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Authenticity is a concept in psychology and existential psychiatry, existentialist philosophy and aesthetics. In existentialism, authenticity is the degree to which a person’s actions are congruent with his or her beliefs and desires, despite external pressures to conformity. The conscious Self comes to terms with the condition of Geworfenheit, of having been thrown into an absurd world (without values or meaning) not of his or her own making, thereby encountering external forces and influences different from and other than the Self.^[2] In human relations, a person’s lack of authenticity is considered bad faith in dealing with other people and with one's self; thus, authenticity is the instruction of the Oracle of Delphi: “Know thyself.”^[3]

Concerning authenticity in art, the European philosophers Jean Paul Sartre and Theodor Adorno held opposing views and opinions about jazz, a genre of American music; Sartre said jazz is authentic and Adorno said jazz is inauthentic. The subcultures of punk rock and Heavy metal music require artistic authenticity, lest a musician be labelled poseur for his or her perceived lack of authenticity (creative, musical, personal);^[4] likewise, artistic authenticity is integral to the genres of “House music, Grunge, and Garage rock, Hip-hop, Techno, and show tunes.^[5] In every realm of human activity, authenticity extends the instructions of the Oracle: “Don’t merely know thyself — be thyself.”^[6]

History

In the philosophy of existentialism, the prime example of personal authenticity is Socrates’s admonition that: “The unexamined life is not worth living.”^[7] In the 18th century, Romantic philosophers recommended intuition, emotion, and a connection to Nature as the necessary counterbalances to the intellectualism of the Age of Enlightenment.^[8] In the 20th century, Anglo–American preoccupations with authenticity centre upon the writings of existentialist philosophers whose native tongue is not English; therefore, the faithful, true, and accurate translation of the term existentialism was much debated, to which end the philosopher Walter Kaufmann assembled the canon of existentialist philosophers, which includes the Dane Søren Kierkegaard (1813–1855), the German Martin Heidegger (1889–1976), and the Frenchman Jean-Paul Sartre (1905–1980), for whom the conscious Self comes to terms with existence (being and living) in an absurd, materialist world featuring external forces, e.g. Geworfenheit (Thrown-ness), and intellectual influences different from and other than the Self. Therefore, personal authenticity is in how a man or a woman acts and changes in response to the influences of the external world upon the Self. Among artists, authenticity in art describes a work of art that is faithful to the values of the artist.^[9] In the field of psychology, authenticity identifies a person living life in accordance with his or her true Self, personal values, rather than according to the external demands of society, such as social conventions, kinship, and duty.^[10]^[11]^[12]

Existential pesrpctives

Sartre

Intelligible descriptions of the abstract concepts that constitute authenticity usually indicate the descriptive limits of language; thus, to describe the negative space surrounding the condition of being inauthentic, examples of inauthentic living illustrate the condition of being an authentic person.^[13] To that descriptive end, the novels of Jean-Paul Sartre are in language that makes authenticity conceptually intelligible through the stories of anti-heroic characters, men and women who base their actions upon external, psychological pressures — such as the social pressure to appear to be a certain kind of person; the pressure to adopt a given way of life; and the pressure to prostitute personal integrity (moral values and aesthetic standards) in exchange for the comfort (physical, mental, and moral) of social conformity. The novelist Sartre explains existential philosophy through the stories of men and women who do not understand their own reasoning for acting as they do, people who ignore crucial facts about their own lives, in order to avoid unpleasant facts about being an inauthentic person with an identity defined from outside the self.

Absolute freedom is the vertiginous experience necessary for being an authentic person, yet such freedom can be so unpleasant as to impel people to choose an inauthentic life. As an aspect of authenticity, absolute freedom determines a person’s relation with the real world, a relation not based upon or determined by a system of values or an ideology. In this manner, authenticity is connected with creativity, and the will to act must be born of the person. In that vein, Heidegger speaks of absolute freedom as modes of living determined by personal choice. As a philosopher, Sartre identified, decsribed, and explained what is an inauthentic existence to avoid in order to not define what is an authentic mode of living.^[14]

