"Self-knowledge and personality development." presentation for a psychology lesson (grade 10) on the topic

What is self-knowledge?

Self-knowledge is a unique process during which a person studies himself independently - tries to look into the depths of his soul in order to better assess the level of physical and mental capabilities.
This need is common to all people, which is why every person is different from animals. Many religious movements are inextricably linked with self-knowledge. Thus, several thousand years ago, thinkers believed that self-knowledge is an excellent way to retire with God, which any person can use to find hidden reserves in themselves that are so necessary for further development.

There is an opinion that people do all the fundamental actions in life on their own: they choose a specific goal, make mistakes (correct shortcomings), build relationships with relatives and friends. If a person begins to identify his strengths and weaknesses, then his self-esteem immediately increases, which means his quality of life automatically improves.

Watch the video on the topic from Alexey Tolkachev:

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Self-knowledge and personality development - what are the differences and similarities?

Self-knowledge and personality development are processes that affect the success of each person. As mentioned above, self-knowledge is the ability of an individual to objectively assess his capabilities, as well as the desire to find additional reserves. In turn, development is a person’s ability to gradually improve, placing hopes only on one’s own strengths, and reach new heights.

Psychologists have presented a special concept, which states that the process of self-knowledge largely depends on the following factors:

1. Human health (physical and psychological).
2. The presence of personal potential (the ability to realize it).
3. The ability to achieve harmony (primarily in your inner world).

All of the above factors can ensure high efficiency of self-knowledge if they are correctly combined.

In general, self-knowledge, as well as personality development, are quite long-term processes that are interconnected. They can continue throughout human life.

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The dark side of personality

After practicing these simple ways of focusing attention on yourself, you can move on to studying your personality. The famous psychologist Eric Berne, author of People Who Play Games and founder of transactional analysis, wrote that during their lives people are in three types of states: child, adult and parent. What are these conditions?

• Child

The state of a child contains all our naturally occurring desires and impulses. This is the most creative, fun and spontaneous part of the personality. Being in this state, we begin to behave like in childhood. This is due to the fact that the childhood part contains memories of experiences, relationships and actions of that time. Unfortunately, very often a person’s goal is to kill the child within himself. You shouldn't do this, otherwise life will become too bland.

• Adult

This is the rational and reasonable part of the personality. It is when we are in the adult state that we really perceive reality and receive objective information about it. Based on the information received, the adult, being calm and reasonable, realistically assesses his capabilities and acts in accordance with them. It is also a necessary component of personality and very often self-knowledge allows it to manifest itself fully.

• Parent

The most conservative and strict part of the personality. Contains attitudes and judgments learned externally from elders, most often from parents. Their behavior is expressed in caring and criticism towards others. In small quantities, it is a very useful component of the personality, the purpose of which is to prevent rash and impulsive actions. And, of course, help a person make the right informed decision.

Gestalt psychology also tries to find an answer to the question: “how to know yourself?” Gestalists believe that a healthy personality is a holistic personality that calmly accepts any side of itself. Such a person knows how to creatively adapt to a constantly changing world. It is multifaceted and can behave differently in different circumstances.

However, not everyone can boast of such behavior. On the contrary, in our lives we most often choose for ourselves one character trait that we strive to possess, and reject the one that is the opposite. For example, you believe that you need to be kind and sympathetic and support these qualities in yourself and other people, rejecting rudeness and tactlessness. So what's the result? All your friends shamelessly take advantage of your kindness and dependability, thereby depriving you of a normal life.

Friends drag their offspring to you at any time of the day or night - today the mother-in-law comes, tomorrow she leaves, and the day after tomorrow you want to have a romantic evening, into the scenario of which the child does not fit into the scenario. Friends borrow from you until payday and most often forget to repay the debt; the parent committee is sure that no one will hang the wallpaper in the classroom better than you. Sound familiar? The list goes on and on. Situations may change, but people have the same goal - to take advantage of your “correct” side of your personality.

However, a healthy person allows himself to be both kind and rude, moving freely from one to the other. If you refuse your exploiters once or twice, put down the presumptuous boor, you will not become any worse for it. Of course, it’s also not worth crossing all conceivable and inconceivable boundaries. Unless becoming selfish and rude is not your goal.

Know yourself and try to find similar clamps, because each of us has quite a lot of them. A person gets into a dead end when he gets stuck in one of these polarities. The task of self-knowledge is to find them and restore flexibility of behavior by allowing yourself to be anything. This is the main goal for which it generally makes sense to comprehend self-knowledge. In other cases, you are unlikely to succeed.

Types of self-knowledge

The scientific concept, called “I,” perfectly characterizes a person’s ability to understand his role in the modern world. Of course, if an individual’s ideas are far-fetched or not truthful enough, a contradiction with real life inevitably occurs. Of course, if the assessment corresponds to reality, then the person will continue to develop until he achieves serious progress. In the process of improving his skills, an individual, as a rule, undergoes the following types of self-knowledge:

Primary self-knowledge

It assumes an individual’s trusting attitude towards other people who express any opinion about him.

