Modern studies in historical anthropology and the history of mentalities, as a rule, leave the human individual out of their field of attention. When historians discuss the question of personality in the Middle Ages, their approach remains elitist and evolutionist: they are interested exclusively in the outstanding figures of the era, and they consider the question of how personality and individualism gradually developed as we approached modern times. . In contrast to these views, the author adheres to the belief that the human personality existed throughout the Middle Ages, possessing, however, specific features that deeply distinguished it from the personality of the Renaissance. Without limiting himself to the characteristics of such individuals as Abelard, Guibert of Nogent, Dante or Petrarch, the author seeks to identify traits of personal self-awareness, the symptoms of which can be found throughout the entire thickness of society. “Archaic individualism” is an integral feature of members of the German-Scandinavian society of the pagan era. The establishment of the estate-corporate principle in the Christian era and the teaching of pride as the most serious of sins imposed restrictions on the manifestations of individuality. Thus, it is impossible to build a picture of the smooth progress of personality in the era under study. According to the author, it is the problem of personality that now emerges as the central task of historical anthropology.