You may have heard of ‘Let Me In’, a program in which participants have plastic surgeries. Most participants have unfortunate stories on their appearances, and panels in this program select one person to have plastic surgery for free. In this program, we should think about why these problems have happened. The answer is that people incline toward looking at only other persons’ appearances, not their inner sides. At this point, we call the external side, namely the appearance, ‘persona’. Also, demands for persona have increased recently as the number of SNS (Social Network Service) users has. What is PERSONA? How does it affect humans? Let’s find out through the following.

● Persona: Who Are You?
The word is derived from Greek, where it originally referred to a theatrical mask. Now, this term is used in various fields. In particular, it is mostly used in psychology and film.
In psychology, Carl Gustav Jung, a famous psychologist in Switzerland, first used this term. He explained, “Persona is a mask; external personality, which is designed on the one hand to make a definite impression upon others, and on the other to conceal the true nature of the individual”, in his book, Two Essays on Analytical Psychology. Persona plays a role as the connection between the external world and ego to adapt well in society.
In film, persona means an actor who represents the director’s view of the world. Nowadays, it often means a role an actor plays in the movie. Some actors use persona a lot to concentrate on their roles in ‘Method Acting’. Method acting is a kind of acting technique in which actors do not pretend to be their characters, but become them. Since they do not distinguish their role and ego in reality, sometimes some have to get some psychological treatment.

● Other Shapes of Persona in Lives

1. Persona Marketing
We can also apply this term to marketing. It is ‘Persona Marketing’. Persona Marketing is a kind of marketing method that makes people memorize a company’s character through appropriate image of company.
There are five types of Persona Marketing according to the method of approaching the market. The first is ‘Emperor Persona’. A company of this type approaches the market as if it is a monopolistic company. However, this type can give customers repulsion. Because of this reason, some companies like IBM (International Business Machines Corporation) gradually changed their persona into ‘Expert Persona’, which we will mention later. Coca Cola and Mercedes Benz are kinds of company that have emperor persona.
The second type is ‘Hero Persona’. The image of a company having hero persona is made by a specific superior and outstanding person. For example, Henry Ford represents the famous automobile company, Ford. The third is ‘Expert Persona’. This is usually used by professionals such as doctor and lawyer. Highlighting their professional ability, they can make customers have good images of their companies. The fourth is ‘Friend Persona’. By using it, a company can approach its customers politely and in a friendly way. However, if this persona is too excessive, customers could feel a company’s image was fake. The last is ‘Chameleon Persona’. A company using it appropriately tries to arouse sympathy from the customer. Apple’s Macintosh and iPhone are the examples that made customers’ sympathetic by satisfying customers’ convenience.

2. Sufferers in Service Industry
Gradually, the number of service personnel is increasing. At the same time, service personnel stress is also increasing. They have to pretend to be in a good mood and always smile for better service even when they suffer from bad treatment from their customers or personal situations. At this time, they use too much persona to maintain their smiles. As they are stressed out, they develop big mental problems. Then, they have to get psychotherapy when their stress is maximized. If they do not do this, they suffer through extreme depression or they even can commit suicide.
You may have seen the term ‘Smile Mask Syndrome’ as one of the popular search words. This phenomenon is also called ‘Masked Depression’, and it indicates a person whose face is always smiling but who has extreme depression. This phenomenon usually can be seen from service personnel. Some companies have special psychotherapy programs to solve this problem but this policy should be spread more.

3. Demian
We can also find another shape of persona in the one of the best pieces of literature, ‘Demian’. The main character ‘Sinclair’ suffered from lots of mental trials and sometimes wandered because he did not find out his own ego. Instead he wanted to be his perfect friend, ‘Demian’. In this progression, he wore Demian’s shape persona. When Sinclair realized and found out his ego, the author Hermann Hesse compared this situation to Abraxas. Abraxas is a kind of god having the appearance of a bird and snake. When it hatched out, it struggled to break the egg and come out into the world. The egg is a kind of persona that Sinclair wore. When he realized and found his real ego, he broke the egg. This book represents an adolescent’s situation and it would be helpful for them to break the persona and find out their real egos.

● Two Sides of Persona
Like all things, persona also has positive and negative aspects. Persona can maintain public order. If there is no persona that society wants, crime and chaos will prevail. Also, we can’t get along with members such as superiors in a company and people we don’t like. As a result, we would not adapt to a company’s environment and our achievement would decrease. Then, we would have monetary loss. However, if we have too much of it, a gap between ego and persona could be formed. We could also lose our real aspects and wander.
- Enneagram
Before we use persona in society, it is important to know about ourselves well. An enneagram is a kind of personality type test. This test is based on Carl Gustav Jung’s theory, Analytical Psychology. In this test, there are nine types of characters we naturally have and interactions with other types. After we’ve had a test and know more about ourselves, we could use persona in appropriate situations. We can have an enneagram test for free at the CBNU Career Support Center.

Using persona is inevitable in human society. Since we face people, sometimes we need to conceal our real aspects and show a faked face. However, all things would be done well if we knew about ourselves. If we know ourselves well, we can use an appropriate persona and maintain good relationships with people around us. Please, don’t lose or forget yourself under any circumstance.