CARNIVAL AND PSYCHOLOGY
The mask and its psychologycal function In our culture, the carnival has the function to free ourselves from the routine for a few days. T he mask gives a shape to our personality and represents it. Carnival is an ancient social celebration practised in old times and still in use today. Mask and carnival, both, symbolize deep psychological processes related to the changes of our personality.
Carnival
During this period it’s possible to - change the social order - overthrow the certainties of the whole year .
It represents the chaos when the civilization was born, and its route from chaos to order.
We can apply this aspect to psychology. Our personality takes form starting from chaos. Carnival is a representation of - our origin, - the absence of shape, rules and restraint of any kind.
From this moment of confusion follows the return to order , born from the transformation of the old order caused by the temporary chaos. The personality changes .
The meaning of “the mask �
Jung takes the word Person (that means the mask of the actor) from latin. PERSON= the part of our personality that represents our social aspect. OUR MASK= the ability to show ourselves into the contest we live in; it transforms us; it is responsible for our changes and our ability to adapt to different contexts and situations.
A little child doesn’t know who he is, he will discover it later. He starts to shape himself in the look of his parents, using the masks they choose for him when he still can’t have his own. “PERSON” (Jung) is a mask that aims at bringing and representing what we really are
In this way we can explain the relation between mask and carnival for the collective consciousness: if carnival is chaos, the mask represents the structure that prevents us from falling definitively into it.
Our psychological structure is transormed by the mask, that change: - when its adaptation doesn’t fit us as well as before, - when it’s too old; - when it doesn’t represent us anymore.
DEFENSIVE FUNCTION In the moment of chaos we have a temporary mask. It grants us - a steady idea of our personality, - we are not “broken into pieces�; - something that connects us to our personality;
This temporary and defensive mask is often stiff. Anyway it is the only thing that makes us feel to be a cohesive identity.
When we abandon chaos, the mask changes, it becomes more flexible: - helps us to relate more easily with the entire world, -The mask accompanies us from the chaos of carnival to the order, - from the chaos of neurosis to the order of a harmonious and balanced personality , - It helps us to express the truest and deepest part of ourselves.
Angela Marta
Florida
tHE END
YOUNG STUDENTS IN EUROPE Partners: Istituto Marco Belli di Portogruaro (Italia) Instituto de Enseñanza Secudaria Xesús Taboada Chivite di Verín (Spagna) - VUC di Lyngby, Copenhagen (Danimarca)
Liceo “Marco Belli” di Portogruaro Anno scolastico 2012/2013