Søren Kierkegaard

Personal authenticity depends upon the person finding an authentic faith, and so be true to himself and to herself. That moral compromises inherent to the ideologies of bourgeois society and Christianity challenge the personal integrity of a person who seeks to live an authentic life, determined by the self.^[15] That a mass-culture society diminishes the significance of personal individuality, by way of social “levelling”, which is realised through news media that provide people with beliefs and opinions constructed by someone other than the self. A person can attain authentic faith by facing reality and choosing to live according to the facts of the material world, which is denied by passively accepting religious faith that excludes authentic thought from a person’s world-view.^[15] Kierkegaard’s philosophy of existentialism shows that personal authenticity is a personal choice based upon experience of the real world;^[15] thus, in Practice in Christianity (1850), Kierkegaard said:

Therefore, it is a risk to preach, for as I go up into that holy place — whether the church is packed or as good as empty, whether I, myself, am aware of it or not, I have one listener more than can be seen, an invisible listener, God in heaven, whom I certainly cannot see, but who truly can see me. . . . Truly, it is a risk to preach! Most people, no doubt, have the idea that to step out on the stage as an actor, to venture into the danger of having all eyes focused on one, is something that requires courage. Yet, in one sense, this danger, like everything on the stage, is an illusion, because the actor, of course, is personally outside it all; his task is precisely to deceive, to dissemble, to represent someone else, and to reproduce, accurately, someone else’s words. The proclaimer of Christian truth, on the other hand, steps forward into a place where, even if the eyes of all are not focused on him, the eye of an omniscient one is. His task is: to be himself, and in a setting, God’s house, which, all eyes and ears, requires only one thing of him — that he should be himself, be true. That he should be true, that is, that he, himself, should be what he proclaims [to be], or at least strive to be that, or at least be honest enough to confess, about himself, that he is not that. . . . How risky it is to be the I who preaches, the one speaking, am I who, by preaching and as he preaches, commits himself unconditionally, displays his life so that, if possible, one could look directly into his soul — to be this I, that is risky!
— Søren Kierkegaard, Practice in Christianity (1850) pp. 234–235

Friedrich Nietzsche

Personal authenticity can be achieved without religion, which requires accepting pre-determined virtues (eternal valuations) as unquestionably true. In living authentically, a person elevates himself or herself above the mass culture in order to transcend the limits of conventional morality, thereby personally determining what is and what is not good and evil, without the pre-determined virtues of conformity “on account of which we hold our grandfathers in esteem”; an authentic life is achieved by avoiding the “herding animal morality.”^[16] ^[17] To “stand alone [is to be] strong and original enough to initiate opposite estimates of value, to transvaluate and invert ‘eternal valuations’.”^[16] Common to the existential perspectives of Kierkegaard and Nietzsche are “the responsibilities they place on the individual to take active part in the shaping of one’s beliefs, and then to be willing to act on that belief.”^[15]

Uriel Abulof

The call of personal authenticity — being true to oneself — deceivingly conceals the deep chasms between two divergent interpretations of the "self": essentialist and existentialist. Essentialist authenticity demands we find and follow our preordained destiny, our inborn core. Conversely, existentialist authenticity prescribes “determine your destiny!” urging people to become aware of their freedom to choose their own path, which may, but need not, join that of others. While essentialists search for signs of self-betrayals, existentialists defiantly ask, “How am I not myself?” and answer: only when I forget my freedom, and surrender to “bad faith.” Otherwise, my choices – whatever they might be – constitute me.^[18]

Erich Fromm

A very different definition of authenticity was proposed by Erich Fromm^[19] in the mid-1900s. He considered behavior of any kind, even that wholly in accord with societal mores, to be authentic if it results from personal understanding and approval of its drives and origins, rather than merely from conformity with the received wisdom of the society. Thus a Frommean authentic may behave consistently in a manner that accords with cultural norms, for the reason that those norms appear on consideration to be appropriate, rather than simply in the interest of conforming with current norms. Fromm thus considers authenticity to be a positive outcome of enlightened and informed motivation rather than a negative outcome of rejection of the expectations of others. He described the latter condition – the drive primarily to escape external restraints typified by the "absolute freedom" of Sartre – as "the illusion of individuality",^[20] as opposed to the genuine individuality that results from authentic living.

