In buddhism and ancient oriental religions people believe in what we called soul, which is basically the real esence of a human, a finding of ourselves in a real manner, not what we think, nor what we look. Talking with my uncle he said that 2 children of the same social context(same parents, maybe even twins, with the same time of life) are totally different each other. He said was genetically stuff, and i argued the reason was the soul they have. An alcoholic father is a good experience for their life for the more conscious, and a tragedy for the less conscious.