The five human character structures — their true significance

Introduction

Barbara Brennan, in her classic books on spiritual healing, Hands of Light and Light Emerging, describes five 'character structures' — what you could loosely call character types — that are recognised in Bioenergetics and whose description and understanding she's considerably extended to take into account their significance in spiritual healing. I recommend* these two books for gaining some degree of understanding of this phenomenon — albeit still with some distortions. In Light Emerging, Brennan shows how we can apply understanding of these five character structures to enable us to produce healing responses rather than compulsive, pattern-driven ones to these 'structures' (which are really defences that hide the real person and get in the way of any prospective self-healing / self-actualization of theirs).

So, let me repeat this here for emphasis — the character structures or types do NOT describe the person but rather, they describe the person's particular defences that are rooted in past traumas that are at least indirectly effecting them now — which in some cases may have originated from previous lifetimes either of the person or/and of attached parasitic 'lost' souls (which traumas are being experienced as though they belonged to the person), no matter whether such traumas have been repeated in any form in the current lifetime.

My current understanding (from early 2012), however, is that generally it's active connections to particular primary archetypes that are the main factor that causes the so-called character structures.

Thus, it would be incorrect to regard a person as being, e.g., a schizoid or a masochistic type, but it could be correct to say that the person had a predominantly schizoid or masochistic 'character structure' or, much better, avoidant defence strategy.

The names generally given to the five 'character structures' (what I'd prefer to call defence strategy syndromes [or packages]) are: schizoid, masochistic, psychopathic, oral and rigid.

I view the first four of these names with considerable distaste* as they label a person with connotations of demeaning psychiatric diagnoses, and I consider that more loving and 'human' (and indeed usefully informative) terms are needed for these character structures. I've therefore included my own preferred terms in the table below: 'ungrounded' (or 'scared to be here'), 'suppressed-confused', 'aggressive-defensive', and 'depleted' (or 'never enough').

Most or all of these five 'character structure' defences actually occur for most of us at different times according to our responses to other people's defences. Only in a smallish minority of people is one of the defences so dominant that it manifests as the person's overall so-called 'character structure'. This happens most frequently for people at the opposite poles of their garbage-controlled degradational soul reincarnation sequence:

• no-soul incarnations — quite commonly schizoid, though I've encountered the odd individuals who appear to be more or less no-soul people who were superficially manifesting the rigid character structure. These latter were actually university academics, and I get the strong impression that a fair proportion of scientists would fit into this category.

• those who've been through many soul reincarnations and so are advanced in the degradational process being administered to them by the garbage — to some extent always rigid.

Actually it looks as though two different main types of 'character structure' would tend to get labelled as 'rigid' — or at least they'd be different with respect to how they've arisen and the sort of people who manifest them.

I'm not going to try to repeat here the wealth of information on the character structures given by Barbara Brennan in her books, but I give a summary table below, derived from her information but including my own observations too, showing how each character structure is typically linked to and indeed derived from a specific stage in the soul degradation process. As far as I can tell, this is information that hasn't been published before.

In the case of the 'schizoid' and rigid character structures I can see a reasonably obvious cause for their association with the stages on their 'downhill' progression (at least, if one overlooks the cases of 'rigid' no-soul people), but the reason for the intermediate states in the degradation process being linked to specific character structures in this particular order eludes me completely.

