
Having an alter ego can reduce anxiety, benefit confidence: research - clouddrover
https://www.bbc.com/worklife/article/20200817-the-batman-effect-how-having-an-alter-ego-empowers-you
======
hnarn
It’s a variant of the suggestion often given in therapy and recently
popularized by Jordan B Peterson I believe — and no matter what you may think
of him as a person, it is a good strategy — “Treat yourself as someone worth
taking care of”. Meaning: look at yourself as you would look at your own
child, a pet, or anyone you would have the responsibility of looking after.
It’s easy to miss meals, not dress yourself well and so on, but you might look
at it differently if it was your kid or pet that was hungry. So take care of
yourself as if you weren’t you!

The same thing goes with investments. To get over my own sometimes
pathological cheapness (a combination of growing up poor and other stuff) I
sometimes view myself as a corporation when making purchases: what do I need,
are there goals I have that lack materials, what needs to be replaced — then I
just sign a blank check to myself as it were and buy the things I need.

In a way, taking care of yourself does become easier when you pretend it isn’t
you. Especially if you have issues with caring about “you” in the first place.

~~~
faceplanted
> no matter what you may think of him as a person, it is a good strategy

The thing about Jordan Peterson's book is that the chapter titles are usually
_great advice_, but the content always tends to slide into his strange,
mediocrely researched conservative ramblings and sometime worse, at one point
he just about admitts that he blames one of his women patients for her own
rape, at others he veers right into granddad style rants about young people
and their "progressive politics" ruining the world.

Honestly it's a bad book and people would be better off literally just reading
the Quora question and answer that inspired it.

~~~
adamgia
Well, you can't please everyone - in this case your interpretation is a
stretch to say the least (Just about admits blaming a patient for their rape?
Where did you get that?) and it sounds like you have a problem with
conservatives (which I wouldn't say JBP is) rather than the actual
book/author.

~~~
ironic_ali
Well said. I would also like the source to him blaming a patient for their
rape.

------
lefstathiou
True Story: the guy who leads our sales team is a super star named John (legal
name). He’s fearless, organized, focused, determined “and Canadian” as he
would say.

Any way, while he was a rising junior his GF came to the office one day and I
heard her call him Jake (nowhere in his name legal name). I asked “who the
hell is Jake?” to which she replied “oh, that’s what we call John back home”.
I looked at him and he said “John likes to make cold calls, Jake doesn’t”.

It works...

~~~
hanoz
What, John liked cold calls so much that he had to invent alter ego Jake, who
didn't like cold calls, in order to get a girlfriend?

~~~
scotty79
Few people in my family use their first and second name in different contexts
(family/friends/work). Reasons probably vary. For my mum it just started that
way when she was a kid. Family used her second name and when she started
working people knew her by her first name.

~~~
kube-system
Some people don't use any part of their legal names at all with their friends
and family.

I used to have some extended family who all went by nicknames unrelated to
their legal names. It was a cultural thing.

~~~
copperx
That partly explains a perplexing issue I have with my students.

For example, let's say a student named Fred Smith emails me, but then signs
his name as "Alex Harrison." And his self-selected email address is
alexrogers@school.edu. I'm not sure if it's a trend or a culture thing to use
multiple names and last names, but it gets a bit confusing at times.

------
jlangemeier
In high school, it was wearing a three-piece suit (because if you're not
wearing a vest, are you really wearing a suit?) for all of my speech and
debate events; now, it's wearing one of my kilts. For those of us with
anxiety, esp social anxiety this entire article isn't necessarily surprising,
as many of us use some form of externalizing our confidence to get through big
presentations, meetings, etc.

If I've got an important set of meetings that I'm going to be at it's always
going to be a kilt (with appropriate vest as well, everything snazzy needs
vests) or a full suit.

If I'm going to something where I know I'm going to need to be social, it's
always the kilt. It's amazing how much a kilt is just a segue for other people
to talk about their "scottish or irish" heritage; talking about myself is
terrible, but listening to the 10,000th person today talk about their boring
ass family tree is great (the convo will eventually turn to something
interesting or the person will wander off). It also makes me extremely
memorable and findable, so I don't have to initiate most conversations which
is also a terrible, horrible thing.

