Personality Symptoms and Social Symptoms - Essay Example

Personality symptoms and social symptoms, the main characteristics that are used in identifying persons with different identities in relation to the three foundations are drifters guardians, resolvers, searchers and refusers. For example, a resolver in psychological terms consciously desires self-growth, on a personal level such an individual acknowledges the importance of personal skills and greatly puts them to practice. Within a social context, a resolver will be responsive to societies that provide an opportunity for self-growth.
According to Gergen Kenneth, a person’s identity can also include the relational self, pastiche personality and the strategic manipulator. In Social Anthropology, identity is used to refer to the idea of self-hood which implies an individuals’ properties and individuality that makes such a person distich and unique from others. It is virtually difficult to have a clear definition of identity, it all depends on the field of study upon which one is relating, however, there are some prominent people in the society whose roles and involvement in various fields easily spell out their identity. Such characters are Dr Manhattan whose real identity is John Osterman, Rorschach’s and Ozymandias identities in the vigilantism and Nietzsche's Ubermensch (Klock, 2002).

All the three characters have featured in the Watchman besides the Comedian, the Nite Owl and the Silk Spectre. The main aim of selecting the characters was to present six radically opposing ways of perceiving the world in terms of morality. The Watchman is based on superhero properties acquired from Charlton Comics during the early 1980s.
Jon Osterman who was later referred to as Doctor /Manhattan was changed not a god-like blue-skinned being after accidentally being disintegrated in an “intrinsic field Subtracot” Jon Osterman identity is the same as that of Dr Manhattan in a number of ways. First of all, while still a normal human being, he involved himself in unusual things, for instance, very few people would take the dare to become physicists due to its complexity. However, Jon Osterman was intensively involved in the discovery which led to his transformation after being stuck in a chamber. As Dr Manhattan, he continues to engage himself in unusual scenarios, for example even after being employed by the United States of America defence Ministry and in fighting crime, he goes no with his physics research, his love for this subject leads him to b the inventor of the electric advanced vehicles.

Both identities prove Dr Manhattan as a determined and very hard working individual. However, there are some differences between the two personality identities and this has widely been influenced by the social surrounding. Previously he gains an identity of a loving and caring man with the ability to bring his girlfriend along to the workstation. On the other hand, Dr Manhattan is viewed as a biter and emotionless super-being; however, his perception has been changed by exploitation by normal human beings. He claims that he is used as a puppet and can even see all the strings attached to him “We're all puppets, Laurie. I'm just a puppet who can see the strings” (Gibbons, 2008), he knows that he has been turned into something lethal; he is excited that he knows the delight of not knowing. According to the Cote and Levin (2002) typology he can be regarded as a “searcher “ with a high sense of dissatisfaction, quickly shows disdain for imperfection and mostly interacts with role models but does not keep the relationship.

Rorschach real identity was Walter Kovacs and Kovacs was sued to disguise his identity. In the Watchmen plays the Noir private detective vigilante is always with a white mask but keep changing its inkblots. Undergoing an abusive childhood from his mother seemed to frame his identity, furthermore, the scenes around him and the literature he reads all contribute to his identity as “ a vigilante”. A vigilante is an individual who hides his identity and illegally punishes lawbreakers. As a boy he was mistreated and assaulted, his anger towards the assailants gave him the courage to continue identifying himself as a vigilante, according to him “Nothing I hopeless, as long as there is life” (Gibbons, 2008). His identity is full of hope to seek justice even if it's doing it the wrong way compared to Dr Manhattans sense of despair.

Adrain Veidt identity in the play was that of Ozymandias, his identity is inspired by Alexander the Great and Ramesses II who was Egyptian Pharaohs. Ozymandias highly believes in himself, playing an antagonist role in the play. He would rather concentrate on minding his own affairs that, for instance, he retires to cater for his own enterprise to see if he can create his own wealth. His prowess to intensively use the brain capacity that enabled him to possess full physical and mental control contributed to his identity as an Ozymandias. With the ability to catch a bullet fired at him, constantly carrying around his genetically engineered lynx, he had the initiative and determination of saving the world “I can save this world” (Gibbons, 2008).