Negative character traits of outstanding people. What is a strong personality

Nobody becomes good person accidentally.

Personality(Russian mask; mask corresponds to the term persona - originally a mask, or a role played by an actor in ancient Greek theater) - a relatively stable system of individual behavior, which is characterized by the fact that it is built primarily on the basis of inclusion in the social context. The core formation of personality is self-esteem, which is based on the individual’s assessments by other people and his assessment of these others. Personality is more than character. This is a fairly stable and stable system of temperament, character, intelligence and constitution of a person, which determines him individual ability adapt to the surrounding world. Very important understand the difference between character and personality. Let us recall for example the personality outstanding people. The question arises: are great people known to history? bad character? Yes, as much as you like. There is an opinion that difficult character F. M. Dostoevsky was distinguished, I. P. Pavlov had a very “cool” character. However, this did not stop both of them from becoming outstanding personalities. This means that character and personality are far from the same thing.

P.B. Gannushkin writes that for assessment creative personalities their character flaws don't matter. “History,” he writes, “is interested only in creation and mainly in those elements of it that are not personal, individual, but have a general, enduring character.” So, the “creation” of a person is primarily an expression of his personality. Descendants use the results of the personality, not the character. But it is not descendants who confront a person’s character, but the people immediately around him: family and friends, friends, colleagues. They bear the burden of his character. For them, unlike descendants, a person’s character can become, and often becomes, more significant than his personality. If we try to very briefly express the essence of the differences between character and personality, we can say that

  • character traits reflect what How a person acts and
  • personality traits are for what he acts.

Thus, distinctive feature personality is the presence goals in life. The goal is conscious image the anticipated result towards which a person’s action is aimed. Ask yourself - what is your purpose in life? Ask someone close to you - what is their purpose in life? Then remember the meaning of the concepts “temperament” and “character” and you yourself will understand how achievable these goals are. And this is already considerable knowledge to understand something in our life.

Your own way. V. Savelyev “Treatise on Freedom”

“The one who hobbles in a straight line will outstrip the one who runs astray.”

Having lost my way of life, a person looks around and tries to mold his destiny from fragments of other people's destinies. Naturally, so patched, not whole life does not bring satisfaction. Rushing in all directions, trying to be like someone else, getting entangled in other people's destinies as if in a net, a person goes further and further from his path. There is no need to engage in self-deception - “grow spiritually” - in essence, try to love something other than your destiny. Go to your place - there you will easily be both spiritual and high. Our place is always in front of us, but either our pride does not recognize it, or the desire for security leads us away from it. So we look for our place, fearing that we won’t like it or won’t provide security. It is not easy to overcome fear, to leave the place imposed public opinion, and decide for yourself where to go. And then, once in his place, the person thinks: “Why am I so happy?” But no way. Just your own way - the most shortcut to God. If a person tries to follow one path, then another, then naturally he does not advance a single step. It only makes sense to follow your own path, you can't live someone else's life.

Disagreement with this world, due to the fact that it is not able to fulfill our desires, leads to denial of the world and inventing our own, where this desire can be fulfilled. This is how a person lives in a fictional world, and, for example, wants to get money from the real one. At the same time, he would have invented his own money. It is impossible to know your path once and for all; it is alive and changes all the time. And you will have to constantly learn about it. The world of your soul is always unknown. Having invented, modeled any beautiful world to be mentally carried away into it will not be an immersion in the world of your soul, rather it is an escape from yourself. The kingdom of heaven is within us. Knowing the path and following it are completely different things. A person who has found his path will not find that the path has become wider in the sense of many new opportunities. The selection of new options does not open, because... a person has only one opportunity - to fulfill his destiny. But the path will change qualitatively, it will become clearer and in a certain sense will not expand, but will narrow. We are free to choose between what we want and what we don’t want. But we are not free to want anything - it is already determined. We are that specific desire, clothed in physical body. U free man the path is narrow like a razor blade, the unfree one walks as if through the steppe, achieving nothing. You can walk around a department store all day and not buy anything. Either the price is not right, or the item is not needed. Unfree has the illusion of limitless choice, because has little idea of ​​what he needs. He is studying his lack of freedom, studying the obstacles that arise in front of him on other people's roads. Our path gives us strength, all others destroy us. Everything along the way is important. On someone else’s it is not only not important, but no one needs it. The unfree one is entangled in thoughts - what to do, what is needed to achieve the goal; and there is a need for something. For a free person, need does not have time to arise, because... he does not plan, but simply follows his own path, and what he needs appears in a timely manner before the need for something is realized.

