Do you strongly prefer some attributes in the Big Five system?

[Mole]

I prefer neurotic people.

Neurotics are seeking themselves in the world. Neurotics are simply seekers. They are troubled by something and are seeking the answer.

Of course they make us uncomfortable. They afflict the comfortable just as we are to comfort the afflicted. We are to take the side of the neurotic struggle. We are to ally ourselves with the best in the neurotic as the best struggles with the worst.

It is a noble endeavour. Neurotics give us a choice. We can ally ourselves with what is good in them or let them go to hell.

Parsifal, for instance, was a neurotic in search of the Holy Grail. Who would not wish him well? Who would not pray for success in his search? For his success, his success in his search is our success as well.

Of course we can stand back and turn our noses up at the neurotic. But the neurotic speaks to something in us. And if we won't listen to the neurotic, we deny something in ourselves.

It's true the neurotic is our sister and brother. And not only are we searching for freedom and equality but sorority and fraternity as well.

It's true the revolution sought liberty and equality but somehow forgot fraternity, and of course completely forgot sorority.

And the neurotic is troubled by our forgetfulness. And we are inclined to forget her and him as well. But when we remember her, we remember ourselves.

Remembering is the cure for neurosis.

So take a tip from me and don't forget to remember to take a neurotic to tea.

 

[Ghost of the dead horse]

Victor

You wrote so beautifully about introverts, and I can relate a lot to that.

Neurotic people, too. Somehow neurotic behavior seems like openness to me. It isn't inhibited. It's expressed. There's much of the same good stuff as with openness and extroversion combined. There's something that can't be had with those two, too.