Journalism

To identify, describe, and define authenticity, existential philosophers, such as Kierkegaard, Nietzsche, and Heidegger investigated the existential and ontological significance of the social constructs that are the norms of society. For a journalist, aversion to and turning away from the unquestioning acceptance of social norms contributes to the production of intellectually authentic reportage, achieved by the reporter choosing to be true to his and her professional ethics and personal values. Yet in the praxis of journalism, the reporter’s authenticity (professional and personal) is continually contradicted by the business requirements of corporate publishing.^[21]

Criticism

The philosopher Jacob Golomb said that existential authenticity is a way of life incompatible with a system of moral values that comprehends all persons.^[22]

Cultural activities

Staged authenticity refers to information or performances presented by tourism professionals and locals. It is the way that locals perceive what tourists want to see and experience.

Due to different groups' and individual's different experiences, views of authenticity regarding cultural activities vary widely and often differ between groups and individuals.^[23] For Sartre, jazz music was a representation of freedom; this may have been in part because jazz was associated with African American culture, and was thus in opposition to Western culture generally, which Sartre considered hopelessly inauthentic. Theodor Adorno, however, another writer and philosopher concerned with the notion of authenticity, despised jazz music because he saw it as a false representation that could give the appearance of authenticity but that was as much bound up in concerns with appearance and audience as many other forms of art. Heidegger in his later life associated authenticity with non-technological modes of existence, seeing technology as distorting a more "authentic" relationship with the natural world.

Some writers on authenticity in the twentieth century considered the predominant cultural norms to be inauthentic; not only because they were seen as forced on people, but also because, in themselves, they required people to behave inauthentically towards their own desires, obscuring true reasons for acting. Advertising, in as much as it attempted to give people a reason for doing something that they did not already possess, was a "textbook" example of how Western culture distorted the individual for external reasons. Race relations are seen as another limit on authenticity, as they demand that the self engage with others on the basis of external attributes. An early example of the connection between inauthenticity and capitalism was made by Karl Marx, whose notion of "alienation" can be linked to the later discourse on the nature of inauthenticity.

Individuals concerned with living authentically have often led unusual lives that opposed cultural norms; the rise of the counter-culture in the 1960s in Europe and America was seen by many as a new opportunity to live an authentic existence. Many, however, have pointed out that anti-authoritarianism and eccentricity does not necessarily constitute an authentic state of being. The connection of the violation of cultural norms to authenticity, however, is strong and real^{[citation needed]}, and continues today: among artists who explicitly violate the conventions of their profession, for example. The connection of inauthenticity to capitalism is contained in the notion of "selling out," used to describe an artist whose work has become inauthentic after achieving commercial success and thus becoming to an extent integrated into an inauthentic system.

In music

Artistic authenticity is required of the artist who would be a denizen of the subcultures of Punk rock and Heavy Metal, which are societies that criticize and exclude musicians, composers, and bands for being poseurs — for being insufficiently authentic or plainly inauthentic as artists.^[4] A poseur is a man or a woman or a musical band who copies the dress, the style of speech, and the manners of the subculture, yet is excluded for not understanding the artistic philosophy, not understanding the sociology, and not understanding the value system of the subculture; talking the talk, without walking the walk.^[24] The authenticity of an artist has three bases: (i) long-term dedication to the music scene; (ii) historical knowledge of the subculture; and (iii) the personal integrity (inner voice) for correct artistic choices.^[25] At the extreme metal end of the heavy-metal genre, the subgenre of Black metal who value artistic authenticity, emotional sincerity, and extreme expression.^[26] In light of such systems of moral value in the arts, a working-class band with a formal recording contract might appear to be sell outs to the heavy metal and punk rock communities.^[5] The academic Deena Weinstein said that “The code of authenticity, which is central to the heavy metal subculture, is demonstrated in many ways”, such as clothing, an emotional singing voice, and thematic substance to the songs.^[27]

In marketing

In marketing brand authenticity is defined as the degree to which brand identity is causally linked to brand behaviour.^[28] Authenticity is perceived, if a brand fulfills its brand promise in a unique, consistent and continuous way.^[29]

