The Persona
Latin: the actor’s mask
The face turned to the world.
The Persona: what does it mean in analytical psychology?
The persona is the part of the psyche shaped for others: the role, the office, the manner by which one is known. Jung took the word from the mask of the Roman stage, through which the actor’s voice sounded.
It is necessary, a working compromise between the individual and society, and becomes a danger only when a person takes it for the whole of themselves, identifying with the title, the uniform, or the reputation. Clothing, uniforms, and masks are the images by which it most often appears.
The Persona: where does it appear in myth and tradition?
Masks carry the idea across cultures: the tragic and comic masks of the Greek stage, the stock masks of the commedia dell’arte, the ceremonial masks through which a dancer becomes a god. Machiavelli’s prince need not have every good quality, but must seem to have them: to appear merciful, faithful, humane, and religious.
From the Sources
In his definition of the soul, Jung names the outer attitude, or outer character, the persona, and the inner attitude the anima, or soul.
“I term the outer attitude, or outer character, the persona, the inner attitude I term the anima, or soul. In the same degree as an attitude is habitual, is it a more or less firmly welded function-complex, with which the ego may be more or less identified.”
C. G. Jung, Psychological Types or The Psychology of Individuation, Chapter XI, 'Definitions', no. 48, 'Soul', p. 593. Translated by H. Godwin Baynes, M.B., B.C. Cantab; London: Kegan Paul, Trench, Trubner & Co., Ltd.; New York: Harcourt, Brace & Company, Inc. (Internet Archive OCR text). The text, read in part
Jung writes that when the persona is analysed and the mask taken off, what seemed individual proves at bottom to be collective: the persona was only the mask of the collective psyche.
“When we analyse the persona we take off the mask; and then we discover that what seemed to be individual is at bottom collective, in other words, the persona was only the mask of the collective psyche.”
C. G. Jung, M.D., LL.D., Two Essays on Analytical Psychology, 'The Relation of the Ego to the Unconscious', Part I, Chapter III, 'The Persona as a Part of the Collective Psyche', p. 165. Authorized translation by H. G. and C. F. Baynes; London: Bailliere, Tindall and Cox, 1928 (Internet Archive OCR text). The text, read in part
Each passage is quoted from the text named, which the press fetched and read, and was checked word for word against a fresh copy of it; the link opens that copy. Passages are given as printed, without the editors’ footnote numbers, and with words broken across lines joined.
Where to Read
- “The Relations between the Ego and the Unconscious” (1928), in Two Essays on Analytical Psychology, CW 7
- Psychological Types (1921), CW 6, the definitions
Jung’s writings are cited by the volume of the Collected Works (CW), Bollingen Series / Princeton, 1953–79.
Related Symbols
Also among The Persons of the Psyche
“Learn as much as you can about symbolism; then forget it all when you are analysing a dream.”
Cite This Entry
“The Persona.” In Symbols of the Psyche, the Symbolarium. The Thinking Press, 2026. https://thethinkingpress.org/symbolarium/psyche/persona.
Symbols That Share Its Terms
Nearby in the alphabet: The Pearl: Beauty grown around a wound, in the depths. The Pelican: The mother who feeds her young with her own blood. The Phallus: Generative power, which is more than sexual. Philemon: A figure of the psyche who knew more than Jung did.