All of us assume roles in our lives; it is part of what it means to be a social creature.

Some roles reduce our complexity to just one dimension.

“Bad faith” is a term from existential philosophy that captures the loss of an unique identity to a role.

There are ways to interrupt bad faith that involve noticing patterns.

What happens when we become wedded to the roles that we play in life? Some of us become fixated on a script about who we are and what we can do with our lives. More strongly, we come to believe that we must act in certain ways and are unable to act in others. Roles can become identities that can confine us.

Whether a role is willingly and lovingly assumed and then validated, or if it is taken on without intention and meets with disapproval, doesn’t matter in some important ways. Any role or identity can subsume and confine people, keeping them from flourishing.

The problem with reductive labels: I am just a _____

A woman who does not work outside the home may say, I am just a mother. Someone who has long struggled with their drinking may claim, I am just a drunk.

The just a___ move reduces a person’s complexity to a set of behaviors or traits that are taken as all-defining and all-determining. These roles and identities allegedly have huge explanatory power for those who inhabit them and for the rest of us. They also have evaluative power.

Imagine the mother is really interested in becoming more involved with a........

© Psychology Today