The most basic function of our compulsions is to help us preserve our false self. But maintaining this illusion is the source of all our unhappiness. As Basil Pennington observes, unhappiness is always a result of “not being able to do something I want to do, have something I want to have, or concern about what others will think of me.”6 This brings us back to the core of the false self—placing my value in what I have, what I can do and what others think of me.
