Individuality and Personality

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The spiritual individuality of man progresses through repeated earth lives in the course of its development. In each of these individual earth lives it reveals itself as a very specific, unmistakable personality. Individuality and personality must therefore be clearly distinguished from each other.

„What is individuality? Individuality is that which rises in the world full of content. If I have a content-filled future thought, if I form an image of what I am inserting into the world, my personality may be powerful or weak, but it is the carrier of these ideals, the shell of my individuality. The sum of all these ideals is the individuality which shines forth from the personality.“ (Lit.:GA 53, p. 285)

The intellect plays a significant role in the formation of the personality:

„The present has developed the personality. The personal is the characteristic, the meaningful aspect of the human being. All other differentiations, even the differentiations between man and woman, are overcome. Today there is only personality, without any other differentiation. Let us bear in mind that humanity had to pass through this point of passage; and let us bear in mind that what we call personality here is called lower manas in the Theosophical world-view: that is the power of thought which relates to the immediate world. Man is therefore a personality in so far as he belongs to the world of the senses, and to this world of the senses belongs also the combining intellect. Everything that man can think out of the intellect, which elevates his personality, we must raise to a higher level if we wish to comprehend it in its true essence.“ (S. 309f)

And yet the intellect is only a (necessary) diversion to the realisation of the actual spiritual individuality:

„The understanding is therefore only a diversion and does not lead out of the world of the senses. But where the spiritual world shines into this world: in the great works of art, in the original ideas which go beyond everyday needs, or where something of what we call the theosophical world-view shines in, something higher shines in; then the human spirit does not merely become a processor of what is all around it, but then it is a channel through which the spirit flows into the world. He brings something productive into this world. Every individual human being is a channel through which a world of spirit pours out. As long as man seeks only the satisfaction of his needs, he is personality. When he does what leads beyond that, he is individuality. We can find this source only in the single individual; man is the mediator between the spiritual and sensual worlds, man mediates between the two. This is the twofold way in which we can face the human being.

As a personality we are all basically the same: the intellect is perhaps a little more developed in one, a little less in another. But it is not so with individuality. That's where a person becomes a special character, where everyone brings something special to his mission. If I want to know what he is to be as a personality in the world, if I want to know what he can be as an individuality through his originality, then I must wait until something flows into this world through this channel from the spiritual world. If this influence is to take place, we must regard every human being as an unsolved riddle. Through each individuality the original spiritual power flows to us. As long as we regard man as a personality, we can regulate him: If we speak of general duties and rights, we speak of personality. But if we speak of individuality, we cannot force man into a form; he must be the bearer of his originality.“ (S. 311f)

In the Greco-Latin epoch, man had to learn to grasp himself in his body as an individual personality and thereby develop his I-consciousness, which requires reflection through the physical body. Today, in the age of the consciousness soul, man must become more and more conscious of his individuality, which belongs to the spiritual world:

„Whereas in the fourth post-Atlantean age man had to strive with all his might to become conscious of the I in the physical body, the man of our fifth post-Atlantean period must work towards becoming conscious that the I belongs to the spiritual world. And the expansion of the consciousness of the I over the spiritual world, that is spiritual science.“ (Lit.:GA 158, p. 112)

The persona, the personality, is the initially transient enveloping nature with which the imperishable core of being surrounds itself for its earthly incarnation and gives it its unique imprint through a lifelong personality development. From a Christian perspective, it is rightly pointed out that only individuality and personality together make up the whole human being and that Christ's work of redemption, which was only made possible in its full extent by the Mystery of Golgotha, encompasses precisely this whole human being. The physical, etheric and astral bodies, as well as the soul's elements, belong to the nature of the human being, insofar as they are subject to transience. The sentient soul, the intellectual or mental soul and that part of the consciousness soul which is only directed towards the sensual world is transient. That part of the consciousness soul which is directed towards the spiritual world is absorbed into the eternal nucleus of the human being, which consists of his higher, spiritual members, i.e. the spirit self (Manas), the life spirit (Buddhi) and the spirit man (Atma). The human I forms the borderline between the envelope nature and the eternal core of his being. During his life on earth, the ego works on the spiritualisation of his shell nature - and what the I can spiritualise in this way is finally absorbed into the eternal nucleus of the human being. Through the resurrection of the body in the form of the completely spiritualised body shells, perfect immortality is only won for the whole human being, encompassing individuality and personality, which is only completed with the complete spiritualisation of the physical body into spiritual man. With this, a complete inversion of the whole human being has taken place, through which the innermost, the I or the individuality has turned outwards and thus at the same time itself has become an immortal persona, the innermost core of which is the resurrected spiritualised physical body. Only in this way is the full image of God intended according to Gen 1:26 EU realised, which makes man an individualised image of God endowed with freedom, who as a Trinity encompasses Father, Son and Holy Spirit in unity of essence, just as the human I then embraces the spirit man, the life spirit and the spirit self and thereby becomes a whole human being.

Literature
References to the work of Rudolf Steiner follow Rudolf Steiner's Collected Works (CW or GA), Rudolf Steiner Verlag, Dornach/Switzerland, unless otherwise stated.
Email: verlag@steinerverlag.com URL: www.steinerverlag.com.
Index to the Complete Works of Rudolf Steiner - Aelzina Books
A complete list by Volume Number and a full list of known English translations you may also find at Rudolf Steiner's Collected Works
Rudolf Steiner Archive - The largest online collection of Rudolf Steiner's books, lectures and articles in English.
Rudolf Steiner Audio - Recorded and Read by Dale Brunsvold
steinerbooks.org - Anthroposophic Press Inc. (USA)
Rudolf Steiner Handbook - Christian Karl's proven standard work for orientation in Rudolf Steiner's Collected Works for free download as PDF.
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