Your making great sense ophelia....

Oh what a question you ask. Many a great thesis has been thought upon, written and agued concerning your curiosity. Poetry too...and nothing digs deeper to Truth.

Names, labels and definitions. What a world we would be in without them. What a world we live in because of them....Things need a name but feelings, I think, need understanding and simply naming them is incomplete. Sometimes even naming them can end the journey before understanding comes. That may be what your therapist is speaking to.

I think some form of baseline in any journey of discovery whether of self or otherwise is prudent. How specific that baseline is can confine or focus the energy needed to move forward. Like having a map for a weeks worth of travel. Marking each road to be traveled might make the journey less complex, but it might also lessen the serendipity associated with the unexpected discoveries made by allowing more freedom to choose. Definitions can be like that...there is some level of ego associated with the commitment made in the definning of something.

I personally like a compromise. Having some pragmatic idea on the direction I'm heading but with an open mind to allow the unexpected, unforseen and unknown to effect me and any futher choices and decisions is the better way to proceed....IMHO.

You are the product of every experience you have ever had. Definning yourself by even the longest of sentences will not in any way totally define you. But having some definitions that corespond to aspects of what has happened and what effect those events may have had upon you can direct your energies into areas of discovery that may offer solutions. This process will undoubtedly change defintions.

As my signature relates,,I cringe from conclusions for they limit any hope of learning...

Lenny