Typically, we “personality junkies” are a bit different from other folks. After all, not just anyone reads a niche blog about personality typology. That is why I wanted to explore some common characteristics of personality junkies in this series of posts. Today, we will look at one of the more prominent features of personality junkies—their desire for self-knowledge.
When we talk about self-knowledge, we are not referring to concrete features of ourselves such as our height, weight, or running tattoo count. Rather, we are talking about something far less tangible, something closer to notions of soul, temperament, or personality. We want to know the characteristics of the animating force within us, the nature of our drives, motivations, values, and interests. Because we cannot see a motivation or a value in the way we can see an arm or a leg, we consider such things “abstract” or non-sensory (not to be confused with nonsensical) knowledge. This is one reason why Intuitive types are often personality junkies, as they are naturally more comfortable with and interested in abstract matters.
Most personality junkies recognize that many of their basic drives and motivations are common to all humanity. And while common points should not be ignored in our search for self-knowledge, they are not the personality junkie’s primary focus (common traits would be of greater interest to behavioral or social psychologists). Rather, the personality junkie seeks something more individualized, something that explains and substantiates her differences from others.
From this we learn that, along with self-knowledge, personality junkies are also concerned with self-affirmation. When we affirm the self, we celebrate its distinctness. We embrace it as a distinct entity with its own set of special features and characteristics. While not denying what we share with others, we enjoy exploring our differences as well as our individual strengths (and weaknesses). This focus on the self and its individual attributes helps explain why personality junkies are often introverted, a topic we will explore in greater depth later in this series.
Now that we’ve established the personality junkie’s concern for self-knowledge, we might ask ourselves why we have this concern in the first place. If we take a utilitarian perspective, we might associate it with our need to discern our place in the world, especially in the world of work and relationships. If we can clarify who we are, what we like, and what we are good at, then we will have taken a huge step toward satisfying work and fulfilling relationships.
Seeking self-knowledge is also valuable and meaningful in its own right. Like any act of discovery, there is a sense of anticipation and excitement inherent to the process of self-discovery.
Finally, there is a sense in which self-knowledge is part and parcel of the well-lived, moral and ethical life. We feel that a deficit of self-knowledge, or what we might call self-ignorance, is equally, if not more dangerous as other forms of ignorance. By spelunking the dim and dark regions of ourselves, we hope to avoid the pain (and guilt) that comes from acting out of the blindness of unconsciousness.
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