Dimensions of Personality

Eysenck's circumplex. Click on the above picture to see the Eysenck's circumplex in the virtual reality space.

Eysenck's Structures
Salient position among attempts at quantification of structures of attitudes, opinions and beliefs and their interrelationships with prevalent values of society occupies the work of H. J. Eysenck. Eysenck’s structures are quantitative structures based on empirical research and are related to other constructs of social sciences. At the core of Eysenck’s theory are his factor analytic structures, such as his structure of personality circumplex. The popularity of this Eysenck's circumplex rests on his association of the extreme forms of the basic personality traits and the personality disorders. Thus, e.g., the unstable-introverted quadrant [B] of the Eysenck's circumplex is related to the obsessive-compulsive and paranoid disorders and the maladjusted-extroverted quadrant [C] is related to the hysterical psychoses and manias.

Leary's circumplex. Click on the above picture to see the Leary's circumplex in the virtual reality space.

Leary’s Circumplex  David McClelland, a prominent Harvard psychologist, met Timothy Leary while on his sabbatical leave in Italy and helped him to obtain tenure at Harvard University. During his early years at Harvard, Timothy Leary developed a diagnostic instrument, the Interpersonal Check List, with a circumplex structure bearing affinity to the factor-analytic structure of our Consciousness Scales.

The later Harvard years of Timothy Leary are best known for his advocacy of the use of hallucinogens as a way to expand one’s consciousness and for the events surrounding his losing tenure and subsequent imprisonment. Timothy Leary was the first tenured professor at Harvard in 200 years to lose tenure. Arrested by Gordon Liddy of the Watergate fame for the possession of marihuana, Leary had to take the Interpersonal Check List on the admission to prison. The test results helped secure his placement in a minimum security facility from which he later escaped with the help of the Weathermen. After sojourns in Switzerland, Libya (with Eldridge Cleaver) and Afghanistan, he was extradited to the United States, where in prison he met Gordon Liddy, arrested for his part in the Watergate burglary. Pardoned by President Carter, Gordon Liddy and Timothy Leary used to make the college lecture circuit together.

Some of Timothy Leary’s pronouncements pertaining to the use of psychedelic drugs became proverbial. With age he mellowed and became an advocate of computer programming. Contrasting the experiences of actively shaping the display screen of computer terminal with passively watching television, he observed that ‘if you are passively watching screens, you are being programmed. Americans voluntarily stick their amoeboid faces toward the screen seven hours a day and suck up information that Big Brother is putting there. Americans spend more time looking at monitors than they do gazing into the eyes of family and friends.’

Hippocrates' circumplex.

Hippocrates Circumples  Hippocrates in his book about the Nature of Man (circa 400 BCE) ascribed human dispositions (sanguine, phlegmatic, choleric, melancholic) to the imbalance in the mix of bodily fluids (blood, phlegm, yellow bile, black bile). Although his association of temperament with bodily fluids is implausible, Hippocrates’ descriptions of basic character types are accurate and have survived the test of time. The affinity of Eysenck's and Leary’s circumplexes to the classical description of human personality by Hippocrates is apparent, even though the orientation of their axes differs.
 

Neurotransmitters  Neurotransmitters are chemical compounds that either inhibit or stimulate the flow of an impulse between neurons. The principal neurotransmitters are serotonin and dopamine. Serotonin was identified in the 1940’s in the blood serum and it was observed that it increases the constriction (tone) of blood vessels, hence its name. The recognition of serotonin’s role as a neurotransmitter came only later. The chemical structure of psychedelic drugs is similar to that of serotonin. Thus the consciousness is expanded (Timothy Leary's term) by replacing molecules of neurotransmitters with molecules of psychedelic drugs and thus altering the communication between cells of the brain.
 

Stress  Serotonin is among the physiologically active amines, organic compounds that are important in the formation of proteins. Within this group are also dopamine, and adrenalin. Adrenalin is one of the hormones produced by the adrenal glands, small organs situated near the kidneys (Lat. ad at, about, renes, kidneys). Adrenaline is well known to set the ‘fight-or-flight’ physiological reactions as a response to stress. Nature here affirms the principle of parsimony, using the same substances as hormones in the body and as neurotransmitters in the brain. Exposure to stress, a ubiquitous hallmark of modern societies leads to depletion of neurotransmitters within the transmitting cells. The receiving cells begin to sprout more receptors to be able to 'listen' to the weakening signals. These excess receptors stay within us the same way fat cells do. The fat cells do not disappear when we diet. They only shrink, waiting to be filled again. In the same way, following stressful events, we become sensitized to the traumatic experiences we lived through. We become different. Our brains changed, our personality altered. Stress leaves us with excess post-synaptic receptors. We become vulnerable to stress and the ailments associated with it: lowered functionality of the immune system, increased incidence of both psychic and somatic problems, and heightened susceptibility to suicide.
 

