SELF-AFFIRMATION DOESN'T DO ANYTHING.

Al Franken's spoof of daily affirmation, a rage of New Age self-help in the early 1990s, was superb. Self-affirmation has morphed in nearly three decades into a social disease of identity assertion. Today's selfie generation has taken self-affirmation of the most bizarre identities to a new level. 

The social mandate that has grown out of shameless self-affirmation is "No Judgement!" No matter how bizarrely someone presents themselves in your face, you are commanded in certain social circles to be taciturn. This is particularly true in the so-called LGBTQIA social realm as it is contrived in social media and LGBTQIA media. Whether it actually exists is questionable. 

Self-affirmation is the pop mutation of a solid therapeutic tool, which has been used successfully for many years. This exercise teaches a client to identify themself (own who they are) by having them continue out loud the sentence, "My name is (blank) and I am ...". The conclusion of the sentence can include as many nouns, pronouns or adjectives as the client can identify with. 

The purpose of the therapeutic exercise varies depending on the functional level of the client. A severely disturbed person may say they are a cat or an alien. I high-function person may say they are anything from a philanthropist to a misanthrope. In any case, it is a first minor step in a therapeutic relationship to get the client to start self-assessing, not blindly self-accepting. 

Here's where the current identity-centered form of self-affirmation has gone off the rails. 

Today's childish self-affirmers see acting out their identities as a defense for dysfunctional behavior, even antisocial behavior. The concept of "shaming" as a cardinal sin is a symptom of this narcissistic demand that whatever I say I am or whatever I think is "right"  is above any criticism, inquisitiveness  or analysis. 

Rather than starting with self-affirmation as an internal exercise of exploration, self-affirmation has become an aggressive defence against any attempt to address problems with behavior associated with a particular identity. "I'm a slut! So what?" or "I'm morbidly obese! So what?" These forms of self-affirmation are dysfunctional and actually self-denigrating. That is their purpose. 

The basic verbal defence of most people with mental or behavioral illness is "Leave me alone!" By alienating those who may ask questions, offer suggestions or simply point out blatant dysfunctional behavior, the mentally ill person feels safer,. even temporarily powerful. Emphasis on "temporarily"! Eventually, without healthy socialization and its aid with self-assessment, the dysfunction and disease are allowed to take root (become habitual) with disastrous consequences.

We are living in a time of enabling. We are surrounded by adults refusing to be socially integrated and responsible adults. They come from homes which have enabled and coddled them into adolescence and beyond. The enabling and coddling has been reinforced in their schools. They have not been required to work hard. They have been allowed to make the world up to suit themselves. This may prove to be catastrophic.

Understanding oneself begins with acknowledging one's positive and negative behaviors in society as well as in privacy. Simply demanding that society accept whatever you are saying, doing or not doing is a form of tantrum. It is unhealthy for the individual. It is unhealthy for that individual's environment. If enough people succumb to this mentality, chaos will rule and society itself will fail.