Personality

1. Etymology

Personality names aspects of the soul as it functions in the world. Related: individuality; differentiation from collective values embodied in the persona.

2. Plain summary

Development of personality requires differentiation from collective values, especially those carried by the persona. Change of milieu can strike a different “character” each time—social vs domestic faces. If a person is only the plaything of circumstance and expectations, Jung says there is no real character: not individual but collective. An individual would keep the same character across attitudes, expressing individuality in each state rather than being identical with the attitude of the moment.

Examples (exhaustive house list for this Index lemma — common personality motifs named across Jung’s essays and standard Jungian lexica; not a claim that Jung’s CW contains only these):
soul-in-the-world; vs persona collective values; milieu-altered faces; social vs domestic character; no real character if only collective; individuality across attitudes; dual-stamp persona / individuality.

3. Academic elucidation

In analytical psychology personality is soul-function in the world requiring individuality—CW 6 ¶¶798f. Descent Press keeps Sharp in §4; Samuels: no dedicated head this pass (language under persona/individuation). Prefer CW 6 ¶¶798f.

4. Lexicon

Sharp (1991)

Personality. Aspects of the soul as it functions in the world. (See also individuality.) … For the development of personality, differentiation from collective values, particularly those embodied in and adhered to by the persona, is essential. … such a man has no real character at all: he is not individual but collective…

(Sharp, 1991) — cites CW 6 ¶¶798f in Sharp’s lemma.

Samuels, Shorter & Plaut (1986) — no dedicated personality head

(No dedicated Samuels head.) Related under persona / individuation / individuality

5. CW concordance — sample, not exhaustive

These reflections show that even in normal individuals character-splitting is by no means an impossibility… A particular milieu necessitates a particular attitude… In my view the answer… should be that such a man has no real character at all: he is not individual but collective, the plaything of circumstance and general expectations. Were he individual, he would have the same character despite the variation of attitude… He puts on a mask…
(Jung, 1921/1971, CW 6, pp. 641–642, ¶799–800)

See also: persona; individuality; individuation; ego; self.

References

Jung, C. G. (1971). Psychological types [Definitions]. In H. Read, M. Fordham, G. Adler, & W. McGuire (Eds.), The collected works of C. G. Jung (R. F. C. Hull, Trans.) (Vol. 6, pp. 641–642, ¶799–800). Princeton University Press. (Original work published 1921)

Samuels, A., Shorter, B., & Plaut, F. (1986). A critical dictionary of Jungian analysis. Routledge.

Sharp, D. (1991). Jung lexicon: A primer of terms & concepts. Inner City Books.