Personality is Clothes for the Soul

By Red the Philosopher

Salvador Maddi’s (1989) book opening is a worthwhile read. The comments about the different styles of presenting personality psychology theory/theorists seemed generalizable to other subjects and texts as well. The takeaway point being that writers have biases and tones cooked into their texts. Maddi also offered a conceptualization of personality as “a stable set of tendencies and characteristics that determine those commonalities and differences in people’s psychological behavior (thought, feelings, and actions) that have continuity in time and that may not be easily understood as the sole result of the social and biological pressures of the moment.” (p. 8) He then clarified tendencies as “processes that determine directionality in thoughts, feelings, and actions” stating they “exist in the service of goals or functions.” Maddi clarified “characteristics” to mean “…the fact and content of goals or requirements… used to explain thoughts, feelings, and actions.” He cited perfectionism as a tendency. Maddi then goes on to describe the epistemological processes used by theorists, distinguish between core and periphery aspects of personality, and detail the four functions of personologists. Maddi’s conceptualization of personality is arguable in the sense that he posits it as being “stable.” Many things can change a personality – such as an injury, trauma, drugs, loss, growth, environment, etc. Tendencies and characteristics are subject to change as well, especially when the environment in which they were adaptive is no longer present and they become maladaptive. In pursuit of adaptation, the personality may adjust, and tendencies may be suppressed, discarded, or modified. Maddi’s conceptualization would be improved if he replaced “stable” with “dynamic.”

Personality is essentially the quality of a person, or persona. Are you a person? Do you have a persona? The difference between person and person might simply be the context in which they are used, whereas persona is typically framed as a character or one version of a person, personhood is typically attributed to humans, but also legally can be attributed to organizations and animals as well. A person is a social construct used to help humans identify their modus operandi – the character they play most typically. Persons and personas are like clothes that souls wear as they animate flesh in the physical reality. To study personality, is to study ways in which souls configure and reconfigure their dispositions and their dress – how they show up in the world and who they show up as. Persons and personas are used interchangeably here, as both are distinct from the soul which has at its use, a variety of characters, attitudes, and potential persons/personas to equip. In some ways, this conceptualization trivializes personality because the personality is positioned as apart from the soul – you can study and know someone’s personality and still fail to know them, as a soul. Personality involves reconciliation between the ideal and the real, as well as errors and attempts at trying to be, faking it until the soul can make it, and “fronting.” Any individual’s analysis of another’s personality is inherently flawed to the extent that the personality itself is a flawed proxy for understanding the soul, and the appearance of the personality is skewed by the fact that it is perceived through senses and conceptions tied to the personality of the analyzer. From foggy glasses, researchers look at souls doing the best they can with what they have, differentially achieving in reality some amalgamation of who they desire to be, who they are, who they don’t want to be, and who they are not. See the poem at the end of the paper for an artistic elaboration on this notion. Considering the fact that souls are pushed around by the other actors and features of their sociophysical environments, see Figure 1. Souls get pushed around by factors in their environment by a series of Plinko boards in a lifelong process of learning. Upon achieving some sense of self, souls may develop ways to “push back” against the pegs and purposely be pushed by pegs to have a stronger hand in their own personal development. It is noteworthy to mention that personal development refers to the maturation of the person/persona, rather than the soul -essentially, souls learn and fine tune how they show up in the world.

Figure 1

The formation of the Personality

Freud’s work and lectures were an insightful read. One of the greatest takeaways were his verbiage, disposition, and critical look at the personality and specifically, the link between sexual experiences and neuroses. Freud spoke about things that people typically relegate to their shadow selves – the parts of the self they would rather dissociate from. This is not to say Freud’s word is gospel, rather it is inspiring – the extent to which he delves into the construction of the mind. One agreeable point was the comments made about the artist being near insanity and saving himself from it using his art as a medium of self-expression. As an artist, this seems valid. Many artists suffer emotional and mental pains yet produce wonderful art, begging the question of whether worse circumstances make better art. Many other researchers have asked questions about the similarities and differences between insanity and genius – and truly, there is something to be said of the dissociation from sexual urges and fantasies and the transmutation of sexual energy, specifically by artists. The same energy used to create humans, artists use to create art. Although Freud is challenged for oversexualizing the world, some of his points have stood the test of time and some of those criticisms may only stand in daylight. In a similar way, these critics may surmise that the light in the refrigerator never turns off. Freud is appreciated because he discusses the disgusting which is an aspect of humanity, persons, personas, and personalities. The ways in which souls, which know nothing of earthly notions of acceptability and manners, show up in the world involves, as Freud described it, the reconciliation of the id and superego. In summation, Freud’s work was a pleasant read for both its rhetorical style and depth of analysis into the inner workings of the mind.

Personality

A fancy word

For how we adapt to

Other people’s

Adaptations

Having people

See our parts

And affirming pieces that

Resonate with them most

And enjoying that feeling

Becomes motivation

To contort

Behave

Act

Become

A version maintained by the pillars

The people

We know

The cornerstones of identities

Having sapient mirrors

To judge us and praise us

Get us to act in ways

We wouldn’t in solitude

What happens when

Everything affirmed by others

Mismatches

What’s affirmed by self

How do we resolve the tension

Between self and other

Id and superego

Commitment and toxic libido

Cloaked in the behavior and thought

Patterns

Socially acceptable

In otherwise socially inaccessible

Cliques

I am because we are

This illusion

Because

That illusion

References

Freud, S. (1920). A General Introduction to Psychoanalysis (G. Hall, Trans.). New York: Horace Liveright, Inc.

Maddi, S.R.  (1989).  Personality Theories: A comparative approach (5th ed.). Pacific Grove, CA: Brooks Cole Publishing Co.