In Jungian psychology, the persona is an archetypal figure known as the mask. The word itself derived from Greek and known as the role which the actor plays.
Each of us has this mask in order to relate to the outer world. As we all know, the outer world with its own structure, whether it’s a culture, basic and collective thinking or value, demands a certain ‘shape’ to fit in, to belong and to play its role.
This unconscious message that we receive at the beginning of our experience to the outer world shape that mask. A reason we construct our lives from that starting point.
“This mask, i.e., the ad hoc adopted attitude, I have called the persona, which was the name for the masks worn by actors in antiquity. The man who identifies with this mask I would call ,”personal” as opposed to “individual”. The two above-mentioned attitudes represent two collective personalities, which may be summed up quite simply under the name “personae”. I have already suggested that the real individuality is different from both. The persona is thus a functional complex that comes into existence for reasons of adaptation or personal convenience, but is by no means identical with the individuality. The persona is exclusively concerned with the relation to objects. Carl G. Jung in Psychological Types”
Considering persona as a function of relating to the outer world, there will be a certain possibility of its two conditions: well function and malfunction.
Functions of Persona
Persona is a practical term, which is a segment of our psyche correlated with the outer world and the collective psyche. It is an objective psyche, since it ‘belongs’ to the collective. A good development of the persona has a good function in representing our sense of self outwardly.
Here is what I summarize from Robert H. Hopcke’s book:
- A representation of our sense of self to the outer world.
- A mediator of our ego to the outer world.
- A container and a protective covering for one’s inner self.
Persona Malfunctions
Based on James A. Hall’s book, there are three most cases of persona malfunction. We need to take a note that every persona malfunction causes people living on a surface level and restricting them from diving into their inner world.
Here are the persona malfunctions:
- Excessive development of the persona will lead a person to experience an inner emptiness. There is no one under that mask.
- Inadequate development of the persona will lead a person to be lost in any relation that was made.
- Identification with the persona to such an extent that the ego mistakenly feels itself to be identical with the primary social role. This is the main possibility of causing an empty nest syndrome.
Persona and Personal Unconscious
As Jung related persona with “personal” man, it brought us to personal unconscious. Because of the process of making (or choosing) that ‘mask’, a person will repress the rejected parts, whether the outer world rejected them, or by the ego itself. Then all the rejected parts were thrown as ‘shadow’, another archetypal figure in Jungian psychology. Shadow is a part of us we don’t want to know and repressed into our personal unconscious. Therefore, our persona also covers our personal unconscious.
Our adaptation process started from the point that we can’t remember, therefore we may feel familiar with our persona and take it as our individual identity. This misinterpretation of identity will cause a malfunction, as above.
We might identify ourselves with our form of relationship and swap by our relation to other people when an inadequate development of a persona had happened. Or perhaps we don’t know who we are outside of our job when we did the opposite.
In certainty, our personal unconscious content would encounter us. When this happens and we encounter our new knowledge from personal unconscious for the first time, our persona shatters to give space for our unconscious content to rise above the water. This shattering of persona affects us in some ways before we can assimilate and this assimilation process of our unconscious contents itself won’t be easy, but it’s the trajectory to individuate.
For some, this assimilation may need a further help from analyst as Jung said in his books.
Conclusion
- We need a persona as a function to relate to the outer world.
- Persona is our chosen collected attitudes, adaptation, and conformity.
- Persona is just a segment and an archetypal figure that we ‘choose’ in order to play a role in social-construction.
Persona is not who we are. It may and may not represent an excerpt of our true essence.
Book references:
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