~~~
james_s_tayler
Kind of reminds me how my 25th great uncle is Robert The Bruce.

Fun times.

 _Walks off_

~~~
jlangemeier
I'm sure you are silently judging the fact I don't really like bagpipes too...
__Groundskeeper Willie fist shake __

~~~
james_s_tayler
I fucking hate bagpipes.

Maybe England only wanted control over Scotland to shut the fucking bagpipes
up.

------
duggable
This worked on our (then) 5 year old, who was shy on the soccer field but
kicked it up a notch when we told her to be a dinosaur. Of course, this also
resulted in her running around with t-rex arms and baring her teeth, so I
guess you have to be careful which alter ego you adopt.

~~~
armandososa
Your story reminded me of this comic
[http://hyperboleandahalf.blogspot.com/2013/10/menace.html](http://hyperboleandahalf.blogspot.com/2013/10/menace.html)
which I like to read every once in a while.

Edit: And of course you already had two suggestions for this. I should refresh
the page before commenting.

~~~
MagnumPIG
Goes to show how great that comic was.

------
mr_overalls
I've long been fascinated by the complex imaginal techniques of tantra in
Tibetan Buddhism, in which you vividly imagine yourself as a yidam, or
tutelary deity.

Via intense concentration on elaborate self-visualization, repetition of the
yidam's mantra, and ritualized hand gestures (mudra), you take on the form,
attributes and mind of the yidam for the purpose of transformation - to
recognize that one's own mind is not, in fact, different from the all-
pervading Buddha-nature.

[https://studybuddhism.com/en/tibetan-
buddhism/tantra/buddhis...](https://studybuddhism.com/en/tibetan-
buddhism/tantra/buddhist-tantra/buddhist-deity-or-mickey-mouse-what-s-the-
difference)

'One of the most characteristic features of tantra is what we call “deity-
yoga,” where we imagine ourselves to be a Buddha-figure. The term is usually
translated as “visualize” instead of imagine, although we’re not just dealing
with some visual picture of ourselves. I think the word “imagine” is great
because we imagine that we really are a Buddha in the form of this figure. Not
only do we imagine looking like this figure, but we also imagine speaking,
thinking, helping others and experiencing pure enjoyment with all our senses
like it does. We also imagine having all its good qualities, such as equal
love and compassion for all beings and deep understanding of everything. Of
course, to do this successfully we need to have trained beforehand in each of
these qualities with sutra practice. Putting them all together with deity-
yoga, then, is like a dress rehearsal for actually being a Buddha. By
rehearsing now, we build up powerful causes for attaining enlightenment. This
extremely efficient method is known as “practicing causes that are the most
similar to the result.”'

~~~
themonoid
If you're using tantra (vajrayana) for ego-oriented material benefit, then
that's called "spiritual materialism." According to Tibetan Buddhism, the
vajrayana can be dangerous for you and those around you.

Edit: I apologize. I realize that was very heavy handed. I felt obligated to
throw out the usual warnings about Buddhist tantra.

~~~
mr_overalls
No worries! I'm familiar with Trungpa's warnings about spiritual materialism.
I know the context of Vajrayana is quite different from the "Batman Effect"
discussed in the original article, but I wanted to spur discussion in general
about the power of assuming the identity (transitory though it may be) of a
chosen figure.

And for anyone who's interested in tantra, I'll spell out the warnings more
explicitly: this kind of practice should only be attempted under the careful
guidance of an expert - a teacher who is empowered by a qualified lineage.
These kinds of visualizations are very powerful, and can be dangerous to one's
mental health if done foolishly. Hacking with the boundaries of one's ego and
merging with deities is not to be done lightly. Seek expert instruction.

~~~
heavenlyblue
Why do people on this website take this seriously? Is that because this whole
stuff is incredibly in fashion in SV?

I can visualise myself as Hitler; for all it is I can also visualise how I
could consciously go all the way with whatever methods he employed.

Are you trying to say I should not think about it because so will suddenly
start World War III?

How is this different from visualising myself as the all-powerful deity?

