Contents
Personality as a natural, social and cultural subject.
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Three options for the scope of the concept of «personality»:
a) natural subject;
b) social subject;
c) cultural subject.
first the broadest understanding of the scope:
Personality is a list of all properties, personality is individuality.
When we use the word «personality» in a broad sense, we are within the framework of differential psychology, and not general, because if we (general psychologists) define personality in this way, then we will be obliged to call animals personalities, but we would not want to .
We choose second optiontaken from Alexei Nikolaevich Leontiev:
The social and cultural subject is a person, and he calls the natural individual.
This second understanding is illustrated by the name of the world classic Alfred Adler, who says: personality begins with social feeling.
The third understanding:
Personality in the truest sense of the word.
I will refer to Vladimir Viktorovich Stolin, and among world names, to Carl Jung, who called a person the word “selfhood”. It is: «I myself», but without «I». Experiencing your uniqueness, unity with humanity.
If we have a cultural subject — a person, then we will also call the social — an individual. Then it turns out:
the natural individual is an organism
the social individual is a member of society and a person.
For clarification, we will take another phrase of Alexei Nikolaevich Leontiev: «a person is born twice.» The first birth of personality takes place within the social individual. A person does not become a personality by himself, but only by entering the social whole. He is inside the social individual, inside his society, inside his social stratum, inside his group. In the end, as a person for the first time, we cannot mean an individual person, it must be at least two people: a priest and his parishioner, a teacher and his student, an adult and a child, that is, about independence in the full sense, as well as Liability is out of the question, of course. This is how a person is born for the first time.
The second birth of a personality occurs outside the social individual, that is, the second birth has no social supports. For example, in choosing a profession, a person must rely on his own capabilities so that his profession is chosen correctly. Creating a family — the right choice should also be independent.
Consider how in different theories of personality, three of our subjects are called. We will take such authors as William James, Sigmund Freud and Eric Berne.
Personality structure according to V. James
natural subject
James calls the natural subject “physical” or “material self”. It would seem that it means simply an organism, a human body, but this is not so. James «physical I» considers everything with which we identify ourselves materially. “Physical I” can also be translated with the same word — “mine”. Let’s say the clothes that I’m wearing are part of my «physical self». These are my things, objective environments, in my room. It happens that family members seem to belong to my “physical self”, I take care of them and love them. An Englishman’s home is his castle, as they sometimes say. By the way, we observe the same thing in animals, because the animal marks the territory in which it considers itself the master. When we hear the birds singing in spring, we know that, translated into human language, each bird sings only one thing: «I am the master here.» And he invites someone to himself, and scares someone away. This area, this territory is the border of the “physical self”.
social subject
James calls it the “social self”, “I” for others. The social self is the subject of interaction and communication with other people. I would add — interactions in typical situations. Explanation. Ways of communication, ways of interacting with other people, James calls in Russian, we translate in a word, “habit”. social habits. What are they needed for? Social habits, says James, give order to our social life. The «social self» ensures social order. James believes that in ordinary social life there should be no problems. Our ordinary social life should be streamlined, says James. There was a question — immediately there should be an answer. What answer? People communicate with each other using signs. One motorist told me the following. He says surprisingly interesting, and most importantly calm in Finland to drive a car. Everything is marked there. Some unexpected intersection, some situation on the road, what to do? And immediately the answer, in the form of a certain sign. You go and don’t worry, that’s the main thing. This provides a «social self,» says James. A side note: he says we have individual habits as well as social ones. So according to James, individual habits are a reserve for social ones. It may turn out that these individual characteristics of some people will be noticed. Being noticed is one of the components of the need for communication, and the basis is self-respect. We can probably give an example when, about ten years ago, social changes began to take place in our country, then such individual qualities of people, such as initiative, business acumen, and so on, were noticed by society and these people became, as it were, a reserve for social habits. Once upon a time, such people were punished, but now it is considered that this is part of our «social self», like in the rest of the world. An enterprising person should be a little richer than others.
cultural subject
James calls it the «spiritual self». As soon as we say «spiritual self», there is an association with religion. But the «spiritual self» is not limited to religious belief or belonging to a particular religion. The “spiritual self” has a different definition: it is the source of personal activity. Which? We once said that, according to James, the main dignity of a person as a person is will — the ability to make decisions in an uncertain situation. The «spiritual self» is the development of the will.
Which of these three subjects can a psychologist study? Is it everyone? Natural maybe? Of course, because a natural being lives according to certain laws or mechanisms, it is possible to single out the regular mechanisms of natural life. The «social self» also has mechanisms, social habits.