A large part of successful influencer marketing is linked to authenticity. Influencers have codified authenticity management techniques such as passionate authenticity and transparent authenticity.^[30]

References

^ Jean-Paul Sartre, Existentialism and Music That Lives It: The Doors, Pink Floyd and . . . Drake?:Buzz:Music Times
^ Authenticity (Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy)
^ J. Childers/G. Hentzi eds., The Columbia Dictionary of Modern Literary and Cultural Criticism (1995) p. 103
^ ^a ^b "Homeward Bound. Towards a Post-Gendered Pop Music: Television Personalities' My Dark Places". Archived from the original on 2008-12-01. Retrieved 2012-07-30. My Dark Places April 10th, 2006 by Godfre Leung (Domino, 2006).
^ ^a ^b Barker, Hugh and Taylor, Yuval. Faking it: The Quest for Authenticity in Popular Music. W.W.Norton and Co., New York, 2007.
^ Abulof, Uriel (2017-12-01). "Be Yourself! How Am I Not myself?". Society. 54 (6): 530–532. doi:10.1007/s12115-017-0183-0. ISSN 0147-2011. S2CID 148897359.
^ Plato, Apology, 38a5–6.
^ James., Engell (1980). Creative Imagination. Cambridge: HUP. ISBN 9780674333253. OCLC 935280039.
^ “Authenticity and Art”, A Companion to Aesthetics (2009) p.000.
^ Wood, A. M., Linley, P. A., Maltby, J., Baliousis, M., Joseph, S. (2008) The Authentic Personality: “A Theoretical and Empirical Conceptualization, and the Development of the Authenticity Scale” Archived 2011-07-17 at the Wayback Machine. Journal of Counseling Psychology 55 (3): 385–399. doi:10.1037/0022-0167.55.3.385
^ Authentic life Archived 2018-10-29 at the Wayback Machine. Psychology Centre Athabasca University.
^ "Existential Psychology". Eastern Illinois University. Archived 3 June 2012 at the Wayback Machine
^ Golomb, Jacob (1995). In Search of Authenticity. London and New York: Routledge. ISBN 978-0-415-11946-7.
^ Baird, Forrest E.; Walter Kaufmann (2008). From Plato to Derrida. Upper Saddle River, New Jersey: Pearson Prentice Hall. ISBN 978-0-13-158591-1.
^ ^a ^b ^c ^d Holt, Kristoffer. “Authentic Journalism? A Critical Discussion about Existential Authenticity in Journalism Ethics”, Journal of Mass Media Ethics 27 (2012) p.0000.
^ ^a ^b Cite error: The named reference autogenerated1997 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
^ Nietzsche, F.W. Beyond Good and Evil: Prelude to a Philosophy of the Future (1997) H. Zimmern, Ed. Mineola, NY: Dover, p. 000.
^ Abulof, Uriel (2017-12-01). "Be Yourself! How Am I Not myself?". Society. 54 (6): 530–532. doi:10.1007/s12115-017-0183-0. ISSN 0147-2011. S2CID 148897359.
^ Fromm. Erich. Escape from Freedom (1941) Farrar & Rinehart, p. 0000.
^ Fromm E., Fear of Freedom, ch. 7
^ Merril, J.C. Existential Journalism, Revised Edition (1995) rev. ed.) Ames, IA: Iowa State University Press, p.0000.
^ Golomb, Jacob. In Search of Authenticity: From Kierkegaard to Camus (1995) London: Routledge, p.0000.
^ AJ Giannini (2010). "Semiotic and semantic implications of "authenticity"". Psychological Reports 106 (2): 611–612.
^ Weinstein, Deena. Heavy Metal: The Music and its Subculture" Da Capo Press, 2009. p. 46.
^ Larsson, Susanna. “I Bang My Head, Therefore I Am: Constructing Individual and Social Authenticity in the Heavy Metal Subculture” in Young. 21 (1). 2013. p. 95-110
^ Olson 2008, p. 47.
^ Weinstein, Deena. Heavy Metal: The Music and its Subculture" Da Capo Press, 2009. p. 46.
^ Schallehn, Mike; Burmann, Christoph; Riley, Nicola (2014). Brand authenticity: model development and empirical testing Journal of Brand Management. 23 (3), p. 193: https://doi.org/10.1108/JPBM-06-2013-0339
^ Drivers of perceived brand authenticity https://www.brandauthenticity.org/brand-authenticity.htm Retrieved 07-19-2018
^ Audrezet, Alice (July 18, 2018). "Authenticity under threat: When social media influencers need to go beyond self-presentation". Journal of Business Research – via Elsevier Science Direct.