Table — New light on the five human character structures
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Table — New light on the five human character structures
	Schizoid	Masochistic	Psychopathic	Oral	Rigid
My own preferred names	Ungrounded, or 'Scared to be here'	Suppressed — Confused	Aggressive — Defensive	Depleted, or 'Never enough'	Rigid
Stage in the degradational process	Has no soul, and thus potentially could easily avoid getting inveigled into the degradation process.	Has had fewest soul incarnations.	Has had more soul incarnations.	Has had still more soul incarnations.	Usually has had most (many) soul incarnations — but a more superficial version of this character structure occurs for some more or less no-soul people.
Primary issue(s)	Grounding; A deep fear, which may be identified as existential terror.	Being invaded; being controlled. Opportunities for self expression consistently stolen by other people.	Betrayal; still trying to be a warrior for a cause, even though no longer knowing what that cause was — possibly in a previous lifetime of the person or/and of an attached 'lost' soul, or more likely in a fictitious scenario generated from a particular primary archetype to which the person is connected.	Nurturance; not having enough.	Unawareness; denial of real self.
Primary habitual response(s)	Partly out of body; poor grounding.	Confused about own needs; can simultaneously demand and resist. Tends to be manipulative, in unaware, covert ways.	Overt control of others; aggression; has to be seen to be right.	Responds out of a sense of need; dependency; sucks energy from people.	'Appropriateness' (i.e., how I think people expect me to live) rather than authenticity (i.e., the true me).
Predominant body type	Slim, with limb and other skeletal weaknesses common; often a slight sinuate lateral bend of spine (scoliosis).	Thick-set, on the strong side throughout.	Strongly built, tending to a greater strength / weight in the upper parts.	Slim, with weak body.	Often well constructed — even 'ideal' — but with a tension throughout the musculature ('muscular armour'), in which is locked the person's unawareness.
Aura features (adapted from Barbara Brennan) Please see Notes below.	Weak, narrower below, with part of consciousness out the top and to one side or the back; often with slight twist. There may be energy leaks at skeletal joints.	Thick, strong and symmetrically oval. A strong tendency to send out energy streamers to manipulate people.	Strong; broader above, with primarily the 4th level of the aura tending to tilt forward over the top of the head, often forming into menacing 'fingers' (with the implied message You'd better listen to me!).	Weak, narrow, with chakras quite weak and tending to send out energy 'tentacles' to suck energy from other people.	Apparently 'perfect' — which is actually a major part of the person's problem, because this 'perfection' is really a facsimile, which has been achieved by control to hide any issues and their deepest or core essence.
Description of person's behaviour	Nervous and active. Strong creative tendency, often with quite widely diverse deeply held interests / activities. Has the strongest propensity for overt serious troubles from the garbage, and virtually always has a group of attached 'lost' souls and some 'active' connections to primary archetypes.	Tends to be relatively quiet except when roused. Full of frustrated, unexpressed creativity. Generally can't face leadership roles, and any attempt at them would be thwarted by other people trying to take over control by giving lots of advice and interfering in other ways too. Can be quite manipulative, but generally in a quiet, covert, usually unaware manner.	Active and 'driven'; assertive in the troublesome way; insists on own rightness and can be really aggressive about this. Controls people, and tends to set up situations where (s)he can then feel let down or betrayed — which further reinforces the drive to control people. Often a preoccupation with martial arts, which in some cases is associated (very dangerously) with 'dark' practice involvement.	Strong tendency to grab and hold people's attention with his/her eyes, and then to talk compulsively, often being difficult to hear / understand so that the other person has to come in closer (and have their energy sucked). A life story of perceived frustrated needs, with nothing being really enough.	Appears superficially to be 'perfect' or 'ideal' in apparently having no major issues and living an 'ideal' or 'appropriate' rather than authentic lifestyle. Lacks depth of experience or feeling, and sees such depth in others as being something not quite right about them. Does not acknowledge non-physical aspects of reality, nor the possibility that (s)he has 'hidden depths' or buried issues or a 'core essence'.
Core essence awareness and self-actualization ability	At least potentially completely open, though usually with partial blocks of a superficial type. Enlightenment and full self-actualization can be achieved easily. Strong predisposition to true self-actualization, or, failing that, deeply spiritual (rather than religious) awareness and activities.	A great depth of awareness, but it's 'attenuated at the bottom' so that the person is already to some extent out of touch with his core essence. A marked tendency to 'high' spirituality and healing, but tends to be attached to them rather than going for true self-actualization.	A shallower awareness, with at best only an intellectual understanding of 'core essence'. Spirituality and healing interests are common at this stage of the degradation process, though people in whom this character structure is really marked are usually too preoccupied with their power / control issues to be much involved in them. Generally any such interests at this level are in the realm of the psychic — commonly paganistic / mystical paths. If apparent 'higher' paths are followed, their application tends to be very 'ego'-driven and dogmatic.	A considerable sense of separation from any source — the level of awareness being just enough for the person to feel that things aren't right for him/her. No significant real core essence awareness. Any self improvement interests are likely to be in seeking 'help' from medical or mental healthcare services, and in religion, wanting purported higher presences such as God to 'help' and get them 'enough' in this life.	Generally no recognition of any sort of non-physical awareness. In Western cultures typically with no spirituality or religious interests, but, especially in more Eastern traditions, may participate in a religion, but more out of a sense of appropriateness or duty, being completely unaware of any underlying self-actualization motivation, and in any case pointing in completely the wrong direction for any move towards true self-actualization.
Grounding and the 'schizotypal' element Please see Notes below.	Grounding poorest — highest score for schizotype diagnosis	A gradation through these stages from one polarity to the other.			Grounding strongest — so that they're generally regarded by psychiatrists as 'normal' (sic) — and thus supposedly mentally healthy(!) — because of their apparent lack of awareness of non-physical aspects of reality, and the fact that they're sufficiently grounded to be little or not at all open to the sorts of direct garbage and entity interference that get labelled as mental illness or personality disorder.
Propensity for dementia conditions such as Alzheimer's	Virtually none	Increasing tendency			Maximum
	Schizoid Ungrounded	Masochistic Suppressed — Confused	Psychopathic Aggressive — Defensive	Oral Depleted	Rigid Rigid

