Embracing multiple personas
Few years ago I have had the good fortune of being seated next to a beautiful young woman in a flight from Istanbul to New York. She was a college student. We had polite conversation in Turkish during the flight. She was born to Turkish parents in the United States and grew up in New York City. Her Turkish was perfect. It was clear that she visited Turkey every year. When we landed at JFK in New York City she started talking to her boyfriend on the phone. She was speaking English now. There was a night-and-day difference between the Turkish-speaking persona and the English-speaking persona of this young woman. Her English-speaking persona was a very confident American woman. Her Turkish-speaking persona, on the other hand, was more traditional.
Those of us who are bilingual are aware of this. Our first persona is strongly influenced by our native language. We project a different persona when we speak in our second language.
My native language is Turkish. In my daily life, I have difficulty expressing myself in English even though I have lived in the United States for more than 38 years. My Turkish-speaking persona is rather assertive. My English-speaking persona, on the other hand, comes across as timid.
Starting in 2008, I have expressed my ideas using the pen-name “Suresh Emre”. The (blog) writing process was a journey of self-actualization. My “Suresh Emre” persona is more interesting than my boring “Turkish Quant working among the wolves of NYC” persona. When I write under the pen-name “Suresh Emre” I feel that I am expressing my true-self. This is why I identify with my “Suresh Emre” persona more than my Turkish/American persona.
“Suresh” means “controller of angels” in Sanskrit. This name was given to me by Shrii Shrii Anandamurti through my acharya (meditation teacher). I was deeply influenced by the spiritual philosophy of Shrii Shrii Anandamurti.
The literal meaning of “Emre” is “brother” in Turkish but “Emre” was always associated with the mystic poets of Anatolia and Central Asia. “Emre” describes a man who is deeply in love.
“Suresh” represents my Indian influences and “Emre” reminds readers about my Anatolian background. I am very proud of my Anatolian heritage.
Embracing multiple personas is different from the “Dissociative Identity Disorder (Multiple Personality Disorder)”. Look up the definitions of “persona” and “personality”. We are not talking about multiple personalities here. We are talking about the self-actualization process by projecting our honest feelings and ideas under a pen-name.
Throughout history philosophers and writers used pen-names. I don’t see anything wrong with maintaining multiple personas in the form of pen-names. On the contrary, I think that multiple personas are liberating.
Author’s articles on physics and philosophy: sureshemre.wordpress.com