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Leaving aside the scientific and psychological theories about personality, here is Osho Rajneesh’s (Dec 11, 1931 – Jan 19, 1998) take on the subject as written in the book, The True Sage – Talks on Hasidism (1976):
“Individuality is exactly what it means; it is individual. Personality is not individuality, it is social. Society wants you to have personalities, not individualities, because your individualities will create conflict…The word personality comes from a Greek root, which means mask (persona). In Greek drama, the actors used to wear masks to hide their real face and to show some other face. From persona comes the word personality, it is a face that you wear, it is not your original face…Personality is false, it is the greatest lie. And, because the whole society depends on personality, the state, the church, organizations, the establishment are all lies.” About 700 books have been published based on the Osho’s discourses. He was certainly an enlightened sage with millions of dedicated followers all over the world, and his simple explanation about a complex subject is to be admired for its rationale and lucidity.
Following this line, one could say that when talking about individuality (which is distinctly different from personality, as explained above) it is Linda Goodman’s (Apr 9, 1925 – Oct 21, 1995) book, Linda Goodman’s Sun Signs (1968), the first astrology book to feature in the New York Times Bestseller list, that is most read by those seeking the answer to the question, ”Who am I?” Her Sun Signs, Love Signs (1978), and Star Signs (1988) have sold more than 30 million copies and continue to sell about 200,000 copies every year. She is clear in her view that the individuality of a person is determined to a great degree by their sun sign.
Now, moving on to the more scientific aspects of personality, here are two definitions: “Personality is the dynamic organization within the individual of those psychophysical systems that determine his characteristics behavior and thought” (Allport, 1961), and “The characteristics or blend of characteristics that make a person unique” (Weinberg and Gould, 1999). But, what does Sigmund Freud (May 6, 1856 – Sept 23, 1939), a neurologist and the father of psychoanalysis, have to say on the subject? After all, reading an individual’s personality is the key to all things psychological, and the very basis on which psychoanalysis is founded.
In 1923, he structured the psyche into three parts—the id, the ego, and the superego, all of which develop at different stages of life and are not parts of the brain, or in any way physical. The id, which is the primitive and instinctive component of personality, comprises inherited (i.e. biological) personality components present at birth, including the sex (life) instinct (Eros) and the aggressive (death) instinct (Thanatos). The id responds directly to basic urges, needs, and desires, and so, the personality of the newborn child is all id. The id remains functionally infantile all through a person’s life, not affected by reality or logic, since it operates in the unconscious part of the mind. The ego is the realistic part, while the super-ego operates as a moral conscience. Freud stated that personality development is dependent on instinctive and environmental factors experienced during the first five years of life, and that parental behavior is crucial to how the child’s personality develops. That is why personality-related problems can usually be traced back to the first five years of life.
Another iconic psychiatrist and psychoanalyst, Carl Gustav Jung (July 26, 1865 – June 6, 1961), developed a typology of reaction styles, distinguishing between two basic drives—introversion (preoccupation with the inner world at the expense of social interactions) and extroversion (preference for social interplay for living out inner drives—collectively termed libido). He opined that the psyche had three parts, ego, personal unconscious, and collective unconscious (the theory that human beings are connected to each other and their ancestors through a shared set of experiences).
Reading all this, it is easy to understand that personality is a very complex and deep subject, indeed! And, perhaps it is not so easy, after all, to find the answer to the eternal question all of us seek at one time or another—“Who am I?”