Conflict with primary self-knowledge

The time comes when a person begins to realize that people express different opinions that do not fit in with each other. That is why the individual makes certain conclusions, relying on personal experience.

Secondary self-knowledge

This process involves a radical change in a person’s ideas about his own life. As a result, the active development of the individual begins - the old principles are completely or partially rejected, so the person changes his essence. Essentially, a phenomenon occurs that can be described by the phrase “I am not quite the same as you imagined in your head.”

All of the above stages of self-knowledge can take place in different ways, because each person is an individual with his own character and life principles.

The road of a lifetime

Self-knowledge is an almost endless process: it cannot be completed. More precisely, it is possible, but not because there is nowhere else to go, but because you don’t want to or it’s very difficult. This state can occur if, in the process of self-knowledge, one gets closer to one’s own complexes, strange desires or dark sides of one’s own personality. However, overcoming such a barrier implies personal growth, although it requires some resources.

In general, there is no need to turn off the road towards yourself. Self-discovery is a process that can continue throughout your life, making it unforgettable. Thanks to it, you get the opportunity to experience contact with yourself, as well as be open in your relationships with the world.

It is on this basis that your little personal happiness can be built. Good luck and pleasant discoveries along the way! Now that you know what self-knowledge is, you can crack this nut!

Stages of self-development

• Self-knowledge. Back in the 4th century BC, seven ancient sages formulated and inscribed on the temple of the god Apollo in Delphi the absolute and universal truth: “Know yourself.” A thinking person must clearly understand his life priorities, ideals, and qualities that will allow him to move “forward and upward.” Only by answering the question: “Who am I in this world?” can you try to look for landmarks and direction of movement.
• Setting goals. Goals can be long-term or short-term, but in any case they should be flexible and should not contradict each other. In addition, the result of goal setting should be a specific result and process - systematic training. The very problem of setting life goals in terms of self-development is a very important and capacious topic, which we will discuss in one of the following publications.
• Ways to achieve the goals. Self-development is a very individual process. Therefore, there simply cannot be universal advice on achieving the heights of personal growth. The answer to the question about how to improve yourself (physical, mental or spiritual) can be sought for a long time in smart books, or you can get it, as they say, “simply from heaven.” The story of American businessman and gambler MC Davis comes to mind. By chance, due to a traffic jam, he ended up at a children's lecture about the destruction of wildlife, he suddenly found the meaning of his life. Over twenty years, the businessman-philanthropist invested ninety million dollars in the Nokuse project, designed for three hundred years. Thanks to this, eight million swamp pine seedlings were planted on lands purchased from wood processing companies.
• Action. My favorite expression: “The one who walks can master the road.” After all, only by starting to act, taking at least one step towards your dream, can you hope to achieve results.

The self-development program includes various areas, including character improvement, the formation of strong-willed qualities, the development of intelligence, spirituality, and physical fitness. In general, self-development is both a powerful factor in business success and success in the personal sphere of a person’s life.

Our amazing and beautiful inner world

It is better to start self-knowledge by paying attention to your own body. Yes, yes, there are numerous ways of self-knowledge and this is not the worst of them. In the crazy pace of modern life, our body sometimes resembles a driven horse, but when it tries to tell us about it, we don’t hear it. And then our body begins to hurt - various diseases develop.

It is quite possible to establish contact with your body - just pay attention to how it reacts to everything that happens to us. At first it will be difficult, but you need to shift the focus of attention to your internal sensations again and again - and then it will become a matter of habit.

Another zone, the awareness of which is an important element of self-knowledge, is the zone of feelings and emotions. It is impossible to go through the next stages of self-knowledge without passing this one. In everyday life, we are often guided by reason, not noticing that some rational decisions cause us complete rejection on an emotional level. For example, we hide anger and resentment, considering their expression stupid and meaningless, which leads to hiding true emotions from ourselves. The goal is not to show your irritation to anyone. But in fact, there are only internal problems.

It is from receiving information from these two zones that self-knowledge begins. In just a week you will learn a lot of new and interesting things about yourself. It could be the fact that you get a headache every time your friend Masha calls you for coffee. At the same time, every time you and Masha drink coffee, you begin to experience such fatigue and boredom that you often simply “switch off” from communicating with her. Self-knowledge will help eliminate such situations.

Another important layer of self-knowledge is knowledge of your needs. It would seem very simple to answer the question: “what do I want?” But this is far from the case - many of the desires that we think we experience are in fact not truly ours. They can be imposed from the outside or misinterpreted by us. It happens that a woman often wants to eat, so she eats a lot and gets fat. Although in fact, half the time she is thirsty, and if she drank a glass of water at these times, she would feel much better and would be slimmer.

