

    • @MichaelClark35536
      @MichaelClark35536 4 години тому

      @@AmandaMiller-tq2qcAbsolutely! I have heard stories of people who started with little or no knowledge but managed to emerge victorious thanks to Ana Graciela Blackwelder.

  • @legendofrandomness2522
    @legendofrandomness2522 4 години тому

    Yeah, i went the antisocial route n now im trying to fix it...

  • @margodenoir2325
    @margodenoir2325 4 години тому

    I understand my behavior, but that doesn't tell me WHO I am.

  • @LadyMilanis
    @LadyMilanis 4 години тому

    I feel like I am nothing since I've lost everyone in my life. They are all in the past, and I am left alone for the future. And it was as if my identity lied in who I hang out with. And as soon as these people disappeared and I had to stand on my own legs completeley, then I know longer knew who I was. I need to find who I am without thinking that I am someone only when I have a certain set of people in my life. My identity shouldn't be based on who I hang out with.