Ayoungspirit's Profile Series
Jan 17, 2016 15:17:19 GMT -5 by ayoungspirit
Auburn and faeruss like this
Post by ayoungspirit on Jan 17, 2016 15:17:19 GMT -5
As I previously said, this one is my father's type, so again, a lot of it is stemming from my relationship with him. Still, I feel that my preliminary description is not adequately depicting the innate worldview of the Si-lead with secondary Fe, its impressionistic landscape, its bizarre nuance toward observation, which should have been the centerpiece. I simply believe I cannot do it justice at the moment. I think the book will be more appropriately tackling it, and I will try elaborating a bit if I came around to the SiTe portrait, which curiously seems more clear cut in my eyes, but I may be deluding myself.
My personal sample implies 6 relatives and 3 acquaintances.
SiFe - Malein
The stubborn pacifist
Oftentimes described as laid-back, supportive and mild, the SiFe type can be easy to live with. Nevertheless, to understand the more perplexing aspects of its personality, one should firstly remember that, in spite of its congenial exterior and its investment in the community, the SiFe is primarily lead by the process of Si. Introverted sensing can be briefly summarized as a reference to internalized concrete experiences, more specifically crystallized around anchor points, mainly inherited through duration and repetition. Contrary to Ni which is oriented toward a global synthesis of past and present informations, and thus a very integrative and abstract process even in its most negative fashion, Si is more concerned by the stability and reinforcement of its acquired views, in direct proportion to the emancipation of Ne.
Therefore, the more pronounced Si will be, and the more the SiFe will be guarded, if not oblivious, against disruptive informations, whether it should be ideas, feelings or behaviors. This self-protectiveness can often lead, of course to a conservative mindset on a personal level, but more so to an advocacy of a peaceful lifestyle and philosophy. In contrast to the SiTe, who can more easily preserve his views behind a layer of detached thinking, the conjunction of Si with an external feeling process is prompting the SiFe to be even more sensitive toward social harmony.
Unfortunately for it, one can never spare oneself some tensions with its material or social environnement, notably from a difference in cognitive processes. The SiFe is then urged to use its accommodating and imaginative qualities to put up with the pressure and renew its experience. Yet, beside the strength of the ordeal itself, the fuzzy, disparate, sometimes limitless breadth of Ne can very negatively impact the perception of the situation to a point of making the apprehension unbearable.
In these situations, the type can sometimes resort to a most frustrating state of denial. When not avoiding the issue altogether, it will deviate confrontation either by complying or inversely by negating the concerns of its interlocutor. To this end, it is prone among other thing to claim the absolute nullity of the problem, or to shun the consultation of others, especially by presuming of conventional answers. If pushed, it can even become swiftly authoritarian or aggressive, especially in regard to the conformity of innocuous relatives.
Likewise, I suggested that Si was by nature a less integrative process than Ni, and I believe it can have repercussions toward cultivated people skills. Although very considerate, the SiFe can sometimes have difficulties to properly identify an unfamiliar state of mind in someone, and come off as neglecting. Very good toward sympathy, due to its heightened sensitivity, its ability toward empathy can be limited toward its experience and slow to expand, even in spite of a very humanitarian and democratic outlook. It can also altogether refuse to understand someone based on a preliminary moral rejection.
More often than not, this inability to properly assimilate the point of view of the other, coupled with a personal incitation toward being obliging, will lead the type to bottle up its complaints and perform all variety of mundane or important actions in spite of itself, building understated resentment, if not self-denial.
Also, this overall restraint and obedience can conflict with the more directive aspiration of Fe. To make up for it, the SiFe can, like I suggested, find comfortable spots in which expressing its moral voice, its revolt against perceived injustice, perhaps to an overly counterbalancing degree, or sometimes take a leap of faith in more subversive enterprises.
The motivation and appropriateness of the SiFe worldview is a very subtle subject, varying depending on context, and for which it is difficult to be a fair judge, especially in the public domain. This is the reason why I will provide, more than clear exemples, three propositions of case studies : Nelson Mandela, Albert Camus and Alain Juppé. An interesting parallel could certainly be made with other determined figures of pacificism, like FiSe Gandhi.
Nelson Mandela (SiFe), Albert Camus (SiFe) and Alain Juppé (SiFe)
Nelson Mandela is perhaps the more explicit illustration of a consistant pacifist mindset. The leader of a rebellion in South Africa during the apartheid, he rapidly abandoned the more brutal tenants of his protest to become the advocate of a peaceful reunion between all the parties. He became notorious, symbolic even for his superhuman patience and thoughtfulness during and after his twenty-seven years stay in prison, refusing some opportunities to get out early for the sake of not compromising his convictions. Albert Camus is a significative, albeit for a long time underestimated, French philosopher of the existentialist school, very attached to its native land of Algeria. First a friend with NiTe(?) Jean-Paul Sartre, he was criticized for the lack of "conceptualization" of its essays about "the revolted man", which suggest moral responsibility in front of absurdity. This lead to disagreements between the two men, notably about the ends and the means, Camus refusing by principle to sacrifice innocents for a cause. After his tragic death in a car accident, an otherwise very unfair and sour Sartre acknowledged that Camus was to him an immovable "moral center". Alain Juppé is a former French prime minister, who suffered the downfall of his political mentor, TeSi Jacques Chirac, by staying loyal and taking some of the toll of corruption. After a long road through the desert, he is know very popular among French presidential candidates, his program against difficult times being "pacify, gather, reform" ("Apaiser, rassembler, réformer").
Wise or wooden ?
Like I suggested, Si as a process is strongly rooted in recurrent experiences. As time passes and experiences are renewed over and over, the anchors of the SiFe worldview can become strongly fixated and long lasting. When the familiar is seemingly surpassing the unfamiliar, the confidence in these anchors is such that the individual can consider them as an acquired wisdom, more so if its social group has ingrained in it a stereotypical image or link between being wise and qualities of age, reserve and peace.