~~~
DreamScatter
Consider the neurological danger of visualizing yourself as (e.g. hitler)
repeatedly over and over. The exercise mentioned above is one of neurological
conditioning (anpassen in german). You are training your neural pathways to
take on a certain form of thought pattern. If you pick (e.g.) hitler as your
mould, then you are training yourself as hitler. That's what the danger is
with such a practice.

Therefore, you must be careful and wise about what neurological mould you are
seeking to "impersonate" with your practice, since you would be creating new
habits and neural pathways in practice.

I'm not an expert on this topic, but I can use my common sense to figure that
out.

------
rubicon33
I need an alto ego...

Frederick König.

I am a man who can sit for hours working productively at his computer. I am a
man who is not affected by boredom. I desire nothing more than to sit, and
code. My productivity is off the charts and I am being considered for a
promotion. I have excellent coding ability and can apply it with ease by
sitting, and coding, for hours, and hours.

~~~
animal_spirits
Is that the person you desire to be?

~~~
c00ls0sa
Sounds like it's just classic Fredrick König to me.

------
dec0dedab0de
I got a nickname when I was 14, my life completely changed after that. I went
from sitting alone at lunch, to having parties with over 100 people. Most of
them only knew me by the nickname, or variants of the nickname. I went by it
almost exclusively for over 10 years. I definitely feel like a different
person than I was then.

~~~
miloignis
Now this is interesting - I also got a nickname in highschool from a popular
kid that helped me gain an identity in other people's minds and be much more
social and involved, but I don't think it was an alter-ego. I think it helped
make me memorable to other people while giving me a confidence boost (as the
nickname was complimentary), but I think that it just brought out the real me.
I don't go by that nickname since I left highschool, but I feel the same as I
did then. It was more about getting over shyness and being included than being
someone else. I suppose it varies from person to person!

Edit: The super pervasive nickname is a fun phenomenon, eventually even the
teachers and principal called me exclusively by the nickname.

~~~
nefitty
My nickname has followed me for about 23 years... I had never considered how
it might have impacted my life.

------
ben_w
I wonder how much this applies to furries. How often is a fursona “the real
me” vs roleplay? I’ve witnessed both in different individuals, and also both
within a single person (primary ‘sona and some other separate ones which are
just role playing).

Adjective Species probably had an article on this, though it also reminds me
of the discussions about therianthropy, contherianthropes, and New Age
discussions of the use of masks in tribal religions.

~~~
dmuth
Yep, this is the comment I came here for!

On a related note, I attended Dr. Gerbasi's research results at Anthrocon a
few years ago, and she noted from her furry survey that the experimental group
(furries) rated themselves higher in response to questions such as "I feel
good about myself" versus the control group. (her college students)

~~~
InitialLastName
That might just be what you get with a WEIRD control group though.

~~~
ben_w
Anthrocon was probably also dominated by the Western Educated Industrialised
Rich and Democratic subset.

Might be related to the oxytocin furries get from all the snuggling, though.

~~~
InitialLastName
It could also be biased by age; I assume that the furry subject group skewed
older than the students (or at least that the students were a more tightly
restricted age group). I know I felt far more self-assured at 30 than I did at
20.

------
ta1234567890
The comments here reminded me of Tulpas:
[https://www.businessinsider.com/hearing-voices-in-your-
head-...](https://www.businessinsider.com/hearing-voices-in-your-head-real-
life-versus-movies-tulpa-psychiatry-2018-2)

We are capable of holding more than one identity in our minds and switching
between them. Some people use that ability to create "characters" (tulpas)
that they interact with or even allow to take over their bodies. Apparently
some people go as far as replacing themselves with a tulpa they've created
(they call this ego-suicide).

~~~
alchemism
This is also the foundation of so-called Chaos Magic. It uses the 'mental
frameworks' of any belief system to obtain results by becoming a temporary
adherent of it. Switching frameworks would be done with physical objects, e.g.
a pair of spectacles.

[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chaos_magic](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chaos_magic)

~~~
ta1234567890
Thank you for the comment and that link. Fascinating stuff.

The basic philosophy behind Chaos Magic seems to be very much in line with
some ancestral eastern philosophies and religions. The gnostic state is pretty
much the whole goal of some forms of meditation and religious practices.

Are there any other resources or books you could recommend to dig deeper into
Chaos Magic?

