More SCHIZO TALK / Ivan

[Guest guest]

Hi Ivan,

 

I find what you say about every human being being a collection of often

conflicting and seemingly contradicting moments of expression, different moods

and masks and roles, a very accurate and important perception.

 

I'm sure most people here have made the same observation, but just to be a bit

chatty :

 

As a kid, I used to be very puzzled and at times somewhat upset at the different

perceptions people had of each other and how when others or myself talked about

a person and compared notes with each other, the descriptions would vary wildly,

as if we were talking about different people. It all depended of course on the

mood and in what situation the different observervers had had a chance to

observe person X, whether in a job situation or as a private person or as a

parent. Gives some explanation to why a person can be a violent and feared

robber to someone and a loved child to another, and none of the relaters can

understand how the other can see the robber/child as anything but the role that

is perceived.

 

The lack of constancy in people's behavior,

used to create some problems in the form of frustration, as I was wondering if

there was any person in the world who was a true person, one which was

consistent in behavior and treated other people the same, no matter who they

were or in what relationships they occupied to each other, and one which

everyone said the same about, could report the steady state of this person as

either "she is a nice person" or "she is an absolute idiot", no matter who you

asked.

 

Needless to say, I never found such a person. The quest was rather doomed

from the get go. The only people who seemed to exhibit more or less constant

emotional characteristics were artificial people, characters in books and films.

I was too young to know the difference (and similarity) between "person" and

"persona". And strove hard to be a "true person", a person with constant

characteristics, a person who would be constant on what she projected of herself

to the world.

 

This of course, turned out to be quite taxing and limiting and after a while,

when finding that it was possible to play different roles, to relate to

different people in different ways, and even to have fun with roles in

environments where this was allowed and expected (role playing games) I of

course had a field day in exploring and expanding the notions of self and the

facets of human experience sometimes even switching between gender and

ages.

 

There is of course, with having a persona or more, always a risk that the

persona can mistake itself for the actor and this happens on a very frequent

basis.

 

However,

with awareness of the shifting and flexible persona as you mention, the

sensation that every human is capable of the same set of emotions and ideas

becomes increasingly closer. Thus, the saying "Nothing human is a stranger to

me" becomes an experience.

 

And the experience of the non anchored persona that rooms every human expression

to the extent that a feeling of being many persons in one and being able to

switch between them can follow one even into dreams, indeed confirming the old

saying "I am... legion".

 

 

Thank you again for the introduction and for allowing me to blather on about

masks and personae.

 

 

Love,

 

Amanda (one woman army).

 

 

On Mon, 06 Nov 2000 08:46:58 Ivan Frimmel wrote:

>I am using the term schizophrenia as an

>exaggerated metaphor for what is,in my opinion, the dualistic

>predicament of almost every so-called "normal" individual - and to

>emphasize the importance of clear awareness of our internal

>contradictions, conflicts,uncertainties and unpredictability as an

>integrating factor for all these dualities and multiplicities - and

>the need for expressing our uniqueness, even downright "madness".

>

 

 

 

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