Personal Fable

Personal Fable

Adolescent egocentrism can be divided into two separate forms: the imaginary audience and the personal fable. The first relates to the adolescent living life believing he is constantly being watched and judged by others, and that others are as concerned with his appearance and behaviour as he himself is. The personal fable results in the adolescent perceiving himself as special and unique, believing no one can relate to his personal experiences. It is also characterized by exaggerated feelings of invulnerability. Feelings of uniqueness may stem from fascination with one's own thoughts to the point where an adolescent believes that his or her thoughts or experiences are completely novel and unique when compared to the thoughts or experiences of others. This belief stems from the adolescent's inability to differentiate between the concern(s) of his or her thoughts from the thoughts of others, while simultaneously over-differentiating his or her feelings. Thus, an adolescent is likely to think that everyone else (the imaginary audience) is just as concerned with him as the he himself is; while at the same time, this adolescent might believe that he is the only person who can possibly experience whatever feelings he might be experiencing at that particular time and that these experiences are unique to him. According to David Elkind (1967), an adolescent's intense focus on himself or herself as the center of attention is what ultimately gives rise to the belief that one is completely unique, and in turn, this may give rise to feelings of invulnerability. Ultimately, the two marked characteristics of personal fable are feelings of uniqueness and invulnerability. Or as David Elkind states, "this complex of beliefs in the uniqueness of (the adolescent's) feelings and of his immortality might be called a "personal fable", a story which he tells himself and which is not true."