Review: The Inner Self: The joy of discovering who we really are

The Inner Self: The joy of discovering who we really are by Hugh Mackay
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

This book is basically an epic therapy sesh that I highly recommend to EVERY SINGLE PERSON IN THE WORLD. Literally everyone. If you don't appreciate it, you're proving its point. In which case you need to read it again.

I thought this book would provide some interesting insight into how to get to know who I am deep down. I thought there would be some philosophical suggestions about the nature of the soul and how we can all learn more about ourselves through being more loving, compassionate people.

Both true.

What I did not expect, however, was the emotional rollercoaster this book took me on.

I related to every single thing this book said. If not personally, then by identifying it in others. See, this book talks about all the ways we hide from who we really are. Here's the list he works through:

-Addiction
-Ambition
-Anxiety
-Arrogance
-Busyness
-Complacency/Certainty
-Fantasy
-Fatalism
-'Forgetting'
-Guilt and Shame
-Happiness (pursuit of)
-Information Technology
-Masks and Labels
-Materialism
-Nostalgia
-Perfectionism
-Projection
-Religion and Science
-Victimhood
-Work

If any of these words strikes a chord in you you're going to have some work to do, my friend. And that's just the Top 20.

Honestly, so many of these topics were so revealing I had to put the book down and just sit in the feelings it stirred up. It wasn't fun at all, but it was extremely cathartic - like that sense of refreshment you get after a good cry. Only, through pressing on with the book, I know I only scratched the surface. This book has left me with a lot of homework.

It brilliantly utilises personal stories to demonstrate examples but the way it was written had my mind easily drifting to examples from my own life anyway. It was rather confronting at times but I found the more difficult something was for me, the more it highlighted that it's an area of my life that clearly needs work. The case studies demonstrate that you are not alone - that the way we might be hiding may be detrimental, but it's not uncommon. It grounds ideas in reality, but it also gives hope that these things can be overcome if we choose to put the effort in.

It's definitely going to rub some people the wrong way, but those will be the people in denial - for example, the person who reads the bit about busyness and decides this book is full of crap because they're not hiding from anything, they're just genuinely busy ALL THE TIME. (You're lying to yourself, my busy friend.) Hopefully these people are the minority, and they find their way back to its truths eventually.

It is my hope that people will read this with an open mind and embrace the journey it takes them on, learning more about themselves along the way. I certainly feel that there's more of myself I need to get to know properly.

Honestly, this is one of the best books I've read in a very long time.

The majority of the book involves confronting some hard truths, but it ends with hope. The book concludes with chapters on how to do the work, and resources available. I found that really important, and I'm grateful for it. Without finishing the book, I'd have just been adrift in a turmultuous sea of emotions. Instead, I have a better sense of what I can do to begin the process of finding my Inner Self.

I'll be recommending this to everyone I meet, and I anticipate returning to it regularly. I think I'd even go so far as to say it is the Best Book of 2020. Absolutely life-changing - and I'm not one for meaningless platitudes.

Read it, please.

With thanks to Macmillan for a copy

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