Of course, this example is the most primitive, but the most illustrative. Do you feel like you're tired and can't even cook dinner? Lie down for 15 minutes - just without a laptop or TV. If you fall asleep, you are really tired. But most likely, your fatigue will disappear within a few minutes - you probably wanted a little silence. It is difficult to name specific methods that make self-knowledge easier - the most important thing in this matter is to listen to your body.

Once you learn to understand the real needs of your body, you can set a more difficult goal - self-knowledge of your emotions. Do not count on an easy victory - the path will be long and thorny. First, learn to deal with your mood. Don't set an unattainable goal - don't hope that you will succeed in everything at once. Self-knowledge is a long process and sometimes takes more than one year.

Therefore, your first goal is to learn to understand the true reason for your bad mood. After all, most people don’t know how to do this! Well, the blues, well, irritation - who doesn’t? And the person has no idea that the reason for the bad mood lies in lack of sleep, or yesterday’s squabble with colleagues, or some other trifle.

The third stage of self-knowledge is self-control: without this nothing will come of it. You can understand yourself only if you learn to control yourself. Moreover, now we are not talking about anger or irritation - in this case, the so-called “ten” technique is very suitable. As soon as you feel angry, slowly count to ten, and then respond or take any action.

But controlling anger is not enough - learn to control your emotional impulses, your desires. Moreover, it is much more complicated. Did you see an item you like? Don’t rush to buy it right away, even if you have the required amount with you. Try to wait at least a couple of days. And so in everything - endurance stimulates self-knowledge well. Each time the goal can be made more complicated - today it’s a new handbag, and tomorrow it’s a vacation package.

Ways of self-development

1. Choose priorities. To go to the top without stopping or wandering, a person needs to have a clear idea of ​​​​the direction of movement. Stephen Covey, a famous coach and business consultant, focused on the fact that most today choose a watch as the main metaphor for their lives, when they should be guided primarily by a compass. The main task of the individual is to find his true path. The focus should not be on speed, plans and schedules, but on priorities.
2. Awareness of the fullness of life. Often in the flow of life, a person perceives the world either as a gray viscous substance or in the form of a motley chaotic kaleidoscope. To perceive the fullness of the moment, the harmony of the world and its diversity, it is worth applying the principle of “being here and now.” At any moment you can give yourself the command: “Stop. Be aware. Feel it."
3. Concentration of attention. The Indians have a story that the human brain is a small monkey. She constantly climbs somewhere, itches, examines something, chews, but she can be tamed. The same must be done with consciousness. When the mind jumps from thought to thought, from idea to idea, tell it: “Come back! Look here!" By the way, I want to assure you that this technique works flawlessly. I tested it on myself and came to the conclusion that with the help of self-control you can completely focus on a task, discarding everything else. This way I accumulate consciousness and the efficiency in the process becomes many times higher.
4. Write down your thoughts. To form and strengthen any intention, I advise you to record all the brilliant and not so brilliant thoughts that pop up in your mind about a particular problem. Use a notepad, organizer or voice recorder for this. By instructing your subconscious to generate ideas in a given direction, you will soon receive a lot of hints and understand what and how to do next. Also, when debriefing, pay attention to repetitive tasks. It has been noticed that a task postponed three times is not worth the effort spent on solving it.
5. Time. Be careful with such a valuable resource as time. Use time management techniques. It is worth learning about voluntary forgetfulness, since some problems are solved by themselves, and working on the ability to track and block “time wasters”: empty conversations, networking, absorption and reaction to unnecessary information.
6. Environment. Communicate with people who can teach you something, inspire you, and lead you. At the same time, I advise you to limit your interaction with those who drag you down, burden you with whining and complaints.
7. Movement towards the goal. Once you master the art of small steps, you will steadily move towards your goal. The slightest movement in the outlined direction is already a result.
8. Multi-vector. The ability to achieve several results in one unit of time. For example, when you get on a treadmill, you can plug headphones with acidic music into your ears, or you can listen to an audiobook or repeat words in a foreign language. Which option is more effective? Undoubtedly - the second! But you can’t get carried away here; if the task is serious, it’s better to fully concentrate on it.
9. Stress. The author of the book “How to Work 4 Hours a Week,” Tim Ferriss, advises learning how to use stress. Sounds paradoxical. Is not it? But it is a certain level of stress that creates sufficient motivation in you. It turns out that there is so-called “good” stress - emotional outbursts (not always with a plus sign) that force you to leave your comfort zone.

Of course, the ways of self-development are not exhausted by this list. Every spiritual practice, every psychology guru will most likely offer you many other methods. The ones described in this article seem to me the most universal.

Theory of self-knowledge: psychoanalysis.

