You can't manufacture a personality on top of your current one as some layer you can just peel off like nothing has happened. You can try, but people will see through it whether immediately or eventually. You have to actually become something else, which I do think is possible, but it's difficult.
I was refering more to taking a new born child and shaping their life to get a specific personality rather than changing a grown adult.
That said, you could probably manipulate events to tweak an existing personality but as you say, its a bit more difficult.
Nope. Nature will always find a way to circumvent control. (Source: I raised 3 very different children.)
Edited to remove noise.
Not in the way the blank slate crowd proposed it, no.
The "problem" with social rearing is that you can only work with what's already there.
You can abuse a child to cause dissociation in parts of the child's personality, but that only deletes parts of the personality and doesn't add to it, and it's not specific enough.
You can use Pavlov conditioning on a child, but that would just cause (generalized) phobia's and changes in behavior, not the underlying personality. It's also not permanent as it can be extinguished.
Theoretically you can alter the child's genetics to change its personality. (The technology isn't there yet, but this route would actually work.)
By blank slate crowd I presume you mean people who believe that humans are born with no inherent programming?
I believe humans can be programmed to a certain extent. Children learn things like racism, prejudice, faith and fears from a young age. How they view the world is very much shaped by their childhood.
If they can be taught that then why not other parts of the their personality?
Now I agree some of a person's personality may be genetic. There are links between certain genes and tendency towards violence. Other elements might be encoded as well. Greater study of the genome will make a level of control at the DNA level possible.
The pre-birth structure of the brain, experiences in the womb such as the emotions of the mother etc. can be controlled. If the mother experiences fear does cause the child to develop more anxiety/paranoia/withdrawn personality elements (something I personally believe to be true).
Now you can't control EVERYTHING a child sees and experiences (unles you lock them in a room) but you can limit the exposure of undersirable influences much like a parent trying to keep their child way from the school bully.
It's happened. It's happening. It will happen.
Movies don't lie. Lol
I'm still waiting for my hoverboard damnit.
100% Yes...this is so often overlooked, and people take a lot for granted.
The effects on a child have far greater ramifications than people often believe. You want a better society, take care of your damn kids properly, even if they aren't genetically yours, doesn't matter. Bad experiences makes damaged children that makes criminals. Healthy happy children makes happy health productive members of society.
