What is the mask, according to Carl G. Jung?

The person or mask is a concept of Analytical Psychology that is used to designate those parts of the Self that we show to others. It is made up of everything we value, all the characteristics that we appropriated because we observed in the development that they were well received in our environment.

This is how the mask is configured, an entity that is made up of the aspects that we value and that we believe that others will value in us. Everything that is not functional to the mask is usually rejected and expelled into the depths, forming the shadow.

The Mask or Persona is, in Murray Stein's words, "the face with which we present ourselves to the social world around us." The one through which we want to be observed and recognized. Continuing with Stein's description, the person is «the individual as it appears and not the individual as it is», « the person is a psychological and social construct adopted with a specific purpose».

For Jung, the personality of an individual is complex, it is composed of many subpersonalities that manifest according to the context. This allows us to understand how individuals change depending on the environment in which they find themselves. Jung argued that certain environments required certain attitudes from the individual. Work requires a different position than the one assumed in leisure time. And this versatility is important. Now, to a greater or lesser extent, these positions or attitudes are taking root, the more they are assumed and repeated. This can lead an individual to identify with his person, for example. Not conceiving her individuality outside of the identity that a certain role confers on her.

Thus, many doctors, for example, identify so much with their work role that they have great difficulty in experimenting outside of it. Retirement can mean a strong break, a loss of identity. The Self according to Murray Stein, has a tendency to identify with the roles it plays. Therefore this identity between the person and the self is usually very frequent.

What happens in these cases is that the individual considerably restricts his creative potentialities and his different vital facets. Many aspects are left in the shade because only what is appropriate according to the mask is prioritized. Therefore, we can think that the more encompassing and inflexible the mask, the bigger and darker the shadow, which is never given room.

The person is necessary to move into society. It is important to carry out attitudes that are functional according to the context because it allows us to clarify our roles and preserve our privacy. However, identifying ourselves with that mask is a risk because it prevents us from displaying our other subpersonalities, other attitudes, and instances that also require participation for a more complete life.

The person is an entity that is functional to a context and must be understood as such. Just as it is put on, like a mask, to go out into the world, it has to be able to be removed and allow the emergence of other qualities of the individual.

 

 

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