Thanks to Hollywood blockbusters, we know that people with mental health issues there are many diseases, for example, they can imagine themselves someone else and behave accordingly. A classic example of such a film, it's "Fight Club" from Fincher, the film is removed by large stitches in Palahniuk book, this story is told more fully and better. For those who are not familiar with the movie or book, I recommend to catch up, but this will explain a brief synopsis.
The main character is tired of the routine and one day he meets a man who shows him the way out of the familiar life, it's a fight club or fights with other yuppies, who are also tired of the surrounding reality. Fights give flavor to life, open up new possibilities, a whole new world. At the end of the film the hero realizes that all this time he was two people at the same time, he learns it by circumstantial evidence and on this picture and ends. And our story with this and start.
Unfortunately, mass culture loves stamps, and the history of the psychological counterparts built on them. In the minds of the average person to have a psychological counterpart it means to be flawed and have serious pathology - in a word match. Balls who have come for the videos, it's not the best diagnosis for anyone, so we avoid even the thought of what is possible with us. And persecuted by all that believe pathology. Fortunately, psychological counterparts is not only negative, it's part of our consciousness, which today is studied in terms of just pathology. And, probably, this is due to the way we relate to this phenomenon and why it often does not put itself in the service.
People come up with the additional person or masks, for your mind from time immemorial. As a rule, they projected a new identity outside, in order to achieve results in the outer world. As part of my story does not interest us, this part of the story, we all try to be better in the eyes of others and achieve this in different ways. It is part of everyone's life, fortunately, I do not know of any exceptions (posturing and denial of this fact is seen, but the complete lack of games in the antics ever - the question is how much the mask is different from the person).
If the projection of his antics outside is considered acceptable in the society and especially not discussed, it is quite another thing when a person begins to project it on your mind. This is interpreted as a sign of mental illness. But is it? Is it possible to create your alter ego or alter ego, without damaging your mind and what benefits can we derive from this?
The answer is to be found in children's games, through which any person. At the age of 3 to 5 years in children for the first time appear imaginary friends, they also try on different roles (superhero, princess, astronaut, fireman, etc.). If the roles of their children the parents are calm, then try to talk to imaginary friends, they are often perceived as a deviation from the norm. Child psychologists have eaten not one dog on the explanation of why this is normal, and why this step is important for a child's development. By the way, this is an excellent illustration of what is considered the norm in our society, and what is not. For children we assume the possibility of playing in the imagination of someone else, for themselves almost always deny such a possibility. And for good reason.
I do not claim to ultimate truth, but it seems to me the popular culture and the old man Freud worked on in order to enter into our consciousness in the erroneous concept of the "healthy" perception of consciousness within a single person with a rigidly predetermined characteristics and features. In the early 20th century, Freud in his "Terrible" examines the effect of the twins, the exclusive interpretation of the negative - according to Freud is a pathology. At about the same beliefs adhere to the disciples of the founder of psychoanalysis, they ask quite confident direction of development of this science. I'm sorry if this Freud and should we blame him? I do not think, because he grew up in an environment where there were already fully formed ideas about the psychological counterparts. One of the most striking is the novel "Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde" by Robert Stevenson, this work appeared in 1886. In a posthumous letter, the protagonist, a positive Dr. Jekyll admits that found that in the mind there is both a positive and negative beginning. Man is a synthesis of the two principles, and he was able to separate them. And so all the crimes made by Mr. Hyde, is a crime dark side of the personality of Dr. Jekyll. In my opinion, this story is the most vivid reflection of the concepts that existed in the Romantic period, and were picked up by modern mass culture.
Digging a little deeper - 17-18 century, the era of Romanticism. For psychological counterparts term doppelganger introduced into German works (in translation it is banal double - Doppelganger). Obviously, this person double emerges as the antithesis of the existing image of guardian angel and is the negative direction, it has a demonic nature. Someone says that the doppelganger has a physical nature, someone points out that this aspect of human consciousness. We can go even further in time, to plunge into the Celtic legends, which also tells the story of twins. But as part of my story, it was important to show that the phenomenon of psychological counterpart has long been known, and the fact that popular culture has developed a very negative attitude towards him.
