Psychologists have long been devising matrices and grids with which categorise human personalities. (And not only human personalities, as any pet-owner knows!) If we think back to the Ancient Greeks, they had their four fundamental elements, fire, water, earth and air, were matched by the four humours – Phlegmatic, Sanguine, Choleric and Melancholic. Alchemy also attempted to categorise human personality types. Today, psychologists use various methodologies in the arcane practices of corporate HR, some of which have become commonplace though controversial, such as Myers Briggs Type Indicator. There are many other competing methods for assessing and defining personality types; no one consensus model exists.
Yet given the precision that physicists have attained with in classifying basic forms of matter with the Standard Model, the lack of any generally agreed descriptions (even introvert/extrovert are vague and woolly away from the extreme presentations) shows up the gulf between science and social science.
And so – there are traits, habits, behaviours that allow themselves to be classified as personality types; each one drifts off into the arena of personality disorders - from the realm of the psychologist to that of the psychiatrist.
Yes, we are all individuals. We may display certain characteristics in common, but these can overlap, cancel each other out or be subject to wildly varying interpretations. Just looking at the personality traits that I display using different scales and indicators, I can see I fit precisely into none.
Am I introverted or extroverted? If my interlocutor is interesting, I am extroverted. The discussion becomes animated, the more so in the presence of alcohol. If I’m in the presence of bores, I switch off and prefer to stand alone in the corner.
One spectrum that I consider to be greatly important is Ego – Consciousness (my thoughts on this from Lent 2022 in the link below).
The pure experience of being conscious, the awareness of being aware that I AM, is in itself an introverted act, a detachment from the here and now of classical reality. At the other end of the spectrum is pure ego, the narcissistic inability to perceive reality through any other filter than that of the Great Me.
Ego has its purpose; I would argue that it is essential to the biological imperative to survive and reproduce. But having reproduced, and having helped its biological owner attain a comfortable and relatively stress-free existence, it needs to be dialled back, and Consciousness should rise to the fore.
Does being on the Ego end of this spectrum hold back spiritual growth? Not necessarily – many great spiritual leaders were driven by Ego (especially in religions with hierarchies). “You! God wants you to be a mendicant monk, living in Holy Poverty!” “Very well, sire!” Ego-related disorders are often perceptible in leaders across all hierarchies.
Each spectrum has its pluses and minuses when placed into the context of spirituality. Would, for example, those on the Obsessive-Compulsive Behaviour Disorder spectrum focus too much on ritual, getting agitated by a rite being conducted in, say, the wrong order? The "TV Tie syndrome" – being unable to absorb the message of a talking head on TV because his tie was too garish, too wide, too narrow, or the stripes clashed with the pattern of his shirt, comes into play here. “I must have a Latin Mass, and yet I become distracted if the priest mispronounces his Latin words!”
The attention-deficit and hyperactivity disorder spectrum poses its own problems, as those experiencing symptoms may find it hard to dwell long enough on matters spiritual to find answers in them. (Indeed, my chief problem in regular church-going was the ease with which my mind drifted off topic in a room full of sensory distractions.)
Episodic disorders characterised by mood swings also have their reflections in the way those who experience them seek or connect with the Numinous.
The more I think about overlaying personality traits and behavioural disorders onto the spiritual realm, the more convinced I am about the rightness of the intuition I felt one night in the summer of 2021 – “everyone who seeks God shall find God in their own way.” There is no one-size-fits-all solution – other than for the well-adjusted, emotionally balanced, neurotypical minority.
Aliens, Angels and Daemons
Lent 2021: Day 11
The Ego, Consciousness and Spiritual Evolution
Lent 2020: Day 11
Dreams and the Afterlife
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