Why Am I Afraid To Tell You Who I Am? By John Powell

In the book, Why Am I Afraid to Tell You Who I Am?, John Powell proposes a solution to obtaining good communication skills and authentic self-love. The solution is learning to communicate and interact with others, which will result in the development of being one’s true self. He indicates that to have personal growth people must be willing to have self-awareness and be more emotionally open. He explains that people are frightened to tell others who they are because they are afraid that they will get embarrassed. This illustrates that a person’s main concern is whether he or she will be rejected or accepted by others. Powell informs us that there might be consequences we will face if no one else ever finds out what we are really like. Also, he makes it known that when people engage with others, they sometimes tend to play roles, games, and wear masks, to protect themselves from being vulnerable. In doing so, honest communication is being prevented.
Powell explains that an interaction between two people can be described as having a stimulator and a respondent. Powell discusses that Dr. Eric Berne speaks of three different ego states which are: the parent (superior, …show more content…
Powell refers to his guidelines as the five levels of good communication. Level five is cliché conversation: no communication here at all, level four is reporting facts about others: offer no personal information, level three is my ideas and judgements: ideas, beliefs and judgements are discussed, level two is the gut level communication: feelings are not attached to judgements, and level one is the peak communication: when a level of connection is reached between the responder and stimulator. Powell advices the reader to focus on level two, the gut level communication, because it allows us to openly be authentic to ourselves as well as