Notes

A healing priority especially for people with the 'Schizoid' or 'Ungrounded' character structure or defence

Existential terror all too often results in a defensiveness and unwillingness to engage in the sort of self scrutiny that would enable it to be cleared, and would similarly block self scrutiny and positive life change in areas of one's experience that are being distorted or unbalanced by the existential terror. Therefore using a simple means to address that existential terror, and to prevent any residues of it from interfering in one's life, are a high priority.

For a relatively comprehensive set of methods, please see Solutions for some special 'difficult' issues for no-soul people.

Aura shapes and structures

The aura descriptions in the table do seem to portray in a figurative way particular aspects or qualities of the respective character 'structures' — which is why I give them a mention at all here. However, I caution about them for the following reason. As far as I can tell, perception of aura details (including chakras and discrete levels or 'bodies' of the aura) are apparently always a manifestation of ungrounded, astral perceptions, and are clearly so in Barbara Brennan's case.

When using such 'perceptions' we're actually NOT directly 'seeing' at all. What actually happens is that the person who is 'seeing' such non-physical things or manifestations is being shown a schematic representation of configurations within consciousness itself that are actually much more subtle than could be seen by us in any comprehensible way.

Theoretically that would be fine if we were receiving such images directly from our own deepest aspects, but in practice, because almost all of us aren't sufficiently self-actualized to be able to receive such data 'audibly' directly from our deepest aspects, the garbage exploits the situation and, just as with verbal channelling, relays the original data to our ordinary minds, with distortions, additions or deletions according to what the garbage is seeking to get us to see or believe.

So, while on the face of it the story of different aura manifestations for the different character structures looks convincing, and many people who are similarly 'psychic' (i.e., they have similarly ungrounded perceptions) do see roughly what Barbara Brennan sees, and indeed the apparent aura appearances do appear to reflect something observable about each type of 'character structure' package, I'd still be cautious about any aura descriptions or depictions, because all of them have garbage involvement and are thus bound to contain distortions that are aimed at leading us astray.

Indeed, further, I've more recently come to the understanding that it's actually harmful for us to entertain the notion of the objective existence of any sort of structured 'energy system' or 'aura', including well known structures such as chakras, as I explain in the relevant glossary entry for 'energy system'.

Please note that the crassly popular 'aura photos' are NO evidence, let alone proof, of the existence of the aura, because they're a complete SCAM, and are showing artefacts deliberately created during the photography process. Please see Aura Photos — One Great Deception (Please don't call it a scam!) for more about that.

The 'schizotype' / 'normal' polarity — who is healthier?

Schizotype* 'personality disorder' is a diagnosis inflicted by psychiatrists and mental healthcare workers upon people with various unorthodox perceptions and generally poor grounding (at least of their awareness) and usually some sense of 'higher' purpose in their lives — because the psychiatric workers almost universally don't understand that weak grounding is the underlying issue and so don't understand what the true healing requirement is.

As noted in the table, paradoxically it's overall the incarnations of the most degraded category of soul-incarnated people (generally speaking, apart from the real rock-bottom ones)* who tend to get regarded as the mentally healthiest and often the physically healthiest too — though actually if you look more awarely at the situation you can see that the medical and psychiatric professions are turning a big blind eye to something quite important.

