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Helen Mirren’s Prospera & Lessons on Crafting the Persona
“Our revels now are ended. These our actors,
As I foretold you, were all spirits and
Are melted into air, into thin air…”.
No doubt Helen Mirren’s Prospera injected something quite different into Shakespeare’s character and it was Mirren’s idea to flip the genders. So what has this to do with Jung’s concept of persona?
In Jung’s Map of the Soul: An Introduction Murray Stein discussion of shadow and persona makes these two rich, complicated contents of psyche approachable. He likens shadow and persona to twins that “… are usually more or less opposites of one another…” Persona is a complex that “… possesses considerable autonomy and is not under the full control of the ego. Once in role, the actor rattles off his or her lines willy-nilly and often without much consciousness”. But Mirren took a traditionally male role and breathed her own special, evocative spirit into Prospero and it became Prospera. In this liminal domain, where actors impose a higher than usual degree of intentionality, where there is a descent into a well crafted character, we may gain insights about individuation as it relates to the persona.
According to Dr. Stein “The persona makes casual social interaction go more easily…” Jung acknowledges that while we are not all “multiple personalities” we do show “traces of character splitting” (Jung, Coll Wks., Vol.6, par.799.). There is some fluidity to the degree of identification the ego has with different roles it plays. Stein notes that role identification is “… generally motivated by ambition and social aspiration”. It seems that the ego does not deliberately chose to identify with a particular persona but this is where Helen Mirren’s portrayal of Prospera informs us of a new possibility.
Dr. Stein notes that there a two pitfalls that can occur in the development of the persona, over-identification that involves undue adaptation to the social world and the failure to pay enough attention to the external object world thereby becoming too involved with the inner world. He goes on to point out that with age, new personas appear. But this suggests a passive process.
Perhaps that is all we can hope for, that our persona might keep pace with the changing demands of life, our own aging process, and the changing demands of society. But if Helen Mirren can shed new light on Prospero, then I have hope of injecting new life into the character of Len.
Persona is a complex and therefore, easy to relegate to the domains governed by unconscious forces. But let me attempt to illuminate persona with conscious intention. The actor must strike a balance between her own personality and the portrayal of the character she plays. We may use a similar approach to work upon our persona. Beyond the passive appearance of the persona lies our capacity to craft the persona like actors do. Such an enterprise may promote the process of individuation.
What I am proposing is reminiscent of the effort by ego-psychologists to extend classical psychoanalytic theory. We can endeavor, through conscious, intentional effort, to fashion a persona informed by other analytic work.
On March 31, 2011, Dr. Murray Stein will present “Caring for the Soul: An Introduction to Jungian Psychotherapy for Patients & Therapists”.
For more information http://ashevillejungcenter.org/upcoming-events/ . Whether or not you expect to attend the conference you will find Dr. Stein’s book, Jung’s Map of the Soul: An Introduction a valuable resource for understanding Jung’s extensive body of writings. In the introduction to the book, Dr. Stein quotes one of my favorite authors (therefore the dual translation):
“You could timidly explore the coasts of Africa to the south, but going west there was nothing except fear, the unknown, not “our sea” but the Sea of Mystery, Mare Ignotum.”
Carlos Fuentes The Buried Mirror
“Se podía explorar tímidamente las costas de África hacia el sur, pero hacia el oeste no había nada más que miedo, no «nuestro mar» sino el Mar de Misterio, Mare Ignotum.”
Carlos Fuentes El espejo enterrado
Se encuentra la primera parte del libro “El Mapa del Alma Según Jung” en la página del internet http://www.adepac.org/P06-90.htm .
Len Cruz, MD
As I foretold you, were all spirits and
Are melted into air, into thin air…”.
No doubt Helen Mirren’s Prospera injected something quite different into Shakespeare’s character and it was Mirren’s idea to flip the genders. So what has this to do with Jung’s concept of persona?
In Jung’s Map of the Soul: An Introduction Murray Stein discussion of shadow and persona makes these two rich, complicated contents of psyche approachable. He likens shadow and persona to twins that “… are usually more or less opposites of one another…” Persona is a complex that “… possesses considerable autonomy and is not under the full control of the ego. Once in role, the actor rattles off his or her lines willy-nilly and often without much consciousness”. But Mirren took a traditionally male role and breathed her own special, evocative spirit into Prospero and it became Prospera. In this liminal domain, where actors impose a higher than usual degree of intentionality, where there is a descent into a well crafted character, we may gain insights about individuation as it relates to the persona.
According to Dr. Stein “The persona makes casual social interaction go more easily…” Jung acknowledges that while we are not all “multiple personalities” we do show “traces of character splitting” (Jung, Coll Wks., Vol.6, par.799.). There is some fluidity to the degree of identification the ego has with different roles it plays. Stein notes that role identification is “… generally motivated by ambition and social aspiration”. It seems that the ego does not deliberately chose to identify with a particular persona but this is where Helen Mirren’s portrayal of Prospera informs us of a new possibility.
Dr. Stein notes that there a two pitfalls that can occur in the development of the persona, over-identification that involves undue adaptation to the social world and the failure to pay enough attention to the external object world thereby becoming too involved with the inner world. He goes on to point out that with age, new personas appear. But this suggests a passive process.
Perhaps that is all we can hope for, that our persona might keep pace with the changing demands of life, our own aging process, and the changing demands of society. But if Helen Mirren can shed new light on Prospero, then I have hope of injecting new life into the character of Len.
Persona is a complex and therefore, easy to relegate to the domains governed by unconscious forces. But let me attempt to illuminate persona with conscious intention. The actor must strike a balance between her own personality and the portrayal of the character she plays. We may use a similar approach to work upon our persona. Beyond the passive appearance of the persona lies our capacity to craft the persona like actors do. Such an enterprise may promote the process of individuation.
What I am proposing is reminiscent of the effort by ego-psychologists to extend classical psychoanalytic theory. We can endeavor, through conscious, intentional effort, to fashion a persona informed by other analytic work.
On March 31, 2011, Dr. Murray Stein will present “Caring for the Soul: An Introduction to Jungian Psychotherapy for Patients & Therapists”.
For more information http://ashevillejungcenter.org/upcoming-events/ . Whether or not you expect to attend the conference you will find Dr. Stein’s book, Jung’s Map of the Soul: An Introduction a valuable resource for understanding Jung’s extensive body of writings. In the introduction to the book, Dr. Stein quotes one of my favorite authors (therefore the dual translation):
“You could timidly explore the coasts of Africa to the south, but going west there was nothing except fear, the unknown, not “our sea” but the Sea of Mystery, Mare Ignotum.”
Carlos Fuentes The Buried Mirror
“Se podía explorar tímidamente las costas de África hacia el sur, pero hacia el oeste no había nada más que miedo, no «nuestro mar» sino el Mar de Misterio, Mare Ignotum.”
Carlos Fuentes El espejo enterrado
Se encuentra la primera parte del libro “El Mapa del Alma Según Jung” en la página del internet http://www.adepac.org/P06-90.htm .
Len Cruz, MD
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