Depending on the balance with other functions, this aspect, whether justified or not, can be coupled with the restrictive, non-integrative nature of Si, and the sharing nature of Fe, to produce a paradoxically benevolent but rigid, even patronizing approach. The SiFe will deliver a moral consign, but will be closed to feedback, not really involved, sometimes to a physical extent. Its eyes will be very dull, and the further restraint, lack of reaction even, from Fe as well as the neutralization of Ti will negate all expressiveness. Since the limitation of an internal and non-integrative process are extended not only to people comprehension, but to the assessment of all situations, its content can similarly fall flat in unfamiliar circumstances. Contrary to the SiTe, the introverted, theoretical and dissociated bent of Ti will not be able to provide a pragmatical, consequential counterpoint to this inadequacy.
While there is not always a direct correlation between the two, I think this intricate interpretation make for a good entry to address the perplexing fact that many professional actors supposed to have a prevalent Fe are being critiqued for an inexpressive, "wooden" performance, even in personal projects. One can think recently of Vin Diesel, and to a great extent, Kevin Costner.
Vin Diesel (SiFe) and Kevin Costner (SiFe)
While never able to truly launch an action star career due among other things to a inconsistent charisma and involvement, Vin Diesel still is famous for the Fast and Furious series, where he came to play the role of a mentor and patriarch to a band of misfits. Kevin Costner in the other hand was for a time, and in spite of already questionable performances, one of the most inescapable figure of the business, before failing spectacularly to seduce the audience with its self-centered and moralizing tales of apocalypse.
In another domain which is sometimes akin to performance as well, we can return to the political career of Alain Juppé, who was, for his time as prime minister, described as cold, technocratic and pedant. In fact, he considered at the time that reforming was so much necessary that he had to be inflexible, until the strikes were so hard that he had to resign. Today, he considers that this reputation is hurting his sensibility and is trying to be more open.
Of course, not all people are taking these kind of setbacks with grace. Favored by its somewhat self-defeating nature of resisting change and outside influence, the Si process can also accumulate experiences of disappointment, lack of proper recognition, and start crystallizing bitterness, more so if its sensitive body is starting to ache. Thus, whereas the young SiFe will oftentimes be filled with disconnected romantic ideals, the old SiFe will similarly come off as grumpy, negative and his innate parenting style can deviate toward being arrogant.
The most famous actors in this category at the moment are probably Harrison Ford and Bruce Willis, if I am not mistaken, but I also came upon Robert Sean Leonard giving some disgruntled interviews.
Harrison Ford (SiFe), Bruce Willis (SiFe) and Robert Sean Leonard (SiFe)
An associative mindset
This somewhat equivocal stand between compliance and defensiveness means that the SiFe will often be in search of more open spaces where it will be able to properly satisfy the whole of its aspirations according to its cognitive processes. Compared to the more constrained world of professional work, which can be aligned with one's habits but does not often account for much creativity, such a privileged space appeared to be the world of societies.
Indeed, a society is often focused on a defined topic of interest or a demographic but its rather horizontal organisation and its relative freedom toward performances offer opportunities for casual sociability, most plainly chatting, and for the safe, sometimes even encouraged, exploration of tangents. Paradoxically, this structure can be accommodating to such a degree for the SiFe, that it will devote a lot of energy to it, and become very enterprising and productive, to the same extent as a Ne-lead. Of course, depending on the people involved, this very devotion can devolve in the same tensions as describe before, especially if the SiFe effort is taken for granted by other less concerned parties.
Since this is a more casual tendency, it is more difficult for me to provide famous exemples. It can be interesting to note though, that Albert Camus was very much involved in theater companies and semi-amateurish papers.
A closet clown
Now come a more or less useful extension of the silly/serious development. Even in the comfortable space of a society, the SiFe will not always be able to externalise its most wild thought. Indeed, the extraverted orientation of Ne and its subservience to Si mean that the type will sometimes be urged toward the manifestation of inventive ideas, but the smaller breadth of inspirations compared to a prevalent Ne user will often left it with only the more whimsical and impractical ones. Its social orientation will again put it in the difficult situation of wanting to share, and being somewhat conscious of its inappropriateness.
Thus, the SiFe will also be in search of an adequately discreet outlet for its more extravagant side. While this will be often the apanage of its intimates, the more crafty individual will seamlessly instigate a second-degree persona, whether by the medium of overstated clown antics, some puppets, or even a career in comedic acting. This can also be the motive of proper events.
In this regard, one can reference for american audiences to James Franco, who has been shown to enjoy both the practice of "comedic roasts" and the involvement in experimental comedy and drama. French audiences will remember the movies starring the goofy and romantic Pierre Richard. And for a more disconcerting illustration, the supposedly cold and cerebral Alain Juppé was recently caught doing a silly danse in a retirement home. One can only speculate if it is was a literal political stunt.
James Franco (SiFe), Pierre Richard (SiFe), and again Alain Juppé (SiFe ; attachment, click to enlarge)
Again, I did not elaborate on the sensibility and subtlety of the introverted perception worldview. But one can observe the participation of an untamed Ne in its exploratory endeavors, perhaps akin to an artistic piece. The combination of the self-referential, almost autarkic, nature and sometimes factually recycling tendency of Si with the free associations of Ne can lead to very surreal, if not tone-deaf works, the sort you will probably not find in museums and thus not here. Or is it so ?
If it is alright with you, I will not immediately follow this one with SiTe, as there is yet to be an unmitigated basis from the book, and Auburn seem a lot more broadly learned about it than I am. I will procede with the Ne-types, and do a personal sample list of all three types.