If 'rigid' people are really the healthiest, why is it they who are most inclined to decline into dementia conditions? And why is it that people in that category don't live particularly longer, and in particular are actually less motivated than others towards truly healthy lifestyles or preserving their environment? And why is it that such people are all 'sheep', and get so much less out of life than the other people (while typically believing that they're getting all there is for them)?

And why is it these people who generally most depend on the medical services to try to patch them up, rather than take charge of their lives and their physical state as much as possible and become to a considerable extent their own doctors / healers? And why is it these people who, first and foremost, regard any mental / emotional stresses as medical issues for which to take medication instead of considering even for one moment actually using self-actualization / lifestyle change methodology to address underlying causes?

By the same token, if people who are no-soul incarnations are really so flaky and unsound and really have a personality disorder (so-called schizotype), how come that it's they who have the maximum capacity to experience life, to excel in all manner of fields of creativity, and who have the strongest motivation to improve their lives still further? And how is it that it's these people overall who are most interested and motivated in looking after their own health and addressing underlying causes of issues so that the latter can actually be resolved?

Is it really saner or healthier for people to regularly slump back into their armchairs and watch television (living vicariously) or to get on with actively creative and invigorating pursuits as no-soul people are most inclined to?

I've really implied the answer to all these questions in the table, for it's actually NO-soul people who are fundamentally and at least potentially the healthiest, but they do have the need to get more strongly grounded before their health potential (physical and non-physical) can be fully manifested.The healthiest state that a person could be in would be that of a no-soul person who has a relatively high degree of self-actualization. That is, one who is optimally grounded and has cleared out any negative or obstructing influences that have been covering up or clouding that person's true nature as a full and undistorted Earthly manifestation of none other than fundamental consciousness — what you could call 'the Ultimate'.

We're all manifestations of fundamental consciousness, but the development of the soul and the associated degradation process of the whole being over many reincarnations progressively increases the distortions and outright blockages in that manifestation process for each person (actually not all of us, because some — a fair proportion of no-soul people — succeed in reverting to fundamental consciousness at death, thus escaping the garbage-imposed degradation process).

On the face of it, for anyone to have a significant 'character structure' is a great hindrance towards self-healing and self-actualization — but on the other hand, particularly for no-soul people with the Ungrounded ('Schizoid') character structure, the latter often serves a useful function in drawing certain healers' attention to the person's true healing needs, and especially the grounding issue, thus enabling the person at last to start understanding what he needs to change in order to resolve various issues that have been troubling him, and then to be able to turn his life around in more of a self-actualization direction, towards a state of great balance and health in all his aspects, both physical and non-physical.

No matter what your own status with regard to being or not being a no-soul person, you could start virtually right away clearing yourself of your various obstacles to yourself becoming self-actualized and optimally functioning in mind and body — by taking on the methodology presented in Healing and self-actualization — The safest and quickest way.

An important caveat — the need to de-emphasize the categorizations

Although the aforementioned types of defence strategy ('character structure') may appear to be very significant, actually a great deal of caution and circumspection needs to be applied to any attention that anyone gives them. For a start, I'm doubtful that there really would be only five of them, and this whole set of five so-called character structures smacks of a particular New-Age-type orthodoxy that would lead people into very murky waters while failing to observe what we really need to be paying attention to.

Actually the very term 'character structure' is a bit of jargon that needs replacing with 'character trait', though still 'avoidant defence strategy' is best, because the latter doesn't so strongly imply and encourage categorization of the person, pointing instead to what's actually going on (which is what we really need to observe and act upon).

Categorization of people in any attempt to understand them and/or assist their healing / self-actualization is always greatly unhelpful and obfuscational, imposing rigidity and rules where what's really needed is unfettered open-minded observation of what's really there and what's really happening for each individual person. For this reason, if we're going to get any useful insights from people's personal defence strategies, the latter need always to be seen as 'what's going on here for this person', and NOT as 'what particular recognised type of defence strategy this person has'.

In other words, we can indeed benefit from the insights underlying the five so-called 'character structures', but we then need to consign the 'character structures' themselves (i.e., as categories) to the recycling bin — that is, if we're genuine about wanting truly to understand in ways that are actually helpful to people's self-actualization process and clearance of untoward influences in their lives.