Wow nice one Mr taraz. And as always, thought provoking. I love the way you view things most if the time and would want to ask. How about we your ardent followers suggest a topic and you write about it?
You seem to have a vast knowledge about a lot of things and truely I would love to know your opinion about something's you night feel comfortable discussing that bothers me.
About your article ....
It is true that behaviours can be changed but personality can't . This has been a subject of confusion to me and to many. Most times we tend to try to change a person's personality but the question is, how do we differentiate between a person's personality and a person's behaviour coz for instance ....I have a female friend who argues a lot. She never admits aher mistakes and gives a reason for every single thing she does. Right or wrong . I have been having a very hard time trying to make her change but she keeps saying it's her personality . Now from what you said, behaviours can be learned and unlearned but personality can't. Isn't it possible that she must have learnt the art of argument because she studied law. Or is it just her personality to argue.
I think personality is too broad a term. I think the part that cant change (or what would be hardest to change) is what psychologists call temperament. I followed a number of multiple birth families and saw these temperamental differences be apparent in days and stable across the otherwise highly fluctuating 0-5 years, so I am pretty sure they are fairly fixed. Some personality traits are closer to temperament, and others change dramatically in adolescence and other times of transition.
Hypothetically (and not pleasant to think about), could a person's temperament be affected through violence. Could I take a calm temperament and shift it through harsh conditioning? Why I ask is if it could go one way, could it go another? Could a violent temperament potentially shift toward calm? Now, it could of course be argued that it is only 'behavioural' again but it would be impossible to tell, at least from the outside and potentially from the inside too. I am nt sure if I explained that well but I reckon you will understand enough.
When I am saying temperament I am thinking largely genetic components, things like being fussy/calm. A blow to the head can lead to a permanent change, taking out the part of you that inhibits impulses for example. A harsh upbringing can build wiring differently (People with PTSD often have hair trigger perception, and they also respond differently to their impulses) I am curious about "permanent" changes due to the environment. But harsh conditioning as in mind control is overkill, you could brainwash someone much more easily with just getting them to change the stories they tell themselves.
It depends on what temperament means. But I'm sure you can make a previously calm person a jumpy nervous wreck by exposing them to the right circumstances. It happens to soldiers and civilians in wars all the time.
It it routinely done in psychiatric hospitals nowadays.
But if you define temperament as genetic predisposition active in crucial developmental stages, then a change of temperament is obviously impossible because by that predisposition is a historical fact: the development of temperament may have had an epigenetic component. (Epigenetics is the study of the effects of changes in gene expression rather than the genetic code itself.)
I have been planning this for awhile but haven't trialled it yet.
She will change by herself or won't, that is her life to lead. But, personality can change massively, it just needs the right conditions. We are all much more malleable than we care to admit and we have many sides to us. Under the right conditions, one person can be capable of great cruelty or compassion. maybe it can't change if you see it as already containing every facet but, which face is shown certainly can change.