Advanced Personality

Layer of wholeness

The wholeness of the psyche flows from the most fundamental processes to a singular, complex and holistic point that we call personality.

Personality:

The personality describes the entirety of the consciousness and subconsciousness of a person. It has no fixed form and exists, through continuous processes, within a state of constant change; therefore, it cannot be defined by a personality type or observable patterns of behaviour alone. Humans are not born with a personality, as the "Self" first needs to find itself within its social-societal environment, to form its own identity. The subjective perception of personality and identity is very different from person to person.

Layer of behaviour and social roles

This layer deals with topics that are easy to judge based on concrete observations of a person's behaviour. In general, it refers to the 'surface' of the mind, which anyone can observe and assess to a certain extent. Behaviour is completely dependent on more fundamental processes, which is why it is not so easy to make assessments about a person based on observations in this area, as we usually know too little about their deeper, subjective motivations. This is why many prejudices and false assessments about people arise at this layer. Virtually all social interactions take place at this layer. Carl Jung's concept of Persona manifests itself within this layer.

Persona:

The Persona is the manner in which an individual presents themselves to the world; it is a social mask that, on the one hand, conveys a certain impression to others and, on the other hand, conceals the individual's true nature. The Persona is an important function, or tool, for navigating the external social world. A strong Ego identifies with a flexible Persona; a weak, inflexible Ego, on the other hand, identifies and presents itself to the world with a very specific Persona (such as helper, thinker, jack-of-all-trades, artist, revolutionary, leader, doctor, stereotypical gender roles such as 'masculine and 'feminine', and rigid religious identities, etc.), which impairs psychological development and personality potential. A rigid identification with a specific personality type also falls under an inflexible persona. Humans are creatures who are always insecure about themselves. They are creatures that are always uneasy about whether they are inferior to someone or something – and in order not to be inferior to others or something, the Persona exists, which strives to be superior to whatever circumstance that makes them feel uneasy. Therefore, the disintegration of the Persona leads to a neurotic state of chaos inside the individual. However, this chaos is ultimately necessary in order to find a true, independent identity that is not restricted by a social mask and external norms – the individual must continually confront the shadow of their own subconscious in order to gain a deeper understanding of themselves. The Superego within the psychological structures is one of the key contributors to the formation of the Persona.

Social orientation:

The social orientation is often described using the terms 'extroverted' and 'introverted' (for example, by Big Five and MBTI). However, Advanced Personality takes the position that people's social behaviour cannot be described using these two definitions – the reality behind an individual's social behaviour is extremely complex and depends on countless factors; above all, it depends on their relationship to their own culture and society, past experiences, and complex neurological characteristics. On a neurological level, a person can be both introverted and extroverted, but also neither.

Personality types:

Personality types are stereotypical categories of very specific, observable patterns of behaviour. According to them, there are emotional types, thinking types, introverts, extroverts, perfectionists, choleric types and countless others. However, the fundamental problem with personality types is that a person's personality cannot be reduced to an all-encompassing category. Personality types can be so superficial that, due to ignorance, certain behavioural characteristics are even attributed to entire nationalities and cultures. In general, however, the concept of personality types is very popular because complex characteristics are summarised as easily understandable, observable behavioural patterns.

Layer of psychological structures

From this layer onwards, things start to get very intriguing, as it gives us our first deeper insights into the human psyche. The psychological structures were invented by Sigmund Freud to describe the basic structure of the inner life of the mind. They are not personality types. In addition, these structures also include the nine ego fixations from Oscar Ichazo's Enneagram system, which can help us to better understand individual motivations and thought processes.

It (Id):

The 'Id' describes the oldest and most primitive part of the psyche. It is a subconscious source of impulses, drives, emotions, fantasies and dreams, which are usually completely incompatible with the structures of societies, cultures and religions. It does not think logically, knows no right or wrong and has no concept of time. Without the Id, there would be no motivation and no vitality – it is the instinctual core of the psyche. When the id is suppressed, it leads to inner tension and stress; when the Id is unchecked, it leads to conflictual behaviour directed against existing external reality and its limitations.

Over-I (Superego):

The Over-I acts in opposition to the Id, suppressing subjective motivations, fantasies, feelings and actions. It attempts to live in harmony with external reality, i.e. with the seemingly uncontrollable structures and norms of contemporary culture and society and the social environment; it is guided by external expectations and acts according to a conscience. The Superego does what it seems it should do, but not what it wants to do. In doing so, it can also adapt to role models such as parents, authority figures, religions or specific archetypes, whereby the Over-I, as the name suggests, is passed down from generation to generation.

I (Ego):

The Ego acts as a mediator between the Id and the Over-I; it mediates between the impulses of the Id, the conscience of the Over-I and external reality, regulating them accordingly. The Ego is partly conscious, but large parts of it are unconscious, which is why we do not always notice exactly how it controls us. Our 'I' experience – our identity – manifests itself in the Ego. The Ego can also be described as the part of the Id that has been directly influenced by external reality, i.e. by past experiences and experiences within the current culture and society. As the Ego is of great importance for the perception of one’s own identity, it is responsible for psychological self-preservation, which is why it is extremely defensive: When the Ego wants to satisfy the needs of the Id and defends itself against the constant 'surveillance' of the Over-I, which punishes it with feelings of guilt, fear and inferiority, it makes use of defence mechanisms such as dissociation, reaction formation, repression and projection. The Ego-Fixations of Oscar Ichazo's Enneagram model also basically describe Sigmund Freud's concept of the Ego, whereby Ego-Fixations represent a state of enormous conflict between the Id, the Over-I and external reality. It should also be noted here that the Ego is in conflict with all nine Ego-Fixations.

