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Prologue: After thinking about how to edit my first paper, I finally conceded that the paper contained one fundamental flaw (as well as many more superficial flaws, of course, but I digress). Specifically, I misinterpreted the scope of Holmes' "bad man," applying it to practitioners when Holmes himself limited it to "those who want to learn the law and nothing else." Because my whole essay was constructed around the hypothetical figure of the practitioner qua bad man, I believe it would be a futile mental exercise to try to salvage this essay.
What I do plan to salvage with this "re-write," however, is the larger idea that I was trying to penetrate—that is, the question of what tools the creative practitioner can use in order to be successful in the face of adversity. Over the course of the semester, I picked up on two such tools: (1) foreseeing future legal trends and becoming an expert on their subject matter, and (2) mastering oneself and one's interpersonal relations by understanding that humans have "multiple personalities." Because I feel as though (1) was discussed more in-depth than (2) in class and on the wiki, I plan to investigate (2) more fully here. | |
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> | Time to Get Personal | | | -- By KalliopeKefallinos - 25 Feb 2010 | |
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< | People often refer to "multiple personalities" in everyday life, so the first step is to understand exactly what we are talking about when we say "personality." Psychologist Philip Pollock and others have explained that "healthy identity development should comprise no evidence of dissociation and smooth, integrated and flexible deployment of a range of RRPs [ie. roles] in a socially appropriate manner, with experience of oneself as continuous and coherent." It follows that psychology distinguishes between "personality"/ "identity" and "role"/ "self state." A healthy person has one personality but exhibits multiple roles. This resonates most with Eben's interpretation of the Leff piece, where he described how in social life we assign one another roles and reinforce them-- for example, in some social relations I might act as the nurturer, in others the nurtured, in still others as the rebel, and so on. | >
> | Understanding "personality"
People often refer to "multiple personalities" in everyday life, so the first step is to understand exactly what we are talking about when we say "personality." Psychologist Philip Pollock and others have explained that "healthy identity development should comprise no evidence of dissociation and smooth, integrated and flexible deployment of a range of RRPs [ie. roles] in a socially appropriate manner, with experience of oneself as continuous and coherent." It follows that psychology distinguishes between "personality"/ "identity" and "role"/ "self state." A healthy individual has one personality but exhibits multiple roles. This resonates most with Eben's interpretation of the Leff piece, where he described how in social life we assign one another roles and reinforce them-- for example, in some social relations I might act as the nurturer, in others the nurtured, in still others as the rebel, and so on.
While it might initially appear counterintuitive to posit that manifesting multiple-- and often disparate or contradictory-- roles is consistent with any concept of a stable, singular personality, I plan to set forth philosopher H.P. Grice's account of personal identity to explain how, theoretically, such an idea might be understood.
Specifically, Grice argues that personality is an interlocking series of "total temporary states." According to Grice, a total temporary state (TTS) "is composed of all the experiences any one person is having at a given time” such that experiences E and E′ belong to the same TTS iff they both “would, given certain conditions, be known, by memory or introspection, to be simultaneous.” For example, in the case of a hypothetical law student, assume the TTS at time tx might include as “elements” experiences and memories like attending Barrister's Ball (a), writing an email to a friend back at home (b), remembering the Chinese food he picked up last night (c), and reading Criminal Law in the library (d). Given that TTSs "may be said to occur at various times," Grice says they form a temporal series in which any TTS is linked to any other TTS insofar as it would, under certain conditions, "contain as an element a memory of some experience which is an element in [either] some previous” or some subsequent TTS, “there being no subset of members which is independent of all the rest.”