Theory of self-knowledge: psychoanalysis.
At the end of the 19th and beginning of the 20th centuries, the young scientist and neurologist Sigmund Freud, together with his teacher Joseph Breuer, treated hysteria and neuroses. Sigmund tried to understand the reason for their occurrence. He carefully observed his patients, listened to them and analyzed the information collected. Freud noticed that during psychotherapeutic sessions, when people talked about their experiences, their feelings and suffering, they unconsciously switched to memories of mental trauma received in the past. After this, they experienced emotional release and felt better. He concluded from this that neurosis itself is a protective reaction of the human consciousness from painful memories that are not consciously controlled. Sigmund was on the verge of his great discovery that most of man's mental life is unconscious.

Freud gradually moved away from Breuer's cathartic method, which used hypnosis, and developed a new method of depth psychotherapy with the technique of free association, which would be called psychoanalysis.

He describes a conventional model of the entire apparatus of the human psyche, the main part of which is filled with the unconscious. In this area, our instincts rule and desires arise that require fulfillment on the principle of pleasure. The unconscious is limited to the preconscious, which is a kind of cordon, curbing uncontrollable instincts. In this area, our fantasies, filled with symbolic meaning, our dreams and dreams arise. On top of everything is the conscious, with the help of which we control our behavior in the outside world and desires within us.

Psychoanalysis gradually developed and expanded. Various methods of psychotherapy have evolved from it. For example, such as Adler's individual psychology, Reich's body-oriented psychotherapy and Jung's analytical psychology. Within the framework of psychoanalysis itself, many independent movements appeared.

By 1923, Freud developed the final classical model of the human psyche. In it, the unconscious is called “It”, the preconscious is called “I” and the conscious is called “Super-I”. The “I” plays a role in finding a balance between our internal “It”, filled with uncompromising desires, and the external, limited by prohibitions and taboos, “Super-I”. Its goal is to maintain harmony between needs and their implementation in a person. When it is disrupted, replacement occurs in the form of neuroses and mental disorders. This is an attempt by our psyche to self-heal.

The psyche itself begins to form in a person from infancy and goes through several stages. The most important stages in development are the periods from 3 to 5 years, when the child develops concepts of what can be done and what cannot be done, and gender identity is formed, and from 5 to 7 years, when problems begin to arise and be overcome. Electra and Oedipus complexes. These periods play a huge role in a person’s subsequent life.

A very young child is free to express his desires and does whatever he wants. As he grows up and is raised, he is instilled with social norms of behavior and morality that limit his inner freedom. Further, his personal “Super-I” plays the role of a strict parent, punishing disobedience in the form of neuroses.

According to Freud, the development of sexuality plays a dominant role. Happiness in the future, in adulthood, depends on the correct development of childhood sexuality. Driven into a remote corner of our psyche, hidden sexual desires and lusts break out in the form of perversions, depression and psychosis.

A psychoanalysis session takes place in an atmosphere of mutual trust between the patient and the psychoanalyst. They are equal and the patient is a direct participant in his healing, which is an indispensable condition. He is in a relaxed state and tries to analyze himself and tells out loud all the associations that emerge in his imagination at this time. He tells his dreams. This is a kind of language with the help of which our unconscious speaks to our consciousness and gives signals to understand the problem and ways to solve it. The psychoanalyst helps the person understand this symbolic language. The patient's goal is to understand the origins of his mental disorder, returning to the state of an infant, which will lead to relief and eventual relief from it.

Psychoanalysis is sometimes called a philosophical-psychological method of treatment. It is intended for human self-knowledge and development. This is a long and difficult process that leads to self-improvement and gaining peace of mind. On the philosophical side, psychoanalysis is ambiguous. Our mind and consciousness are gifts and punishments at the same time. Some unsatisfied sexual needs are expressed and find a way out in the form of creativity, which is called sublimation. And who knows whether many great poets, artists and writers who suffered from the pangs of creativity really needed treatment? Humanity would be deprived of their beautiful creations. This question is on the plane of philosophy and discussion.

Freud made a revolution in people's minds. He made us look at ourselves from the other side, from the dark and unknown side. The man suddenly realized that the Lord had left a little bit of the bestial in him. That is why psychoanalysis was viewed with hostility for a long time and was prohibited. It's hard to admit many things about yourself.

But psychoanalysis is intended precisely for a person to get to know himself and accept himself as he is, in return gaining happiness and mental health, getting rid of internal unresolved psychological problems.

