Narrative Theory (thatswhatshesaid's theory)

[ThatsWhatHeSaid]

Calling all personality theorists...

I don't think MBTI is a particularly interesting way of capturing personality. At all. Part of this might come down to how you define personality, but I don't think of it as 4 dimensions. It's a lot more, and because of that the theory is really unsatisfying. (Sure, maybe it was just intended for vocational placement; in that case I'm talking to those who invest much more into it.)

As someone with training as a therapist, a Zen practitioner, and someone involved in social science research, I've thought a lot about other theories. IT's easy to create some kind of typology that is more relevant than MBTI. You could easily merge it with the Big 5 (but I really think that's boring too).

Have you tried making your own personality theory? How does it work? How does it group things? What does it cover?

I've tried making my own, and it's just loosely based on my experiences in meditation/on retreat, in therapy, and just what I see. I will admit I haven't mapped it all out yet, but here are some of the ideas.


* * *NARRATIVE THEORY PART 1: INTRO***

I call it Narrative Theory, or NT. Not to be confused with Narrative Studies or Narrative Therapy, which is related but not the same. NT is a theoretical cocktail that borrows from Beck's cognitive therapy, animal behavior, Zen and mindfulness. In NT we try to drill down thinking to keep asking "what is it, though? what really exists?" until we get to something that stops making sense to divide. In NT, that unit of analysis is the narrative. Narratives are the pattern in which our thinking evolves over the time and the story we create around events and objects,with some focus on how we create stories about our "selves." In NT we don't just identify and categorize narratives, we make a practice of seeing how our narratives shift on the whole, in unison, the causes of those shifts, their associated behaviors and body-feelings and how to interact with them using mindfulness and insight. Some of these insights come from NT. NT provides the framework and vocabulary, but you have to learn how to speak and flow.

In NT the individual (possibly with the help of a trained therapist, at which time, there are none) can identify and understand how the mind shifts and moves, how narratives form, the rules for their formation (including group dynamics), how narratives construct your basic worldview and govern your available reactions (and maybe maybe outcomes), the confusion between the "emptiness" (Zen term) of reality and narrative-driven perception (I call it "Saran Wrap"), and how to step out of the narrative stream through achieving rest a state of goal-less "dwelling". NT is abut how you construct your reality and what life is about. And personality is the entry point, but not the destination. It a good theory for people who are interested in the mind and the deeper aspects of personality, not just whether you'd be a good Creative Director. for a brand.

Let me know if you're interested. I need to make sure to get the replies to this thread. I always forget to post here for 2 years. LOL. If there are still any old people posting here from back in the day 1) hi 2) why are you still here 3) great to see you. Edit: Wow, the site looks slow.

Also, here's a glimpse of upcoming topics/chapters:
1. Narrative Anatomy (in NT specifically): storypoints, contextual/value-defining points, unfolding over time linguistically
2. Narrative formation and energy states: narrative flavors, how one thing can take a very different meaning
3. Narrative targets and classification systems (plural)
4. Labels, Values, and Identities: over-the-surface vs. under-the-surface narratives, the sub-Narrative place, the ever-changing scoring system
5. The Self, rank, power and the "locus of normal", spooky action at a distance
6. Modes: when body-feeling, N(state) and behavior sets align; profiling modes with the help of crowdsourcing
7. Daily Mode Sets, Monthly, Lifespan changes: building profiles of yourself maturity
8. Saran Wrap and Reality: Why it all matters; what is reality
9. Making the Shift to Rest: Surrender and deep surrender.
10. Truth

 

[Luminous]

This sounds very interesting and I look forward to you posting more of it!

 

[ThatsWhatHeSaid]

Cool, I will.

 

[CertainlySkeptic]

Calling all personality theorists...

I don't think MBTI is a particularly interesting way of capturing personality. At all. Part of this might come down to how you define personality, but I don't think of it as 4 dimensions. It's a lot more, and because of that the theory is really unsatisfying. (Sure, maybe it was just intended for vocational placement; in that case I'm talking to those who invest much more into it.)

As someone with training as a therapist, a Zen practitioner, and someone involved in social science research, I've thought a lot about other theories. IT's easy to create some kind of typology that is more relevant than MBTI. You could easily merge it with the Big 5 (but I really think that's boring too).

Have you tried making your own personality theory? How does it work? How does it group things? What does it cover?

I've tried making my own, and it's just loosely based on my experiences in meditation/on retreat, in therapy, and just what I see. I will admit I haven't mapped it all out yet, but here are some of the ideas.


* * *NARRATIVE THEORY PART 1: INTRO***

I call it Narrative Theory, or NT. Not to be confused with Narrative Studies or Narrative Therapy, which is related but not the same. NT is a theoretical cocktail that borrows from Beck's cognitive therapy, animal behavior, Zen and mindfulness. In NT we try to drill down thinking to keep asking "what is it, though? what really exists?" until we get to something that stops making sense to divide. In NT, that unit of analysis is the narrative. Narratives are the pattern in which our thinking evolves over the time and the story we create around events and objects,with some focus on how we create stories about our "selves." In NT we don't just identify and categorize narratives, we make a practice of seeing how our narratives shift on the whole, in unison, the causes of those shifts, their associated behaviors and body-feelings and how to interact with them using mindfulness and insight. Some of these insights come from NT. NT provides the framework and vocabulary, but you have to learn how to speak and flow.