Layer of external reality

All our experiences with our environment manifest within this layer. However, these factors are largely beyond our personal control. They include childhood experiences, both positive and negative, the family and culture into which we were born without any choice of our own, and our entire social environment. All these factors form the basis of our basic psychological structures, such as our Ego and its Ego-Fixations, as well as our Over-I.

Experiences:

Experiences refer to all environmental influences on an individual's life. This begins with experiences in childhood and ends in the present. Experiences at a young age in particular have an overwhelming influence on our psychological structures in later life. Negative experiences in particular cause the Ego to develop a conflictual relationship between itself and its past, from which Ego-Fixations subsequently manifest themselves.

Culture and society:

There are almost an infinite number of cultures, with each person belonging to or identifying with several small subcultures. A society, on the other hand, takes the most dominant subcultures as its guiding principle and then systematically instils those values into all individuals it contains, from the moment of birth and against their will. People who do not conform to the dominant cultures, i.e. who give priority to the Id over the Over-I, are systematically discriminated against and disadvantaged by the collective Over-I as a consequence. Culture also takes concrete form in religions, customs, (invented) traditions and people's consumer behaviour. However, cultures are and never have been constant and are constantly changing, as can be seen in the millennia-old conflict between generations in every society.

Family:

This refers to the family environment into which an individual is born. Together with the influences of contemporary culture and society, it is one of the foundations of the Over-I. The type of family into which one is born is nothing more than a game of chance. For many, this is the source of numerous conflicts and existential limitations over which the individual has no control. In general, the family acts as the very first and most direct mediator of external values and norms.

Hidden layer

Within the hidden layer, the parts of the mind and society that are completely rooted in the subconsciousness manifest themselves. These aspects, which are hidden from us, are addressed in particular by Carl Jung.

Personal subsonsciousness and Shadow:

The vast majority of the psyche manifests itself outside our conscious perception. The personal subconsciousness encompasses all aspects of our inner life that we either do not consciously perceive or repress from our Persona, i.e. our ideal social self-image. The repressed and unpleasant content that we do not want to accept about ourselves is defined as the Shadow of the personality. The shadow contains not only repressed impulses, but also feelings such as envy, fear, hatred, complexes and suppressed emotions. It also includes repressed parts of the self that one is not allowed, unable or afraid to express in the face of external circumstances, such as suppressed creativity and individuality; these aspects can become deeply buried in the subconsciousness, particularly as a result of peer pressure.

Intuition:

Intuition is a fundamental psychological function in every living being, enabling information to be perceived and processed unconsciously and holistically; this happens automatically, without conscious thought processes. The better the intuitive neural processes of the brain function, the more depth and realistic potential can be perceived within external circumstances. A disproportionately intuitive perception can, so to speak, build a bridge to the collective subconsciousness and thereby perceive the overarching processes that lead to the formation of the current state of external reality (which is nevertheless constantly changing), psychological structures and the Persona. This manifests itself as extreme empathy, a very deep perception of social processes, high individuality and, in most cases, a feeling of isolation associated with this. A weaker intuition leads to a heightened dependency on the collective subconsciousness, in other words to a dependency on the opinions and judgements of other and to the rules and norms of the own culture and society.

Archetypes:

Archetypes are universal forms, patterns and role models that manifest themselves independently of one another in the same form in almost every culture and society, always and everywhere; they serve as fundamental templates for human thinking and are directly anchored in the collective subconsciousness. The various manifestations of archetypes can be observed particularly strongly in fictional stories, as the blueprint of the characters contained therein is almost always based on certain archetypes, which manifest themselves as specific Personas.

The collective subconsciousness:

The collective subconsciousness is the deepest and most hidden layer of psychological experience – it is an invisible cultural resonance chamber that shapes both individuals and entire societies without them noticing. It is related to the structure of the human brain. Put simply, this means that all human brains have the same basic architecture and therefore certain phenomena, such as archetypes, are universal and independent of culture. The collective subconsciousness gives rise to social groups, societies, cultures, religions, but also collective emotions such as mass hysteria or enemy projections with scapegoats (the others' fault). On the positive side, the influence of the collective subconsciousness can give individuals meaning, cohesion, orientation, belonging and compassion through shared images and opinions. On the negative side, however, it can also make people susceptible to manipulation, propaganda, norms (such as alcohol consumption) and trends (social media), lead to prejudice, bullying and exclusion, and cause individuals to lose themselves in social roles and hierarchies, ultimately giving up their own individualism in order to be accepted by the 'collective subconsciousness'.

Layer of nature science

Apart from philosophy, this layer is the most basic and fundamental. The mind is ultimately the universe, which over billions of years has developed ways to observe and admire itself. All thoughts, sensory stimuli and perceptions can be traced back to biochemical processes, neural connections and electrical impulses. However, science is a slow process, which is why we have not yet discovered everything there is to know about consciousness. Nevertheless, Advanced Personality addresses some of the aspects that we are already able to explore.

Neurological and biochemical aspects:

Our brain structures, the cell density and activity of certain brain regions, hormones and other biochemical processes are basically the foundation of our entire perception. The brain is plastic, i.e. malleable – the cell structures and neural connections are constantly changing. Negative psychological experiences can traumatise these connections and cause demonstrable physical damage, which ultimately manifests itself in the personality as well. However, positive influence can also have a healing effect on the brain. Advanced Personality is currently working on its own model, including a test, to explore certain neurological characteristics and their connections to personality.