How can we create a personality we desire?

[coberst]

How can we create a personality we desire?

Personal heroism by means of individualism is a task requiring courage and self-confidence. Courage and self-confidence are characteristics of few sapiens, young or old. It is a path less traveled because it imposes terrifying burdens; these burdens display themselves by isolation from the common herd. “This move exposes the person to the sense of being completely crushed and annihilated because he sticks out so much, has to carry so much in himself.”

Personal heroism demands that one exposes her self, i.e. s/he sticks out dramatically from the herd. Those creative types who expose themselves so must create their own justification. Herein we find something that may seem illogical “the more you develop as a distinctive free and critical human being, the more guilt you have. Your very work accuses you; it makes you feel inferior. What right do you have to play God?” By what authority do you presume to introduce new meaning into the world?

Otto Rank was a colleague of Freud and, like Jung, carried theories far beyond those which Freud created. “Freud’s reality psychology emphasized essentially the influence of outer factor, of the outer milieu, upon the development of the individual and the formation of character,…I [was] opposed to this biological principle, the spiritual principle which alone is meaningful in the development of the essentially human.”

For Freud the id is the nucleus of being and it, the id, is subject to the natural laws. In such a frame the personality consists of layers of identification that “form the basis of the parental super-ego.” This might be properly considered to be the spiritual structure of the average individual, i.e. the average personality results from the natural influences developed against the naturally evolved super-ego.

Such a theory accounts for the average but does not account for the two creative extremes: the creative type and the so-called “neurotic” type. I would label the average personality to be a reactive individual; an individual who goes with the flow.

There are two personality types that make up the proactive personality: one creative type squeezes him or her self into a tight ball in reaction to the inner and outer milieu, i.e. the so-called “neurotic” and the second creative type who creates a personality wherein the ego “is strong just in the degree to which it [i]is[i] the representative of this primal force and the strength of this force represented in the individual we call will.”

This second creative type, which Rank identifies as the creative type while he identifies the other creative type as the “neurotic”, creates “voluntarily from the impulsive elements and moreover to develop his standards beyond the identifications of the super-ego morality to an ideal formation which consciously guides and rules this creative will in terms of the personality.”

“The essential point in this process is the fact that he evolves his ego ideal from himself, not merely on the ground of the given but also of self-chosen factors which he strives after consciously.”

Quotes from Will Therapy and Truth and Reality by Otto Rank

[blazeofglory]

How can we create a personality we desire?

Personal heroism by means of individualism is a task requiring courage and self-confidence. Courage and self-confidence are characteristics of few sapiens, young or old. It is a path less traveled because it imposes terrifying burdens; these burdens display themselves by isolation from the common herd. “This move exposes the person to the sense of being completely crushed and annihilated because he sticks out so much, has to carry so much in himself.”

Personal heroism demands that one exposes her self, i.e. s/he sticks out dramatically from the herd. Those creative types who expose themselves so must create their own justification. Herein we find something that may seem illogical “the more you develop as a distinctive free and critical human being, the more guilt you have. Your very work accuses you; it makes you feel inferior. What right do you have to play God?” By what authority do you presume to introduce new meaning into the world?

Otto Rank was a colleague of Freud and, like Jung, carried theories far beyond those which Freud created. “Freud’s reality psychology emphasized essentially the influence of outer factor, of the outer milieu, upon the development of the individual and the formation of character,…I [was] opposed to this biological principle, the spiritual principle which alone is meaningful in the development of the essentially human.”

For Freud the id is the nucleus of being and it, the id, is subject to the natural laws. In such a frame the personality consists of layers of identification that “form the basis of the parental super-ego.” This might be properly considered to be the spiritual structure of the average individual, i.e. the average personality results from the natural influences developed against the naturally evolved super-ego.

Such a theory accounts for the average but does not account for the two creative extremes: the creative type and the so-called “neurotic” type. I would label the average personality to be a reactive individual; an individual who goes with the flow.

There are two personality types that make up the proactive personality: one creative type squeezes him or her self into a tight ball in reaction to the inner and outer milieu, i.e. the so-called “neurotic” and the second creative type who creates a personality wherein the ego “is strong just in the degree to which it [i]is[i] the representative of this primal force and the strength of this force represented in the individual we call will.”

This second creative type, which Rank identifies as the creative type while he identifies the other creative type as the “neurotic”, creates “voluntarily from the impulsive elements and moreover to develop his standards beyond the identifications of the super-ego morality to an ideal formation which consciously guides and rules this creative will in terms of the personality.”

“The essential point in this process is the fact that he evolves his ego ideal from himself, not merely on the ground of the given but also of self-chosen factors which he strives after consciously.”

Quotes from Will Therapy and Truth and Reality by Otto Rank

This is a very insightful idea in point of fact. Of course when people are too much ambition centric they will be totally focused on what they do and with lots of concentration on their ambitious prpjects.

When a person becomes too much ambition driven all around he sees is blankness and all his powers will be totally concentrated on his ambition. He will be ruthless, and egocentric and isolate himself from the rest of the world and indeed he will engage in sacrificial things, that means he will sacrifice all else when swayed by the wind of ambition. He will be blindly running to what he wants to achieve.

[PierreGringoire]

Ya-- this was a good post. I was going to start a thread like it, but didn't have to. I think we all have "reactive" personalities. This is a trait in which we need in order to proactively change "specific" elements of our personality.

I think most individuals are always trying to modify themselves, its just a slow process. Granted--some can change faster than others because they know how to use their mind better for whatever reason. Our minds weren't designed to jump into all sorts of unfamiliar planes of thought (assuming that there are a quantitative and finite number of personalities) at will. It would be cool though if we could-- we would REALLY be able to understand other people's pain and know how to make them feel better because we would know which buttons to press.

But Alas! We are all alone! Like a bunch of seperate silos or seperate planets. But to end this on a positive note-- everyone shares so much in common. You have the ability to "trick" your mind into helping someone and having it feel like you were helping yourself in another life-- and its mind blowing-- It kind of feels like you are the recipient of your graciousness.

[blazeofglory]

In fact we all kind of engage in modifying ourselves and we want to create something, a superlative out of the blues and assimilate that in order that we will be "others". In point of fact life is seeking something always and the entire life of us is a never-ending journey and at what point we may stop is unforeseeable. Of course that is the root of woes and discords in life. We cannot do away with creating personalities of ourselves and simulating certain ideas and ideologies unremittingly and that sets us going and taking so many tough and go-getting decisions in point of fact and or else life will turn out to be a bore. While it is really exciting to create personalities and yet it is really a backbreaking project. People want erect castles on sand and the project they undertake is not without price and yet they cannot stop doing even if they know what they are really taxing jobs.

People indeed engage in expanding his scope and to delimit oneself or his journey is akin to death. We have images of so many personalities in our minds –kings and princes, business tycoons, spiritual Gurus, landlords, athletes and the like and we idolize images and this idolization defines what we are