Identity as an Ongoing Simulation: How Imagination Reorganizes the Self-Image

We often think of our self-image as a static portrait—a collection of traits and labels we have accumulated over a lifetime. We say, “I am an anxious person,” or “I am not good enough,” as if these were permanent facts stored in a mental archive.

However, modern neurobiology suggests a more dynamic reality: identity is not something we have; it is a simulation we run. It is a continuous, multisensory act of “self-ing” that occurs within the representational field of our mind.

When we are under pressure, the brain doesn’t just look for information; it reconstructs a version of “us” that fits our past experiences of threat. This is why we can “know” we are capable, yet still “feel” small and powerless. The internal simulation of the self has reorganized around a memory of vulnerability, and in that moment, the past becomes our present reality.

In this inquiry, we will explore how we can use the power of imagination to make these implicit simulations visible—and, more importantly, how we can begin to reorganize them.

Identity Experienced Through Imagination

Identity is often spoken of as something we have—a fixed set of traits stored in a mental archive. However, from a neurological perspective, identity is something we do. It is a multisensory simulation that we enact, moment by moment.

The Science of Self-Simulation

As research shows, remembering our past and imagining our future recruit overlapping neural networks within the hippocampus and the Default Mode Network (Addis et al., 2007). But this simulation goes deeper than mere thoughts:

• Action Preparation: Because identity includes habits, it engages motor and premotor regions. We are literally “prepared” to move and respond in familiar ways before we even act (Jeannerod, 2001).

• The Body’s Voice: Interoceptive signals—shifts in breath, posture, and muscle tone—are integrated into our subjective sense of “me” through insular processing (Craig, 2009). This is why a low self-image feels so heavy in the chest or stomach.

• The Relational Filter: How we anticipate being seen by others emerges from a self-referential system involving the medial prefrontal cortex (Northoff et al., 2006).

From Stored Memory to Enacted Configuration

What we call “who I am” is therefore not a stored entity, but a continuously enacted configuration of memory, bodily readiness, and relational expectation. Identity is an embodied simulation.

Each time these multisensory patterns are reactivated, identity is reconstructed. This is why imagination is such a powerful tool for change: by intentionally introducing new signals—like the energy of compassion—into this simulation, we aren’t just “thinking differently.” We are reorganizing the very configuration of our existence.

When the Past Returns as the Self

Sometimes a reaction feels larger than the moment. A small hesitation triggers disproportionate shame. A neutral comment feels like rejection. An opportunity evokes quiet certainty of failure. The intensity does not quite match the situation, yet it feels deeply personal.

In such moments, it is easy to conclude: “This is just who I am.”

But what if the reaction is not your personality — but a reactivated self-image?

Often, what feels like identity is an earlier configuration of the self returning. A memory encoded with emotion is reactivated, and the system reorganizes around it. This is not just a recall of facts, but a re-instatement of a physiological state (Damasio, 2010; van der Kolk, 2014). The past does not merely inform the present; it briefly becomes it.

What Is Self-Referential Processing?

The brain continuously interprets experience in relation to the self. This process, often described as self-referential processing, involves networks associated with autobiographical memory and personal meaning, including regions within the medial prefrontal cortex and the broader default mode network (Northoff et al., 2006).

When something happens, the brain does not ask only, “What is this?” It also asks, “What does this mean about me?”

Information is filtered through prior experiences, expectations, and emotional associations. A tone of voice, a facial expression, or a minor error is quickly interpreted through an existing self-model. Self-image, therefore, is not static; it is continuously reconstructed through memory, sensation, and prediction.

Memory Is Not Storage — It Is Simulation

We often imagine memory as storage — as if past events are archived intact and retrieved when needed. In reality, memory is reconstructive. Each time it is activated, sensory, emotional, and relational components are reassembled.

When a memory associated with shame or inadequacy returns, it does not arrive as abstract information. It may reappear as:

• A tightening in the chest

• A shift in posture

• An internal voice repeating familiar judgments

• A narrowing of attention

The brain simulates the remembered state again.

The brain simulates the remembered state again. Imagination is central to this process; every retrieval is, in a sense, an act of internal simulation (Schacter & Addis, 2007). The remembered self is not just recalled—it is temporarily reinstated in the present.”

Low Self-Image as an Attractor State

Over time, repeated emotionally charged experiences stabilize into recurring patterns. From a systems perspective, these function as attractor states — gravitational wells that the psyche naturally slides back into under stress.

If criticism was frequent, self-criticism becomes the path of least resistance when interpreting ambiguity. If failure was encoded with shame, the system organizes around anticipated inadequacy to avoid being caught off guard. In predictive terms, the brain prepares for what it expects: to expect failure is to rehearse it. Attention filters for threat, behavior turns defensive, and perception eventually aligns with prediction.

Low self-image is not merely a belief one ‘holds’; it is the gravity that organizes the entire internal world.

The System Diagnosis: Signs of Reactivation

Because these shifts happen before conscious thought, we cannot “think” our way out of them. We must learn to recognize the somatic and cognitive signals that the system is sliding back into an old attractor state.