Consequently, the personality of someone at any two times tx and ty resides in there being a common element between TTS at tx and TTS at ty—for example, using the particular situation described above, if TTS at tx = a, b, c, d, then TTS at ty must contain at least: a v b v c v d, where a, b, c, and d refer to either an experience or the memory of that experience. In short, then, one’s various and even contradictory roles can be seen as ultimately forming a single personality insofar as the roles are integrated, each role being connected to some other role through some common memory or experience. | | | | |
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< | While it might initially appear counterintuitive to posit that manifesting multiple-- and often contradictory-- roles is consistent with any concept of a stable, singular personality, a closer look at what might be said to unite the various roles helps iron out the psychologists' position. | >
> | Role mastery in interpersonal relations | | | | |
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< | Specifically, consider philosopher H.P. Grice's account of personality as an interlocking series of "total temporary states." According to Grice, a total temporary state (TTS) "is composed of all the experiences any one person is having at a given time” such that experiences E and E′ belong to the same TTS iff they both “would, given certain conditions, be known, by memory or introspection, to be simultaneous.” For example, in the case of a hypothetical law student, assume the TTS at time tx might include as “elements” experiences and memories like attending Barrister's Ball (a), writing an email to a friend back at home (b), remembering the Chinese food he picked up last night (c), and reading Criminal Law in the library (d). Given that TTSs "may be said to occur at various times," Grice says they form a temporal series in which any TTS is linked to any other TTS insofar as it would, under certain conditions, "contain as an element a memory of some experience which is an element in [either] some previous” or some subsequent TTS, “there being no subset of members which is independent of all the rest.” | >
> | Consequently, when people refer to "multiple personality" disorder, they can be said to be referring to individuals who lack connectivity, or integration, between certain recurring roles. For example, Pollock explains how an individual suffering from an "identity disturbance" experiences their self as fragmented due to dissociation which creates discontinuities in things like memory. | | | | |
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< | Consequently, the personality of someone at any two times tx and ty resides in there being a common element between TTS at tx and TTS at ty—for example, using the particular situation described above, if TTS at tx = a, b, c, d, then TTS at ty must contain at least: a v b v c v d, where a, b, c, and d refer to either an experience or the memory of that experience. In short, then, one’s various and even contradictory roles can be seen as ultimately forming a single personality insofar as each role is connected to some other role through some common memory or experience. | >
> | Although the Multiple Self States Model (MSSM) of Cognitive Analytic Therapy is generally used to diagnose degrees of identity disturbance, I believe it nonetheless provides a useful framework for individuals seeking to master their personality and the personalities of others in social life. According to the MSSM, there are three levels of identity disturbance: (1) due to some trauma, the person has acquired some maladaptive roles and is not able to flexibly switch among roles; (2) the person lacks metaprocedures that organize the roles hierarchically by social context, which leads to discontinuity of self-experience; and (3) the person lacks the ability to self-reflect/ self- observe (Pollock). | | | | |
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< | To bring the discussion thus far full circle, then, when people refer to "multiple personality" disorder, they can be said to be referring to people who lack connections, or integration, between certain recurring roles. Pollock, for example, explains how people with "identity disturbances" experience their self as fragmented due to dissociation evidenced by discontinuities in things like memory. After all, it is not that these people "show more or less multiplicity than the general population, yet their dissociative symptoms are most severe." | >
> | It follows that using the MSSM framework negatively, the law student should first attempt to better understand and control his personality and the roles therein should first engage in self-reflection, where, watching his interactions with others, he is able to draw out the roles he finds himself repeatedly assuming in various social contexts. Of course, if some particular role appears maladaptive (eg. abuser), then the student should seek to understand whether it might not be the result of some past adversity. Having identified his roles, the student can go on to use this improved conscious awareness to increase the flexibility of role alternation in a given social context.
Leff, however, states that the successful swindler is the master not only of his self but also the selves of those with whom he interacts. Similarly, the student should also strive to identify the roles others assume in their various interactions with the student. Once the student notices recurring role patterns in others, he can begin to manipulate his own roles to elicit specific behavioral patterns in others, thereby furthering his own ends in social life.
Conclusion
In conclusion, personality can ultimately be conceived as a kind of organized hierarchy of social roles, each role being connected to some other by some memory or experience. This integration of roles leads the individual to experience his self as a continuous personality or identity, despite the existence of often-disparate roles. Being able to recognize and control one’s roles in various social contexts is a useful tool for the lawyer to work to master, with the ultimate challenge being able to perform the same analysis on others, whether it be to understand one’s own clients or ends more fully, elicit some specific response from a judge, etc. As Eben once asked me in office hours, “What does that [your behavior] say about you?” | | | | |
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< | And so, understanding that a healthy personality is a comprised of a multiplicity of integrated roles, the challenge becomes learning how to recognize and manipulate one's roles in a non-psychopathological way in daily social life. I will now go on to suggest two tools I came across in my research which I found most useful: the Multiple Self States Model (MSSM) and the Guided Self-Reflection test. | | |
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| META FILEATTACHMENT | attachment="personality.pdf" attr="" comment="Pollock et al. %22The Personality Structure Questionnaire (PSQ): A measure of the Multiple Self States Model of identity disturbance in Cognitive Analytic Therapy.%22" date="1274722111" name="personality.pdf" path="personality.pdf" size="251422" stream="personality.pdf" user="Main.KalliopeKefallinos" version="1" |
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| META FILEATTACHMENT | attachment="Grice.pdf" attr="" comment="Grice, H.P. %22Personal Identity.%22" date="1274722184" name="Grice.pdf" path="Grice.pdf" size="2232474" stream="Grice.pdf" user="Main.KalliopeKefallinos" version="1" |
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