Can people change?

[lucille]

I have found someone who is showing me different philosophical aspects of the world, that I had not seen before.
In addition, I am attending school for a total career change.

Will this change ME? I think I have room for improvement, as do we all, but I do not want to lose who I am.

Years of working in psychiatry have given me a viewpoint borne of experience: people can learn different theories, and reasons why certain behavior manifests itself; and can to an extent adjust their behavior if they are motivated to do so, but what 'they' are, does not seem to change.
Is this a valid viewpoint? Do people actually ever change the inner core that makes them a unique person?

I am honestly not sure, what do y'all think?

[Chippathingy]

I think most people are far too complex to be changed completely by any one event in their adult life.
How people are changed in life depends on the person and their own "force of personality."
You are what you want to be.
You decide what to know, what to be, how to act, how to apply what you learn.
Or how not too.

Conventional psychology tells us we are formed by heredity and environment, but is there something more?

Try this one...
Think about who you are, think about whether or not you would be different if something was different in your life up until now.
Like someone went back in time and changed something or someone.
How do think you would end up today with the change?
If some experience you carry with you, was somehow no longer there.
Something you learned was presented to you years later, in a different way, or maybe not at all.
Someone you knew wasn’t there. Or they were changed.
Or maybe something as radical as having a different parent. Different genes.
Would your soul, as you interpret it, bear through?

[Aslan]

People are seldom static. If we really are the sum of our experiences, the product of our environment, then by definition, we would be constantly changing.

Perhaps subtly, perhaps overtly, but we would be changing.

It's been said that our base identity is formed while we are quite young and everything else simply builds upon this framework.

I think you can effect change. People can become jaded and cynical, people can have positive events change their outlook to be more rosy and positive.

Core beliefs can be challenged, strengthened or destroyed.

So, in a nutshell, I believe it is possible for people to change. But, it usually takes either a strong desire or a significant event to make the change take place over a short time period.

:devil:

[Chippathingy]

People are seldom static. If we really are the sum of our experiences, the product of our environment, then by definition, we would be constantly changing.

This mostly applies to age 0-7. Base ID as you put it.

[krept]

i truly feel my inner core is constantly in flux, well... at least the shell that defines the difference between outer and inner, I suppose.

not unlike a blackboard... ideas, concepts can be written for so long it seems permanent, but they can be erased and the core is clear again.

what attributes do you feel a soul truly has?

[Aslan]

The soul is an interesting thing to consider.

I believe the single greatest attribute a soul has is free will.

If you subscribe to re-incarnation, and that we keep coming back until we get it right, then a soul would be malleable to some extent.

I believe we are what we choose to be. I don't mean this in a material way, though I believe it is possible to achieve material things if you choose to do so.

At any instant, I can choose to be good or evil. I can choose to have morals. I can choose to amoral. (Even if I choose not to decide, still I've made a choice... thx to RUSH)

That is the key attribute to our souls, IMHO.

Erik, that flux is probably the result of realizing that you have choices. Not all choices are easy. Not all outcomes of those choices turn out the way we would like them to. But, then you have the choice of how to respond to those outcomes.

Life really is a series of decisions...

Whatever the turmoils or flux you are feeling, take it on faith, that anything can be overcome and worked through.

angst and uncertainty suck.

But, it sound like you're looking for answers and that's the only way to find them - by looking.

:devil:

[krept]

WOW man that one sure resonated, thanks (truth, non sarcastic).

this quote sums it up for me:

If a problem has no solution, it may not be a problem, but a fact - not to be solved, but to be coped with over time.
Shimon Peres (1923 - )

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regarding a soul... I just don't know what to say. combining zen with monotheism is interesting. I've felt the flux all my life, I just don't attribute any characteristics to the core "me" and I see all the feelings and products as a result of the shell, including the awareness of self that runs the show.

cheers

[andy]

Had I not gone to Korea, not learned under Moon, many things would be different. I"d probably have shot half a dozen men by now, instead of just kicking them, etc. Nobody's going to lay a hand on me, ever, and not pay for it, sooner or later.