David Goggins psychological state
What do you all think about his mental state? Do you all think he has ever really come to terms with his past? I think this is all something that is not really addressed about him and to me it is quite clear... just my opinion thought. I think self help is great and I have followed David Goggins for years and his voice has got me through some extremely hard times but I recently came to an insight within myself which has shifted something within me and it made me think of his situation.
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Whilst he says is the 'master of his own mind', that doesn't mean he is an integrated person who has 'individuated' from his trauma, rather it means he has mastered his ability to remain in a position that he cannot get out of (he has learnt to thrive in prison). He has taken up the role of the aggressor (his father) in order to not be the victim (the child). In taking up the role of the aggressor essentially has remained a imprisoned to his childhood abuse. He has essentially convicted himself to a lifetime of punishment for... being abused. In continuing to push himself to the limit of his own capabilities he will never actually be free from prison. His key to freedom is to face the parts of himself that has been frozen in time (imprisoned) he must come to terms with what happened to him, 'Integration'.
Throughout his life he seems to have numbed his pain in different roles, the fat pest worker spraying for cockroaches (the disassociated child) or the character he has created, 'Goggins' (Trunnis 'Goggins'). What is so fascinating is that people usually speak out what they are enacting (textbook example of a freudian slip). He routinely tells his audience that he had to BECOME another character yet that character is not him, it is the aggressor (his father). He is attempting to become 'the baddest man on the planet' who in his eyes is Trunnis. If you look at how he talks about himself when he was spraying for cockroaches there are multiple insights. When he would act of trying to self sooth through binge eating he labelled that person a 'weak, worthless, piece of shit' but now he is attempting to soothe himself through action and this is what is profoundly beautiful about his predicament. He has become the 'higher version of himself' to prove to himself that he is not 'worthless'. But simultaneously he is also pushing himself to such extremes because he subconsciously thinks that in doing so it would make his father finally see his worth and thus, stop hitting him.
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My point being... whilst we can all strive to become our 'higher self', David's message does not address the fact that we cannot achieve full peace, full integration with our highest self without going to the route of our pain (which I do not believe he does).