@@ Line 9: / Line 9: @@
 In the philosophy of [[existentialism]], the prime example of personal authenticity is [[Socrates]]’s admonition that: “[[The unexamined life is not worth living]].”<ref>Plato, ''Apology'', 38a5–6.</ref> In the 18th century, [[Romanticism|Romantic]] philosophers recommended [[intuition]], emotion, and a connection to Nature as the necessary counterbalances to the [[intellectualism]] of the [[Age of Enlightenment]].<ref>{{Cite book|title=Creative Imagination.|last=James.|first=Engell|date=1980|publisher=HUP|isbn=9780674333253|location=Cambridge|oclc=935280039}}</ref> In the 20th century, Anglo–American preoccupations with authenticity centre upon the writings of [[existentialism|existentialist philosophers]] whose native tongue is not English; therefore, the faithful, true, and accurate translation of the term ''existentialism'' was much debated, to which end the philosopher [[Walter Kaufmann (philosopher)|Walter Kaufmann]] assembled the canon of existentialist philosophers, which includes the Dane [[Søren Kierkegaard]] (1813–1855), the German [[Martin Heidegger]] (1889–1976), and the Frenchman [[Jean-Paul Sartre]] (1905–1980), for whom the [[consciousness|conscious Self]] comes to terms with existence (being and living) in an [[Absurdism|absurd]], materialist world featuring external forces, e.g.  ''[[Thrownness|Geworfenheit]]'' (Thrown-ness), and intellectual influences different from and other than the [[Philosophy of the self|Self]]. Therefore, personal authenticity is in how a man or a woman acts and changes in response to the influences of the external world upon the Self. Among artists, [[authenticity in art]] describes a work of art that is faithful to the values of the artist.<ref>“Authenticity and Art”, ''A Companion to Aesthetics'' (2009) p.000.</ref> In the field of psychology, authenticity identifies a person living life in accordance with his or her true [[Self]], personal values, rather than according to the external demands of society, such as [[Convention|social conventions]], [[kinship]], and [[duty]].<ref>Wood, A. M., Linley, P. A., Maltby, J., Baliousis, M., Joseph, S. (2008) [http://personalpages.manchester.ac.uk/staff/alex.wood/Authenticity%20Scale.pdf  The Authentic Personality: “A Theoretical and Empirical Conceptualization, and the Development of the Authenticity Scale”] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110717135159/http://personalpages.manchester.ac.uk/staff/alex.wood/Authenticity%20Scale.pdf |date=2011-07-17 }}. ''Journal of Counseling Psychology'' 55 (3): 385–399. {{doi|10.1037/0022-0167.55.3.385}}</ref><ref>[http://psych.athabascau.ca/html/Glossary/demo_glossary.cgi?mode=history&term_id=1196 Authentic life] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181029232359/http://psych.athabascau.ca/html/Glossary/demo_glossary.cgi?mode=history&term_id=1196 |date=2018-10-29 }}. Psychology Centre Athabasca University.</ref><ref>[http://castle.eiu.edu/~psych/spencer/Existential.html "Existential Psychology"]. Eastern Illinois University. {{webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120603121545/http://castle.eiu.edu/~psych/spencer/Existential.html |date=3 June 2012}}</ref>
+==Existential pesrpctives==
-==Theories==
-===Existentialism===
+===Sartre===
-;Sartre
 Intelligible descriptions of the abstract concepts that constitute ''authenticity'' usually indicate the descriptive limits of language; thus, to describe the ''negative space'' surrounding the condition of ''being inauthentic'', examples of inauthentic living illustrate the condition of ''being'' an authentic person.<ref>{{cite book | last = Golomb | first = Jacob | title = In Search of Authenticity | publisher = Routledge | year = 1995 | location = London and New York | pages = | url = | doi = | id = | isbn = 978-0-415-11946-7 }}</ref> To that descriptive end, the novels of Jean-Paul Sartre are in language that makes ''authenticity'' conceptually intelligible through the stories of [[anti-hero|anti-heroic]] characters, men and women who base their actions upon external, psychological pressures — such as the social pressure to appear to be a certain kind of person; the pressure to adopt a given way of life; and the pressure to prostitute personal integrity (moral values and aesthetic standards) in exchange for the comfort (physical, mental, and moral) of social [[conformity]]. The novelist Sartre explains existential philosophy through the stories of  men and women who do not understand their own reasoning for acting as they do, people who ignore crucial facts about their own lives, in order to avoid unpleasant facts about being an ''inauthentic'' person with an identity defined from outside the self.