------
nate
I've done a lot of this as a writer. I'll actually take an article from a
favorite writer of mine and paste it on the page. Then'll I'll go through that
article and write my own article on top of it paragraph by paragraph. None of
the content or subject matter is the same. I'm not "rewriting the original
article". But it helps keep the patterns similar. I can see how I might want
to change pace, structure the story, etc.

But even more importantly it helps me imagine being that other, successful,
famous author.

~~~
nefitty
I wonder if this would work for coding!

~~~
wry_discontent
I often rewrite solutions to identical problems in different ways. It helps me
get a good handle on what works in different situations, and how solutions
differ in general.

I recently rewrote a JS problem I did in an interview in a much more
functional style, a style that just visually appealed to me, and I feel like I
learned a thing or two from it, or at least reinforced some things I already
knew.

------
Marcus316
"I need a handle, man. I don't have an identity until I have a handle." \-
Joey Pardella, Hackers, 1995

------
johnchristopher
> Adopting an alter ego is an extreme form of ‘self-distancing’, which
> involves taking a step back from our immediate feelings to allow us to view
> a situation more dispassionately.

What's the difference between this and repressing feelings, emotions and
basically not dealing with it ? Does it work only in short lived moment (a
presentation, a concert, etc.) and can't be used 24/7 (or even less) ?

~~~
shoes_for_thee
This would be dissociation. It would be different from repression, but not any
less neurotic.

[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Defence_mechanism](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Defence_mechanism)

~~~
mleonhard
Dissociation is a defence action. I think it could be quite helpful if used
intentionally. If it becomes a habit, it could cause problems. Unintentional
and habitual use of defence mechanisms leads to negative consequences. This is
what people think of when they use the term "neurotic."

------
9214
Anxiety-management tricks that I personally employ is to either refer to a
group/class I find myself in as "we" or to use passive rather than active
voice.

The former I borrowed as a kid watching Spider Man 1994, where Brock/Venom
symbiont calls themselves "we"; the latter is an inspiration from David Bohm's
rheomode.

Both shift the perspective from your ego to the environment that it is
embedded into and is a part of: e.g. a company, a crowd, a body ("we" as a
human microbiome), humanity, or nature itself; not as an object, but as an
ongoing process, from being to becoming. A giving up of ontological primacy.

[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/E-Prime](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/E-Prime)

[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Body_without_organs](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Body_without_organs)

~~~
mundo
Relatedly, I've noticed that video game youtubers almost always refer to
themselves plurally (as in, "We're going to take our main army over here" or
"We won!").

I assumed this was to cultivate a sense of belonging or identity for their
followers, but separating their performing-identity from their regular
identity could have a lot to do with it as well.

~~~
crooked-v
"We" is also common for old-school Let's Play series, dating back to the
screenshot-only days, though those often have some level of voting or other
interactivity that gives some fan involvement in each segment.

------
spicymaki
Hip hop artists use alter egos to explore different stage personas and styles.
e.g. Daniel Dumile as MF Doom, King Ghidra, Viktor Vaughn or Eminem as Slim
Shady.

~~~
spanhandler
The Beatles — Sgt. Pepper

David Bowie... a different one practically every album.

------
rmrfstar
If you haven't yet, read:
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/True_Names](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/True_Names)

------
lostgame
Here's a neat story. I'm a transgender iOS programmer living in Toronto and
I've been diagnosed with chronic anxiety and CPTSD. I am also a
rapper/producer under the name 'Nikki Grace', on Spotify/Apple Music/Youtube,
etc...

I've been producing and engineering music for bands and other folks for about
ten years, but I had never released any solo material. After my Mother's
passing last year, I decided to strut out my first mixtape of just five songs.
I was extraordinarily nervous, as being transgender, I had assumed an entirely
different tone and inflection in my voice; and rapping was something I had
rarely done before.

I put it out in July of last year, and; to my surprise, the music was
incredibly well-received; well-reviewed by my peers - and - to my surprise,
each song on that 5-track mixtape, with no advertising, has had tens of
thousands of listens on Spotify since.

The confidence increase in this was immense! My anxiety about certain integral
things has certainly gone down - especially in the field of music, I second-
guess myself far less often than I used to; I hit 'stop' on over-analyzing
things earlier than before, amongst other tangible benefits. I've never even
performed on stage and often end up with around $100-300 of revenue a month
just for putting myself out there. (Which, in streaming revenue; is a
shockingly large amount of streams!)

There have been serious crises in my life since my Mom's passing; I had to
take leave from my work for time, but; guess what? Nobody listening to my
music knew any of that. The alter ego literally just lets me go through all of
that, put out music every few months, and turned out to be the healthiest
outlet of my life.

It is absolutely true - it's paramount that you find your outlet and do it.

