The Happy and Prosperous Blog

In my last post I mentioned my ‘motley collection of … sub-personalities’. This post expands on the ideas I have about that and how this can help in understanding ourselves better.

So, what do I mean by the term sub-personality ? Well I mean (and I fully recognise this may not conform with any officially accepted definition) a part of me that I can identify and recognise by its needs, desires, behaviours, interests etc.

Everyone of us has a ‘different colour’,
Yet we live in the same home.
Photo by Thiru Murugan

Where these sub-personalities have come from I’m not altogether sure. In my case, I can see some elements from my upbringing in some of them – others are a mystery to me. But that’s not really the point of this article.

Example Sub-Personalities

If you have a critical voice in your head that sometimes puts you down, then that’s not all of you – it’s just a part of you. I would call it a sub-personality. Let’s give it a name – Christopher The Critical, for example. (I know this sounds a bit daft, but stick with me). What does he look like ? What is he wearing ?

Perhaps there’s a part of you that gets angry sometimes. Perhaps when you behave this way people have referred to you as Mr or Ms Angry. They have already identified a sub-personality for you ! What does this person look like ? What are they wearing ?

Why Are We Doing This ?

If we can identify these elements of our personality then we can examine them and find out what they want/need. Why is Christopher being critical of you ? What’s in it for him ? Who does he remind you of ?

This is a technique for teasing out and ‘packaging’ certain parts of ourselves If we can understand the parts better we will understand the whole better.

Giving them silly names, I think, reduces their power over us. You could imagine the more destructive ones wearing ridiculous clothes or shrinking in size or anything that helps you to limit their control over you. Some of your sub-personalities will be helpful and useful. Be grateful to them. Some sub-personalities are likely to be male, some female irrespective of your own gender.

Play with these ideas. You could write a list of your own ‘motley collection’ and describe them for yourself. Next time Christopher The Critical turns up you will recognise him and you can shrink him down to size or remember that he reminds you of your old teacher or whatever.

A Better Understanding

All this leads to a better understanding of ourselves. And of course, it begs the question of who is actually in control ? Is there a super-personality in which the collection of sub-personalities operate ? Well, I suppose so, but at the moment, for me at least, that doesn’t matter. I’m more concerned with managing my own collection !

In the next post I will describe some of my own favourite sub-personalities and let you know what they get up to !

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