they say people change

when they say "people change", they dont often know what they are talking about. i could even venture to say that jung was wrong on this matter. sorry, i mean he could be wrong on this matter.

it should be common knowledge that every single person who is psychologically sound would have a jungian persona with which he or she, the conciousness, uses to mediate with the external world, a world of other people, a world of nature, a world of reality. the layman like you or me would be familiar with this concept in the form of us adapting or conforming our outer personality in the presence of different groups of people; we are different persons when dealing with different people.

in a loose sense one might extrapolate this basic comprehension of psychoanalytics to really understand what the terms down-to-earth or multi-faceted mean when we describe the personalities we are used to being around with every day--the former suggests a persona congruent with the conscious self and it is a rare and greatly loved personality trait. the latter suggests an overly developed persona asymmetric to the actual ego, or "mask" which is the basis of the word's latin etymology. for the latter i dare posit what jung didnt: that it is highly possible that people have been practising and still do so--the creation, utilisation, nurturing and even the cherishing of multiple masks.

it is an extremely popular view that "people change" when on the contrary im much more comfortable with the notion that individuals simply go through stages of the development of their own unique personas, with the assumed goal of creating a mask that fits exactly onto the face of consciousness, creating a perfect mould of self--in effect a persona with all the utility of communicative versatility but without the deception of artificial colours. a perfect personality; in essence: down-to-earthness. highly rare, extremely fascinating. i have seen few; met fewer; loved one; loving one today.

"people" do not "change". personas do...as they should...as per natural self-discovery. "people", the whole selves are constants waiting to be truly represented by a competent image of a mask. and a character in a lifetime will typically go through multiples upon multiples of personas in an unconscious bid to create the best-fitting face. some will overdo it, creating exorbitantly extravagant pieces that completely shroud and eventually strangulate the self into oblivion; creating a mask behind which there is no man. thankfully this is also extremely rare.

and you dont even have to try hard to see through masks. when you do that, you see the real person inside, and can truly appreciate someone for who they really are, such that when bad things or good things develop in the mask throughout the course of reliable, old time, you would be rewarded with the assurance that you know somebody for real and not instead be surprised with superficial changes in their personas and tell yourself things like "oh wow he/shes different now. i guess people change."

because people do not change. it is up to you to focus your eyes on the persona or the person. one is chaotic and mostly meaningless; one is tranquil and ultimately everything you could, would and should know about somebody.

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