While on your path, you find yourself in favorable but harsher conditions. Here it is necessary not to forget that everything is important, every little thing, nothing is more important than something else. The most important and important thing is what (or who) is in front of you. This is true both for deeds and for people. As soon as more attention is given to something, this is where failure will occur, so that there is no damage to other, equally important things. On its way there is vital interest, on a stranger - idle curiosity or security interests. There is no need to look for your own path - it is always in front of us. It is enough for us to pay attention to what is now in front of us, and this will lead us to real life. Inattention to the "now" there is a good opportunity to lose your path in life among other people's roads. We can't choose between heavy or easy life, we choose between interesting and uninteresting. To carry our cross, the same efforts are spent that we make to throw it off. For those who do not want to bear their cross, looking at those who carry it, it seems that they are workers. And they are the same. The lazy person does it twice: if he throws it away, he expends effort; if he carries it, he wastes effort again. Where can you get away from this? It is twice as easy, or three times, to bear your own voluntarily as compared to those who twice give up theirs. And it’s not so hard to carry your own when it’s interesting, but your own is always interesting; it’s hard and uninteresting to do the same thing twice. When you honestly carry your cross, it becomes lighter and lighter.

The purpose cannot be uninteresting. Your own path may seem difficult, but it is generally impossible to follow any other, there will be an illusion, imitation of movement, walking in place. One who has gone out of his way is like a locomotive that has gone off the rails and continues to try to move along the ground. Is it easy? Will life be easy for a hare who suddenly received the body of a lion, but retained the hare's affections? Will the life of a lion who lives a hare's life be easy? We are all mistaken if we think that our desires do not coincide with reality. No. They do not coincide only with one’s own fear or pride. Both underestimation and overestimation of ourselves lead us away from our path. We are not always capable of accurately assessing ourselves. Faulty self-esteem leads to wrong actions. Fear or pride, having saddled a person, direct him anywhere but on his own path, informing him about a more “reliable” option, leaving no possibility of free choice. A free person does not need any hints of any kind about where to go and what to do, he sees it with his heart. Freedom and love are one and the same. “Love and do what you want.” (Augustine Aurelius 357-430) The real journey begins from the moment when a person is driven by love. Before that, even if a person is honest, fair and brave, the path has not yet begun, he walks in place.

A parting story

One Persian story tells of a traveler who, with great difficulty, walked along a seemingly endless road. He was covered with all sorts of objects. A heavy sandbag hung behind his back, a thick waterskin was wrapped around his torso, and he carried a stone in his hands. An old millstone hung around his neck on an old frayed rope. Rusty chains, with which he dragged heavy weights along the dusty road, wrapped around his legs. Balancing on his head, he held a half-rotten pumpkin. Moaning, he moved forward step by step, rattling his chains, bemoaning his bitter fate and complaining of painful fatigue. In the scorching heat of midday he met a peasant. "ABOUT, tired traveler, why did you load yourself with these fragments of rocks?” he asked. “It’s really stupid,” the traveler replied, “but I haven’t noticed them until now.” Having said this, he threw the stones far away and immediately felt relieved. Soon he met another peasant: “Tell me, tired traveler, why are you suffering with a rotten pumpkin on your head and dragging such heavy iron weights behind you on a chain?” - he asked. “I’m very glad that you brought this to my attention. I didn’t know I was bothering myself with this.” Throwing off his chains, he threw the pumpkin into a roadside ditch so that it fell apart. And again I felt relief. But the further he walked, the more he suffered. A peasant returning from the field looked at the traveler in surprise: “Oh, tired traveler, why are you carrying sand in a bag behind your back, when, look, there is so much sand in the distance. And why do you need such a large waterskin - one would think that you were planning to walk the entire Kavir desert. But a clean river flows next to you, which will continue to accompany you on your journey!” - "Thank you, kind person, only now I noticed what I was carrying with me on the road.” With these words, the traveler opened the waterskin, and rotten water poured onto the sand. Lost in thought, he stood and looked at the setting sun. Latest sun rays They sent him enlightenment: he suddenly saw a heavy millstone on his neck and realized that because of it he was walking hunched over. The traveler untied the millstone and threw it into the river as far as he could. Free from the burdens that burdened him, he continued on his way in the cool of the evening, hoping to find an inn.

