Tuesday, March 15, 2005

nature and psyche

Only by reason of the fact that the persona is a more or less accidental
or arbitrary segment of collective psyche can we make the mistake
of accepting it in toto as something "individual." But, as its name
shows, it is only a mask for the collective psyche, a mask that feigns
individuality, and tries to make others and oneself believe that one
is individual, whereas one is simply playing a part in which the
collective psyche speaks.

When we analyse the personna we strip off the mask, and discover
that what seemed to be individual is at bottom collective, in other
words, that the persona was only a mask for the collective psyche.

Fundamentally the persona is nothing real; it is a compromise
between the individual and society as to what a man should appear
to be. He takes a name, earns a title, represents an office; he is this
or that. In a certain sense all this is real, yet in relation to the
essential individuality of the person concerned it is only a
secondary reality, a product of compromise, in making which others
often have a greater share than he. The persona is a semblance; a
two dimensional reality. Jung....

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