Are You Brave Enough To Kill Your Persona?

Individuation

Carl Jung said that the first impediment to individuation is the persona. The individuation process steps requires you to:

1. Incorporate your unconscious in a healthy way by recognizing your persona
2. Integrate your unconscious dreams by analyzing their content

There is nothing you can do to stop the unconscious from manifesting itself in your conscious reality. You must choose between either letting that manifestation happen destructively or constructively.

It’s worth remembering that completing these steps successfully poses a risk to your sanity. A process of individuation that is  constructive is desirable, but many will find that to recognize and eliminate your persona is a painful and dangerous task. The second thing you need to do is study your own dreams, which most of us will find very difficult to do without professional help.  According to Jung, dreams are the non-repressed (contrary to Freud) plain representations of your unconscious. Untangling that complex mess is a lengthy process that requires patience and skill. Two good books to get started would be The Interpretation of Dreams by Freud that is a solid introduction as well as Jung’s Man and His Symbols and Archetypes and the Collective Unconscious.

But if you were to start with the first step – you would need to first identify your persona before you can get rid of it – in a healthy way.

What is the Persona?

According to Jung, the persona is the false self that you craft. It is the identity that you have created to blend into groups, and it is how you want others to see you.

It is usually the role you play either personally or professionally. It is the uniform you wear every day, how you introduce yourself to others, and how you carry yourself in public.

Read The Struggle for the Self

YARPP List

Related posts:

1. The Politics of Social Media
2. The Procrastination Myth
3. Lesson 3: Don’t be Naive
4. The Denial of Death (Week 19 of Wisdom)