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[Jungian Cognitive Functions] Does trauma exaggerate your personality?

Little_Sticks

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Aug 19, 2009
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1,358
I always figured trauma would blur and hide your personality. Kind of like having the psyche as housing a network of glass. Sometimes people break that glass in the house and you either fix it, leave it the way it is, or throw it out. This is normal and this is human and environmental interaction and how human beings have the capacity to change certain parts about them as they see fit to survive and thrive.

But trauma is more like a car crashing into the side of the glass house. Too many pieces inside that house become broken and one can't figure out what should be fixed, left alone, or thrown out. The person tries haphazardly to just get the car out of their wall and fix everything just to feel the safety of the home again. But by doing this the new foundation is weak because the first thing in sight is used as a foundation. Because of this some of the strong points of the psyche get isolated and ignored and the integrity of the psyche is weak and faltering.

With a weak foundation, the walls of the house can fall down from a simple pebble being thrown at just the right place; and a person walking through the house can cause walls, ceilings, or large glass structures to topple accidentally just by breaking one little piece of glass in the house. So the person is often rushing to repair walls or ceilings and constantly deciding what should be fixed, left alone, or thrown out. This leads to too much frustration and fear and a desire to want to give up.

But if one doesn't give up then to fix the weak foundation requires help. Either the person has to find a way to protect the house so everything can be taken down and structured around the strong points of their psyche or prioritize which parts can be protected and restructured, one at a time, or someone has to protect the house while it gets steam-rolled and rebuilt.

But the problem is if the person was so vulnerable to begin with then they probably most often don't have help from another to either protect the house while it gets rebuilt or protect the whole house or even parts of the house themselves so they can rebuild it strong.

What most ends up happening is either the person accepts that parts of the house will have to remain vulnerable while the other parts get restructured (the hardest and most fearful option) or they go far inside the house and build a smaller but extremely durable house, riding their lives on the reinforced strength of the few of many strong points of their psyche.

By building a smaller house, their house becomes boring, cramped, and less welcoming out of fear that it will be destroyed like before. Then it becomes a life of staying in the smaller house until death or periodically facing fear and expanding the house to include the other strong points of the psyche, one at a time, but not as strong as the little house, sometimes never fully repairing and including all parts of the original house.
 

goodgrief

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Apr 3, 2010
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480
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INTJ
You know if nobody came, which they would eventually anyway, you could have grabbed the hardest object in the room and smashed the windows. But I guess you were only 8.
 

goodgrief

New member
Joined
Apr 3, 2010
Messages
480
MBTI Type
INTJ
I always figured trauma would blur and hide your personality. Kind of like having the psyche as housing a network of glass. Sometimes people break that glass in the house and you either fix it, leave it the way it is, or throw it out. This is normal and this is human and environmental interaction and how human beings have the capacity to change certain parts about them as they see fit to survive and thrive.

But trauma is more like a car crashing into the side of the glass house. Too many pieces inside that house become broken and one can't figure out what should be fixed, left alone, or thrown out. The person tries haphazardly to just get the car out of their wall and fix everything just to feel the safety of the home again. But by doing this the new foundation is weak because the first thing in sight is used as a foundation. Because of this some of the strong points of the psyche get isolated and ignored and the integrity of the psyche is weak and faltering.

With a weak foundation, the walls of the house can fall down from a simple pebble being thrown at just the right place; and a person walking through the house can cause walls, ceilings, or large glass structures to topple accidentally just by breaking one little piece of glass in the house. So the person is often rushing to repair walls or ceilings and constantly deciding what should be fixed, left alone, or thrown out. This leads to too much frustration and fear and a desire to want to give up.

But if one doesn't give up then to fix the weak foundation requires help. Either the person has to find a way to protect the house so everything can be taken down and structured around the strong points of their psyche or prioritize which parts can be protected and restructured, one at a time, or someone has to protect the house while it gets steam-rolled and rebuilt.

But the problem is if the person was so vulnerable to begin with then they probably most often don't have help from another to either protect the house while it gets rebuilt or protect the whole house or even parts of the house themselves so they can rebuild it strong.

What most ends up happening is either the person accepts that parts of the house will have to remain vulnerable while the other parts get restructured (the hardest and most fearful option) or they go far inside the house and build a smaller but extremely durable house, riding their lives on the reinforced strength of the few of many strong points of their psyche.

By building a smaller house, their house becomes boring, cramped, and less welcoming out of fear that it will be destroyed like before. Then it becomes a life of staying in the smaller house until death or periodically facing fear and expanding the house to include the other strong points of the psyche, one at a time, but not as strong as the little house, sometimes never fully repairing and including all parts of the original house.

Fantastic analogy.
 

tinkerbell

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Joined
Aug 31, 2008
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3,487
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ENTP
in responce to the OP (not read through beyond the first page). I'd say yes trauma increases/creates extremes in aspects of your personality.

You are likely to be more defensive, less tollerant etc.... does that translate into MBTI I'm not too sure.

I went through a traumatic spell, which makes me more cautious and less light hearted than I was previously. I lost a bit of the lightness that ENTPs have, the goofyness, not all just some of it.

It may have happend with age anyways, who can say.
 

durentu

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Mar 18, 2008
Messages
411
MBTI Type
INTP
Enneagram
5w4
Trauma and personality is not related strongly. The real determining factor is someone's belief system, from which personality comes from. The person after trauma and one's personality are both caused by one's belief. This can be shown with cognitive therapies like REBT.

Your belief system will determine how you interpret the trauma, not so much how you react to it. It also depends on how flexible that belief system is.

Also, MBTI is way too narrow and fuzzy to be the sole predictor of behaviors.
 

milkyway2

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Dec 7, 2009
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?
You talk just like my friend that's an INTJ btw.


And to respond to the question... yes. When I am faced with a difficult situation where I would have to figure something out to do or make a hard decision my personality is exaggerated. I can't make any decisions and just want to give up. I hate making decisions. (P) My mind just goes in circles and I don't know what to do.. because for every decision I make there could be so many more with so many more consequences and so on and so on. (N) I also tend to start feeling like I'm alone in the world. (I) and over think everything (T)
 

ObeyBunny

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Mar 8, 2010
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573
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INTJ
You know if nobody came, which they would eventually anyway, you could have grabbed the hardest object in the room and smashed the windows. But I guess you were only 8.

There were no paper weights in the room that I could access, all the cabinets were placed under lock and key, the chairs were bolted to the desks, and the window was made of plastic (hard to break) anyway.
 
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