What is Character?

Notes

Current Blogs are now summarised at www.mindcluk.uk

This Blog continues from Toukanalia, Out-of-Character Behaviour but threads through to other areas may be relevant. Comments will not be published without permission. As text is added, sometimes a couple of posts drop off the page but do not appear on the next, and not all the labels are working.

A sequel has been made at https://groupsandminds.blogspot.com with some links back to here.

This and other Blogs are being updated by Jim Strange, see https://endishtimes.blogspot.com
and https://mindcluk.blogspot.com

'To thine own self be true' - Shakespeare's 'Hamlet'

We think we know something about ourselves, our likes and dislikes, and about people we live, work and mix with. How often are we surprised when someone does something totally unexpected? Over time, we come to expect certain sorts of comment or reaction. On the Internet we gain an impression of those we engage with. Sometimes we mesh with others, things work pretty well. Other times they are discordant. How often does a row blow up over nothing, just when things seemed to be going along fine? If we take time to work out some of what went wrong, we may get better at it.

Some people have a knack of sensing things about others, whether there are hidden depths or deviousness, or a vague feeling of unease if something doesn't sit right. Some people know instinctively how to gain co-operation from others, or they can smooth family arguments. People take different roles in groups or various settings. We can try out different roles, or get forced into them by circumstance. How do we really know what we, or others, may be capable of? A number of writers suggest we are all capable even of murder. Is the attraction of characters like James Bond, or The Mentalist, that they break out of traditional modes, blatantly ignoring what's expected of them in multiple dire circumstances?

When Transactional Analysis ('Games People Play' by Eric Berne) came on the scene, along with other strategies for describing personality and behaviour, people became familiar with the concept of 'ego states', and more ways of interacting. Psychosynthesis encouraged us to think of having about six subpersonalities, and there was something called Parts Therapy. If we focussed on aspects of character or personality, played around with moods or modes, there could be a shot at other ways of handling things, greater insight, and hopefully integration.

What could possibly go wrong?

One of my concerns about all this so-called 'therapy' is that it can grow into a culture where someone is always there to imply we really ought to change, that you or I or anyone are not adequate as we are, have not enough self-worth etc. Is that not a sufficiently un-self-fulfilling prophecy to dump on others!

When it comes to parts of personality, sure it can be a useful discussion point, but then to move on, not make it a requirement. I read something about denied parts of personality taking on a life of their own, as in the term 'dissociated complex'. Yes, and what if other people give them validity, a unique name, or actually help them to strengthen and expand?

If you've come across catastrophe theory in maths, it is a useful way of looking at a switchback effect in behaviour where, instead of a mood or setting continuing along a smooth path or continuum, it suddenly folds and does the opposite. People who write about dissociation or dissociative identity, use the term discontinuity. While acknowledging that it sometimes happens, do we wish to reinforce it? In the United States, funding was given for treatment of dissociation, which was now a bandwagon. Things became a mess when the tide turned, beliefs changed, and people were suing this way or that. The UK followed ten years later, though it tends to be less extreme and more insular, with not nearly as many people involved, or so much money.

A number of issues have a mention here. It has not been possible to give in-depth analysis of pro's & cons, but the Blog acts as a lead-in to some areas that may be new to readers, or as to the general context in which they appear. See what you think and take it from there.

A temporary lock was just placed on my Twitter account for the very first time. I had to delete the following:

Could a #vaccine #combine with #5G? Or xyz? Do your own #research. "#Nerve #cell #proteins, #activated by heat + mechanical pressure can be #genetically #engineered to be sensitive to #radio #waves + #magnetic #fields by attaching to an #iron-storing #protein called #ferritin."

Search for 'ferritin' information going back to before the current vaccination situation. It may not have relevance, but can we not raise questions about any of this? As a delivery driver commented to me in a random conversation, 'This isn't over yet. We all have to look after ourselves.'

AYRWAVE: Louise Ayr

@LouiseAyr

Is stalking a kind of scam, a cuckooing of one's life? Do Cults work by cuckooing the mind, the soul? Watch where you place your trust! Update at Groups, Minds & Beliefs: Protection & Boundaries https://groupsandminds.blogspot.com/2019/03/blog-post19.html

To see the rest of this Blog, go to https://notincharacter.blogspot.com