Powerful personas

In Breaking Bad, Walter White, a reserved high-school chemistry teacher becomes a crystal meth drug lord. Towards the very end of the show we hear Walter speak to his wife over a knowingly tapped phone.

WALT: This is your fault. This is what comes of your disrespect! I told you, Skyler. I warned you for a solid year. You cross me, there will be consequences. What part of that didn't you understand?

SKYLER: You took my child.

WALT: Because you need to learn!

SKYLER: You bring her back!

WALT: Maybe now you'll listen. Maybe now you'll use your damn head! You know you never believed in me. You were never grateful for anything I did for this family. Oh no, Walt, Walt you have to stop. You have to stop this. It's immoral, it's illegal. Someone might get hurt. You're always whining and complaining about how I make my money, just dragging me down. While I do everything. And now, now you tell my son what I do? After I've told you and told you to keep your damn mouth shut! You stupid bitch! How dare you.

SKYLER: I'm sorry.

WALT: You. You have no right to discuss anything about what I do. Oh, what the hell do you know about it anyway? Nothing! I built this, me, me alone. Nobody else!

To someone who hasn't seen the show, and apparently the police that were listening in, his words fit the drug lord persona to a tee. But we viewers know Walter still cares about his family, although not as much as his empire. We also know much of what he says here isn't true. Everyone besides Skyler can only hear this call through the lens of what he has become. And his past will be rewrote and reinterpreted through this same lens. Any chance of people connecting to Walter as a person has been wiped away by his legacy—he is trapped by his persona.

Biographies wouldn't sell if it weren't for personas. Do we really care about a young guy that does LSD? Or how about a 12 year old selling garbage bags door to door? Nope. I don't. But if it is Steve Jobs dropping acid and Mark Cuban selling door to door, now I'm interested. Mark and Steve know this too. They completely understand that everything they say will be refracted through their persona. The smartest people can use this to their advantage.

Personas go beyond high achievers though. Mental illness like depression or bipolar disorder will never be something easy to open up to others about. It is not that people won't be accepting of you. Most people are pretty nice. The problem is that everything from that point on will be viewed through the lens of illness. A normal bad day becomes a "depressive stint" through the eyes of those who know you struggle, or a normal mood swing becomes a "manic episode" in the case of bipolar disorder. Real, normal feelings get brushed off or hyped up in the eyes' of others—whichever your new lens makes clearest.

Maybe we should try to be more aware of personas. They literally bend reality and rewrite history.