The article uses the works of: Z. Freud, A. Adler, F. Wittels, E. Bern, K. G. Jung, V. Savelyev, O. Satov, L. S. Vygotsky, S. Kirkegaard, Dili Enikeeva, A. S. Spivakovskaya, D. Carnegie, B. Huber, R. May, A. Bebel.

Truly genius personalities extremely rare nice people. They are absorbed in great plans and do not like to waste time, including on unnecessary “scrambling” or observing etiquette. It happens that from awareness self-importance some prominent people are completely blown away. For the title of “most obnoxious genius,” we selected 5 candidates who left their mark on history, science and culture.

Steve Jobs

The recognized IT genius of our time, Steve Jobs, could be absolutely unbearable. Friends and subordinates, after his death, told the world many stories about how Jobs masterfully humiliated people, was rude and behaved like a capricious child. Apple employees have more than once heard their boss scolding his colleagues, not at all embarrassed in his expressions. Sometimes Jobs carried out public floggings and dismissals. Complete strangers sometimes suffered from Jobs’s hot temper, from restaurant chefs to police officers. Once Jobs was stopped for speeding, and he, not wanting to wait for a slow servant of the law to issue him a ticket, began to honk the horn furiously, and then defiantly pulled off at the same speed. In everyday matters he was also extremely picky.

According to the memoirs of his wife, Jobs could not decide to buy furniture for the house for about 8 years. Once, while staying at a New York hotel, the thought suddenly occurred to him that the piano in the room was in the wrong place, and therefore demanded to move the heavy instrument right into the night. According to the recollections of his comrades, all these oddities were explained by Jobs’ perfectionism and his reluctance to waste even a second of time. But in the end, it is to this man and his difficult character that the world owes a real technical revolution.

The genius of our time, Steve Jobs, was a master at humiliating people.

Nikola Tesla

The mystery of the identity of the brilliant scientist still arouses public interest. This man, as he himself admitted, was far ahead of his time. According to the memoirs of contemporaries, Tesla found it extremely difficult to interact with people - such was his character. He suffered from a disorder that was expressed in various phobias - the scientist was afraid of germs and endlessly washed his hands, each time using a new towel, and in hotels he settled only in those rooms whose number was a multiple of three.

One more obsession Tesla was counting - he counted how many pieces of food were on the plate, how many steps he took today, what was the volume of a cup of coffee or a bowl of soup. In addition, Tesla was one of those who shared and supported the idea of ​​eugenics - the doctrine of selection human race. In 1935, Liberty magazine published an article by Tesla entitled "The Machine That Will End the War." Among other thoughts, the scientist suggested that by 2100, eugenics will be applied everywhere, and individuals “unsuitable” for reproduction will be forcibly sterilized.

The brilliant scientist Nikola Tesla believed that “eugenics” had a future

Alfred Hitchcock

The recognized genius of the suspense genre had an extremely difficult character. He was a real perfectionist and on set he pushed the actors to the limit, sometimes going beyond the bounds of reason. In addition, Hitchcock had a very specific sense of humor. So, once, the actors involved in the film “The 39 Steps” were forced to spend the entire day in handcuffs, which the director put on them, since he claimed that he had lost the key.