In NT the individual (possibly with the help of a trained therapist, at which time, there are none) can identify and understand how the mind shifts and moves, how narratives form, the rules for their formation (including group dynamics), how narratives construct your basic worldview and govern your available reactions (and maybe maybe outcomes), the confusion between the "emptiness" (Zen term) of reality and narrative-driven perception (I call it "Saran Wrap"), and how to step out of the narrative stream through achieving rest a state of goal-less "dwelling". NT is abut how you construct your reality and what life is about. And personality is the entry point, but not the destination. It a good theory for people who are interested in the mind and the deeper aspects of personality, not just whether you'd be a good Creative Director. for a brand.

Let me know if you're interested. I need to make sure to get the replies to this thread. I always forget to post here for 2 years. LOL. If there are still any old people posting here from back in the day 1) hi 2) why are you still here 3) great to see you. Edit: Wow, the site looks slow.

Also, here's a glimpse of upcoming topics/chapters:
1. Narrative Anatomy (in NT specifically): storypoints, contextual/value-defining points, unfolding over time linguistically
2. Narrative formation and energy states: narrative flavors, how one thing can take a very different meaning
3. Narrative targets and classification systems (plural)
4. Labels, Values, and Identities: over-the-surface vs. under-the-surface narratives, the sub-Narrative place, the ever-changing scoring system
5. The Self, rank, power and the "locus of normal", spooky action at a distance
6. Modes: when body-feeling, N(state) and behavior sets align; profiling modes with the help of crowdsourcing
7. Daily Mode Sets, Monthly, Lifespan changes: building profiles of yourself maturity
8. Saran Wrap and Reality: Why it all matters; what is reality
9. Making the Shift to Rest: Surrender and deep surrender.
10. Truth

Intriguing, and just to keep in mind that anyone can make any systems... in a way.
As for your criticism towards MBTI, I have been developing a new one to replace it... maybe.

 

[ThatsWhatHeSaid]

Intriguing, and just to keep in mind that anyone can make any systems... in a way.
As for your criticism towards MBTI, I have been developing a new one to replace it... maybe.

Anyone can make any system. Some are easier to make and harder to verify, in which case their value isn't always clear, or worse, very suspect. Let's hear yours. Headline and bullet points version?

 

[ThatsWhatHeSaid]

NARRATIVE THEORY PART II: GROUPINGS AND SEQUENCES
How We Divide the World

There's a schism between mystics and scientists about the nature of reality, so some extent. And you don't want to be at odds with mystics if you can avid it. I don't mean mystics like religious dogmatic figures. I mean the people who explore and cultivate peace and mental clarity.

The mystics talk about nonduality: that the nature of the universe is that it's one, and the separation we experience between things is just delusional (or illusional). The point is captured all over Eastern philosophy, Zen, and they form the basis of core prayers in Judaism.

And yet when it comes to making sense of the world, our impulse is to name it, divide it, classify it, make it familiar, study its evolution, its nature. And that's really the mission statement of science...to understand what This is and how This works. And by This, I mean, the reality we find ourselves in. If you'll pardon the crudeness of that phrase.

We need words to not just describe the world, but to think about it and manipulate it in our mind. What's just as important as learning a name for something is being able to consider what it is that name represents. And if you can do that, you can add it to your mental toolset. You can think about it now.

Narrative Theory (NT) is a system of classification of experience, and how those experiences, particularly human experiences of narratives and around narratives, evolve, change, and how we can group and make sense of them in meaningful ways, including, when appropriate, to abandon them or challenge them for our own health and well being.

PATTERNS

I like to think about how to think about NT. And I'll share that. This universe is an organism. In the end, there is just this present moment "thing." You can't give it a name because naming it is silly. It resents names. You, me, everything we love and hate, and everything in the rest of this universe is in this thing. This thing evolves and fades just at it creates itself, with or without our help. And this giant thing moves in patterns. What does that mean? It means there's an order that we capture in our mathematics (or at document, rather than capture). Things move in logical ways. Maybe they're predetermined. Maybe not. But when you consider the trajectory of every particle, it would make some kind of pattern, rather than just nonsense. There's probably some room to question this at a super theoretical quantum level, but even then, we're governed by probabilities, not chaos.

Narrative Theory takes a slice of that "Thing" and studies it. (The slice is Narratives, if it's not clear, but it's everything that they touch, too.) The divisions between those slices is 100% artificial. Because like the mystics said, it really is one whole thing. The boundaries between you and me and not really that obvious when you zoom out and look at the Earth, or the galaxy, or the universe. And they are equally unclear when you zoom into your own experience (not with a microscope but with your mind in deep meditation) and sees the literal, actual interconnection between one's conscious experience and the causes of it.

