As aspects of core personality structure, archetypes are innate predispositions to react, behave and interact in certain typical and predictable ways; they dictate our personal values and belief systems, modes of relating, patterns of thought and behaviour; even how we dress!
These vast impersonal forces of motivational energy are symbolic of the two most powerful opposing emotional forces within in the psyche: love and fear (or true and false) and are expressed through our actions in the world. Hence the opposite of love is not hate, it is fear. These patterns may be reinforced or repressed; extroverted or introverted by socialization and cultural norms, but cannot be obliterated. According to Carole Pearson
Archetypes [are] encoded in the collective unconscious…They are what make us uniquely and characteristically human. They are inherited and not acquired, and they belong to each human being by virtue of being born human[1]
Hence, the personality is comprised of the various masks we wear, many of which will be readily identified by others. In early theatrical productions masks were used to depict the different ‘persona’ portrayed by the players. As such they symbolized a pretension, not the true character of the person. Nowadays the term persona has lost its connotation of pretence and illusion and has come to represent the individual’s observable or explicit personality traits.
As I begin to develop and run workshops on encouraging individuals to get to know and begin to explore at much deeper levels, aspects of their personality that have remained unknown, unacknowledged (in shadow) the more fascinated I become at how aspects of personality can hi-jack our lives and best intentions.
Our inner mental states can also show up in the world as other people. Recently ask@coachbobbi.com posted that “your perception of me is a reflection of you”; this becomes even more powerful when you turn it on its head: my perception of you is a reflection of me.
Years ago I met someone whose marriage was in the throes of disintegration. One half of the partnership referred to the other as a ‘monster’, while the other experienced the spouse’s behaviour as Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde. Inevitably the marriage broke up and even if neither of the partners really wanted that, there was no chance of the relationship coming back together until each could acknowledge their own particular ‘monster’ and take steps to heal the fragmentation in themselves first, before they could heal their relationship. So our masks wear us and, they turn up in the world wearing other people!
The existence and expression of various aspects of self is entirely normal. However, we can ‘split’ and completely compartmentalize our different selves. When our various selves become distinctively observable the response from the medical profession is to assign a pathological label. That is sad, in most cases unnecessary and mostly ignorant.
It was Professor Flora Rheta Schreiber, author of ground breaking book Sybil, published in 1973, who located the origins of dissociative identity disorder (known then as multiple personality disorder) in trauma. One day Sybil’s 16 personalities emerged to introduce themselves to her psychiatrist.
Extreme pressure or an intolerable experience will cause the personality to disintegration or ‘split’ especially if the trauma dates from early childhood. Children typically use their ability to “go away” in their head as a defence against physical and emotional pain, or fear of that pain. This ‘dissociation’ allows the child to function normally by separating the mind from the thoughts, feelings, memories, and perceptions of the trauma.
In effect the individual has forgotten his or her ‘true self’ as a whole integrated being, and effectively lives in separated compartments. This enables the aspect(s) of self holding the trauma to 'fall into shadow', where it becomes unknown or unacknowledged.
Houston writes ‘if schizophrenia is the disease of the human condition then polyphrenia, the orchestration and integration of our many selves may be the health…If we can only recognise and encourage the healthy development and orchestration of our various selves, we will avoid much incipient neurosis and pathology.’[2]
No comments:
Post a Comment