Author: Vitaly Nuzhdin

for the website therapy.by

The importance of self-knowledge in human life

Many religions, philosophical and psychological-pedagogical schools and approaches are largely built on the value, importance and significance of self-knowledge and self-development. Thus, from the point of view of the religions of the Ancient East, it is with the help of self-knowledge and self-development that it is possible and realistic to comprehend the true essence of man, to achieve the unity of man with the Absolute Mind, the Universe; “in Christianity, self-knowledge is the discovery of the Divine principle within oneself, and self-development is the path to comprehending God through faith and participation in the sacraments of the church.” In psychology and pedagogy of the humanistic direction, it is argued that only with the help of self-actualization can a person realize himself, find the meaning of his existence, become what he is capable of becoming, “and not what others force him to be.” In accordance with the concept of the representative of humanistic psychology K. Rogers, self-knowledge gives a person the ability for personal growth, self-improvement, self-actualization, which is a necessary condition for achieving the fullness of life, a feeling of joy in life, and awareness of the meaning of life.

Ways and means of self-knowledge

Self-knowledge as a process can be presented as a sequence of the following actions: discovery of any personal trait or behavioral characteristic in oneself, its fixation in consciousness, analysis, evaluation and acceptance. It is advisable to take into account that with a high level of emotionality and non-acceptance of oneself, self-knowledge can turn into “self-digging”, which generates not objective knowledge about oneself, but various kinds of complexes, therefore, in self-knowledge, as in other matters, moderation is important.

According to psychologist Yu. M. Orlov, effective self-observation in terms of self-knowledge and self-development is impossible without knowledge of the basics of the psychology of feelings and personality psychology. “...In order to think about how my resentment, my vanity, my shame and my fear are structured, you must first of all know how these psychological realities are “structured” in general. Therefore, training in introspection (self-observation) involves knowledge of the psychological mechanisms of the objects of reflection. Anyone who knows how his resentment works can make it an object of introspection... Anyone who does not know this will fail, since he will reproduce in his imagination only images that again cause the experience of resentment..."

The most common methods of self-knowledge include:

• Introspection. It is carried out by observing oneself, one’s behavior, and the events of the inner world.
• Introspection. What is discovered through introspection is subjected to analysis, during which any personality trait or behavioral characteristic is divided into its constituent parts, cause-and-effect relationships are established, and the person reflects on himself, on this particular quality. For example, having discovered signs of shyness in yourself, you can try to answer the questions: does this always manifest itself? Am I shy when communicating with close people? Am I being shy when answering the lesson? What about communicating with strangers? Is it with everyone? What causes this? For example, the cause of shyness in an adult may be a hidden resentment experienced in childhood as a result of ridicule.
• Comparing yourself with some “standard”. People tend to compare themselves with other people, or with ideals, or with accepted standards. Such a comparison is carried out through a kind of scale, the poles of which are opposites, for example: smart - stupid, kind - evil, fair - unfair, attentive - inattentive, hardworking - lazy.
• Modeling your own personality. It is carried out by displaying individual properties and characteristics of one’s personality, one’s relationships with others using signs and symbols. For example, you can, by marking yourself and other significant people with circles, try to write down and comprehend the connections between yourself and others: likes, dislikes, dominance, submission, conflicts, etc.
• Awareness of opposites in one quality or another behavioral characteristic. This method is used at later stages of the process of self-knowledge, when some personal characteristic has already been identified and analyzed. The point here is that a person’s personality and its individual qualities simultaneously have positive and negative sides. Finding the positive side of a quality that is initially perceived as negative reduces the pain of accepting it. Self-acceptance is an important moment of self-knowledge; it is also the starting point for self-development and self-improvement.

The broadest and most accessible way of self-knowledge is considered to be knowledge of other people. By giving them characteristics, understanding the motives of their behavior, we compare ourselves with others, and this makes it possible to understand our difference from others and what exactly it is.

The means of self-knowledge include:

• Self-report, including in the form of a diary.
• Watching films, plays, reading fiction. Paying attention to the psychological portraits of heroes, their actions, relationships with other people, a person, willingly or unwillingly, compares himself with these heroes, and writers (especially classics) are considered unsurpassed psychologists.
• The study of psychology, in particular its branches such as personality psychology and social psychology.
• Use of psychological testing; in this case, it is better to use serious, proven tests, carefully reading the instructions and methods of interpretation. If possible, it is better to carry out the interpretation together with a specialist psychologist.

Special means of self-knowledge include various modern forms of work of a psychologist:

• individual counseling, in which the psychologist works with the patient in such a way that he opens up as much as possible, understands his problems, and finds internal resources to resolve them;
• work in a socio-psychological training group. Here contact is built in such a way that the group contributes to the intensification of the processes of learning about others and oneself.

Soul and personality

Let's talk about the relationship between personality and soul. Personality is a program necessary for the manifestation of the soul in the dense physical world. This is a very important part of the system, it has its own role and tasks. The personality does not go through lessons, the soul goes through lessons. Personality only helps the soul learn these lessons in the world. When you realize this and accept it internally, it will be easier for you to live. No one does anything for the individual, no one builds any “intrigues” for her. Everything that is done by you as a soul and your curators is always lessons for the soul and only for the soul. The personality performs a purely technical role. This is the role that was originally assigned to her. Personality is not a soul. Personality is a program, like the ego, but these are two different programs. Their functions and tasks are different. But both of them are very important and necessary for the soul to know itself. Accept your personality as well as your ego. Thank them for what they do for you, and then disidentify from them. You are not them. They are only programs that you, as souls, need for growth and development, to know yourself.

