‘Happy World Introvert Day’

    

First, Happy New Year! Second, Happy World Introvert Day! It’s still January 2 here for a few more minutes, so I’ll squeeze in this note celebrating this day of post-holiday recovery and refocusing.

Dr. Heyne’s book

World Introvert Day was hatched by psychologist Felicitas Heyne only fifteen years ago, so don’t feel cheated if you didn’t get the day off from school growing up.

On her website, Heyne says: “introverts are a misunderstood minority. We live in an extrovert world, and introverts often appear to be arrogant and strange, which they aren’t. Introverts just work differently. And let’s not forget that although introverts might be a minority, they are a majority in the gifted population. Most famous scientists, philosophers, artists, and thinkers are introverted. Introverts shape the world we live in. But they also have to face specific health risks, job-related problems and often difficult relationships.”

Dr. Jung

The concepts of Introversion and Extraversion (note the “a”) come from C.G. Jung, who devised the two categories as personality types. Writing in Psychology Today in 2012, psychologist Stephen A. Diamond explains:

“For Jung, there were essentially two types of people: introverts and extraverts. These were Jung’s terms, for which he gives specific definitions. While his term introversion is today widely used as a synonym for shyness, introversion is not necessarily shyness. But there is a close relationship between shyness and introversion, which Jung felt (and I fully agree) is largely an innate tendency…

Introversion is a turning inward toward the interior world of ideas, feelings, fantasies, intuitions, sensations, and other facets of subjective experience. The introverted type finds most of his or her meaning and satisfaction not in the outer world of people, objects, things, accomplishments, but rather in the interior life, the inner world. Extraverts, on the other hand, live almost exclusively in and for the exterior world, deriving fulfillment from regular interaction with outer reality. Introverts tend to have difficulty dealing with the outer world in general. Extraverts have equal trouble attending to the inner world. And both resist doing so, in what frequently becomes a chronic, habitual pattern of avoidant behavior… 

What is so astounding is how fundamentally and diametrically different extraverted and introverted types truly are! By their very nature, these are radically divergent modes of being-in-the-world, antithetical attitudes toward life.

Of course, no person is totally introverted or extraverted. These are two extreme poles on a continuum which we all occupy. A majority of us lean toward the extraverted orientation, placing true introverted types in the statistical minority in most westernized cultures. Indeed, introversion tends to be stigmatized in our culture, pathologized, and deemed abnormal. When introversion is extremely one-sided, it can turn into pathological shyness, social phobia, schizoid personality, autism or even psychosis: a total detachment or dissociation from outer reality. Extreme extraversion can manifest in compulsive activity, workaholism, mania and addictive behaviors (e.g., sex addiction) serving the purpose of avoiding introversion or self-reflection at any cost. Some rhythmic balance between introversion and extraversion is essential for mental health. Introversion and extraversion appear to be innate temperaments or personality traits which can be and are, however, influenced by environment.”

Jung thought everyone would be healthiest by balancing the two poles.

If you have any experience in Freemasonry, you likely noted how the Order is almost entirely by and for the extraverts. One of my first observations about the fraternity during my early years in the 1990s (in New Jersey) was the disorder revealed by the disconnect between what the rituals and orations clearly intend and what the consistently convivial calendar delivered. Jung and I would have appreciated a balance. Each of us is a Brother—an individual—but one cannot be a Brother separate; there must be at least one other. (And, hopefully, both smoke pipes!)

As we New Yorkers phrase it through our First Degree Charge:

There are three great duties which, as a Mason, you are obliged to inculcate—to God, your neighbor, and yourself. To God, in never mentioning His Name, save with that reverential awe which is due from a creature to his Creator, imploring His aid in all your undertakings, and esteeming Him as the chief good; to your neighbor, in acting upon the square, and doing unto him as you wish he should do unto you; and to yourself, in avoiding all irregularity and intemperance which may impair your faculties, or debase the dignity of your profession. A zealous attachment to these duties will insure public and private esteem.

And also:

Preston: the source.

➤ “In your outward demeanor, be particularly careful to avoid censure or reproach.”

➤ “During your leisure hours, that you may improve in Masonic knowledge, you are to converse with well informed brethren, who will always be as ready to give, as you will be to receive, instruction.”

➤ “If, in the circle of your acquaintance, you find a person desirous of being initiated into Masonry, be particularly careful not to recommend him, unless…”

Balancing the severities is harmony in who we are and what we do.