Who Are You? This Is the Question.

[DISCLAIMER]

On July 11, 2023, I posted a blog entry entitled Who Are You? in which I stated of the question “who are you?”:

I can’t count how many television shows, films, streaming series, and songs I’ve encountered which contain a similar motif [as was depicted in the 1951 animated film Alice in Wonderland—based on the novel Through the Looking-Glass, and What Alice Found There—in which a caterpillar asks Alice who she is]. What may seem like a simple question turns out to be one of the most difficult to answer.

Prior to content related to the current blogpost, I most recently encountered this question when watching the hip hop-inspired film Highest 2 Lowest (2025), as character David King states to character Yung Felon:

You’re hollow on the inside. You’re lonely on the inside. You’re quiet on the inside. You hurt on the inside. That’s what I wanna feel. That’s what I wanna see. That’s what I wanna know. I wanna know what’s inside you. Fuck all this fake outdoors shit! Who are you!?

For years, I used to mentally grapple with the question about who I was. Like Yung Felon, I didn’t know the answer. Regarding this matter, on October 29, 2024, I stated in a blogpost entitled Seriously, Who Are You?:

From time to time, when practicing Rational Emotive Behavior Therapy (REBT), I challenge unproductive assumptions of the clients with whom I work by asking a simple question: who are you? Interestingly, I find that many people seem not to know themselves.

Apparently, I’m not the only person alive not to have known who he was at any given point in time – as the answer to this abstract question isn’t as unwavering as one may believe. Pertaining to this matter, on April 15, 2025, in a blog entry entitled Who You Are, I stated:

As many times as I’ve lost count about how often this motif presents in various forms of media content, I don’t know how frequently I’ve asked people “who are you?” without receiving a response unrelated to merely their name. “I’m Sarah,” an individual may respond.

Over the years, I’ve devoted a significant amount of time to exploring a sufficient answer to this question for my own life. Now, I invite you to consider whether or not you know who you are.

Who I thought I was at nine-years-old wasn’t who I believed myself to be at 19. The same was true from 19 to 29 to 39-years-old. Additionally, who I understood myself to be at 39 wasn’t who I now consider myself to be at 49 (in a couple of days, that is).

Who I am is a dynamic matter, not a stagnant conclusion for now and all time to come. Given this perspective, people who are unaware of how their concept of selfhood is subject to change remain ignorant about who they are in this moment.

Yet again, only two days before I turn 49-years-old, I’ve once more encountered this reoccurring motif. Earlier today, when listening to an electronic dance music (EDM) DJ set by Tina Says, she spun the track “Deeper” (2024) by Ruback and Adam Sellouk.  

I couldn’t hear the lyrics clearly, so I searched around and discovered the song “Tension” (2015) by Morten Granau and Ruback. Just as I’ve remixed blog content regarding the question of “who are you?” Ruback’s recycled lyrical content from 2015 to 2024 states:

Who are you?

This is the question

You must go deeper than this

You have to go deeper

(Deeper, deeper, deeper, deeper)

[…]

How can it be a common world?

It’s a most uncommon world

Whatever it is that appears for you, you are the seer of it

You are the one who sees it

Even the interpretation, even the sense of identity

Even identifying with something

Judgements, actions, and reactions

All of these are phenomena that you are observing

Who are you? This is the question. If you don’t meditate on this matter, how will you – the seer of what appears before oneself – interpret, identify, judge, act, or react when “all of these phenomena that you are observing” aren’t filtered by who you are as the observer?

Genuinely, who are you? Do you even know? “Fuck all this fake outdoors shit! Who are you!?”

If you’re looking for a provider who tries to work to help you understand how thinking impacts physical, mental, emotional, and behavioral elements of your life, I invite you to reach out today by using the contact widget on my website.

As the world’s foremost EDM and hip hop-influenced REBT psychotherapist—promoting content related to EDM, I’m pleased to try to help people with an assortment of issues from anger (hostility, rage, and aggression) to relational issues, adjustment matters, trauma experience, justice involvement, attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder, anxiety and depression, and other mood or personality-related matters. 

At Hollings Therapy, LLC, serving all of Texas, I aim to treat clients with dignity and respect while offering a multi-lensed approach to the practice of psychotherapy and life coaching. My mission includes: Prioritizing the cognitive and emotive needs of clients, an overall reduction in client suffering, and supporting sustainable growth for the clients I serve. Rather than simply trying to help you to feel better, I want to try to help you get better!

Deric Hollings, LPC, LCSW

Photo credit, fair use

References:

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Apple Music. (n.d.). Adam Sellouk. Apple Inc. Retrieved from https://music.apple.com/gb/artist/adam-sellouk/1546131877

Apple Music. (n.d.). Morten Granau. Apple Inc. Retrieved from https://music.apple.com/us/artist/morten-granau/319665434

Apple Music. (n.d.). Ruback. Apple Inc. Retrieved from https://music.apple.com/gb/artist/ruback/556809605

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