Another time, he quarreled with actress Tippi Hedren, star of the film “The Birds,” and decided to take revenge on her in a very unique way. Hedren's daughter, Melanie Griffith, received a doll with her mother's face as a gift from Hitchcock, lying in a coffin. According to the memoirs of contemporaries, no one could stand Hitchcock as an interlocutor for long.

The great and terrible Hitchcock once gave a little girl a doll in a coffin.


Bobby Fischer

The brilliant chess player Bobby Fischer at a certain point began to appear in the media with rather loud and provocative statements. Fischer made attacks on the United States and Jews.

The chess player’s words that the Holocaust never happened caused a great stir in the press. In addition, he accused the US government of having these people under "total Jewish control" and expressed approval of the actions of al-Qaeda and the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001. In response to harsh statements, the US government revoked Fischer's passport, and he later signed a waiver himself. American citizenship and was deported to Iceland.

Chess player Bobby Fischer blamed the USA and Jews for all the world's ills


Mikhail Lermontov

Lermontov's character and worldview were largely influenced by his family and relationships between relatives. Mother died when future poet was just a child, the relationship between his father and grandmother Elizaveta Arsenyeva was very complex. Contemporaries left extremely conflicting reviews about the poet's persona - many noted his unattractive appearance, the disproportion of head and body, emphasizing that the whole image of Lermontov was repulsive. There were also many unflattering reviews about his character - they noted his “evil tongue”, “envious disposition”, pettiness and “poisonous” character.

At times this made it very difficult for Lermontov to achieve success: there is a known case when he actually scolded the professor because, in his opinion, he had not given sufficiently complete material in class. However, among the many harsh assessments of the poet’s personality, there are others where it is noted that his bad temper was just a thick shell, breaking through which one could see a truly pure and beautiful soul.

People who left a mark on history have a character that their contemporaries do not always interpret unambiguously. This, as a rule, incorrect interpretation is the result of envy and slander from less fortunate contemporaries who were left far behind. Or, bad character celebrities may be explained by the disharmony of their personalities. Moreover, surpassing most people in professional qualities, celebrities may remain undeveloped infantile personalities with somewhat strange ideas about the world.
To illustrate these words, I present a note from the magazine “Dilettant”:

Steve Jobs

The recognized IT genius of our time, Steve Jobs, could be absolutely unbearable. Friends and subordinates, after his death, told the world many stories about how Jobs masterfully humiliated people, was rude and behaved like a capricious child. Apple employees have more than once heard their boss scolding his colleagues, not at all embarrassed in his expressions. Sometimes Jobs carried out public floggings and dismissals. Complete strangers sometimes suffered from Jobs’s hot temper, from restaurant chefs to police officers. Once Jobs was stopped for speeding, and he, not wanting to wait for a slow servant of the law to issue him a ticket, began to honk the horn furiously, and then defiantly pulled off at the same speed. In everyday matters he was also extremely picky.

According to the memoirs of his wife, Jobs could not decide to buy furniture for the house for about 8 years. Once, while staying at a New York hotel, the thought suddenly occurred to him that the piano in the room was in the wrong place, and therefore demanded to move the heavy instrument right into the night. According to the recollections of his comrades, all these oddities were explained by Jobs’ perfectionism and his reluctance to waste even a second of time. But in the end, it is to this man and his difficult character that the world owes a real technical revolution.

The genius of our time, Steve Jobs, was a master at humiliating people.

Nikola Tesla

The mystery of the identity of the brilliant scientist still arouses public interest. This man, as he himself admitted, was far ahead of his time. According to the memoirs of contemporaries, Tesla found it extremely difficult to interact with people - such was his character. He suffered from a disorder that was expressed in various phobias - the scientist was afraid of germs and endlessly washed his hands, each time using a new towel, and in hotels he settled only in those rooms whose number was a multiple of three.

