Post-Truth and False Self in Philosophy-Psychoanalysis Dynamics

Abstract

This article explores the psychoanalytic, philosophical, and socio-political dimensions of the post-truth era, highlighting how inauthenticity, hypocrisy, and relational alienation shape individual and collective life. Drawing from Freud, Winnicott, Lacan, Žižek, Baudrillard, and contemporary analyses of culture and politics, it examines how truth becomes destabilized in favor of appearances, simulations, and subjective constructions. The digital sphere amplifies this transformation, producing curated identities, emotional commodification, and the spread of “alternative facts.” These dynamics foster loneliness, mistrust, and the erosion of authentic dialogue, even as society appears increasingly interconnected. Psychoanalysis provides a lens to understand these processes, showing how prohibitions on knowing the self, shame, and secrecy intensify alienation and hinder emotional growth. In this context, relationships are often used to deny relationships, violence takes subtle yet pervasive forms, and collective belonging is reshaped through ideological or technological control. By 2025, these patterns have crystallized into a lived social reality where post-truth permeates politics, culture, and personal identity. Yet, within this condition lies potential for renewal: cultivating critical thinking, emotional literacy, and relational ethics may transform fragmentation into resilience. Ultimately, the challenge for contemporary societies is to navigate between truth and simulacrum while sustaining spaces of authentic recognition and connection.