The psychological counterpart in practice - the pros and cons
Meeting with the doppelganger brings death, which can be interpreted as the initial destruction of the personality and the subsequent death of the body. I think that Dr. Jekyll exactly the same thing. One set of moral values, that is, you may not coincide with your counterpart. Moving from one state to another, you retain the memory of what was done, as a result, there is a psychological problem - the breakdown. But often these stories are associated with organic brain lesions, diseases and things like that. For a healthy person the creation of temporary psychological twins, it's a great way to change the limitations that exist in his mind, attitudes, even in the physical abilities of the body. It sounds like some kind of shamanism, which works well in practice. The main thing is not played this game and control the process. Below I will give a simple example of how you can use the psychological counterparts, although I prefer the term psychological masks.
An example of the routine work
In life, many things that we do not like to do. They are not interested in us, cause boredom and so on. As a rule, it is routine stuff. Make yourself do them very hard. Psychological mask allows for such work, without negative emotions and work out of sticks. For example, this method is recommended Jürgen Wolf in the book "Literary Excellence School", it represents that a superhero is "cleaner". When he needs to dismantle the desktop, it is part of that image - his character does not waste time on something else, except for disassembly securities. Presenting this image, Jürgen Wolf begins to dismantle his desk and as a result spend less time on the action, but more importantly, it was not annoying.
For my taste, this example from real life works, but looks a bit ridiculous and artificial. Who among us thinks so picturesque and templates? Few. Moreover, thinking that Wolf is thinking of writing a script writer in Hollywood, we have it as a prototype is not suitable. So how can that be? Construction of psychological masks
Best material for the construction of your antics, than you do not find. You know all of their strengths and weaknesses, and imagine what it is you love to do. The vast majority of techniques related to psychology, or success stories, changes in consciousness, talk about how to achieve permanent changes in consciousness. In my opinion, it is unnecessary for most situations in life, because we need a temporary structure that can be used as needed. Create a temporary structure does not require such constant efforts, keeping yourself in a certain tone, and does not break your mental attitude. This is very important, it is soft and most importantly a temporary change, which is completely controlled by you.
For example, working with statistics, I was always sad. The sheer volume of numbers, a large number of sheets, love this kind of work can only be a kind of person that I am not. Unfortunately, this work requires not only the care and perseverance, but also attempts to find patterns. How to show creativity for a long time to sit and watch in uniform columns of numbers, if necessary? Output in the construction of the psychological masks. My alter ego for such a case I, with a number of changes. In particular, I designed my consciousness so that I get pleasure from being able to find similarities or patterns, as well as unusual figures in the ranks. All that stands out from the general plan, gives a surge of emotion, the joy of what I found something new. The basis of the design of I took his impressions of the emotions that I have is a surprise win at the casino (the strong impression that perfectly integrated into any disguise), as well as a sense of completion at the end of the assembly of a large puzzle. The two main emotions that are important, as I have, they are associated with pleasure, and the assembly of the puzzle gives you experience that in the end I get moral satisfaction, but it does show assiduousness.
Someone does something similar, but resorts to other tricks - often called the tune in the work. It is important to understand that once created a psychological mask, which is based on your personal experience, you can get it out of the closet at any desired moment. That is, you will be those character traits that you already have, only when you need to. Regardless of how you feel in the moment, you simply switch to the work that you need and do it efficiently.
From the little tricks - making work, we must not forget the "turn off" your mask and return to the normal state. Some people need it, someone like me do not. Just a recommendation on the safe side in case.
It is possible that at this point you have already arisen rejection "quackery" that I preach. It is not necessary then to even try to apply it in practice, still does not work. And you do not need this. If you think that something like that is possible, and you are willing to try, you can create a psychological disguise a very simple configuration and see how it works for you. For each person individually. Do not attempt to create a complex structure, choose one or two emotions and proceed from them, create an alter-ego, which will help you in dealing with routine tasks. Practice week or two. I'm sure you'll see that it works.
If this technique will attract a large number of people, I can tell you more about what you can do more with the constructs and some useful tricks in this field have in the next article. I hope it was interesting to read the text, and it made you think about the psychology of the people, he moved to memory his experience.