________________
ACQUISITION OF A NEW PERSONALITY
195
posssible unless man lived in a society. The entire give and take of human life is a social give and take. In a sense man is the totality of social relations. His dress and manners, and his thoughts and behaviour are determined by the social atmosphere.
The fourth category of the traits of the human personality is the physical traits which include his physical needs and constitution. The limitations of our body impose limitations on our personality. The fifth category comprises of the psychological traits. The psychic personality bears the burden of all the other aspects of our personality. It carries responsibilities and reacts to internal and external situation. It is the psyche which makes us active. It holds beliefs and opinions. It forms its principles and attitudes. It decides what is to be avoided. Man is governed by his. psyche These five aspects of the human personality are self evident and can be easily understood and appreciated.
The sixth category of the traits of the human personality are para-psychological traits. They belong to the unconscious part of his personality totally hidden in darkness. It is unmanifest. Anyhow, it controls and even guides the other five aspects of his personality. It is so power as to resist all kinds of influences on the mind. It is the most creative as well as destructive force in the universe. It guides all the activities of man and remains hidden in their background.
The discovery of the unconcious was the most revolutionary discovery. According to it whatever happens on the conscious stratum of the mind has its roots in the unconscious. This discovery added new dimensions to our thinking about the world and ourselves. Formerly it was believed that what ever happened in the conscious part of the mind and in the human body was caused by mental and physical causes only. The psychoanalysts, on the other hand, presented a different picture of the world. They maintained that our suppressed desires manifested themselves in the form of dreams as well as phenomena of which we are conscious.
There are two strata of the mind, the conscious and the unconscious. The unconscious is the most powerful force. It is the source of all our activities. Centuries earlier the theory of karma had propounded that karma is the source of all our
Jain Education International
For Private & Personal Use Only
www.jainelibrary.org