Authenticity
"The privilege of a lifetime is to become who you truly are."
Carl Jung
Authenticity
Early in Being and Time Heidegger introduces a distinction between two modes of being (Seinsmodi) of Dasein, which he terms “authenticity” (Eigentlichkeit) and “inauthenticity” (Uneigentlichkeit). You exist in the mode of authenticity if you have “chosen, or achieved yourself in your being,” and you exist in the mode of inauthenticity if you have “lost or only seemingly achieved yourself” (SZ 42). In the course of Heidegger’s argument these notions take on an increasingly complex role in teasing out the basic concepts of human existence.
For Heidegger, being authentic does not require some exceptional effort or discipline, like meditation. Rather, it entails a kind of shift in attention and engagement, a reclaiming of oneself, from the way we typically fall into our everyday ways of being. It is about how we approach the world in our daily activities. Dasein inevitably moves between our day-by-day enmeshment with the they and a seizing upon glimpses of our truer, uniquely individual possibilities for existence. The challenge is to bring ourselves back from our lostness in the they to retrieve ourselves so that we can become our authentic selves. This finding of itself by Dasein, Heidegger says, is a response to the voice or call of conscience. He does not mean here anything like a moral imperative to do the right thing according to an external law, but rather a clear and focused listening to and heeding of one’s unique capabilities and potential. In doing so Dasein authentically understands itself and is able to act in the world accordingly. This type of action for Heidegger would be authentic and ethical action in the sense of its indication that one is being true to oneself, hence the language of conscience. For instance, in career development work in college and university, counselors offer guidance to students so they can better understand themselves in terms of their aptitudes, interests, and abilities. They encourage them to discover their true “vocation” (their calling), the type of work which would suit them and be their own. This calling is precisely what Heidegger is talking about. Heidegger refers to this unique and special moment in Dasein’s existence, when there is clarity about the self, as the moment of vision. In conjunction with this moment of clear vision, Heidegger uses the concept of resoluteness to capture what it means for Dasein to heed this call of conscience and act accordingly and consistently, over time. He says that resoluteness or resolve means “letting oneself be summoned out of one’s lostness in the ‘they’” (Heidegger, 1962, p. 345) and carving out one’s unique and authentic place in and approach to the world, doing one’s work with this special intent and self-knowledge.
“When people are free to do as they please, they usually imitate each other.”