 Absolute freedom is the [[vertiginous]] experience necessary for being an authentic person, yet such freedom can be so unpleasant as to impel people to choose an inauthentic life. As an aspect of authenticity, absolute freedom determines a person’s ''relation'' with the real world, a relation not based upon or determined by a system of values or an ideology. In this manner, authenticity is connected with creativity, and the will to act must be born of the person. In that vein, Heidegger speaks of absolute freedom as ''modes of living'' determined by personal choice. As a philosopher, Sartre identified, decsribed, and explained what is an inauthentic existence to avoid in order to not define what is an authentic mode of living.<ref>{{cite book | last = Baird | first = Forrest E. | authorlink = |author2= Walter Kaufmann | title = From Plato to Derrida | publisher = Pearson Prentice Hall | year = 2008 | location = Upper Saddle River, New Jersey | pages = | url = | doi = | id = | isbn = 978-0-13-158591-1 }}</ref>
-;Søren Kierkegaard
+===Søren Kierkegaard===
 Personal authenticity depends upon the person finding an authentic faith, and so be true to himself and to herself. That moral compromises inherent to the ideologies of bourgeois society and Christianity challenge the personal integrity of a person who seeks to live an authentic life, determined by the self.<ref name="autogenerated1">Holt, Kristoffer. “Authentic Journalism? A Critical Discussion about Existential Authenticity in Journalism Ethics”, ''Journal of Mass Media Ethics'' 27 (2012) p.0000.</ref> That a mass-culture society diminishes the significance of personal individuality, by way of social “levelling”, which is realised through news media that provide people with beliefs and opinions constructed by someone other than the self. A person can attain authentic faith by facing reality and choosing to live according to the facts of the material world, which is denied by passively accepting religious faith that excludes authentic thought from a person’s world-view.<ref name="autogenerated1"/> Kierkegaard’s philosophy of existentialism shows that personal authenticity is a personal choice based upon experience of the real world;<ref name="autogenerated1"/> thus, in ''Practice in Christianity'' (1850), Kierkegaard  said:
 {{Quotation|Therefore, it is a risk to preach, for as I go up into that holy place — whether the church is packed or as good as empty, whether I, myself, am aware of it or not, I have one listener more than can be seen, an invisible listener, God in heaven, whom I certainly cannot see, but who truly can see me. . . .  Truly, it is a risk to preach! Most people, no doubt, have the idea that to step out on the stage as an actor, to venture into the danger of having all eyes focused on one, is something that requires courage. Yet, in one sense, this danger, like everything on the stage, is an illusion, because the actor, of course, is personally outside it all; his task is precisely to deceive, to dissemble, to represent someone else, and to reproduce, accurately, someone else’s words. The proclaimer of Christian truth, on the other hand, steps forward into a place where, even if the eyes of all are not focused on him, the eye of an omniscient one is. His task is: to be himself, and in a setting, God’s house, which, all eyes and ears, requires only one thing of him — that he should be himself, be true. That he should be true, that is, that he, himself, should be what he proclaims [to be], or at least strive to be that, or at least be honest enough to confess, about himself, that he is not that. . . . How risky it is to be the I who preaches, the one speaking, am I who, by preaching and as he preaches, commits himself unconditionally, displays his life so that, if possible, one could look directly into his soul — to be this I, that is risky! |Søren Kierkegaard, ''Practice in Christianity'' (1850) pp. 234–235|}}
-;Friedrich Nietzsche
+===Friedrich Nietzsche===
