I’m a bit schizophrenic on this, and I put it down to being 5 with a strong 4 wing (occasionally I test 4w5). The 5 is highly intolerant of mawkishness and sentimentality and the glorification of misery – it’s self-indulgent and I hate it. But the 4 is also highly susceptible to melancholy (which makes me hate it even more).
So why do beautiful things move us to sadness, or why do we find sad things beautiful? I don’t know. I have a couple of ideas.
Keat’s wrote “
Beauty is truth, truth beauty - that is all/Ye know on earth, and all ye need to knowâ€.
Schopenhauer said that life is essentially a painful and miserable experience for most creatures, and I would tend to agree with that. So there is a universal truth in sadness that is beautiful, when contrasted with superficial elations and minor triumphs. (That just begs the question, why is
truth beautiful? though...)
Beauty has an intrinsic sadness in that we perceive it’s ephemerality – we mourn it before it is lost because its passing is sad, and everything that is beautiful must fade, every beautiful experience must eventually end. I think maybe it’s more poignant for Ns since we are rarely completely immersed in the moment, but always looking ahead to what might be and what will be - dissolution.
Beyond that, I think maybe we find sadness in others (or in works of art) beautiful because it means we are not directly experiencing it ourselves – it’s akin to rejoicing in someone else’s misfortune. As Victor would say, “we perceive by making distinctionsâ€: without sadness, there would be no joy. I think there is a kind of sadism in enjoying another’s sadness,
Schadenfreude. And a kind of masochism in enjoying our own. (We all know NFs are masochists
) Of course, masochism emerges as a psychological defense against childhood injuries we are powerless to prevent. Finding pleasure in pain as a way to endure the unendurable - escape through transformation.
So yeah, a slightly cynical take, but I’m a 5 at heart.
I don’t find my own sadness beautiful. It’s ugly and dark. And anyone who has really been depressed knows it’s as far from beautiful as it’s possible to get.