'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.

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 '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 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. The persona, for Swiss psychiatrist Carl Jung, was the social face the individual presented 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.' Jung's persona Identification Īccording 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. Social face an individual presents to the world

Negative man mask