So, personality is a program, a program for the manifestation of the soul in the dense physical world, for the manifestation and - attention - expression of oneself, one’s intentions. The intentions of the soul. The personality captures the movements, desires, intentions of the soul and carries them to the physical plane, expressing them in specific decisions and actions. This is the function of personality. The ego is a different program and its tasks are different. The ego is a program that helps the soul to know its light. The ego will be shaded by the light of the soul so that it can more clearly see all its light facets. But if the ego expands and grows, then after some time it ceases to shade the light and begins to cover it. Depends entirely or partially on the size of the ego. This is also an experience necessary for the soul. The soul must understand what this experience tells it, what this lesson brings, and express the intention through the personality to restore its light, harmonize the ego, and bring it to its original state. Working with the ego also happens through the personality. Personality is the “service personnel” for the soul. Very important part. Without personality, the soul would not be able to develop and cognize itself on Earth, or manifest itself in society. But personality is not a soul. Personality is a program.

When the soul awakens in the body and begins to conduct the Flow from the Source, the Creator, the energy of the Creator’s Love passes through the soul and through the personality as its program, and the latter changes. The personality becomes closer in essence to the soul, hears and understands the soul better. After some time, the soul and personality become so harmonized that one can say they “grow together.” The bringing together of the soul and personality until they coincide completely, when the soul manifests itself fully through the personality program in this world without emanations of the ego, is selfhood. This is a very important moment in the development of the soul, in its manifestation on the earthly plane in order to receive the lessons it needs.

The Self is like a blueprint for the soul’s service program for its current incarnation. What kind of person the soul would like to see ideally, what lessons to learn, what path to take, what experience to gain through this program. But nothing is perfect in this mortal world. Earth is a planet of free choice, so in the process all sorts of “unforeseen circumstances” and deviations from the “general line of the party” (conceived plan) can happen. Deviations may or may not be significant. Individually. In other words, the self is a divine plan for the personality - a program created by the soul for the current incarnation for knowing and expressing itself in the world. Personality is what actually happened in fact.

Now for the interesting part. Does a person disincarnate after the end of the soul’s incarnation on Earth? Yes and no. If the personality coincides with the self (goes, lives according to the plan of the soul), receives the experience that the soul needs and realizes its plans, then it is the self, and they overlap with the soul. After incarnation, the soul will demand this experience, the self in some part becomes part of the soul, because this is exactly the experience that the soul planned to receive in this incarnation, it needed it. Thus, the personality is not lost, or rather, the personality leaves, but the self remains. When the self and the soul merge, the self is built into the soul with the experience received and needed by the soul.

If a person lives an experience that is not the one that was planned by the soul as desirable and strongly diverges from it (i.e. does not fulfill the previously prescribed plan), then with the end of the soul’s incarnation it completely leaves. This experience is not needed. Well, out of habit, we can once again, from life to life, try to run in a familiar beaten circle, instead of going and getting a new, different experience, and not repeating the previous one already received. If this happens, then the person with his experience leaves completely (and he can leave ahead of schedule, so as not to generate unnecessary experience). Something from the experience gained can be partially claimed by the soul, if it needs it, or not claimed at all, if life was “empty”.

After which the next incarnation is planned with the same undeveloped training program for the soul. In other words, the unfulfilled plan to obtain the experience necessary for the soul (or karma) descends to the next incarnation. It can be supplemented and/or expanded at the discretion of the soul. And so on until the necessary experience is obtained, the task will not be completed. Karma is the sum of the lessons unlearned by the soul or simply a curriculum for the soul.

Yes, of course, no one is waiting until the next life, we are constantly led in circles and poked our noses at unlearned lessons already in the current incarnation, directing us closer to the intended plan. If we do not want to hear and learn, curators can arrange an accident, a short-lived illness with a fatal outcome, etc. Everything there is quite rigid and clear; there is no “divine oil”, which is talked about on many esoteric sites. But this is love. God’s love is for us to grow and develop, to gain the experience we need, and not to run away from ourselves, not to “generate unnecessary experience” and “not to generate glitches in the program.”

The earth is a special playground for the desperate and brave, who are ready to simultaneously receive a variety of experiences and work through several lessons at once (pride, jealousy, envy, timidity, fear, self-rejection, etc.). And as a result, grow faster. Learn to listen and hear yourself and go according to the tips given to us, and there are many of them. The best assistant on the path is our inner voice, intuition or simply conscience, because we always know in the depths of our souls when we are doing wrong and going in the wrong direction. Well, we know, right?

