Depersonate

Is there not a tendency to speak of the operation of the Holy Spirit as that of an influence, rather than an agency — to depersonate or impersonate Him?

In "St. Simeon Stylites" (1833), camparably, the monologist's obsession with gaining a sanctified fame leads him to depersonate himself into the very stone pillar on which he sits, the epithet by which he has his identity: he names himself, "I, Simeon of the pillar, by surname / Stylites, among men; I, Simeon, / The watcher on the column till the end" (lines 158-60).

The fantasy of robotic masses expresses a complex desire, to embody and depersonate at the same time.