Can there be personalities of different ages, genders, races, and sexual orientations?
Yes. If we understand the personalities characteristics as expressions of an overwhelmed young persons desperate efforts to cope with overwhelming and difficult circumstances, their differences become much easier to understand. A child may develop older personalities in order to wish away the vulnerability of childhood and identify with people who are stronger and more capable of responding to particular challenges. As the child grows older, some personalities remain at younger ages, as the mind tries to say, in effect, “That was in the past. I am no longer the child who was hurt so badly.” A mistreated girl may form male personalities as if to say, “This would not be happening to me if I were a boy,” and “If I were a powerful man, I could protect myself.” Also, if she were abused by a man, she might form a personality based on her abuser, as if to say, “I am safe because I am the one who dishes it out, not the one who takes it.” Racial differences are an extension of the wish not to b