So, when the personality is harmonized, the self arises. The Self, as we have already said, is a plan, an ideal program of the individual. The program as the soul conceives it before incarnation, without the emanations of the ego. More often than not, the self and the personality are at odds. What is meant: the ideal personality program conceived by the soul and the program that arises and actually operates in the world diverge due to the emanations of the ego. The larger the ego, the greater the discrepancy. The task of the soul is to harmonize the ego and bring the personality program in accordance with the intended plan - the self. When the personality and the self merge, in other words, when the ego is harmonized, then the personality program begins to coincide with the self, the original plan. This is exactly the way it should be, the way the soul intended it to manifest itself on the earthly plane and pass lessons along the “optimal trajectory” in one or another incarnation.

The shorter the path, the faster the soul will complete all the lessons assigned to it and the faster it will be able to begin solving the next tasks, the faster it will develop, know itself and grow. This is the meaning of transforming the personality into a self. Moreover, since the self is an ideal program for the soul to manifest itself in the physical world for the purpose of self-knowledge, then after the soul leaves the earthly plane, at the end of the current incarnation, it is not erased, like a false personality (a program that does not coincide with the self, the program conceived by the plan), and is built into the soul in the form of experience received by the soul.

It is in the interest of the individual to merge with the self and enter eternity. Therefore, working with the ego for the individual is a priority task. Otherwise, upon completion of the incarnation of the soul, the personality will be lost completely or partially, depending on how much the false personality diverges from the intended plan - the self. Working with the ego is necessary both for the soul so that it can learn lessons “along the optimally short path,” and for the personality program if it wants to preserve itself. Since most souls live precisely through personality, therefore this post is written specifically for personality as a program.

Personality is a program; the soul creates personality itself. In each incarnation, the soul creates a new personality for the current tasks of a particular incarnation in order for the soul to gain one or another experience. I think this is clear. Personality is not ego. These are two different programs. The soul immediately receives the ego automatically, coming to Earth or to other worlds of the ego to cognize itself within the framework of the white light spectrum of the Creator. We'll talk about the ego and its specifics later. Now let's continue talking about personality. So, personality is a program that the soul needs to manifest itself in the physical world. The body is given to the soul for grounding (this is “a spacesuit, outside of which the soul cannot exist on the earthly plane, in the dense physical world), but personality is necessary for the soul for other purposes. And it is developed and created by the soul gradually, just like bodies of a lower order - astral, emotional and mental. In psychology there is the concept of “personality formation.” Psychologists divide personality into mature and immature, which is true. What a personality will be, how mature it will be, depends on the soul and its ability to create. Personality is its creation, its brainchild.

While the soul is not conscious and sleeps (does not realize itself as a soul), it acts exclusively through its creation - the personality. To contact the external physical world, the soul needs an intermediary - a personality. It is difficult for the soul to contact the world directly; it does not perceive and understand the physical world well. Personality is a switchboard for the soul. Mediator. This is a very important and necessary program for the soul. As soon as the soul wakes up and begins to become aware of itself, the need for personality gradually disappears. Gradually, the soul learns to navigate and interact with the world of physical reality, and it ceases to need personality. A personality is like a nanny for a small child. As soon as the child grows up, he stops needing her and moves on on his own. It is very important for the soul to learn to contact the world directly, otherwise it will not be able to receive the lessons for which it came into this world. Just like a child will never learn to walk if he is always carried in his arms. Ideally (according to the plan), after the awakening of the soul, the personality, like a kind nanny, gradually fades into the background and allows the soul (child) to “stand on its own two feet” and then “walk” on its own. But this happens in the case when the personality as a program does not go far from the ideal plan or self, as we have already talked about earlier. She voluntarily first withdraws, reserving only technical functions (walking, talking, eating, sleeping, moving in transport, buying food, etc. - which is what the self really is), and then completely dissolves in the soul, giving it to do everything that the personality-self previously did for the soul, providing the soul with the opportunity to live the experience of being in the physical world more fully, totally. It is for this, for this total experience, that the soul comes from incarnation to incarnation.

However, due to the emanations of the ego, the personality is not always ready to fade into the background, much less completely dissolve in the soul, but continues to resist and try to live life for the soul, preventing it from gaining the experience that the soul needs. That is, continue to “walk for her,” not allowing the soul to walk on its own. If this happens, and this happens due to emanations of the ego quite often, when the ego and the personality - these two programs - actually merge into one, then it is very difficult for the soul to manifest and know itself. She becomes a hostage in the hands of the ego and false personality (ego + personality = false personality). Gradually, the soul, with the help of curators, frees itself from the shackles of the false personality, but the process takes a long time and sometimes painfully (for the personality and ego), since the false personality resists to the last, because it understands (and it also has consciousness) that the program will be erased, for she is a virus. A virus is a malicious program. Likewise, a false personality is a harmful program for the soul. We already talked about this. If the personality and the self diverge, then the personality is erased, and does not integrate into the soul, does not dissolve in it. Therefore, many spiritual practitioners write and talk about death. Death of the superego and false personality. If the ego is controlled by the soul, if the personality is the self, then they are simply gently transformed by the soul, integrated into it, become part of it, and fade into the background of consciousness. Unnoticed. Sometimes, if the soul needs this experience, it can carry out these processes consciously. But here everything still depends on the structure of her psyche, how stable she is.