~~~
klerpi
Amazing read. Keep doing music and being awesome!

------
dx87
This reminds me of something I read in a book about self love, where it's easy
to confuse what you do with who you are. For example, someone who acts shy in
large groups of people might start to think that they are a shy person, and
that there is nothing they can do about it.

------
Threeve303
One of the many dangers with this line of thinking is that on some level
you're letting other people define you if you don't define yourself.

A lot of people are awful, so the definition you are given will be one you may
not agree with and one that doesn't match reality.

A sort of sunk cost fallacy combines with an illusory truth effect to
reinforce the narrative created about you.

Eventually it won't matter what you think about you, it will only matter what
other people think about you.

------
nurettin
People at work just add the Mr. prefix in front of my name and I turn into my
alter ego who is always calm, deep, calculating and focused. They love it, I
love it. Strange thing is, I never tell them to refer to me that way, it just
happens after a while whenever I join new work place.

~~~
shoes_for_thee
How long have you been a teaching high school?

------
xerox13ster
I have dissociative identity disorder, as a result of severe pervasive trauma
when I was young. I have several alter egos, each fully conscious and each of
which are capable in their own unique ways. They are nearly always present in
my mind, speaking to me or each other and we have internal experiences nearly
as rich as external experiences.

We absolutely have alters that are simply more composed than the rest of us,
and that come out in specific scenarios. Some of us have worked and held
positions supporting technology others of us can't even understand! Then
others of us are better with people and can work with them more efficiently.

It's not all fun and games with this though. It's a very extreme form of PTSD,
and it can be very difficult to manage, though in a way it's a blessing
because we HAVE to be organized to work together. I wouldn't wish the
flashbacks on anyone though, or the fact that most of us are still mentally
teenagers even though we're physically nearly 30, which presents real and
serious challenges to functioning as an adult.

------
grugagag
I am a shy and quiet person. But, once in a while I get an alter ego, it’s
vague, it doesn’t have a name but it’s my disinhibited persona. Acts
completely unlike the shy me but is not too crazy or obnoxious to make me feel
uncomfortable afterwards. Im thinking of it as a ‘mode’ i enter and exit from.
I use it when I need to perform in front of a public.

------
wtroughton
Anyone familiar with Breaking Bad? Walter White goes under the alias of
Heisenberg. When he’s Walter, he’s anxious and fearful. It’s such a contrast
compared to the calm, calculated Heisenberg.

The writers did a phenomenal job of using an alter ego to slowly change the
character from Mr. Chips to Scarface.

------
zitterbewegung
I actually do this when I give presentations. It helps a great deal.

Projecting a presence and working on humor or even just levity really helps me
do better presentations.

Instead of framing myself as doing a presentation I decided to attempt to
think of what kind of a presentation I would be interested in. I eventually
figured out would be some kind of exaggeration of myself that was more
sarcastic and it actually played out quite well.

I actually discovered that I was good at stand up comedy by attempting to
crack jokes while the presentation video wasn't working. At the end of the
presentation people asked me if I was a stand up comic and I responded I am
one now.

------
AltruisticGap2
There are interesting correlations with the research on the sense of self, and
how it relates to spiritual teachings which equate much of suffering with the
sense of being a separate "self" entity (rather than seeing oneself as an
indivisible part of a whole).

Maybe this trick helps reduce the activity of the DMN (default mode network)
which is attributed to much of our worry based thinking, which is self
centered?

[https://jeffwarren.org/articles/neuroscienceofsuffering/](https://jeffwarren.org/articles/neuroscienceofsuffering/)

------
anoncake
How do I refer to myself in the third person without feeling like Gollum?

