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Personality

Rival

Si m'ait Dieus
Staff member
Premium Member
Is personality a result of one's brain function? For example, head injuries are known to cause changes in one's personality. For religious people who may see the soul or spirit as having something to do with one's fundamental self, what do you think?
 

Spirit of Light

Be who ever you want
Is personality a result of one's brain function? For example, head injuries are known to cause changes in one's personality. For religious people who may see the soul or spirit as having something to do with one's fundamental self, what do you think?
I believe the personality sits in the soul/spirit of the true being we are (not in the brain)
But if the brain is damaged there signals will be broken, and that causes a change in how the person act, speak or think.
 

Eddi

Agnostic
Premium Member
Personality is a property of brain function

If a person's brain is damaged then their personality will therefore change accordingly

But their soul would remain unchanged as they would still experience things and have agency

It's just that the brain that it acts through would be damaged

Which would change one's personality

But not one's fundamental being

...IMO
 

Nakosis

Non-Binary Physicalist
Premium Member
Is personality a result of one's brain function? For example, head injuries are known to cause changes in one's personality. For religious people who may see the soul or spirit as having something to do with one's fundamental self, what do you think?

I think personality is a function of the preconscious/subconscious brain. Though consciously, we might be able to overwrite it a bit. Like when an actor plays a part/character. A lot of our personality I think we are born with. Having certain personality traits built into our DNA. That and every conscious/subconscious experience we've ever had goes into creating our personality.

Perhaps to some small degree we can consciously alter our personality but it is very difficult to do. Consciousness is a product of the brain. When the brain is altered, so is the conscious personality that emerges from it.
 

SalixIncendium

अग्निविलोवनन्दः
Staff member
Premium Member
As I understand it, personality is the result of causality.

It is the result of the ego’s reaction to experiences in transactional reality and one’s behaviors and actions based on those experiences.

While personality is inherent to the subtle body (the non-material part of a living being such as thoughts, feelings, emotions, memories, etc), it is influenced by the causal body (that part of a living being that contains the karmic account).
 

Rival

Si m'ait Dieus
Staff member
Premium Member
As much as anything else I think personality is a collection of habits.
We can observe babies' different personalities, though, pretty much from birth. What would you say shapes these if habit hasn't had time to form?
 

Quagmire

Imaginary talking monkey
Staff member
Premium Member
We can observe babies' different personalities, though, pretty much from birth. What would you say shapes these if habit hasn't had time to form?
Genetics, experiences (limited as they may be at that point), brain chemistry: what the mother does with her body while she's pregnant no doubt has some effect on shaping the child's personality.

I wouldn't be surprised if the mother's experiences while pregnant played some part in shaping the child's personality too.
 

dybmh

דניאל יוסף בן מאיר הירש
Is personality a result of one's brain function? For example, head injuries are known to cause changes in one's personality. For religious people who may see the soul or spirit as having something to do with one's fundamental self, what do you think?

If the soul is eternal there is no before or after the head injury. The injury has always happened, the personality has always been divergent. That would mean the soul doesn't change; the event is wrapped up in it. The same could be said for any sort of trauma.
 

Quagmire

Imaginary talking monkey
Staff member
Premium Member
Genetics, experiences (limited as they may be at that point), brain chemistry: what the mother does with her body while she's pregnant no doubt has some effect on shaping the child's personality.

I wouldn't be surprised if the mother's experiences while pregnant played some part in shaping the child's personality too.

That's if we discount the possibility of previous lives.
 

crossfire

LHP Mercuræn Feminist Heretic ☿
Premium Member
I would say that the interface(s) between the unconscious mind and the conscious mind are major drivers of personality.
 

Trailblazer

Veteran Member
Is personality a result of one's brain function? For example, head injuries are known to cause changes in one's personality. For religious people who may see the soul or spirit as having something to do with one's fundamental self, what do you think?
I believe that the personality is the result of the soul because the soul is the sum total of the personality.. I believe that the soul works through the brain and mind while we are alive in a physical body but after the physical body dies the soul continues to have consciousness and it passes to the spiritual world where the soul takes on another form, a spiritual body.

If a person has brain damage or a disease that affects the brain such as Alzheimer's disease or schizophrenia that can cause a personality change but that is only temporary, while that person is alive in a physical body. After that person dies the soul is no longer affected by the brain so they are restored to their former self and the personality. There is a whole section in the book Gleanings about this that explains it in more detail.

Below is a description of the soul that I wrote up from what I have learned from my religion.

The soul is a sign of God, a heavenly gem whose reality the most learned of men hath failed to grasp, and whose mystery no mind, however acute, can ever hope to unravel.

The soul is not “in” the body but rather it is associated with the body and it directs the body and brain and mind. It is the soul that directs human faculties. As outer circumstances are communicated to the soul by the eyes, ears, and brain, the soul communicates its desires through the brain to the physical body, which thereby expresses itself.

