I hope you don't mind, I just wanted to comment on this idea. It's fascinating to me that you're proposing this as a way for "normal" people to learn more about themselves, because as someone who has dissociative identity disorder (formerly known as multiple personality disorder) I/we can and do quite literally journal as different personality types. Or, perhaps I should say, "I" always journal as "my" type, but I share my brain/body with others who have other types, and so they journal from their own types' perspectives. It is fascinating to us to see, in writing, the evidence of the differences between the ways that we think and/or feel. I wouldn't have thought this would be possible for someone who is a "singlet" (i.e., someone with only one identity), but I suppose with enough understanding of the different types, and enough imagination, it could be possible.
So, since our Typology Central profile says "INFJ" (due to the fact that Leyna, who is INFJ, was the alter who signed us up for this forum), and I, Denise D., am ENTJ, does this qualify as trying your technique? Or would I, Denise D., need to write from the perspective of a non-ENTJ personality type? This idea takes on a whole new meaning when you have DID...
Also, it's interesting that your user name is "Legion", since that is also the name of a superhero in Marvel Comics who has DID. Makes me wonder... but I'm not trying to get you to reveal anything about yourself that you don't feel comfortable revealing.
Anyway, thanks for the thoughtful idea. I hope others will respond to this thread as well, because it would be fascinating to me/us to see what singlets would do with this idea...
Denise D. Vincent
Hi Denise,
Of course I don't mind! I welcome responses to my threads; I am dismayed at the lack of responses I get.
To start with, regarding my username: the story is this:
I had been trying to think of a username for the forum, and I thought "I know, I'll look through my music collection for a word that seems like it would make a good username". Whilst doing this, the letter "L" popped into my head, so I decided to look for a word starting with L. Then I came across the album "Legion" by the band Deicide, and thought that sounded like a good word to use. I will mention, that though I wasn't at the time, I am a follower of God and Jesus, and not an enemy of God as the band name may suggest - but I do still listen to death metal.
Regarding the topic, and the associations with D.I.D: I believe that, like perhaps all psychiatric conditions, D.I.D. is a more extreme form of what is in fact a normal psychological facet. We all have different personas that we use for different situations - work, public, home, this person or that, this task or that - it's just that for those with the condition, this propensity is heightened to the point that the different personas become fragmented and the associations between them are loosened. I believe that the multiple faces we show, to some extent, reflect a multitude of personality types a la Jungian psychological types.
To explain what a "type" is in this context: as you know, there are 8 cognitive functions which encapsulate a great deal of human cognition, and which relate to each other in a quasi-mathematical manner. A type indicates the order that these functions manifest in, which corresponds to how conscious each is (at the time that the personality structure is activated) as well as literally being an order in which they are used. The order that these functions manifest in can be changed so that they manifest in a different order - either within the same personality type (e.g. switiching the order of the auxiliary and tertiary) or to a different personality type entirely (switching the first function in the order, or in the case of types sharing the same dominant function, switiching the consciousness attitude of the auxiliary).
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So multiple personality types are within the grasp of any one person. I believe that there may be a similar story to that of the cognitive functions with a type - that there is an order from conscious to unconscious, but as you go from the least, but nonetheless, conscious type, to the least, but nonetheless, unconscious type, there is a switch from de-energising to energising (i.e. in the sense that Se is de-energising for INFJ, but Ne is energising). So, going with that approach, some personality types can be held consciously, others cannot, but all are present in some form or another. I believe this applies to all, or at least almost all, people (to say nothing of animals).
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Also, regarding D.I.D.: I had for a time speculated that I may have had the condition, but I believe that it was just that as a result of studying personality types, I had become more conscious of the multiple personality structures existing within myself. There is as of yet no diagnosis or similar of me actually having the condition. That doesn't mean I don't have it, but it's not a belief of mine that I have it.
I did, for a while, give names to some of these alter-egos, and have times when I would zone out and come back to reality in a different personality type, but this was only temporary.
What may be happening in D.I.D. is that the multiple personality structures within a person become dissociated from each other - it is not that they were created, but rather separated. So, in that case, in may not make sense to journal as an ENTJ from the perspective of your INFJ alter, because it might simply activate the ENTJ alter. There may or may not be something within the technique that would allow the alters to become re-associated though, if that is something you strive for.
Anyway, yeah I think this is something everyone can potentially do, and it might take on a different meaning for someone with D.I.D., but I nonetheless believe that we all have multiple types within ourselves - and we can learn about ourselves through exploring this notion - through experimentation and contemplation and so on.
