About us
Welcome. This group is for people interested in exploring themselves and other people from the lens of personality theory, including Myers-Briggs, the Enneagram, the Big Five or "Five Factor Model of Personality," and other perspectives. I have studied all of these systems for many years and was a member of BAAPT, the Bay Area Association for Psychological Type, which included a lot of people from the company that certifies people to administer the MBTI as well as a number of thought leaders from all areas of personality psychology. I hope that my perspective allows me to make these meetings more productive and enjoyable for everyone involved.
I've noticed that people (myself included) love to talk about themselves, including their personality attributes. However, it's equally if not more valuable to listen to other people's perspectives. If you can even understand 10% of what another person is trying to say, you have a much better chance of getting along with that person or even bonding at a deep level.
In these meetings, I will try to have a short preliminary video, essay or other piece that is quick and easy to consume, yet provocative. We will then use that as a seed for further discussion. It may not be important or necessary to have any further structure beyond that.
I have noticed that people who are interested in MBTI and other personality systems tend to have a lot in common, beyond mere interest in personality. So, I hope this group offers people an opportunity to make lots of friends with interests similar to their own.
Upcoming events
1
Introverted Judging vs. Extroverted Judging
The Oak Barrel, 5975 Canal Rd, Valley View, OH, USMyers Briggs people often talk about Thinkers vs. Feelers. Thinkers, the story goes, eschew messy feelings in favor of more "objective", "logical" ways of forming an opinion that, we are told, are more akin to math. In contrast, Feelers are supposedly the gentler, more "human" folks who arrive at their opinions based on things like the impact on group harmony or how a given proposition tests against not "objective" truth, but "their truth."
Regardless of those claims, isn't an equally if not more important distinction the one between introverted judging functions (Ti and Fi) and extroverted ones (Te and Fe)? That is what I've been thinking lately. Not to put too fine a point on it, but extroverted judgers arrive at their opinions by testing them against a supposed external authority, while introverted judgers test against a supposed internal authority. To me, the chasm between pointing to these these external and internal voices as so-called sources of authority is way broader than any chasm between thinking and feeling.
In my mind, extroverted judgers are the guardians of the real-world systems that make society function (Te), as well as the stories, symbols and rituals that manufacture consent and justify the application of those systems to the collective (Fe). They are the "masculine" and "feminine" aspects of the superego, which is the engine that drives society. In a sense, they are parents who are trying to keep everything together, while the Ti and Fi children attempt to run amok or at least avoid contributing, being more interested in self-expression than the systemic consequences of their actions.
None of which is to say that Ti and FI aren't also valuable. They are the rebels who will throw a wrench into a system they don't believe in, even when to do so is to bite the hand that feeds. They are the Dionysian counterpart to the extroverted judgers' Appollonianism, which can become rigid, bureaucratic, myopic, and outdated. If introverted judgers didn't behave in the devil-may-care way that they do, there would be no check on a system that was intended to serve humans turning the tables and manufacturing humans that are intended to serve the system.
(Appollonian and Dionysian are terms that Nietzsche used. Freud was in the Nietzsche club in college, and later borrowed from those concepts to create his concepts of id and superego).
The poet William Blake recognized these forces and fantasized that they could be combined into a utopian vision that he called "the marriage of heaven and hell" (see here: https://www.gutenberg.org/files/45315/45315-h/45315-h.htm). But the Chinese had started talking about the Yin and Yang, which are similar concepts, approximately 3000 years ago. In fact, the little black and white dots inside the "69" form of the yin yang represent the opposing principle, which is baked in, so that rigidity contains the seed of its own destruction, just as chaos contains the seed of order.
Are you an introverted or extroverted judger? Whose "side" are you on? And are you able to see the value of the other side, even if it isn't your preferred way of seeing the world?
4 attendees
Past events
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