Inner Self Vs. Outer Self – What are they? What’s the difference?

Synonyms: internal self vs. external self; inner life vs. outer life; inner self vs. outer self.

In other articles on this blog, I’ve discussed the fact that the human soul is made up of 4 aspects as shown in the diagram below. The Spirit, Mind, Body, and Social Relatedness.

The inner self is simply the term that covers the spirit and the mind and the outer-self is a term that describes the physical body and social relatedness.

When you look at dictionaries, you find attempts to capture the above truth. For example,

The Collins Dictionary says the inner self is “a person’s true or internal mind, soul, or nature”.

Merriam Webster’s Dictionary defines one’s inner self as “the emotional and spiritual part of someone.” They illustrate with the example, “She’s taking meditation classes to get in touch with her inner self.”

The Free Dictionary has an entry about the inner self-healing process. They say, the inner self-healing process is “A system of psychotherapy developed by American psychologist Swami Ajaya, which is based on the belief in a “true self” and a “false self”; the self-healing process is believed to reconcile the disparity between the two through psychotherapy, attunement, and meditation.

When I’ve researched the available literature, I’ve come up with the conclusion that the inner self is basically a term that describes the spirit (heart) and the mind, as opposed to the outer self which refers to the physical body and social relatedness.

Parts of the soul - Dallas Willard