Beneath our clothing does indeed exist a body, bare skin covering bones and organs. Since all bodies have skin, bones and organs, that can be defined as normal. However, you and I know that each of us are more than our mass of messy cells. To be honest, I have yet to meet a single person who is fully “self aware,” and I include myself in that group.
There are more things that I don’t know about myself, than I do know. That seems to be strange considering I have been actively been in search of “self” for most of my seventy-one years. I need to go back to Freud’s example of consciousness and the unconscious using the analogy of an iceberg. What is known is just a small part of who we are as individuals. It all gets so much more complicated when we add in the fact that we exist in a collective.
The individual unconscious is just the tip of a different iceberg which has the collective unconscious buried under water. So much for being fully self aware. We just do the best we can do despite all the unknowns. Clarity and sharp focus becomes the real illusion. We are left with more questions than answers. And that is why and when I return to “generalised” peeks at “self” via personality types.
Before going further, let me say that every single human psyche likely contains all personality types to some degree. I may be 90% introvert, but that also means that I am 10% extrovert in terms of personality attitude. As for the personality functions of Intuition, Sensation, Thinking, and Feeling, I am more oriented to Intuition than Sensation, as well as more likely to use Feeling than Thinking in making decisions based on what my intuition and senses have gathered to fuel my decisions. I may “think” otherwise, but analysis after the fact proves otherwise. We individually and naturally gravitate to one irrational function and one rational function when we don’t try do force the issue.
What do I mean about trying to force the issue? Well I can examine the data presented to my eyes, and other senses and make decisions based on that evidence. All of us can and do make decisions this way. I can also walk into a scene and my intuition [inner radar?] kicks in and I end up making a decision based on my intuition despite what my five senses might be telling me. Again, we all do that to some extent. There is no mystery here. It all comes down to the question, “What’s my unconscious go-to way of gathering decision-making data?” For me, it’s intuition by far.
In Jungian psychology terms, that then suggests that I have a personality that can be described as “Introverted Intuition” or IN when looking at my unconscious preferences involving the irrational functions of Sensation and Intuition. The polar opposite of this would be the “extroverted sensation” or ES type. Again, I am talking about the “unconscious” preferences. Each of us can, and does use conscious will to gather information via intuition and senses, which means that at times [not too often] I can be described as having an ES personality. Confusing? Yes, and no. The point I am trying to make is that we are too elastic as humans to be very easily categorised when it comes to personality. However, we can come very, very close.
Now, to go back to the idea that my intuition is my “natural” unconscious manner of being aware of the world around me. As a naturist, I go free-hiking. Somehow, I manage to avoid being seen while naked. Call it a “spidey sense” or whatever, but I just know that I need to put my shorts back on, and I act on that impulse. The vast majority of the time, a farm pick up truck appears from behind a hill. The driver waves and I return the wave.
There has only been one occasion when this hasn’t worked for me while I was out free-hiking. I was walking along, my shorts safely tucked in a spot that was easy for me to reach. My wife was walking alongside of me. We were chatting – my sense of hearing was focused. Before either of us could realise it, a truck had just appeared behind us leaving me no time to put my shorts back on. The best that I could do was to slowly turn as the farmer passed so that only my buttocks would be seen. Needless to say, when I walk this route with my wife now, I wear shorts, and when I walk it alone I can do so free-hiking.
Now, for someone who naturally gathers data via their senses rather than via intuition, there would have been no free-hiking down that road. Rather, free-hiking would be done well off any road that showed signs of being used. Are there any recent tracks in the dust and dirt? What season is it in terms of likelihood for a farmer to be out and about? Are there any blind spots that could hide an approaching vehicle? And other questions exist as well.
For a person who primarily uses their senses, the occasions for free-hiking are significantly diminished. And when the risks are taken, my best guess is that they are more likely to be surprised by others. Of course, this is hypothetical and based on the degree of one’s intuition or sensation unconscious preferences. In my case, intuition measured greater than 90%. However, if it had been 54%, intuition would need to be supplemented with sensation to arrive at the best possible result.
Using your best guess, would you say you are more: IN, IS, EN, or ES? And yes, I know, you are all four of them. Yet, when you let your will power and ego get out of the way, you do have a natural resting point.