[Jungian Cognitive Functions] Se Types - What Are You Running From?

[Mal12345]

Fe types are hiding. But Se types are running, constantly in motion, filling their guts (foodies), or they're drunk; or maybe they are just workaholics who work from sunup to sundown. Get up, feed the kids, go to work, work eight hours, go to the store, put gas in the car, go home, put away the groceries, go for a jog, cook dinner, do the dishes, and then finally relax with a mighty crash on the couch. What is it all for? The obvious reason is to obtain the immediate goal of making money (job) to pay for the groceries and the rent or mortgage and gas for the car so the activity can start all over again tomorrow. But what would happen, psychologically, if it all came to a sudden stop? Those things the Se type is running from: first, worry; second, depression; third, non-existence. The Se type is pursuing life (or at least their idea of it) in order to avoid confronting death.

 

[Forever]

#mylife

 

[Yara the Corpse]

no, it is you who is running from life by not running at all.

I think.

 

[Yama]

lol

 

[Pionart]

From kilojoules, or adrenaline, or something like that.

 

[Santosha]

Why the assumption that it is a running from, and not to?

So, I'll just throw out a few random thoughts I had reading this. I wanna say that not all Se users (even Se dom) are in a constant state of movement, the way you've described here. But, I get what you mean. Most of the Se doms I knew (which I knew more of in my teens and 20's - which is generally a time of external exploration for most people) did happen to be constantly engaging with the world. But I think the approach your taking in this (attempting to isolate a function and then use its more common manifestations as a way to describe or understand a person entirely) is really problematic. You do not have Fe without Ti, you do not have people 'hiding' (I'm not agreeing with that, but I'll go with it for now) without also having a person who, in another regard is very commited to logical consistency and Truth. You do not have an Se user who is interacting with and perceiving in-the-moment, concrete data, without having a person whom, on another level, is perceiving abstract patterns. It is all about awareness. I once heard a person say that you can not walk through 2 doors at once. I believe, most people just aren't 'aware' they are walking through two doors (and many more for that matter) at once. Always back to awareness, conscious focus, how we define 'reality'.

I believe the way your framing this is incorrect, confusing a preference with a motivation or believing the motive existed before the preference. Se users Se for the same reason you Ti. It is stronger/more consciously aware (thus more integrated into the persona and ego-structure).

Almost everybody avoids confronting death, and they do so in many ways. While some keep themselves busy, others might use detachment/rationalization or try to think of it from an idea-only perspective.

 

[EJCC]

Would love to see one of these threads about your own type, [MENTION=13589]Mal12345[/MENTION].

 

[Evo]

Why the assumption that it is a running from, and not to?

This.

 

[Smilephantomhive]

This.

Well technically if you're running to something then you also have to be running away from something else.

[MENTION=13589]Mal12345[/MENTION] Both this and the Fe thread you made sound more enneagram then mbti related. It's similar to what [MENTION=12991]Santosha[/MENTION], people don't choose to prefer Se (or any other function), and it's not about any hidden struggle like these threads are suggesting. In this case Se is just function the subject "used" more during their lifetime.

 

[Mal12345]

Well technically if you're running to something then you also have to be running away from something else.

[MENTION=13589]Mal12345[/MENTION] Both this and the Fe thread you made sound more enneagram then mbti related. It's similar to what [MENTION=12991]Santosha[/MENTION], people don't choose to prefer Se (or any other function), and it's not about any hidden struggle like these threads are suggesting. In this case Se is just function the subject "used" more during their lifetime.

Right, because there's no literature on this sort of thing in the MBTI that I know of. So maybe I'll write some.

 

[Mal12345]

Why the assumption that it is a running from, and not to?

So, I'll just throw out a few random thoughts I had reading this. I wanna say that not all Se users (even Se dom) are in a constant state of movement,

My OP didn't say they were in a constant state of motion. In my example there was a resting period. Also, I should have said that I'm only referring to ESTP and ESFP types. But when these types aren't in motion (and not resting) they will be anxious to get back in motion again.

the way you've described here. But, I get what you mean. Most of the Se doms I knew (which I knew more of in my teens and 20's - which is generally a time of external exploration for most people) did happen to be constantly engaging with the world. But I think the approach your taking in this (attempting to isolate a function and then use its more common manifestations as a way to describe or understand a person entirely) is really problematic. You do not have Fe without Ti, you do not have people 'hiding' (I'm not agreeing with that, but I'll go with it for now) without also having a person who, in another regard is very committed to logical consistency and Truth. You do not have an Se user who is interacting with and perceiving in-the-moment, concrete data, without having a person whom, on another level, is perceiving abstract patterns. It is all about awareness. I once heard a person say that you can not walk through 2 doors at once. I believe, most people just aren't 'aware' they are walking through two doors (and many more for that matter) at once. Always back to awareness, conscious focus, how we define 'reality'.

I believe the way your framing this is incorrect, confusing a preference with a motivation or believing the motive existed before the preference. Se users Se for the same reason you Ti. It is stronger/more consciously aware (thus more integrated into the persona and ego-structure).