~~~
aloisdg
Two ideas:

* Create duplicate account with different persona and make them talk. Fun on reddit.

* Start roleplaying and mostly dming. One of my favorite experience in life.

~~~
sircastor
I feel like the former is a lot of the Internet in the late nineties. People
pretending to be someone they’re not. Nobody knows you’re a dog in the
Internet.

~~~
rainbowzootsuit
The Internet: where men are men, women are men, and children are FBI agents.

------
emptyparadise
This is why I think it's a huge shame we moved to using real names and no alt
accounts online. No more space to experiment.

~~~
randomdude402
That's very true on Facebook, and it's true that Facebook is the dominant
online destination so far as numbers go.

There are still regular old forums for a lot of hobbies and interests though,
and even on here people can use handles. Reddit and Twitter as well.

I will confess to having multiple alt accounts on Facebook.

There is room to experiment still.

------
golemotron
Teaching kids how to dissociate may not be completely good.

~~~
throwanem
This isn't about dissociation. This is about using the tool of a constructed
or adopted persona to engage _differently_ with the situation at hand.
Dissociation is about finding a way to _disengage_ from the situation at hand.
I have experience with both - the former after a fashion although I don't
think of it that way, the latter in such extensive detail that it took me the
better part of a couple of decades to learn how _not_ to do it - and I can
tell you, they're not even a little bit similar.

Also, again based on experience, I do not think that parents who teach their
children to dissociate - or, more accurately put, make it necessary for their
children to learn to do so - are particularly skillful at identifying what is
and isn't good for those kids. They seem very often to be very sure that they
are, but I wouldn't recommend taking their word for it.

------
alexslobodnik
“Society is a masked ball, where every one hides his real character, and
reveals it by hiding”

― Ralph Waldo Emerson

------
lokl
I had an unwanted alter ego once. A colleague called me by the wrong name for
the entire time we worked together (a few months). I considered correcting
him, but I wanted to see how it would play out.

~~~
DreamScatter
if you didn't correct him, then it wasn't unwanted. so how did it play out?

~~~
lokl
It was initially unwanted, but it became interesting because it lasted so
long. What made it possible was that we didn't work closely (different groups)
and encountered each other only infrequently and usually one-on-one, so there
weren't others around to correct him. When I left, there was a social event
with mainly people from my group, so he was not present, and I don't actually
know whether he ever learned of his error. Maybe my alter ego still lives in
his memory.

------
strogonoff
This reminds me of masks, but unexpectedly used in real world rather than in
acting and/or improv.

For more on masks, if someone’s interested, read Impro by Keith Johnstone and
(tangentially) Emissary’s Guide to Worlding by Iain Cheng.

Also, British comedy improv trio Pappy’s comes to my mind—in some podcast
episodes there is a time where Tom spontaneously drops into another persona;
Matthew immediately switches to addressing that mask instead of Tom, until Tom
snaps out of it. It would’ve sounded incredibly bizarre to me had I not read
Impro prior.

------
james_s_tayler
Todd Herman wrote a book about how develop an alter ego. He used the technique
through his professional career.

Through media interviews you can piece together that Kobe Bryant was one of
his clients.

------
amelius
Are there any downsides to this technique?

E.g. will you become less authentic, and will you become a stranger to your
friends, family and perhaps even yourself?

