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Thursday 27 June 2013

Character flaws: The seven chief features of ego

Personality Spirituality: Every one of us has a fundamental flaw, a defect of character, an Achilles’ heel. This is known as the CHIEF FEATURE, since it tends to dominate the entire personality. To the extent that you can identify and handle your chief feature, you are doing well in your personal growth. Generally speaking, all personality traits (or overleaves) are neutral. They can be applied positively or negatively, but in themselves they are neither positive nor negative. Personality traits are merely different ways of being.

A chief feature is a dominant negative attitude — a defensive and potentially destructive pattern of thinking, feeling and acting. We all have at least one. We create it during adolescence, and thereafter it manifests as a lifelong character flaw or personality defect. We forge this bit of our personality initially as a weapon, or at least a shield, to “protect” us as we emerge into the adult world.

There are seven types of chief feature (character flaw / ego defence / personality defect / stumbling block, whatever you prefer).

Here they are listed from the most introverted to the most extroverted:
Self-Deprecation (belittling/diminishing/undervaluing oneself)
Self-Destruction (sabotaging/punishing/harming oneself)
Martyrdom (reacting as if persecuted/victimised/oppressed)
Stubbornness (resisting change in one’s life)
Greed (selfish overindulgence, over-consumption)
Arrogance (inflating/exalting/overvaluing oneself)
Impatience (reacting as though being sabotaged/obstructed) ... read more>>> ...