As I am struggling these days in the middle of different issues and reading many books simultaneously (time is short!), I found this topic which is one of my favourites. That’s because, when I look back on my life, I was an extrovert in my childhood and youth. But later, I have been changed to an introvert.

It might be because of my childhood trauma which I had to deal with. It pushed me always to try to please everyone. I loved going to school (only at the beginning years!), even when the schools were closed for two or three days because of heavy snow; I went there to see if I could meet some mates. Later in my twenties, I was the outer agent to have a connection to the external world as Al kept himself mainly hidden in the house. But it’s all changed. As I began to understand Al’s world better, we became closer. I merged into Al’s world, and we separated from the outer world. And there, I have become an introvert.

Of course, it wasn’t easy for me, as we escaped from Iran and came to Germany; I had to play the role of the outer agent again; I decided to find a job, and the only possibility was to get a Taxi licence and begin to earn some money. (You know, unfortunately, in Germany, you must have papers to be accepted for what jobs you are qualified to do. We had nothing to show!)

It was hard for me to connect all day long with the people. You might imagine I meditated every day early in the morning, preparing myself to go deep into my role as a taxi driver to do my job for almost thirty years, even though I had to prove myself repeatedly. Germans have certain opinions about foreigners (sometimes derogatory, maybe because of some bad experiences?!)), so I’ve always had to prove that I’m educated and look into their eyes at the same level. I wonder how I could do that for almost thirty years, although honestly, I succeeded with the help of my talent in playing roles and the power of; “making the people happy” after some years. Therefore, when I got retired, many were sad to miss me!

In any case, Dr Jung believed that one could change their behaviour in one’s lifetime;

“There is no such thing as a pure introvert or extrovert. Such a person would be in the lunatic asylum.””” Carl Jung

Let’s watch this video and see what he says.

The Attitudes of Consciousness; The Eight Function Types.

Here is the first (short) part about the feeling of an extroverted person: (Translated from his book Typology.)

The extraverted type

The feeling

Feeling in the extraverted attitude is oriented closely to what is objectively given; that is, the object is the crucial determinant of the way of feeling. It is by objective values. Anyone who knows feeling only as a subjective fact will not readily understand the nature of extraverted feeling, for extraverted feeling has liberated itself as much as possible from the subjective factor and subjected itself entirely to the influence of the object. Even where it appears to be independent of the quality of the specific lens, it is still under the spell of traditional or otherwise universal values. I may feel compelled to predicate “beautiful” or “good,” not because I subjectively feel the object is “beautiful” or “good,” but because it is appropriate to call it “beautiful” or “good”; and appropriately so in that a contrary judgment would somehow upset the general emotional situation. Such an appropriate emotional judgment is by no means a simulation or even a lie but an adjustment act. For example, a painting may be called “beautiful” because: a painting hung in a drawing room, signed with a well-known name, is generally assumed to be “beautiful” or because the predicate “ugly” might offend the family of the lucky owner, or because there is an intention on the part of the visitor to create a pleasant emotional atmosphere, for which everything must be felt to be pleasant. They are genuine as such and represent the entire visible feeling function. Just as extraverted thinking rids itself of subjective influences as much as possible, so too extraverted feeling has to go through a certain process of differentiation until it is stripped of every subjective ingredient. The evaluations made by the act of feeling correspond either directly to objective values or at least to specific traditional and commonly accepted standards of value.

I feel so close to this thought; I love it!

And let’s look now at the feeling of an introverted person: (From the same book.)

The introverted type

The feeling

The subjective factor mainly determines the introverted feeling. For emotional judgment, this means just as essential a difference between extraverted feeling and introversion of thinking from extraversion. It is undoubtedly one of the more difficult things to intellectually represent or even approximate to describe the introverted feeling process. However, the peculiar nature of this feeling is sure to strike if one is aware of it at all. Since this feeling is mainly subject to subjective preconditions and is only secondarily concerned with the object, it appears much less often and is usually misleading. It is a feeling that apparently devalues the objects, and that’s why it mostly has a negative impact. The existence of a positive feeling can only be, to say, indirectly deduced. It does not try to fit in with the objective but subordinates itself to it by unconsciously trying to realize the images on which it is based. It is, therefore, always looking for an image that cannot be found in reality and that it has, so to speak, seen before. It seems to glide over objects that never suit its target carelessly. It strives for an inner intensity to which the objects contribute, at most, a stimulus. The depth of this feeling can only be guessed at but not clearly grasped. It makes people silent and inaccessible as it is oversensitive and withdraws from the objective’s brutality to fill the subject’s deep background. To protect themselves, they pretend negative emotional judgments or a conspicuous indifference.

I will try to come more over to it later. Thank you all. 💖🙏🤗🌹

Images credit: Kara Walker / UX Collective / Johfra Bosschart (1919 – 1998)