Another obsession of Tesla was counting - he counted how many pieces of food were on his plate, how many steps he took today, what was the volume of a cup of coffee or a bowl of soup. In addition, Tesla was one of those who shared and supported the idea of ​​eugenics - the doctrine of selection of the human race. In 1935, Liberty magazine published an article by Tesla entitled "The Machine That Will End the War." Among other thoughts, the scientist suggested that by 2100, eugenics will be applied everywhere, and individuals “unsuitable” for reproduction will be forcibly sterilized.

The brilliant scientist Nikola Tesla believed that “eugenics” had a future

Alfred Hitchcock

The recognized genius of the suspense genre had an extremely difficult character. He was a real perfectionist and on set he pushed the actors to the limit, sometimes going beyond the bounds of reason. In addition, Hitchcock had a very specific sense of humor. So, once, the actors involved in the film “The 39 Steps” were forced to spend the entire day in handcuffs, which the director put on them, since he claimed that he had lost the key.

Another time, he quarreled with actress Tippi Hedren, star of the film “The Birds,” and decided to take revenge on her in a very unique way. Hedren's daughter, Melanie Griffith, received a doll with her mother's face as a gift from Hitchcock, lying in a coffin. According to the memoirs of contemporaries, no one could stand Hitchcock as an interlocutor for long.

The great and terrible Hitchcock once gave a little girl a doll in a coffin.


Bobby Fischer

The brilliant chess player Bobby Fischer at a certain point began to appear in the media with rather loud and provocative statements. Fischer made attacks on the United States and Jews.

The chess player’s words that the Holocaust never happened caused a great stir in the press. In addition, he accused the US government of having these people under "total Jewish control" and expressed approval of the actions of al-Qaeda and the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001. In response to harsh statements, the US government revoked Fischer's passport; he later signed a renunciation of American citizenship and was deported to Iceland.

Chess player Bobby Fischer blamed the USA and Jews for all the world's ills


Mikhail Lermontov

Lermontov's character and worldview were largely influenced by his family and relationships between relatives. His mother died when the future poet was still a child; the relationship between his father and grandmother Elizaveta Arsenyeva was very difficult. Contemporaries left extremely conflicting reviews about the poet's persona - many noted his unattractive appearance, the disproportion of head and body, emphasizing that the whole image of Lermontov was repulsive. There were also many unflattering reviews about his character - they noted his “evil tongue”, “envious disposition”, pettiness and “poisonous” character.

At times this made it very difficult for Lermontov to achieve success: there is a known case when he actually scolded the professor because, in his opinion, he had not given sufficiently complete material in class. However, among the many harsh assessments of the poet’s personality, there are others where it is noted that his bad temper was just a thick shell, breaking through which one could see a truly pure and beautiful soul.

Do you justify the bad character of brilliant people? Or do you think that their achievements, usually obtained through overcompensation, are a very small reward compared to the internal discomfort of geniuses and the inability to find mutual understanding with those close to them?

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Psychological structure interest.

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The unconscious in the theories of S. Freud and C. G. Jung.

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Habit: pros and cons.

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Is it possible to protect yourself from illusions of perception?

Literature

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Psychological conditions, conducive to the emergence of a hypothesis.

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Tells stories of people you want to emulate. They were heroes of their time: having overcome difficulties along the way, these people strengthened their honesty, courage, nobility, and also strengthened their character. David has studied many stories of celebrities, and here is his reasoning for what makes these people different from the rest and what our generation is missing.

Two Adams

The book “The Lonely Believer,” written by Rabbi Yosef Soloveitchik in 1965, got me thinking about the two sets of virtues. Soloveitchik notes that the book of Genesis speaks of the creation of man twice, and argues: these two descriptions characterize opposite sides of our nature, which he called the first Adam and the second Adam.

If we somewhat modernize Soloveitchik’s definitions, we can say that the first Adam is the career-oriented, ambitious part of our nature. The first Adam is the outer Adam, the Adam “for the summary.” He strives to build, create, produce, discover new things.

He wants to achieve high position and win the victory.