But the divisions are still useful. In NT we can classify things as "Slices". We're mentally slicing something away from its environment for study. In NT we think about the world as Events. Events are momentary states or outcomes. It's things that exist in the now only. Now. Now. Now. So it's also evaporating just as quickly as it arises. Sequences are Events unfolding over time. For example, the word "dynasty" is used to represent something that requires time. We can also make Slices by shifting our scope and grouping more and more things together. So, for example, a particle is an ultimately small thing, that may itself be a group. The molecule, the chemical, the material, the building, the city, the country, the species, the planet, the This.

In NT we'll be using words to describe things and think about things in ways we haven't really been used to. We'l start to blur the boundaries between thinking, feeling, and action. We'll occasionally refer to these ideas when explaining ideas. In addition, there are some interesting implications that come from NT that I'll definitely want to indulge in and will flag when something is just speculation. Let's start talking about thoughts (Events) and thinking (Sequences) and thinking styles (properties of thinking). We'll go into over-the-surface thinking and under-the-surface priming, and how these ideas relate to your worldview. Stay tuned.

 

[CertainlySkeptic]

Anyone can make any system. Some are easier to make and harder to verify, in which case their value isn't always clear, or worse, very suspect. Let's hear yours. Headline and bullet points version?

Neo-Jungian After Life Works Compilation

docs.google.com

 

[Vendrah]

Calling all personality theorists...

I don't think MBTI is a particularly interesting way of capturing personality. At all. Part of this might come down to how you define personality, but I don't think of it as 4 dimensions. It's a lot more, and because of that the theory is really unsatisfying. (Sure, maybe it was just intended for vocational placement; in that case I'm talking to those who invest much more into it.)

As someone with training as a therapist, a Zen practitioner, and someone involved in social science research, I've thought a lot about other theories. IT's easy to create some kind of typology that is more relevant than MBTI. You could easily merge it with the Big 5 (but I really think that's boring too).

Have you tried making your own personality theory? How does it work? How does it group things? What does it cover?

I've tried making my own, and it's just loosely based on my experiences in meditation/on retreat, in therapy, and just what I see. I will admit I haven't mapped it all out yet, but here are some of the ideas.


* * *NARRATIVE THEORY PART 1: INTRO***

I call it Narrative Theory, or NT. Not to be confused with Narrative Studies or Narrative Therapy, which is related but not the same. NT is a theoretical cocktail that borrows from Beck's cognitive therapy, animal behavior, Zen and mindfulness. In NT we try to drill down thinking to keep asking "what is it, though? what really exists?" until we get to something that stops making sense to divide. In NT, that unit of analysis is the narrative. Narratives are the pattern in which our thinking evolves over the time and the story we create around events and objects,with some focus on how we create stories about our "selves." In NT we don't just identify and categorize narratives, we make a practice of seeing how our narratives shift on the whole, in unison, the causes of those shifts, their associated behaviors and body-feelings and how to interact with them using mindfulness and insight. Some of these insights come from NT. NT provides the framework and vocabulary, but you have to learn how to speak and flow.

In NT the individual (possibly with the help of a trained therapist, at which time, there are none) can identify and understand how the mind shifts and moves, how narratives form, the rules for their formation (including group dynamics), how narratives construct your basic worldview and govern your available reactions (and maybe maybe outcomes), the confusion between the "emptiness" (Zen term) of reality and narrative-driven perception (I call it "Saran Wrap"), and how to step out of the narrative stream through achieving rest a state of goal-less "dwelling". NT is abut how you construct your reality and what life is about. And personality is the entry point, but not the destination. It a good theory for people who are interested in the mind and the deeper aspects of personality, not just whether you'd be a good Creative Director. for a brand.

Let me know if you're interested. I need to make sure to get the replies to this thread. I always forget to post here for 2 years. LOL. If there are still any old people posting here from back in the day 1) hi 2) why are you still here 3) great to see you. Edit: Wow, the site looks slow.

Also, here's a glimpse of upcoming topics/chapters:
1. Narrative Anatomy (in NT specifically): storypoints, contextual/value-defining points, unfolding over time linguistically
2. Narrative formation and energy states: narrative flavors, how one thing can take a very different meaning
3. Narrative targets and classification systems (plural)
4. Labels, Values, and Identities: over-the-surface vs. under-the-surface narratives, the sub-Narrative place, the ever-changing scoring system
5. The Self, rank, power and the "locus of normal", spooky action at a distance
6. Modes: when body-feeling, N(state) and behavior sets align; profiling modes with the help of crowdsourcing
7. Daily Mode Sets, Monthly, Lifespan changes: building profiles of yourself maturity
8. Saran Wrap and Reality: Why it all matters; what is reality
9. Making the Shift to Rest: Surrender and deep surrender.
10. Truth

I actually find your definitions of what your personality is quite vague so far for the intro. Its like NT is basically everything and nothing at the same time. Sorry if this was harsh, but I think your intro didn't really gave us the grasp of your idea.