Does the «spiritual self» have mechanisms? By definition, no. If the «spiritual self» had some mechanisms, then there would be no free will. Choose one or the other, says James: either there is no free will and then there are some mechanisms, or there is free will and then there should be no science of free will or a science of the «spiritual self». If you ever hear the phrase «spiritual psychology», remember James, do not say anything to the person who pronounces the word «spiritual psychology», you must be careful with such people, they should not be touched unnecessarily, but know that this person does not understands neither what spirituality nor what psychology is. There can be no science of the spirit. There is already a science about the soul — and this is psychology. And when they say that we lack spirituality in psychology, it is said by people who either do not have a basic education, or they received their diploma in vain.
Personality structure according to Z. Freud
Let us recall that Freud is dealing, so to speak, with a «sick» personality. We said today that a person is born twice, looking ahead, we can say this: Freud’s patient is the one whose family was not all right, and who was born unsuccessfully for the first time — as a social subject. He does not know in which group he should «stick». He cannot be born a second time, for example, because he does not understand the difference between «I» and «It». Let’s call the natural, social and cultural subject according to Freud:
a) «It», that is, uncontrolled nature, uncontrolled bodily desire;
b) «I» — a social subject, a self-conscious individual, the master of his desires. In the analyst’s patient, this «I» is very weak;
c) «Super-I» is at the very top, where culture should be.
And although Freud sometimes says that the «Superego» is conscience, culture, we must add that this is a professional secret. For analytic patients, this is not a culture, it is an incomprehensible culture. And the main conflict of the psychoanalyst’s patient is conflict between nature and culture. He does not really understand the difference between them, he may consider that his principles for satisfying his own needs are the principles of culture.
The conflict of an unguided nature with an incomprehensible culture is the basic conflict of the analyst’s patient. If the analyst’s patient does not see a strict difference between «I» and «It», he begins, as Freud says, to defend himself. The real protection for people is culture, and the neurotic builds a defense mechanism. And again we met the word «mechanism». In the place where there should be a culture, the most important thing disappears for a neurotic — freedom. The neurotic is not free, his freedom is replaced by some mechanism, a defense mechanism. An example of a “denial” defense mechanism: when I seem to discuss a real event that hurts me, but in fact do not recognize its reality. Then what do I do? I am indifferent to logic.
For example: a famous person who occupies a prominent position in the state speaks on television, and a journalist asks him a question, (by the way, let’s say in quotation marks, today’s journalists are brave guys, but in Freud’s language they are wild psychoanalysts, they will get some fried fact and let’s show it, and Freud says: “don’t show it, it will be bad.” So sometimes it’s bad for journalists because of their own fault, they are wild psychoanalysts). Here such a eloquent journalist took some piece of paper and asks him a question: “Is it true that you, as they say in this document, wanted to send troops to one of the republics of your country? Can you imagine what would happen if troops were sent there? A prominent person replies: “Well, actually, you should find out where you got this document from, how it got to you, but we will find out, we’ll see, but in general you are right,” he says. I am responsible for everything. When I make decisions, I am fully responsible for all their consequences. Yes, there was such a decision. Okay, he said. The next question of the journalist: “Is it true that you, on a recent business trip, had a criminal in your entourage? Do you know that posts like yours are resigned in cases like this?” Then he says: “Wow, resign! Am I responsible for all the consequences of my decisions? The person just said “A” and next to it “Not-A”. He doesn’t follow logic. This is a Freudian denier, a dreamer.
An example of “rationalization”: you haven’t achieved something and you begin to explain to yourself: “I didn’t want to achieve this”; I didn’t get a five, “Yes, I need this five, I study for the sake of knowledge,” and so on, but inside it sits: “I want five, I want five.” Overemphasis is also a rationalization.
These are the mechanisms, says Freud, that take the place of culture. They need to be studied, because they are mechanisms. If these mechanisms are removed, then a person will develop as a person. If he gets rid of such a mechanism, he himself will solve his problem.
Personality structure according to E. Bern
Eric Berne considers the subjects of communication, that is, in other words, he considers the period when the personality and the social individual coincide. A person in society is born for the first time. And then Eric Berne names three instances in the subject of communication (the psyche of everyone):
- The child is a natural subject, the child of uncontrolled desires;
- An adult is a social subject, the main authority according to Berne. This is the subject of decision-making in a particular situation, where people play social games. We know Bern’s books: «Games that people play», «People who play games». When you play games, you have to make decisions in the game, this is done by the Adult;
- The parent is the third instance according to Bern. It is the bearer of universal cultural principles. The parent himself does not solve problems, he only formulates principles.