 Personal authenticity can be achieved without religion, which requires accepting pre-determined virtues (eternal valuations) as unquestionably true. In living authentically, a person elevates himself or herself above the mass culture in order to transcend the limits of conventional morality, thereby personally determining what is and what is not [[good and evil]], without the pre-determined virtues of conformity “on account of which we hold our grandfathers in esteem”; an authentic life is achieved by avoiding the “herding animal morality.”<ref name="autogenerated1997"/> <ref>Nietzsche, F.W. ''Beyond Good and Evil: Prelude to a Philosophy of the Future'' (1997) H. Zimmern, Ed. Mineola, NY: Dover, p. 000.</ref> To “stand alone [is to be] strong and original enough to initiate opposite estimates of value, to transvaluate and invert ‘eternal valuations’.”<ref name="autogenerated1997"/> Common to the existential perspectives of Kierkegaard and Nietzsche are “the responsibilities they place on the individual to take active part in the shaping of one’s beliefs, and then to be willing to act on that belief.”<ref name="autogenerated1"/>
-;Uriel Abulof
+===Uriel Abulof===
 The call of personal authenticity — being true to oneself — deceivingly conceals the deep chasms between two divergent interpretations of the "self": essentialist and existentialist. Essentialist authenticity demands we find and follow our preordained destiny, our inborn core. Conversely, existentialist authenticity prescribes “determine your destiny!” urging people to become aware of their freedom to choose their own path, which may, but need not, join that of others. While essentialists search for signs of self-betrayals, existentialists defiantly ask, “How am I not myself?” and answer: only when I forget my freedom, and surrender to “bad faith.” Otherwise, my choices – whatever they might be – constitute me.<ref>{{Cite journal|last=Abulof|first=Uriel|date=2017-12-01|title=Be Yourself! How Am I Not myself?|journal=Society|language=en|volume=54|issue=6|pages=530–532|doi=10.1007/s12115-017-0183-0|s2cid=148897359|issn=0147-2011}}</ref>
-;Erich Fromm
+===Erich Fromm===
-A very different definition of authenticity was proposed by [[Erich Fromm]]<ref>Fromm. E., Escape from Freedom, Farrar & Rinehart 1941 (also published as "Fear of Freedom" Routledge UK 1942)</ref> in the mid-1900s. He considered behavior of any kind, even that wholly in accord with societal mores, to be authentic if it results from personal understanding and approval of its drives and origins, rather than merely from conformity with the received wisdom of the society.  Thus a Frommean authentic may behave consistently in a manner that accords with cultural norms, for the reason that those norms appear on consideration to be appropriate, rather than simply in the interest of conforming with current norms. Fromm thus considers authenticity to be a positive outcome of enlightened and informed motivation rather than a negative outcome of rejection of the expectations of others. He described the latter condition – the drive primarily to escape external restraints typified by the "absolute freedom" of Sartre – as "the illusion of individuality",<ref>Fromm E., Fear of Freedom, ch. 7</ref> as opposed to the genuine individuality that results from authentic living.
+A very different definition of authenticity was proposed by [[Erich Fromm]]<ref>Fromm. Erich. ''Escape from Freedom'' (1941) Farrar & Rinehart, p. 0000.</ref> in the mid-1900s. He considered behavior of any kind, even that wholly in accord with societal mores, to be authentic if it results from personal understanding and approval of its drives and origins, rather than merely from conformity with the received wisdom of the society.  Thus a Frommean authentic may behave consistently in a manner that accords with cultural norms, for the reason that those norms appear on consideration to be appropriate, rather than simply in the interest of conforming with current norms. Fromm thus considers authenticity to be a positive outcome of enlightened and informed motivation rather than a negative outcome of rejection of the expectations of others. He described the latter condition – the drive primarily to escape external restraints typified by the "absolute freedom" of Sartre – as "the illusion of individuality",<ref>Fromm E., Fear of Freedom, ch. 7</ref> as opposed to the genuine individuality that results from authentic living.
 ==Journalism==