Protean personality
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Protean personality ( English Protean Self , literally translated Protean Self ) is a term used by the American psychologist Robert J. Lifton in 1993. The name refers to the Greek sea god Proteus , known for his mutability , who assumed various forms to escape questions. According to one theory , the Protean personality is characterized by being extremely adaptable .
Developing the theory
The background to the theory is the emergence of networks like the Internet , in which people spend a lot of time and where they can assume very different roles. The number of interactions with different people increased rapidly. The rapid technical and social change that is currently taking place also requires a flexible person who can easily adapt to changing environments, new circumstances and different expectations.
According to the American economist Jeremy Rifkin, people who see themselves as autonomous individuals are slowly becoming an anachronism . The new person sees himself more as a knot of different relationships. “We no longer exist as subjects, but rather as a terminal in which numerous networks converge”. Rifkin sees "a new human archetype." Protean people think less about where their own place in history might be, but rather about living their own personal history. They have no higher demands on their lives than to make the time as comfortable as possible and give up all claims on a great historical mission. “Life is considered too short to sacrifice itself to history or any future welfare”.
Robert J. Lifton assumes that this is a more plastic and mature level of consciousness on which a person can live with ambiguities and complex, often conflicting priorities. In his opinion, experimentation can create a new sense of empathy with others and thus help lay a foundation for the renewal of culture.
Kenneth J. Gergen puts it in a similar way: "We are now celebrating Protean being (...) You have to be on the move, the network is huge, the obligations are many, expectations are endless (...)."
See also
literature
- Robert Jay Lifton: The Protean Self. New York 1993
- Jeremy Rifkin: Access. The disappearance of property. Why we own less and will spend more. Campus-Verlag, Frankfurt / New York 2000, ISBN 3-593-38374-8 .
Individual evidence
- ↑ Jean Baudrillard : The Other Self. Vienna 1987, p. 14, quoted from Rifkin: Access, p. 283
- ^ Rifkin: Access, p. 250
- ^ Rifkin: Access, p. 273.
- ^ Gergen, Kenneth J .: The self: death by technology. In: D. Fee (Ed.): Pathology and the postmodern. Mental illness as discourse and experience . Sage, London 2000, 104