When the “remembered self” takes the wheel, look for these indicators:

• The Physical Contraction: A subtle tightening of the chest or throat, or a tendency to round the shoulders (the “protective hunch”).

• The Cognitive Filter: Suddenly, neutral comments from others are processed as veiled criticisms. You lose the ability to see ambiguity; everything feels like a “sign” of your inadequacy.

• The Loss of Range: Your behavioral options feel limited. Instead of choosing between several ways to respond, you feel like there is only one possible path—usually withdrawal, over-explanation, or defensiveness.

• The Social Fade: A sudden drop in vocal volume or eye contact. You are no longer “occupying” the space; you are trying to minimize your footprint within it.

• The Urgency of “Should”: An internal monologue dominated by what you should have done or must do to avoid rejection.

Insight: If you catch these signs early, you aren’t just “noticing a feeling.” You are observing a system attempting to reorganize around a ghost. This observation is the first crack in the attractor state’s gravity.

Making the Implicit Image Visible

If self-image is continually reconstructed through implicit simulation, therapeutic work begins by making that simulation visible. This is where structured imaginative exercises become useful — not as fantasy, but as metacognitive clarification. How? By moving from an automatic, unconscious simulation to a conscious one, we can begin to observe the gears of the system.

One might begin by asking:

• How old does this version of me feel?

• What scene or memory is associated with this reaction?

• What does the younger self believe about themselves in that moment?

By visualizing the scene that activates the self-image, the individual separates past from present. The image becomes an object of awareness rather than an unquestioned identity.

From there, a regulating presence can be introduced — perhaps a steady adult self, a compassionate figure, or a felt sense of groundedness. The aim is not to deny the original experience, but to hold it within a broader regulatory context. By integrating this presence, the old “attractor state” loses its gravitational pull.

Imagination, in this sense, becomes a tool for reorganizing how the self is represented. The system no longer collapses into the old configuration because it is now anchored in a larger, more complex reality. The memory remains, but its power to dictate the present is dissolved.

Reorganizing the Self-Image

Change occurs when distress and regulation are co-activated. A low self-image is brought into awareness while the nervous system remains supported. This simultaneous activation allows previously encoded meanings to be updated.

Research on memory reconsolidation suggests that when an emotional memory is reactivated and paired with new experience, its affective charge can shift. The narrative may remain, but its organizing power changes.

A remembered self who once felt powerless may now be experienced within protection. A moment once encoded as “I am inadequate” can be reorganized into “I was overwhelmed, and I can respond differently now.”

Through repeated experiences of such co-activation, new attractor states can form. The self-image becomes more flexible, less rigidly tied to past configurations.

Identity Is an Ongoing Construction

What we call identity is not a fixed entity stored in memory. It is an ongoing organization of experience — shaped by what we recall, how we interpret, and what we imagine.

Imagination does not only create future scenarios; it continuously reconstructs who we believe ourselves to be. When self-images formed in moments of vulnerability dominate this process, behavior narrows. When those images are brought into awareness and reorganized within safety, identity becomes more flexible.

The self is not a fixed memory. It is an ongoing organization of experience.

And organization can change.

But what if the reaction is not your personality — but a reactivated self-image?

Often, what feels like identity is an earlier configuration of the self returning. A memory encoded with emotion is reactivated, and the system reorganizes around it. The past does not merely inform the present; it briefly becomes it.

Moving Forward: Integration in Practice

The shift from a locked attractor state to a flexible identity is the practical goal of many contemporary therapeutic approaches. While they may use different names, they all share a common thread: they use imagination and metacognitive awareness as a bridge to reorganize the nervous system.

If you are interested in exploring how these principles are applied in specific methods, here are several paths that utilize these themes:

• Internal Family Systems (IFS): A powerful model for achieving metacognitive clarification by working with “parts” (like the inner critic). It helps the system move from internal polarization toward “Self-leadership.”

• Inner Child Work: A method that uses imagination to revisit younger, vulnerable versions of ourselves (the “remembered self”), providing the protection and warmth that may have been missing.

• CBT with Third Wave & CFT Tools: Modern Cognitive Behavioral Therapy often integrates Compassion Focused Therapy to ensure that “thinking differently” is supported by “feeling safe” at a physiological level.

• Healing Through Imagination (Rescripting): Approaches that focus on “rescripting” painful memories, allowing the brain to experience a new, safe outcome through the power of co-activation.

• Hypnosis (Ego-Strengthening): Using deep states of relaxation and vivid imagery to bypass the critical mind and reinforce internal resources and resilience.

Final Reflection

Low self-image is a configuration, not a life sentence. It is a survival program that has become a default setting. But because your identity is an ongoing organization of experience, it remains open to new signals.

By clarifying the old images and introducing a regulating presence, you are not just “thinking better”—you are rewiring the very gravity of your inner world.

The self is not a fixed memory. It is an ongoing organization. And organization can change.