Posted by Hal on October 01, 1998 at 10:00:18:
In Reply to: Re: Thoughtful and concise... posted by Kronus on October 01, 1998 at 08:34:18:
: Your analysis is thoughtful and concise, far from your self-imposed "pedantic" label. Naturally, we must all remember the circumstances of the "Sum of TIME + EVENTS to the power of time + experience" formulation of personality. In my case, emotional pain, fear, anxiety, or rejection is far more distracting than the discomfort of physical pain. (Perhaps that is based on root-canal, without anesthetic, at the age of thirteen. One learns to impose Zen-like mind numbing in such situations.) Facing betrayal, disloyalty, or the like is a far more painfull and emotionally distracting prospect than the chronic pain of dislocated disc, or degenerative knee conditions both brought about by activities used to "sublimate" feelings of rejection or emotional distancing by peers, friends, and family.
: The arrow point to FIVE (and the counter-point to ONE)is of critical importance to a SEVEN and yet somehow represents another form of "doing" over thinking about, "experience" over feeling. FIVE is just another form of ultimate escape from pain; ONE allows the SEVEN to "engage" rather than "feel".
: Kronus
It's starting to come together and make more sense for me, but seems to disappear when I try to put it into words.
As a 4, emotional anxiety and pain are far more threatening than physical pain. I'll go to the gym and work out until I'm sore, but I generally avoid new personal contacts there out of fear of rejection. Perhaps it is a matter of experience that shifts our fears from physical to emotional. Or perhaps I fear uncertainty, and the potential pain from the uncertainty, more than the pain itself.
In any case, it is clear that the 7 reaction is different from the 4 reaction--a move to action vs. a move to inaction. In both there seems to be a downward spiral from anxiety, but 4's will wallow in it while 7's escape it. The stressed 4 will use their downward spiral and mass of negative feelings to try to evoke sympathy from others (disintigration to 2.) 7's seem to escape to fantasy, move on to greener pastures, and imagine that the pain is gone. Maybe 4's have a greater tolerance for pain, or maybe it's less of a tolerance for uncertainty. There is a certain comfort in the pain for a 4, depressing though it may be--we've been there before and know what it's like. I've heard it said that people will often remain in hell simply because they know their way around the streets.
I belive that all of these things come out of fear. Our entire personalities are the ways we've developed to deal with our fears and get through the day.
I know we brought this up to understand 7's more; I don't mean to shift it to an analysis of 4's, it's just how I can put it in my own terms and hopefully show you how I understand the inner life of a 7. The thing I'm still not clear on is the MOTIVATION behind the 7's move to action and new activities. How does this relieve the anxiety and pain? It must somehow be effective or it wouldn't have been adopted as a strategy by all 7's. It's also strange how you say that moving to 5 is also a form of "doing" rather than "thinking", Kronus, which makes it another form of avoidance rather than resolution. How exactly is moving to 5 about "doing" and moving to 1 "engaging"? It seems that neither of those will bring about feeling, but I would have thought that 5 would mean reflection and focusing on a subset of things, seeing it through to understanding; something 7's have a hard time with. Am I wrong on this?
What is it that a 7 hopes to accomplish through the string of new experiences? Is it entirely fear-based, or is there a more positive love side to it? What does the 7 ultimately want?
- Hal -