Almost everybody avoids confronting death, and they do so in many ways. While some keep themselves busy, others might use detachment/rationalization or try to think of it from an idea-only perspective.

You do not have Fe without Ti. Agreed.

you do not have people 'hiding'. It depends on what I mean by that word. What we call a personality is more like a facade for the Fe user. This psychological facade could be hiding something ugly behind it, or it could be hiding something that the Fe types perceive as ugly to them personally. If this ugliness is revealed, the Fe user will fear being judged and/or rejected by society because it is not considered something "normal." I don't think of it as related to the inferior function, however, because that is just anxiety regarding analytically dry, logical systems such as mathematics. If you've never heard of math anxiety, you may want to research it. But I imagine you've already heard of it.

You do not have an Se user who is interacting with and perceiving in-the-moment, concrete data, without having a person whom, on another level, is perceiving abstract patterns. Not that I've heard of anyway. And when I say that, I'm referring to experience, not theory.

[Reading on...]

Se users Se for the same reason you Ti. It is stronger/more consciously aware (thus more integrated into the persona and ego-structure). Awareness isn't at the core of JCF at all. The distinction made isn't awareness but the development of the functions. You don't have to be psychologically aware at all except in the round-about way that people generally have knowledge about their strengths and weaknesses. They know what kinds of things they are good at. They are aware of their skill sets. They are aware of the things they are bad at. Awareness becomes involved when we see the things we are bad at as things to be developed, that are hurting us because they aren't developed. And almost nobody sees them as functions, just as almost nobody has heard of Carl Jung outside of these forums and outside of academia.

Awareness also becomes involved when we see our dominant function as over-used, or used in impractical, improper ways. When the dominant function is seen as both a liability as well as an asset then there is also some hope for personal growth.

So yes to awareness, but not in the sense you intended.

Almost everybody avoids confronting death "Achieving life is not the equivalent of avoiding death." - Ayn Rand

 

[Mal12345]

Would love to see one of these threads about your own type, [MENTION=13589]Mal12345[/MENTION].

Te is a shadow function for me.

 

[Evo]

Well technically if you're running to something then you also have to be running away from something else.

[MENTION=13589]Mal12345[/MENTION] Both this and the Fe thread you made sound more enneagram then mbti related. It's similar to what [MENTION=12991]Santosha[/MENTION], people don't choose to prefer Se (or any other function), and it's not about any hidden struggle like these threads are suggesting. In this case Se is just function the subject "used" more during their lifetime.

Sure, that is technically true, but I was under the impression that we were talking about the focus of the "running."

And with that in mind, since there are 2 approaches
Both
1)running to something
2)running from something

Then how I perceive the experience of Se is that it's running to something on a conscious level. The "running from" is unconscious and suppressed.

So it comes off that mal's premise puts emphasis on what the Se user is not even consciously aware of. When the Se user actually puts more emphasis on consciously going towards something.

Also aren't preferences called preferences for a reason?

 

[Mal12345]

Well technically if you're running to something then you also have to be running away from something else.

[MENTION=13589]Mal12345[/MENTION] Both this and the Fe thread you made sound more enneagram then mbti related. It's similar to what [MENTION=12991]Santosha[/MENTION], people don't choose to prefer Se (or any other function), and it's not about any hidden struggle like these threads are suggesting. In this case Se is just function the subject "used" more during their lifetime.

I should mention the Enneagram thing. I believe in the Enneagram, but as far as this goes, I don't know of any E-type that I've seen as described as "running" or "hiding."

 

[Smilephantomhive]

I should mention the Enneagram thing. I believe in the Enneagram, but as far as this goes, I don't know of any E-type that I've seen as described as "running" or "hiding."

7 maybe?

 

[Mal12345]

7 maybe?

Escapism...

 

[Smilephantomhive]

Escapism...

Your OP also sounds like escapism. Besides running away from something is a type of escapism especially in the metaphorical sense.

 

[Mal12345]

Your OP also sounds like escapism. Besides running away from something is a type of escapism especially in the metaphorical sense.

I read up a bit on the type 7 in Personality Types and the closest thing to "running" I found was the 7's escapism.

 

[Smilephantomhive]

I read up a bit on the type 7 in Personality Types and the closest thing to "running" I found was the 7's escapism.

And I just said that "running" is a type of escapism in my previous comment...

 

[Mal12345]

And I just said that "running" is a type of escapism in my previous comment...

I wasn't sure what you meant by that post.

Escapism is a kind of running. But my term is broader than type 7 escapism because that refers only to an insatiable greed for more and more stuff. I'm talking about running via activities, and that could be anything from chronic workaholism to flying off to Paris for a luncheon with the girls.

I think such a person, when self-aware, would call it running from the self. There's something about the self that needs to be repressed through constant activity - a fear of standing still so the world can't catch up with them. But it's the internal world that compels the activity. Typically, I'd say depression.