The feeling of inauthenticity

in current clinical psychopathology

Abstract

This paper assesses the feeling of inauthenticity as an emerging clinical feature in patients who are difficult to manage. Using a case report, one observes the moment in which the referent arises, which is characterized as an affect perceived by the patient, related to representations associated with forging his/her image before other individuals. This comes with a distressing sensation that he/she will be unmasked and recognized in terms of his/her true and unvalued characteristics. The value – which is presumed – is found in one or in some traits of the physical aspect or performance (note that psychological characteristics are not included). This leads to repression, rejection and punishment by the others. The patient believes that the situation cannot be reversed and that the fact cannot be repaired by any other means. There are assumptions about the underlying psychological dynamics, and the defense mechanisms, anxieties at play and the state of the Ego and its peculiar relationship with the ideal self are highlighted. Its genesis in the subject’s childhood is analyzed and the transferences of the situation are also addressed. Finally, some reflections are presented to circumscribe the specific phenomenical and dynamic characteristics of the phenomenon with respect to other similar phenomena such as “as if” personalities, dissociative identity disorder, and adhesive identification.