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=                        Persona_(psychology)                        =
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                            Introduction
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The persona, for Swiss psychiatrist Carl Jung, is the social face an
individual presents to the world--"a kind of mask, designed on the one
hand to make a definite impression upon others, and on the other to
conceal the true nature of the individual."


Identification
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According to Jung, the development of a viable social persona is a
vital part of adapting to, and preparing for, adult life in the
external social world. "A strong ego relates to the outside world
through a flexible persona; identifications with a specific persona
(doctor, scholar, artist, etc.) inhibits psychological development."
For Jung, "the danger is that [people] become identical with their
personas--the professor with his textbook, the tenor with his voice."
The result could be "the shallow, brittle, conformist kind of
personality which is 'all persona', with its excessive concern for
'what people think'"--an unreflecting state of mind "in which people
are utterly unconscious of any distinction between themselves and the
world in which they live. They have little or no concept of themselves
as beings distinct from what society expects of them." The stage was
set thereby for what Jung termed enantiodromia--the emergence of the
repressed individuality from beneath the persona later in life: "the
individual will either be completely smothered under an empty persona
or an enantiodromia into the buried opposites will occur."


Disintegration
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"The breakdown of the persona constitutes the typically Jungian moment
both in therapy and in development"--the "moment" when "that excessive
commitment to collective ideals masking deeper individuality--the
persona--breaks down... disintegrates." Given Jung's view that "the
persona is a semblance... the dissolution of the persona is therefore
absolutely necessary for individuation." Nevertheless, the persona's
disintegration may lead to a state of chaos in the individual: "one
result of the dissolution of the persona is the release of fantasy...
disorientation." As the individuation process gets under way, "the
situation has thrown off the conventional husk and developed into a
stark encounter with reality, with no false veils or adornments of any
kind."


Negative restoration
======================
One possible reaction to the resulting experience of archetypal chaos
was what Jung called "the regressive restoration of the persona,"
whereby the protagonist "laboriously tries to patch up his social
reputation within the confines of a much more limited personality...
pretending that he is as he was 'before' the crucial experience."
Similarly in treatment there can be "the 'persona-restoring' phase,
which is an effort to maintain superficiality;" or even a longer phase
designed not to promote individuation but to bring about what Jung
caricatured as "the negative restoration of the persona"--that is to
say, a reversion to the 'status quo'.


Absence
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The alternative is to endure living with the absence of the
persona--and for Jung "the man with no persona... is blind to the
reality of the world, which for him has merely the value of an amusing
or fantastic playground." Inevitably, the result of "the streaming in
of the unconscious into the conscious realm, simultaneously with the
dissolution of the 'persona' and the reduction of the directive force
of consciousness, is a state of disturbed psychic equilibrium." Those
trapped at such a stage remain "blind to the world, hopeless
dreamers... spectral Cassandras dreaded for their tactlessness,
eternally misunderstood."


Restoration
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Restoration, the aim of individuation, "is not only achieved by work
on the inside figures but also, as 'conditio sine qua non', by a
readaptation in outer life"--including the recreation of a new and
more viable persona. To "develop a stronger persona... might feel
inauthentic, like learning to 'play a role'... but if one cannot
perform a social role then one will suffer." One goal for
individuation is for people to "develop a more realistic, flexible
persona that helps them navigate in society but does not collide with
nor hide their true self." Eventually, "in the best case, the persona
is appropriate and tasteful, a true reflection of our inner
individuality and our outward sense of self."


                         Later developments
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The persona has become one of the most widely adopted aspects of
Jungian terminology, passing into almost common vocabulary: "a mask or
shield which the person places between himself and the people around
him, called by some psychiatrists the 'persona'." For Eric Berne, "the
persona is formed during the years from six to twelve, when most
children first go out on their own... to avoid unwanted entanglements
or promote wanted ones." He was interested in "the relationship
between ego states and the Jungian 'persona,'" and considered that "as
an 'ad hoc' attitude, persona is differentiated also from the more
autonomous 'identity' of Erik Erikson." Perhaps more contentiously, in
terms of life scripts, he distinguished "the Archetypes (corresponding
to the magic figures in a script) and the Persona (which is the style
the script is played in)."

Post-Jungians would loosely call the persona "the 'social' archetype
of the 'conformity' archetype," though Jung always distinguished the
persona as an external function from those images of the unconscious
he called archetypes. Thus, whereas Jung recommended conversing with
archetypes as a therapeutic technique he himself had employed--"For
decades I always turned to the anima when I felt my emotional behavior
was disturbed, and I would speak with the anima about the images she
communicated to me"--he stressed that "It would indeed be the height
of absurdity if a man tried to have a conversation with his persona,
which he recognized merely as a psychological means of relationship."


                              See also
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* Akrasia
* Bad faith (existentialism)
* Masking (behavior)
* 'Persona' (1966 film)
* 'Persona' (series)
* True self and false self


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