The second Adam is the inner Adam. He strives to embody certain moral qualities. The second Adam seeks inner serenity, a calm but confident sense of right and wrong; he wants not only to do good, but also to be kind. The second Adam longs to give himself entirely to love, to sacrifice himself for the good of others, to be guided in life by some higher truth, to have spiritual integrity worthy of both the Creator and man’s own talents.

If the first Adam longs to conquer the world, then the second wants to serve the world, following his calling. The first Adam applies his creativity and enjoys his own achievements, the second - sometimes abandons earthly success and position for the sake of a sacred goal. The first Adam wonders how the world works; the second is why the world was created and what is our purpose in it. The first Adam strives to move forward, the second - to return to his roots and enjoy the peace of a family dinner. If the motto of the first Adam is “Success,” then the second Adam perceives life as a moral drama and his life passes under the motto “Mercy, love and redemption.”

Heroes of the past generation

And then something wonderful happens. By taming their selves, our heroes are able to see the world clearly, understand others and accept what they offer.

Having pacified themselves, they allow grace into their lives. It turns out that they are being helped by those from whom they did not expect help; that others understand them and care about them in ways they never imagined; that they are loved in a way they didn't deserve. They do not rush about in despair because they are supported by saving hands. And soon those who have descended into the valley of humility rise to the pinnacle of joy and dedication. They devote themselves to work, find new friends, gain new love. They are amazed to realize how much they have changed. They turn around and see how far they have come. These life experiences don't just heal wounds, they transform them. They find their calling and devote all their strength to a great goal, difficult task, which gives life meaning.

Every step along this path leaves a mark on the soul. This experience changes the inner essence, making it more holistic, solid, weighty. Self-esteem is not the same as self-confidence or high self-esteem. A person begins to respect himself not for his IQ, mental or physical abilities who help you get into a prestigious university. Self-esteem is not quantifiable. It does not appear because you are superior to others in some way, but because you surpass yourself, overcome trials, and do not give in to temptations. Self-esteem is fueled by internal, not external victories. It can only be earned by those who have overcome internal temptation, faced their weaknesses and realized: “Well, if the worst happens, I can stand it. I can overcome this."

Everyone in life has decisive moments, turning points, when everything is at stake. But the same process can also occur gradually, barely noticeably. The opportunity to recognize minor shortcomings, offer support to others, and try to correct mistakes exists every day.

The Command Performance transfer reflected more than just aesthetics or demeanor. The more deeply I studied that period, the more I realized that I was looking into a completely different world from a moral point of view. I began to notice a different approach to human nature, different life values, other ideas about a meaningful, spiritually rich life. I don't know how many people at that time strictly followed such a moral code - I have enormous admiration for those who did.


IN modern world External success is often equated with internal well-being.

We have inadvertently left this moral tradition in the past. For last decades we have lost its vocabulary, its way of life. We have not become worse, but we have lost clarity moral concepts̆. We have not become more selfish or selfish than our predecessors, but we have lost their understanding of how to develop character. The moral tradition of the “crooked gorge,” based on awareness of sin and opposition to it, was the heritage that was passed on from generation to generation. She helped me understand how to cultivate virtues “for the obituary,” how to develop that side of nature that is associated with the second Adam. Deprived of this tradition, modern culture has become to a certain extent superficial, especially in the moral sphere.

The main misconception of modern life is the belief that the achievements of the first Adam can bring deep satisfaction.

This is wrong. The desires of the first Adam are limitless and always precede any achievement. Only the second Adam has access to deep satisfaction. The first Adam strives for happiness, but the second Adam knows that happiness is not enough. The greatest joys are moral joys. In the following pages I offer some examples of this kind of life. We cannot and should not strive to return to the past. But we have the opportunity to rediscover this moral tradition, learn the vocabulary of character and implement it in our lives.

There is no formula or universal seven-point program by following which you can develop the second Adam in yourself. But you can study biographies outstanding peoplĕ and try to comprehend the wisdom of their way of life. I hope the following chapters bring you important lessons- even if not those that seem important to me. I hope that when you finish reading this book, you will feel like you are a little different person - a little better than you were before.



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