What can change the nature of a person?

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I've recently started playing Planescape Torment where the question 'What can change the nature of a man?' plays a central part of the game and thought this would be a nice topic to start here.

So, what can change the nature of a person?

Lobotomy or other permanent brain trauma.

True, but I was thinking more in the philosophical sense.

Money.

I'll second head injury. I think money only brings out elements that were already there.

Propaganda and other methods of brain-washing and mind-control can impose and enforce a specific philosophical ideal; methods such as: (1) restricting education to "approved" subjects; (2) restricting freedoms of creativity, speech, press, and religion; (3) censorship of the arts; (4) limited access to library material; (5) public execution of dissidents, intellectuals, and other "Free Thinkers"; (6) limited educational opportunities; (7) regimentation; (8) sleep deprivation; (9) daily indoctrination with "official" policies; (10) random round-up, interrogation, and "re-education" of even the most loyal of citizens; (11) rewarding citizens for denouncing "suspicious" behavior of their neighbors, friends, and family members; (12) forced labor; (13) beatings, torture, and other abuse...

Last edited by Fnord on 24 Aug 2011, 7:50 pm, edited 2 times in total.

Yep power doesn't corrupt, the corrupt seek power (maybe it can corrupt to an extent, but then that would mean money makes bad s**t worse rather than absolutely corrupt people) . As for what can change the nature of a person, psychological trauma. What makes trauma so shocking is not only how bad the experience was but how it completely shatters our worldview.

I tend to agree with Fnord's answers. People are biochemical reactions. Very complex ones, but changing them is just changing that reaction. This can be done through altering the structure of the brain or the chemistry of the brain, or through changing the environment in various ways.

Btw, great choice in games, Wallourdes! I enjoyed Planescape Torment

But l'homme is not simply the pile of chemicals.

And evidence of change of nature - at least of anything I could recognize aa nature - has yet to cross my sensors.

Death

Exposure to a tramatic event......and the development of PTSD if you are prone to it.
Drugs(yes including alcohol and medications)
Lobotomy
Brain damage
just a few things I can think of.

Mental Illness, drugs. rewards, punishments, and training.

Love

Trauma. Not just physical, but psychological. I've seen people become a completely different person after psychological trauma.

Right, he's an organized pile.

know anyone who has had a bad brain injury?