The BowerBirds of the armenian church. The Paradox of Persona
Posted on December. 28. 2019
By Z. S. Andrew Demirdjian
“A man cannot get rid of himself in favor
ofan artificial personality without punishment.”
Carl Jung
(1875-1961)
Humans as well as animals have the tendency to operate behind a figurative mask adapted to influence others, to tackle personal problems of protection, or to increase one’s gains to name a few benefits. In psychology, we call this “persona”. The term “persona” was made popular by Carl Jung (the Swiss Psychiatrist and Psychoanalyst) who described it as a “kind of mask” people use it to confront society and the expectations it foists on us. In other words, persona is the social face the individual presents to the outside world, a kind of a mask, on the one hand, to make a definite impression upon others and, on the other hand, to conceal the true nature of the individual. Naturally, what goes on behind the mask is the private life of the individual.
Sounds interesting? Then let us explore this concept and practice further to see if it has relevance to some of the Armenian clergymen who have been alleged to have committed serious offenses as men of God.
To clarify further, the word persona means “outward or social personality”. It is derived from Latin, where it originally was referred to the theatrical masks worn by Etruscan mimes, stage actors. Therefore, a persona can be considered a mask, a role we play. (Incidentally, recent biological study findings corroborate the theory of the Armenian origins of the Etruscans).
According to Carl Jung, everyone has a persona in varying degrees. It is not something that you would switch on and off as a source of power. It has been said that no one reveals himself as he is. We all wear a mask and play a role. The intent of the role to influence with persona can be either to benefit others through friendly persuasion or to impress others scrumptiously for personal gains. The first act is considered honest, while the second operation is downright defrauding, if not fraudulent.
A persona is the shadow of the real person. Most everyone casts a shadow of one’s personality and character. The greater is the divergence, however, between the real person and the persona who feigns to be someone else, greater is the hypocrisy, and deeper is the resentment and anger when the mask is unveiled by the people. This happens usually with politicians, preachers, mass-media stars, or anyone who claims to play a special role in his social environment by using his persona excessively.
Pretending to have good table manners at a friend’s house would not be as offensive as pretending to be spiritual like some men of God do when, in fact, one is secretly drowned in deep secularism. There are a lot of people who lack a developed persona and blunder from one social solecism to the next, all being, though, harmless and innocent. To a large extent, civilized society depends on interactions among members of a group through the persona.
However, we should also bear in mind that wearing a mask too often would make us lose track of our real personality behind it..
To some extent and under certain circumstances, humans and animals all engage in puffery (exaggeration of claims with little or no credible evidence) as well. For example, the male great bowerbird builds an elaborate bower (a house built with sticks) and uses false perspective illusions to improve his chances at mating. In addition to being a builder and an artist, the male of this species is also a magician. The bower it builds is like a house of illusions, with built-in visual tricks that manipulate females’ perceptions of what she sees and, thus, increase his chances of being chosen by the female bird by promising her a mansion of a nest. Thus, the male bowerbird resorts to deceptive measures to achieve its personal goals.
Likewise, we humans want to be accepted by others. Lest being rejected in a social environment, we portray ourselves as someone successful, honest, trustworthy, and much in demand. That is puffery of self-augmentation and is considered to be a normal course of life for some individuals. A manufacturer can claim his product to be the best in the world in advertising with impunity. The law allows puffery. The father tells his son: “Take this pill, I know that it will make your pain go away”. In fact, he does not know really what the pill will do to his son, especially when they all have side effects. But, in order to persuade his son to take the pill, he uses his persona of father knows best and coaxes his son to take the pill. The end result is to help others.
As we all know, a mask is an outward appearance that seeks to obscure an underlying true character. For example, Winston Churchill was able to maintain a mask of dignity and tranquility in his time of anxiety when, in fact, he was extremely afraid Hitler would force them to surrender by continuing to drop bombs on London. To give an idea what the word mask signifies, here are some of its synonyms: Facade, affectation , air, pose, posture, fakery, sham, disguise, false front, guise, masquerade, muffler, pretense, veil, veneer, window dressing. Masquerade is to assume the appearance of something a person is not. Do some of these synonyms define some of our accused clergymen to a tee? You be the judge of it.
Research findings indicate that persona serves an important purpose.
A person acts differently around different people in a variety of contexts.
The use of persona gets in trouble when the aim is to have personal gains at the expense of unsuspecting individuals such as in sexual assault by a clergyman. Furthermore, if the use of persona is excessive, then our real personality dissipates until it becomes virtually unrecognizable.
