Type Four and Affectation

Oops, it's two type 4 posts in a row. In my defense, I tried writing a post about type 5 but BlogPress crashed as I tried to post it. I'll try to rewrite it soon.

So, I was thinking about type 4 and Kierkegaard's idea of affectation. Well, not Kierkegaard exclusively: he was likely influenced by a lot of the intellectuals in Europe at the time. Affectation referred to someone that was a bit of a "dandy," considered to be pretentious, a bit of a self-styled wannabe. In intellectual circles, the worst thing one could be accused of was affectation.

Fours are especially susceptible to both the accusation of affectation and the fear of being perceived that way. The worst thing is to be seen as "affected" in some way, because above all else, they want to be original, but this push towards originality is primarily image (and self-image) oriented, which puts them at a higher risk for affectation than other types.

Where Fours can be helped is by recognizing what Kierkegaard points out--no one is free from affectation. Kierkegaard may be known for his orientation towards selfhood, but remember, for him that was found through a relationship with God. Most people, therefore, lacked a truly realized self. Kierkegaard himself was guilty of affectation and realized that: he would often stroll down to the theater during intermission just so people would see him there and think he'd been in attendance, even though he had not. Kierkegaard recognized that this affectation was something no one could be free from. Certainly, we should strive to not be affected, but we should also recognize that we are all affected to an extent.

This realization can help Fours get out of the trap of "I'm authentic, original and unique but they're phony and affected" which paradoxically leads to the not infrequent perception of Fours as being the pretentious, affected ones. By recognizing that everyone is affected to some degree or another, the me/them boundary can be transcended.

A good exercise for type Four might be to go through the week writing down every time they notice phoniness in others. This will help to recognize just how compulsively such judgments are made. After doing that, the Four could spend the next week observing and writing down every time they notice taking extra trouble to convey their own desired image.

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Location:Fours and Affectation