So, what is personality consciousness? Personality, like any creation, has consciousness. It is more primitive; emotions and thoughts of a higher order are not accessible to her. While the soul is sleeping, the personality program successfully fulfills its tasks, giving the soul time to “mature” and “grow up.” As soon as the soul is ready, it wakes up and begins its journey. The soul does not “mature” to independent life in the body quickly. Sometimes the process of “maturation” of the soul takes more than one life, so many souls from incarnation to incarnation continue to sleep and receive the experience they need not directly, but through an intermediary - a personality created or for each incarnation. This process of the soul knowing itself through an intermediary is longer and less effective, but safer. Walking by the hand is much easier than walking on your own.

Now let's make it clear that there are emotions of a higher and lower order. For this we need chakras. This will make it easier to draw analogies and more accessible for understanding the incoming information. If you look at the chakras, then lower-order emotions are emotions localized in the three lower chakras: muladhara, svadhisthana and manipura. What are these three chakras responsible for? For survival and everything that comes with it, procreation and the realization of one’s primitive ambitions and desires. These are lower-order emotions. Now let's make it clear that there are lower order thoughts. Any thoughts associated with these emotions, needs and desires are thoughts of a lower order. This is neither good nor bad. These are very important and necessary thoughts and emotions. They are basic. They belong to the personality, the consciousness of the individual, which is occupied with the tasks of interaction in society and survival in the dense physical world.

Now let's understand that there are thoughts and emotions (or feelings) of a higher order. Everything that comes from the heart chakra and above are thoughts and emotions of a higher order. Feelings of pure and selfless love, sacrifice, the desire to create new things, to experience the beauty of this world, to enrich it with your creativity, the desire to study and learn new things, to make scientific discoveries, to know oneself and the world around oneself, to realize and know that there is God, that there is a Creator , what is the connection between you and him, and whether there is one, global questions about the meaning of life and the meaning of being. All these thoughts and feelings of this plane are thoughts and feelings of the soul itself, not of the personality. They are not available to individuals. Knowing this, you will be able to better realize and track exactly which of your thoughts and emotions come from the personality, and which from the soul (through the personality).

Notes

1. Lebedev A.V. Seven wise men // New philosophical encyclopedia / Institute of Philosophy RAS; National social-scientific fund; Pred. scientific-ed. Council V. S. Stepin, deputy chairmen: A. A. Guseinov, G. Yu. Semigin, student. secret A. P. Ogurtsov. — 2nd ed., rev. and additional - M.: Mysl, 2010. - ISBN 978-5-244-01115-9.
2. 1 2 Maralov, 2004, p. 3.
3. Maralov, 2004, § 1. The concept of self-knowledge / Chapter 1. General characteristics of self-knowledge / Section 1. Psychology of self-knowledge / Part I. Theoretical foundations of self-knowledge and self-development.
4. 1 2 Maralov, 2004, § 3. Spheres and areas of self-knowledge / Chapter 1. General characteristics of self-knowledge / Section 1. Psychology of self-knowledge / Part I. Theoretical foundations of self-knowledge and self-development.
5. See: Man and Society / Ed. L. N. Bogolyubova, A. Yu. Lazebnikova.
6. Maralov, 2004, § 2. The structure of self-awareness / Chapter 2. Self-knowledge as a structural component of human self-awareness / Section 1. Psychology of self-knowledge / Part I. Theoretical foundations of self-knowledge and self-development.
7. Maralov, 2004, § 1. General characteristics of self-knowledge as a process / Chapter 3. Self-knowledge as a process goals, motives, methods, results / Section 1. Psychology of self-knowledge / Part I. Theoretical foundations of self-knowledge and self-development.
8. See: Orlov Yu. M. Self-knowledge and self-education of character. - M.: Education, 1987. - 224 p. — Chapter Development of abilities and mental processes.
9. 1 2 3 Maralov, 2004, § 3. Methods and means of self-knowledge / Chapter 3. Self-knowledge as a process goals, motives, methods, results / Section 1. Psychology of self-knowledge / Part I. Theoretical foundations of self-knowledge and self-development.
10. Maralov, 2004, § 4. Results of self-knowledge / Chapter 3. Self-knowledge as a process goals, motives, methods, results / Section 1. Psychology of self-knowledge / Part I. Theoretical foundations of self-knowledge and self-development.