DEVELOPMENTAL CRISIS IN EARLY ADULTHOOD: A ...

In Victoria’s case, the extrinsic motivation behind her life was to look after her aged
mother and the social pressure to conform. She was working as a hairdresser in the
same village as her mother, feeling unhappy, controlled by the culture and citing
religious pressure as one source of control:
“I grew up in a farm with a Catholic family. There are a lot of things that are implied
– you shouldn’t do this, you shouldn’t do that, and you grow up with these things,
they control you. I think that religion has a big part in it in the culture I came from.”
(p.17)
Claire was a single mother throughout most of her twenties, as her first marriage
ended when she was just 23, leaving her to bring up two children by herself. The
extrinsic goal motivating her career as a businesswoman through her twenties was to
provide financially for her children, despite this meaning having to work in a job she
did not enjoy. As a single mother she had to work to provide, which was a strong
extrinsic bind:
“Well, because I was driven by necessity, I had never really elected to go into work. I
wanted the money to feed, clothe and educate my children.” (p.3)
8.6 Developing a Dysfunctional Persona
Alongside the development of an extrinsically-oriented life structure in early
adulthood, all six describe the development of a persona to fit into the roles they had
adopted. Rob actually uses the term “persona” itself (p.16). Mark described having
developed a “façade” (p.15), while Frank uses a metaphor of “walls of ice” around
him (p.18). Victoria referred to having developed a “façade” (p.20), Claire refers to
an “artificial, hard-nosed personality” (p.4) and Lilly referred to a “shell” around her
(p.9).
Jung described how personas are potentially adaptive and healthy, but are also
potentially dysfunctional and damaging. The personas in this study can be seen to
have developed into dysfunctional facades. The dysfunctions in question are
threefold, and are inner-outer dissonance, over-homogenisation and overidentification.
These will be described in turn, with illustrative quotes, below.
a) The Dissonant Dysfunction: The Sense of Living Falsely
A persona can become dysfunctional if it takes a form that is in actual conflict
with inner goals, values and aspirations. The persona in this dissonant condition feels
“false” or “artificial”, and behaviour in accordance with this identity feels like a
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