STANDING ON THE SHOULDERS OF GIANTS
Ilsa J. Bick on Self-Awareness & Reflection
We all have our fictions, little lies we tell ourselves to keep going from one day to the next.
—Ilsa J. Bick
Psychiatrist and author
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Meet the Mind Behind the Quote
Ilsa J. Bick
Ilsa J. Bick is an American psychiatrist and author of young-adult fiction, including the Ashes trilogy and Draw the Dark. Her novels often explore survival, trauma, identity, memory, and difficult moral choices. This quotation comes from her fiction and points toward a recurring psychological idea: people construct narratives that help them make sense of themselves and continue through difficult circumstances.
Looking Beneath the Surface
Human beings are storytelling creatures. We connect events into explanations: why someone left, why we failed, what kind of person we are, what the future will probably hold.
Some of these stories are accurate enough to guide us. Others are protective fictions—interpretations that make an uncomfortable reality easier to tolerate.
That protection is not automatically harmful. Sometimes a temporary story gives us enough stability to keep moving until we are ready to understand something more fully.
The danger appears when we forget that the story is an interpretation. “I do not care” may protect us from grief. “I never wanted it anyway” may protect us from rejection. “Nothing can change” may protect us from the risk of trying.
Self-awareness asks us to become curious about the narratives that organize our lives. Not every story must be destroyed. But the stories with the greatest influence deserve occasional fact-checking.
Bringing It Into Your Life
A useful exercise is to notice sentences that begin with “I always,” “I never,” “people like me,” or “that is just how things are.” These phrases often signal a story that has become indistinguishable from fact.
Ask what evidence supports it, what evidence complicates it, and what the story protects you from feeling or attempting.
A more accurate story does not need to be relentlessly positive. It simply needs to leave room for reality—and perhaps for change.
A Question to Sit With
What story about yourself helps you get through the day but may no longer be completely true? What becomes possible if you revise it rather than automatically repeat it?
One Thought to Keep
The stories we tell ourselves can protect us, but growth requires occasionally testing whether those stories are still true.
Source & Attribution
Fiction quotation attributed to Ilsa J. Bick; exact primary title/page not established in this review
Common Attribution
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Continue exploring the people, ideas, and pillars behind this wisdom.