In each of us there is a Parent, at least there should be. Let’s ask the Parent what is a cultural taboo? The parent will give two answers. Why two answers? Because one will be addressed to the Child and the Parent will give a completely different answer to the Adult. The answer for the Child is a tautology: «it is impossible, because it is impossible.» It is pointless to explain to the Child why it is impossible, just not for the age. We said that in childhood there are questions to which, in principle, you will not find the right answer, but you can’t do something. The philosopher, whom we often talked about, Merab Konstantinovich Mamardashvili, recalls: “When I was a teenager, they explained to me why you can’t hit a woman, why you can’t hit your wife or girl.” That is, it seemed that from the beginning it was necessary to explain everything, build a kind of universe, comprehend the world, and only then say: «therefore, a woman cannot be beaten.» And then he realized that it’s impossible to beat a woman, because it’s impossible and beautifully said: “and no brain rattle has anything to do with this.” This is given on an emotional-volitional level, and not on a cognitive one.
In the word «it is impossible», we notice two meanings: the first lies on the surface — «it is impossible, therefore it is forbidden»; and it also has a second meaning, “it’s impossible — it means impossible”: no matter how much you do, you still won’t do it. Therefore, the meaning of the prohibition for an Adult sounds like this: for a child, “it’s impossible,” because “it’s impossible,” and for an adult, “it’s not worth it, because it won’t work out anyway.” He sets some lofty goals for himself: “we will build ourselves some kind of the most perfect society, they tell him: “It’s not worth it, because nothing will come of it anyway.”
There are people who don’t understand this. For example, a wonderful self-taught inventor, a magnificent, talented person, in our Russian history is Ivan Kulibin. It so happened, he was a thinker not of a verbal, but of a visual type, he did not understand elementary physics, all his life he built a perpetual motion machine. Eighty percent of his drawings are drawings of a perpetual motion machine. Twenty percent, while he was building a perpetual motion machine, he offered some technical proposals and became famous for this. And he may be a good person, but we must tell the truth: he is, of course, an analyst’s patient, because he builds a perpetual motion machine, he solves a problem that cannot be solved. And everything else, all other sayings, like building some kind of the most perfect society, these are also attempts to build heaven on earth. Heaven on earth is not possible. And anyone who builds heaven on earth is a psychoanalyst’s patient.
The role of nature, society and culture in the development of the individual
Nature
We will mark some of the key words that you will encounter in a variety of literature on personality. So nature. The phrase that you will meet will be this — «natural or organic prerequisites for the development of personality.» Nature is only a prerequisite: inclinations, abilities, temperament properties are prerequisites for personal problems. Prerequisites for personality problems, even our appearance — the color of the eyes, the shape of the nose or ears — start to concern you when? When we compare ourselves with others, that is, on a social level. There, these prerequisites can lead, for example, to some problems. And you can also say this: natural prerequisites are the initial data. Like a puzzle: something is given to us and something is required, and so what is given is the natural prerequisites. This is the stuff to transform. Because, usually in a puzzle, the initial data cannot be changed, but it is necessary to transform, restructure in such a way as to solve the problem. Take a fresh look at this data. Of course, natural data cannot be transformed without borders, there are also natural laws that cannot be crossed. How many do not invent, but the amount of working memory will still be 7 +/- 2. The units may be different, but the number of units is strictly defined.
Society
Social environment — yes necessary condition for personal development. For the first time, a person becomes a person only in society. But then we will say: “necessary” for the first birth of the personality and “insufficient” for the second, which is already accomplished without social supports. The person solves the problem on his own.
culture
I would give three answers, summing up all the previous:
1. Cultural norm is a universal principle for solving specific, personal problems. For example, a problem on the Pythagorean theorem. The Pythagorean theorem is a principle here, and the conditions themselves will show how to apply it, in a given condition.
2. Cultural item is a means of transforming nature, in the most ordinary sense of the word.
Leontiev gives us an example of how a child learns to eat with a spoon. There are two stages: at the first stage, the spoon in the child’s hand is something superfluous, it is convenient to eat with the hand. That is, this is a kind of application to a natural organ, if his mother did not hold the handle, then he would still strive to eat with his hand. The second stage is very difficult, when Leontiev says: the movement gradually begins to obey the logic of the gun. Now the spoon has determined the movement of the hand. What is a hand now? Formally, it remained a part of the body, as it was. And in the psychological sense, it is a transformed body, a transformed nature. Because the hand that knows how to hold a spoon and use it, the eye that sees painting, the ear that hears music, these are already artificial organs made.
3. Cultural taboo is the protection of the transformed nature.
In everyday language: transformed nature — if you please, protect it. When cars appeared, at first there were no rules and pedestrians and motorists competed with each other, who wins. Then the rules of the road appeared and, in principle, if you follow them, it will be safe on the road, according to the rules of the social James’s «I». Cultural principles are not always respected, but the fact remains: if you follow the rules of the road, you will be protected. Probably, the Frenchman, pilot and writer, Saint-Exupery, said this better than others in his fairy tale about the Little Prince: you are responsible for those whom you have tamed. Transformed — protect. You are responsible for what you have transformed.