The Struggle for Identity

Are we simply no more than a product of our upbringing? Do we truly know who we are? I don't think so. I think that our identity awaits our discovery, then begs our declaration, while inviting our embodiment. True, our past influences our path, but it does not dictate its direction. Each and every decision we make changes our direction down this path. But, it isn't just our decision that matters. It is also our ability to recognize, analyze, and understand the tools that we have to make those decisions the most effective way possible for each of us. In this book, I discuss the understanding that a past of which I wasn't even a part could affect my present, thereby putting at risk my future should I not make certain decisions to change my direction down this path. I explore how the sins of the father are visited upon subsequent generations, how the role of the father is to call an end to those sins, and how the hope of the father is to step into the future with the past truly as a lesson rather than a hinderance. I discuss in chapter eight how the narcissistic mind actually works, and how the greatest fear of the narcissist is the very thing that could heal the wounds created by the condition. Finally, I demonstrate the importance of a responsible father-figure to a child during the most important years of their life. My hope with this book is to help those of us who suffer either as victims of narcissistic abuse, or as narcissists, or even those of us under the dogmatic oppression of political ideology to understand just how truly important it is seek out and explore what makes us who we are. Until we truly come to a point of responsibly grasping the fact that we are as much a mystery to ourselves as to others, we can never truly know what it is to say, "I know who I am."