Persona enables the individual achieve more in material and social gains. Then, why is it a paradox? Persona produces, on the one hand, positive results for the person, but, on the other hand, the results are obtained on deceptive practices. From a religious standpoint, it is immoral to deceive another person with your false personality and fake character as being a genuine person.
That persona deceives has become a common truism is no longer controversial. Persona has the power to influence and make others do what one wants. Again, what begs the question is that why then is it paradoxical. For emphasis, let us reiterate: we all strive to put forth a good face to win friends and influence others. So, why do we have a “paradox of persona”? The simple explanation is that persona yields benefits for the individual who uses a mask; being fake to fraud is a negative thing to pursue. Both are opposite tendencies from the societal standpoint. Yet, the premise that something positive (e.g., the power of persona) is producing something that is negative (e.g., results based on fraudulent acts) is true, albeit contradictory.
The paradox sounds akin to an oxymoron expression, a combination of incongruous words (such as greed is good). A paradox is, therefore, a statement of that is seemingly contradictory or opposed to common sense and yet it is perhaps true. For example, most scholars agree that persona gets the job done and this creates the paradox. “The evil wins over the good” or “The evil gets the good results”.
Self-interest is a compelling motive to make an individual resort to wearing a mask to hide one’s true identity. Let us take an example from a recent controversy surrounding some of the Armenian clergymen who have been accused of serious misconduct. We do not want to get into their alleged dirty laundry here. Suffice it to say, these clergymen are found to be laser-focused on their personal gains. Under the guise of spirituality, these so-called clergymen are taking advantage of people who are unaware of the former’s usage of persona to cheat them.
As most of us are aware by now, Mr. Appo Jabarian, the Executive Publisher and the Managing Editor of the Armenian Life and other irate community members have copiously written many scatting editorials, exposing the corruption of certain leaders in the Armenian Orthodox Church both in the Homeland and in the Diaspora. Mr. Jabarian has been far and away the most vociferous investigative journalist to bring to our attention many of the critical issues surrounding some of our dubious clergymen acting as imposters to take advantage of the Armenian community members.
Several men of God of the Armenian Church have been accused of many sins such as betrayal of celibacy vows, embezzlement, revenge, sexual misconduct to cite a few impeachable misdemeanors. Notable among them are Karekin II (Catholicos of All Armenians), Archbishop Hovnan Derderian (Western USA Diocese), and Archbishop Yezras Nersisyan (Russia Diocese). Armenians everywhere both in the Homeland as well as in the Diaspora are frustrated with their conduct and are expecting for drastic disciplinary actions against them.
The battle between spiritualism and secularism is germane to all humans. By all standards of the people around the world, spiritualism is to use the doctrine of religion and be honest in presenting yourself to others, while secularism is to resort to tactics to sell oneself as someone desirable to the other persons in order to take advantage of a situation. Clergymen are expected to be spiritual even though they are members of the human race susceptible to the allure of secular things. We should all heed Ralph Waldo Emerson’s astute advice: “To be yourself in a world that is constantly trying to make you something else is the greatest accomplishment”. Additionally, let us not forget that research shows that adopting a persona will make an individual feel bad, nervous, drain his energy and prevent him from having genuine and enduring relationships with others.
Behind the mask, the persona garbed to evoke spirituality, spoken to sound pious, and yet acts for personal gains. As long as the intent is to deceive, these clergymen are nothing but manipulative, conniving “bowerbirds of the Holy Armenian Church”. They are out there to mislead, to manipulate, and to fraud them. The only befitting personality and character for a clergymen is to be a person rather than a piranha persona in disguise.
If you were to accept the concept of persona in psychology, which indicates that the personality that an individual projects to others, as differentiated from the authentic self, is manipulative and if the above-mentioned clergymen were truly guilty as charged, then you would agree that they have to pay their dues to society who trusted them all along. While we admire the deceptive characteristics of the male bowerbird as an animal, we tend to abhor the same qualities found in human beings who are poised to fool the world.
Carl Jung warns us that over-identification with the persona is dangerous: “A man cannot get rid of himself in favor of an artificial personality without punishment.” The punishment for “the bowerbirds of the Holy Armenian Church” is usually to become disgraced in the perception of the unsuspecting followers when one’s persona is unveiled or discovered. In the final analysis, many caring Armenians’ hopes and prayers are to have their age-old, Holy Armenian Apostolic Church saved from the clench of the claws of the masquerading “church bowerbirds” ghosts, witches, and wizards by exorcising the evil spirits for the sake of the coming generations.
Note:
This article is humbly dedicated to Mr. Appo Jabarian for his steadfast crusading to accomplish much-needed reforms for the Holy Armenian Apostolic Church.
Z. S. Andrew Demirdjian
(December 23, 2019).