Is Your Personality Derived From Your Animal Existence?

An Opposing View to Conventional Mental Health

I just don't think that the "Mental Health Community" has got it right.

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My comments look like this = {***MC,...}
It means = {***Mark's Commentary, then my commentary.}

Psychology Today Article
March-April 2008
"Change Your Nature"

Second Nature
Your personality isn't necessarily set in stone. With a little experimentation, the ornery and bleak can reshape their temperaments and inject pluck and passion into their lives.
By: Kathleen McGowan

Call it the cult of the ugly duckling. We devour stories of personal transformation: the uptight guy who learns to cut loose, the wallflower who becomes the life of the party. It's the staple of self-help books and romantic comedies—as well as the primary reason that people drag themselves to high-school reunions. ("Can you believe that guy who never talked is now a real estate mogul?") {***MC, Notice that the things desired here have everything to do with selfishness and not goodness, Egos vying for ascendancy in the animal order.} But psychologists have long believed that major personality makeovers are impossible. In fact, the big themes of personality—whether you are shy or outgoing, relaxed or a worrywart—seem to be scripted at a very young age.However, personality researchers have begun looking more closely at the smaller ways we can and do change. {***MC, Actually, major transformations of personality are possible, if you can go through the pain of abandoning the identity that you associate with your animal existence} Positive psychologists, who investigate human talents, have identified 24 character strengths—familiar qualities we admire, such as integrity, loyalty, kindness, vitality—and are limning them to find out why these faculties come so naturally to some people. What they're discovering is that many of these qualities amount to habitual ways of responding to the world—habits that can be learned."The evidence is good that most of these things can be changed," says Christopher Peterson, professor of psychology at the University of Michigan. "That doesn't mean it's easy. It doesn't come in a flash." Psychologists talk about personality change the way doctors talk about the biological set point for weight: Nature designed some of us to be heavy, and others to be slim. {***MC, Here we associate who we are with only our biological existence} It's not impossible to alter your weight, but it requires going against your own grain. {***MC, Your "own grain" is actually the identity in you that is made of animal flesh}

But eventually, the new way of being can come to feel like second nature. {***MC, conditioning the animal part of you is a shallow transformation. The primitive you is still dominant} Peterson cites himself as an example. Inherently introverted, he realized early on in his career as an academic that his reticence would prove disastrous in the lecture hall. So he learned to be more outgoing, to crack jokes, and to entertain big classes full of psychology students. "Do I still have an introverted temperament? Yes, in that if I'm in a big crowd, I get anxious," {***MC, His animal identity is subject to the harsh criticisms of others} he says. "But my behavior is consistently extroverted, because I've worked to make it that way. {***MC, He can fake it, and much of the anxiety he used to feel is still there but he is not aware of it, so it does not affect his present functioning as much} Now, it's very spontaneous." {***MC, He is now conditioned his animal nature in handling the situation, but his gains are shallow at best}

Whether Peterson's personality has truly changed is almost beside the point. He may not be an extrovert, technically speaking, but he behaves like one, and is treated like one. {***MC, he can fake it, and reap the selfish social benefits from his acting performance.} Tweaking the way you interpret and react to the world can be a transformative experience, freeing you up to act in new ways. {***MC, But are you seeing the truth, or is it just a more suitable false interpretation much like the fear of social situations he had before. It was illusion and conditioning that caused the fear in the first place, and illusion and conditioning that caused his present state. Better for him but still from animal flesh. If a person that was truly himself, not of animal flesh, were to help him see how wobbly he is on his ego throne he could really be helped.} At first, it feels awkward, even bizarre. But with new behaviors come new experiences, creating a feedback loop that, over time, reinforces the transition.Some sought-after qualities are easier to develop than others. Courage, joy, passion, and optimism are among the more amenable to cultivation, but each requires mastering a different—and sometimes surprising—set of skills. To bring more joy and passion into your life, you must paradoxically be more open to experiencing sadness, anxiety, and fear. Learning to think like an optimist, it turns out, is less important than acting like one. And being courageous has nothing to do with how afraid you are: It's a matter of how strongly you feel about your goals. Cultivating these characteristics puts you on the road to that blend of happiness, satisfaction, and purpose that is the height of human functioning, what positive psychologists call "the good life."