Map of the Soul – Persona

There is a lot of interest in today’s culture about the idea of Persona and the psychological mapping of one’s inner world. In fact, the interest is so strong that the superstar Korean Pop band, BTS, has taken Dr. Murray Stein’s concepts and woven them into the title and lyrics of their latest album, Map of the Soul:Persona.


What is our persona and how does it affect our life’s journey?  What masks do we wear as we engage those around us?  Our persona is ultimately how we relate to the world.  Combined with our ego, shadow, anima and other intra-psychic elements it creates an internal map of the soul. 


T.S. Eliot, one of the most famous English poets of the 20th Century, wrote that every cat has three names: the name that everybody knows, the name that only the cat’s intimate friends and family know, and the name that only the cat knows. As humans, we also have three names: the name that everybody knows, which is the public persona; the name of that only your close friends and family know, which is your private persona; and the name that only you know, which refers to your deepest self. Many people know the first name, and some people know the second. Do you know your secret name, your individual, singular, unique name? This is a name that was given to you before you were named by your family and by your society. This name is the one that you should never lose or forget. Do you know it?


Murray Stein, Ph.D. is a Training and Supervising Analyst at the International School of Analytical Psychology Zurich (ISAP-ZURICH).  He is a founding member of The Inter-Regional Society of Jungian Analysts (1977) and of the Chicago Society of Jungian Analysts (1980). He was president of the International Association for Analytical Psychology (IAAP) from 2001 to 2004 and President of ISAP-ZURICH from 2008 to 2012. He has lectured internationally and is the author of Jung’s Treatment of Christianity, In MidLife, Jung’s Map of the Soul, Minding the Self, Outside Inside and All Around and most recently The Bible as Dream and Jung’s Red Book for Our Time Volume 1, 2 and 3 (co-edited with Thomas Arzt). He lives in Switzerland and has a private practice in Zurich.