Psychiatric Prolegomena: A Plea for the Help of Philosophy

Extract

Personality may be defined as “that aspect of human beings where by we are recognized by others, ” that is, “that which constitutes recog-nizability.” The term therefore implies a subject-object field in which the object is another person or persons. There exist as many criteria of personality assessment as there are significant viewpoints of human beings, but there seems little doubt that the human voice is that which impresses us most about our fellows, closely followed by facial expression. Both these convey that whereby we assess “purpose” which is a most important matter about which we habitually assess others.