As time passed by, two questions have been attempted to be answered:

• Does „Persona” exist?
• And if so, what is beyond it?

Pre-modern thinkers said that „Persona does not exist!” thus ending any discussion about it. To their turn, post-modern thinkers said that „Persona exists. But it does not hide anything. The opposite of persona is another persona. There are layers ad-infinitum of personae in a human being. And when someone thinks he/ she has found the opposite of persona, that someone has found another persona”.

Carl Gustav Jung does not agree with either the former or the latter. He believes that 1) „There is a Persona”, and 2) „It is an interface of many hidden and dark things”. Most likely, in people who are well-regarded in society, the Persona is bright, but beyond it there lies darkness. On the other hand, in people who are bad-regarded in society, the Persona is dark, and probably beyond it there lies immense fields of light. Therefore, what is Persona, shown and light in one person, in another person is beyond-Persona, hidden and dark. And vice versa.

The Jungian analysts interviewed by Lavinia Ţânculescu-Popa said in a chorus that „There is a Persona”. It is something light and shown, and it covers something dark and hidden. This hidden thing is an absence from the present. It is an absence that can be found only in the past. And it is common to be found in the past, for if someone were to identify it in the future, serious ethical and aesthetic problems would arise. Therefore, „the Persona” exists in the present. It is large, dominating, a brightly colored image, full of sounds, tasting and delicious. However, „the beyond-Persona” is something dark and hidden that could be found in the past. It is a small image, in shades of gray, without sounds, and hardly anyone could figure out its tastes and flavors.

Most of the time, the Persona has been defined as „a mask” that the owner puts on or takes off, according to his preferences. Therefore, it is a product that belongs to the props of the actor who plays a role on the stage of life. However, the Persona could be not only a product, but also a process, a purpose, a person, something that brings profit, something that concerns people, something that has its own peace, and it implies a plan.

Of all the P-s that a Persona can be, I prefer to understand it as a practice. This practice is carefully constructed, every moment, starting from the earliest moments, passing through the present, and spreading as far as possible into the future. Although in constant change, it still maintains its essence. Everyone participates in it: be they actors, audiences, outsiders, or anyone else. That is why it is sometimes so easy to modify its forms. That is why, also, it is other times so difficult to transform it into something else. That is why it can be said so easily what it was and why anyone would hesitate to indicate what it will be. As long as its owner is involved, or as long as the audience and the outsiders are participating in it, therefore as long as the practices are active, the answer to the question, „What is the Persona of this human being?”, will certainly be, „We will see, for there is at least one choice left to be made!”. Understanding „the Persona” as practice, one could also understand „the beyond-Persona” as practice. And when asked, one will be able to answer in the same way what is the „beyond Persona” of this human being: „We will see, for there is at least one choice left to be made!”

***

Below I will give three examples of what can be called „beyond-Persona”. The first example is taken from the work of Robert Louis Stevenson and presents the situation of Dr. Jekyll who, with the help of a liquor, can transform into Mr. Hyde. The second example is taken from the work of Fyodor Dostoevsky which tells off the meeting between Golyadkin Sr. and his double, Golyadkin Jr. Finally, the third case is taken from the work of Carl Gustav Jung who, in a dream, sees himself being pursued by the specter of Brocken.

This discussion about Persona/ beyond-Persona, as well as the examples given, can be modeled in an image that synthesizes their essence. In this image, three characters (two adults and a child) full of light are pursued by three monsters (two large and one small) of the darkness, in a park, at night, in the heart of a city.

1) The strange case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde (1904: 160-161)

„That night I had come to the fatal crossroads. Had I approached my discovery in a more noble spirit, had I risked the experiment while under the empire of generous or pious aspirations, all must have been otherwise, and from these agonies of death and birth I had come forth an angel instead of a friend. The drug had no discriminating action; it was neither diabolical nor divine; it but shook the doors of the prison-house of my disposition; and like the captives of Philippi, that which stood within ran forth. At that time my virtue slumbered; my evil, kept awake by ambition, was alert and swift to seize the occasion, and the thing that was projected was Edward Hyde. Hence, although I had now two characters as well as two appearances, one was wholly evil and the other was still the old Henry Jekyll, that incongruous compound of whose reformation and improvement I had already learned to despair. The movement was thus wholly toward the worse.”

2) The double (1960: 35)

„Mr. Golyadkin had hardly said or thought this when he saw a passer-by coming toward him, by chance, belated, no doubt, like himself. An unimportant, casual incident, one might suppose, but for some unknown reason Mr. Golyadkin was troubled, even scared, and rather flurried. Not that he was exactly afraid of some ill-intentioned man, but just so…. „Who knows who this belated individual is?” flashed through Mr. Golyadkin’s mind. „Maybe he too is… maybe he’s the main thing in it, and isn’t here for nothing, but is here with an object, crossing my path and provoking me”. Possibly, however, he did not think this precisely, but only had a passing feeling of something like it – and something very unpleasant. There was no time for thinking and feeling though. The stranger was already within two paces. Mr. Golyadkin, as he invariably did, hastened to assume a quite peculiar air, an air which said clearly that he, Golyadkin, kept himself to himself, that he was all right, that the road was wide enough for all, and that he, Golyadkin, was not interfering with anyone. Suddenly he stopped dead in his tracks as though struck by lightning, and quickly turned around after the figure which had only just passed him – turned as though someone has tugged him from behind, as though the wind had turned him like a weathercock. The passer-by was quickly vanishing in the snowstorm. He, too, walked quickly; he was dressed just like Mr. Golyadkin and, like him, wrapped up from head to foot, and he, too, trotted along the pavement of Fontanka with rapid little steps which suggested that he was a little scared.”

3) Memories, dreams, reflections (1989: 87-88)

 „About this time I had a dream which both frightened and encouraged me. It was night in some unknown place, and I was making slow and painful headway against a mighty wind. Dense fog was flying along everywhere. I had my hands cupped around a tiny light which threatened to go out at any moment. Everything depended on my keeping this little light alive. Suddenly I had the feeling that something was coming up behind me. I looked back, and saw a gigantic black figure following me. But at the same moment I was conscious, in spite of my terror, that I must keep my little light going through night and wind, regardless of all dangers. When I awake I realized at once that the figure was a „specter of the Brocken”, my own shadow on the swirling mists, brought into being by the little light I was carrying. I knew, too, that this little light was my consciousness, the only light I have. My own understanding is the sole treasure I possess, and the greatest. Though infinitely small and fragile in comparison with the powers of darkness, it is still a light, my only light.”

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Resources:

• Dostoevsky, Feodor (1960): “The double”, in “Three short novels of Dostoevsky”, International Collectors Library
• Jung, Carl Gustav (1989): “Memories, dreams, reflections”, Vintage Books
• Stevenson, Robert Louis (1904): “The strange case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde”, Scott-Thaw Company
• Ţânculescu-Popa, Lavinia & Mark Winborn (2023): „Beyond Persona. On individuation and beginnings with Jungian Analysts”, Routledge, a Taylor & Francis Group