Will people think you have lost your mind?

~~~
nefitty
I think social interaction is just us donning a series of different masks
anyway, so the concept of authenticity seems to be point at something nebulous
at best.

Am I less authentic when I’m on an antidepressant that helps me cope with
life? Am I less authentic if I’m forcing myself to be polite to a coworker I
don’t like? Am I more authentic when I’m alone and dancing to some song I
like?

This reminds me of some content analysis research done on leaders. It
basically splits the private life (journals, etc), public life (meetings,
conversations) and the performative life (speeches, etc). I guess one could
argue that the only time we approach authenticity is when speaking to
ourselves...

------
PaulHoule
I was watching the D-A-L anime the other day and thinking about this character

[https://date-a-live.fandom.com/wiki/Natsumi_Kyouno](https://date-a-
live.fandom.com/wiki/Natsumi_Kyouno)

who has the power to become anything so decides to become what a kid would
think is "flashy" and "cool" to cover up her own feelings of vulnerability.

------
rewgs
Yup, it’s super helpful. An alternative abbreviation of my name is one I
typically associate with shitty people (never met someone who went by that
version of the name that I liked), so whenever I find myself wanting to engage
in some form of negative behavior (even tame, like being a little lazy) I tell
myself that that’s what [abbreviated name] does, not me. Works pretty well.

------
site-packages1
There was a joke about this in the show The Office, American version. I don’t
remember the specifics, but Andy was auditioning for an a role and it required
him to put his eyes in the emergency eye wash . He was deathly afraid of this,
which was characteristic. So the advice given to him was to play a character
auditioning for a role that wasn’t afraid of the eye wash.

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maps7
Does anyone here do this? Seems like a powerful thing - I might try it. I'll
need to come up with some good names.

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sn41
This sounds a bit like "fixed role therapy" [1]

[1] [http://www.pcp-net.org/encyclopaedia/fixed-role-
ther.html](http://www.pcp-net.org/encyclopaedia/fixed-role-ther.html)

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tomhoward
See also: David Bowie.

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iguanayou
See also: Elton John

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caro_douglos
See also hunter s thompson.

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taurath
Yeah furries have figured this out for decades. It’s also also extremely
helpful to have an abstraction of yourself you can make edits to as
experiments.

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OneGuy123
This is bad and will never allow the person to be free.

Merely the fact that an "alter ego" is needed points to the fact that the
person experiences fear and anxiety towards something.

If he needs an alter ego to overcome that it is supression/dissociation. This
will ensure that this person will never be free of it.

This only looks good on the surface, but in reality this will emprison the
person for life.

Those who wish to come to the root of the issue will find many answers here:

Alice Miller: The Drama of the Gifted Child

Alice Miller: The Body Never Lies

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james_s_tayler
It's also used by top performers the world over.

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SMAAART
That's what my friend says, too bad that nobody can see him therefore nobody
listens to him.

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duncanmeech
This sounds like a viable strategy...it certainly seemed to work for Norman
Bates in Psycho.

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acp2020
Is this also why ketamine is shown such good results treating depression?

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Razengan
When you talk to yourself, do you say "I" or "we"?

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tryauuum
and you? | I cannot quite remember if I even use any pronouns in internal
monologue

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derefr
See also, section III of [https://slatestarcodex.com/2020/06/01/book-review-
origin-of-...](https://slatestarcodex.com/2020/06/01/book-review-origin-of-
consciousness-in-the-breakdown-of-the-bicameral-mind/)

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anthk
So every aliased used in the internet.

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50ckpuppet
you mean like 4chan?

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tasogare
I’ve recently browsing 4chan again (only few specific boards) and I have the
feeling it’s the reverse: people there can state their opinions, totally
disregarding how socially unacceptable it would be. Which means their alter-
ego is probably the IRL one, which has to shut up a lot of thoughts to blend
in society.

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interestica
Christopher Poole did a Ted Talk 10 years ago on the value of anonymity
online. Hiding a real-world persona has the power to create new and different
things.

[https://www.ted.com/talks/christopher_moot_poole_the_case_fo...](https://www.ted.com/talks/christopher_moot_poole_the_case_for_anonymity_online/transcript)

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monadic2
I can't be the only person uncomfortable interacting with someone who is
obviously performing some role.

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monadic2
I wonder when it will become taboo to know one's birth name.

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tryauuum
can't tell if you indeed don't know about taboos about birth names or you are
being ironic... It's hard to detect irony online

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monadic2
I actually am unaware about taboos regarding birth names. Please let me know
of my ignorance.

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tryauuum
Weird, I tried to google it and found almost nothing. I was sure many cultures
had this tradition when they call their child a fake name, while keeping real
name a secret. It is thought that evil forces cannot harm child if they don't
know their real name.

All I could find was a paragraph on wikipedia:

All previously mentioned names fall into domestic category were used in family
circle. However, when a person entered a broader social group (changing his
occupation or place of residence), his name was replaced or supplemented by
another. This sort of nickname exceeds family names in number - an adult has
more distinct characteristics that can be used as a basis for a nickname than
a child.