The soul works through the brain and while we are alive on earth in a physical body, but when we die and no longer have a physical body the soul continues to live. It lives forever, and that is why it is called an immortal soul.

The soul is the sum total of the personality so it is the person himself; the physical body is pure matter with no real identity. The person, after he dies and leaves his physical body behind remains the same person, and he goes to the spiritual world where he continues the life he conducted in the physical world. The soul takes on some kind of a spiritual form made up of elements that exist in the spiritual world.

“The human spirit which distinguishes man from the animal is the rational soul, and these two names—the human spirit and the rational soul—designate one thing. This spirit, which in the terminology of the philosophers is the rational soul, embraces all beings, and as far as human ability permits discovers the realities of things and becomes cognizant of their peculiarities and effects, and of the qualities and properties of beings” Some Answered Questions, p. 208
 

Evangelicalhumanist

"Truth" isn't a thing...
Premium Member
I believe the personality sits in the soul/spirit of the true being we are (not in the brain)
But if the brain is damaged there signals will be broken, and that causes a change in how the person act, speak or think.
Do you have any reason for holding that belief, when in fact it would appear, through various science disciplines (certainly including neuroscience) appear to contradict it?
 

Evangelicalhumanist

"Truth" isn't a thing...
Premium Member
I believe that the personality is the result of the soul because the soul is the sum total of the personality.. I believe that the soul works through the brain and mind while we are alive in a physical body but after the physical body dies the soul continues to have consciousness and it passes to the spiritual world where the soul takes on another form, a spiritual body.

If a person has brain damage or a disease that affects the brain such as Alzheimer's disease or schizophrenia that can cause a personality change but that is only temporary, while that person is alive in a physical body. After that person dies the soul is no longer affected by the brain so they are restored to their former self and the personality. There is a whole section in the book Gleanings about this that explains it in more detail.

Below is a description of the soul that I wrote up from what I have learned from my religion.

The soul is a sign of God, a heavenly gem whose reality the most learned of men hath failed to grasp, and whose mystery no mind, however acute, can ever hope to unravel.

The soul is not “in” the body but rather it is associated with the body and it directs the body and brain and mind. It is the soul that directs human faculties. As outer circumstances are communicated to the soul by the eyes, ears, and brain, the soul communicates its desires through the brain to the physical body, which thereby expresses itself.

The soul works through the brain and while we are alive on earth in a physical body, but when we die and no longer have a physical body the soul continues to live. It lives forever, and that is why it is called an immortal soul.

The soul is the sum total of the personality so it is the person himself; the physical body is pure matter with no real identity. The person, after he dies and leaves his physical body behind remains the same person, and he goes to the spiritual world where he continues the life he conducted in the physical world. The soul takes on some kind of a spiritual form made up of elements that exist in the spiritual world.

“The human spirit which distinguishes man from the animal is the rational soul, and these two names—the human spirit and the rational soul—designate one thing. This spirit, which in the terminology of the philosophers is the rational soul, embraces all beings, and as far as human ability permits discovers the realities of things and becomes cognizant of their peculiarities and effects, and of the qualities and properties of beings” Some Answered Questions, p. 208
Same question again:

Do you have any reason for holding that belief, when in fact it would appear, through various science disciplines (certainly including neuroscience) appear to contradict it?
 

Evangelicalhumanist

"Truth" isn't a thing...
Premium Member
How is my belief contradicted by science?
Science has demonstrated thousands of times that changes to the physical, electrical and chemical workings of the brain cause changes -- small, large, major, even catastrophic -- to the personality. I'll just give one example here: Phineas Gage, but there are so very many more. (Check out the work of Oliver Sacks.)

And yet, nobody -- from the sciences, from the religions, from the mystics, from the usual cranks trying to sell potions -- absolutely nobody has ever produced a single piece of evidence of a "soul/consciousness" surviving brain death. Not once. Not ever.

Now, if you have something to show in that regard, I would be immensely interested, but I'm pretty sure all you're going to be able to do is to repeat "it is my belief."

Well, lots of people have lots of beliefs. I'm willing to bet you don't believe most of them (or wouldn't if you knew what they were). So I'm asking you to tell us -- why should we believe what you do? What are the reasons for your belief, other than that you like and believe them?
 
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Trailblazer

Veteran Member
Science has demonstrated thousands of times that changes to the physical, electrical and chemical workings of the brain cause changes -- small, large, major, even catastrophic -- to the personality.
I do not disagree with that and my religious beliefs do not contradict that at all. As long as we have a brain, our personality is affected by changes in the brain. All I was saying is that after we die and no longer have a brain the personality is no longer affected by the brain since the brain dies when the body dies. I believe that the soul is responsible for the personality, so after we die and no longer have a brain, our personality is restored to what it was like before any brain damage or disease affected it adversely.
 
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