Stress and Suicide  Autopsies of persons who died by suicide show enlarged adrenal glands, suggesting that their bodies attempted to re-supply the noradrenalin (nor-mal, parent form of adrenalin) depleted by stress. If the method of suicide was strongly auto-aggressive, (e.g., jumping from high places or using a gun), the concentration of serotonin in the brain was lower than in suicides by less auto-aggressive method, such as an overdose of drugs. Also, lower levels of brain serotonin have been found in persons convicted of crimes involving aggressive behavior. As the stress level in the industrialized countries increases, so do suicide and crime rates.
 

Neurotransmitters and Personality  The relationship of temperament to neurotransmitters was inferred from observations of effects of psychomimetic drugs on behavior. Dopamine was the first neurotransmitter directly linked to a personality trait. In 1987, a major study at Stanford University Medical Center suggested that extroverts tend to have higher levels of dopamine than introverts. Measurements of dopamine in the cerebrospinal fluid of persons who also completed the Eysenck's Personality Inventory showed significantly higher levels of dopamine in extroverted subjects.
 

About the Olive Branch of Picasso The links of serotonin to the personality traits of dominance and submission began to emerge from observations of groups' dominance structures of higher primates. Sociobiologists at UCLA found a relationship between the observed dominance structures and serotonin levels of the dominant and submissive monkeys. Scientists at the University of Iowa related Machiavellian behavior in males with high blood serotonin levels. In a series of ingenious studies, sociobiologists found that the elevated serotonin levels of monkeys engaged in the struggle for dominance returned to normal levels for those who won, while in the defeated monkeys the serotonin levels remained permanently elevated. Perusing the 1940s magazines as Life, Time, or Look, there are repeated pleas for peace not during the WW II, but immediately after the war.
designer drugs The relevance of these studies can be seen on the background of the emergence of designer drugs. The molecules of these drugs are selected on the basis of their three-dimensional geometry to fit targeted chemical receptors. Classical psychopharmaca typically acted upon several receptors while the new designer drugs are reaching the long envisioned goal of one-drug, one neurotransmitter. The first designer drug was fluoxentine (Prozac), a selective serotonin reuptake inhibitor. The emergence of designer drugs was paralleled by new developments within personality theory. C. Robert Cloninger, in his model of personality linked neurotransmitters such as dopamin, serotonin, and noradrenalin, with personality traits.

Cloninger's stereogram. Click on the above picture to see the Cloninger's circumplex in the virtual reality space.

Cloninger's Stereogram  Cloninger's (1986) model postulates three dimensions corresponding to three major neurotransmitters. This model has affinity to many personality and social constructs.

Prozac (and other selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors) increases the available levels of serotonin and lifts depression.

Making love increases the dopamine levels and makes us feel optimistic and happy. It also relieves pain as opiates do. Dopamine in the limbic system stimulates the goal-directed behavior and, decreases latent inhibition, thus increasing the creative idea generation. Creative persons in general do not constrain their ideas (often to the point of being flamboyant and eccentric), however are disciplined and able to mold their ideas into coherent cognitive structures. 

Noradrenalin and amphetamines, cocaine, coffee, make us more alert and active.

Osgood's Semantic Differential dimensions are also related to these tree main neurotransmitters. The evaluation dimension (good - bad) is related to the dopamine levels, the potency dimension (strong - weak) to the serotonin levels, and the activity dimension (active - passive) to the noradrenalin levels.

Make love, not war  Religions, as well as the military, learned long time ago to alter the level of neurotransmitters, primarily by regulating sexual behavior. Sexual continence is imposed on soldiers kept surrounded by predominantly male company, to increase their aggressiveness. Religions frequently imposed celibacy on monks and clergy to increase their religious zeal. The puritanical protestant denominations are associated with the high level of support of a war. On the other hand, providing the emperor with sexual pleasures was in classic Chinese civilization intended to decrease the probability of the emperor initiating a war.

Designer drugs vs. environment  We may as well to close this chapter with observation that even though the designer drugs have the potential to change our personality, so does the environment. Peter Kramer concludes his book Listening to Prozac (1998) with

"Such a drug has yet to be invented which can sustain the spirit the way a family can."

Notes

Similarity of serotonin (top) and lysergic acid diethylamide. LSD has a higher affinity for 5-HT receptors than serotonin, bounds into neuroreceptors, and redirects impulses into the paleopallium.

