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The simplest way that I can understand therapy is that we're born a certain way, we're taught to be something different, and we spend our whole lives trying to unravel it and ultimately align ourselves with who we really are. Life, experiences, traumas -- whatever -- they all add up to make you some altered version of what you are. So there's this battle that goes on between what you are and what you become, and it's been very important for me to unravel what I was taught to be or what I became. and to draw a direct parallel to music -- the closer I get back to being who I really am, the stronger the music gets, because I think what talent I do have is connected to that person, it's not a manipulative process, it's intuitive. You can learn about chords and guitars, but there's a piece of you that makes it individual, and it's been a slow process for me to become whatever it is that I'm supposed to be.

Billy Corgan#1

IdentityArtLifeGrowthTherapy

About this quote

What does it mean?
Life often forces us away from our true selves, and personal growth involves reversing that process.
In plain terms
We get altered by life and need to work back to who we are.
What can you take from it?
Unlearn societal conditioning to find yourself.

Where it applies

  • personal development
  • creative work
  • healing

Putting it to work

  • identify learned behaviors
  • align with true instincts

Questions to consider

  • What behaviors did you learn that hide your true self?
  • How does alignment affect your output?

Another view

It simplifies complex psychological processes into a single goal.

More from Billy Corgan

  1. I think the original, 'They're the next Jane's Addiction' things that people said about us in the beginning have been pretty much wiped out.

    Permalink to quote #2
  2. I have a hard time thinking of men trying to sing my songs, because I think my perspective is very much feminine... For me the idea of having a feminine perspe…

    Permalink to quote #3
  3. The closer I get back to being who I really am, the stronger the music gets.

    Permalink to quote #4

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