Adventures in Non-ordinary Reality  In the 1960s, I was working as a statistician in the Department of Pharmacology at the Emperor Charles IV University. While at the Department of Pharmacology, I participated in research projects described in publications such as the Experimental Psychoses Induced by Benactyzine, Psychotropic Effect of Mescaline-like Drugs and Influence of Tryptophane and 5-HT Pretreatment on Experimental Psychoses Induced by LSD. The 5-HT is the abbreviation for 5-hydroxy-tryptamine, also known as serotonin. Kristina Alda (2006) describes some of these experiments, involving the use of LSD, as follows:

In 1963, the Czech pharmaceutical company Spofa began manufacturing the LSD, which was up until then primarily made by Sandoz laboratories in Switzerland, where Albert Hofmann synthesized the first LSD in 1938. Throughout the 1960s and early 1970s, Czech doctors interested in LSD research had access to high-quality LSD. The focus was on rigorous scientific research — far removed from Leary's mantra of tuning in, turning on and dropping out.

The earliest experiments involved doctors testing the drug on themselves. They believed that the mental state evoked by LSD could approximate what schizophrenic patients experienced and thus help psychiatrists understand what those patients were going through. Miloš Vojtěchovský was one of the first Czech scientists to try LSD. Vojtěchovský says he was distraught to find out how much of the LSD testing in the United States was funded by the CIA. He cites Martin A. Lee and Bruce Shlain's Acid Dreams: The Complete Social History of LSD, which presents evidence that subjects in many of these experiments did not know what they were given.

Vojtěchovský acknowledges that some of his colleagues had successes in using LSD, in combination with psychoanalysis, to treat depression and anxiety and that doctors who tried the drug were better able to understand what some psychiatric patients were going through. This facet of the LSD research was described by Stanislav Grof, M.D., in his books Realms of Human Unconscious, LSD Psychotherapy, and When the Impossible Happens: Adventures in Non-ordinary Reality.

After the United States started to carry experiments on the military use of the hallucinogens, the departments of the Red Army and armies of the Warsaw Pact concerned with the chemical and biological weapons commissioned a series of field experiments on the use of hallucinogens on the battlefield. I still recall the shocked facial expression of the Soviet general when his subordinate, under the influence of a hallucinogen, instead of obeying the order he issued started to laugh in his face.

 Happenings in Dracula’s Neighborhood The Department of Pharmacology, located in Prague, Bohemia, a former province of the Austrian Empire (not far away from its other principality of Transylvania), was conducting the LSD experiments on the large scale. In the first decades following the discovery of LSD,  Czech scientists were among the pioneers in researching the drug that later inspired figures like Timothy Leary and Ken Kesey to fuel a cultural revolution in the West. Lured by the prospect of safe, legal, and medically supervised trips, Prague became a Mecca of the American counterculture.

Allen Ginsberg in 1965

It was in 1965 when I met Allen Ginsberg, deported from Cuba to Prague after protesting Cuba's anti-marijuana laws and calling Che Guevara "cute." We roamed the labyrinth of narrow streets of the city of Johannes Kepler and Tycho de Brahe, sharing memories of being a God, brilliant colors of the psylocibin and the telescoping of time of the LSD experiments. Allen was falling in love with me, but was arrested and deported after his speech as the newly-elected King of the May Festival. Set to music on the Kral Majales (King of the May Festival) CD, Stephen Silberman describes this album about events lost in time as

'laying moody, resonant readings of Allen's poetry into atmospheric and haunting jazz soundscapes played by NY best and brightest: Arto Lindsay, Marc Ribot, Bill Frisell. The recording Kral Majales in perhaps the best musical setting of Allen's poetry ever done -- all of this passionate, intelligent music, with Allen's Jovian Blake voice the dark jewel at the center.'

References

Alda, K. (2006) Long strange trip. Prague Post, December 6.

Grof, S. (2006) When the Impossible Happens: Adventures in Non-ordinary Reality. Sounds True.

Grof, S. (2001) LSD Psychotherapy. Hunter House.

Grof, S. (1996) Realms of Human Unconscious. Souvenir Press.

Kramer, P. D. (1998) Listening to Prozac. Diane Publishing.

Krus, D., Vojtěchovský, M. & Rubes, J. (1968) Learning and memory influenced by cholinotropic drugs. Activitas Nervosa Superior, 10, 420-421. 

Vojtěchovský, M, Krus, D., & Grof, S. (1968) Experimental psychoses induced by benactyzine in alcoholics. Progress in Brain Research, 28, 86-105. 

Vojtěchovský, M, & Krus, D. (1968) Psychotropic effect of mescaline-like drugs. Activitas Nervosa Superior, 9, 381-383. 

Vojtěchovský, M, Krus, D., & Skala, J. (1968) Psychic and metabolic effects of the tryptophane load and the modifying action of the reserpine and tranylcypromine. Activitas Nervosa Superior, 9, 412-414. 

Vojtěchovský, M, Krus, D., & Kunz, K. (1968) The influence of tryptophane and 5-HTP pretreatment on experimental psychosis induced by LSD. Activitas Nervosa Superior, 9, 445-446.