Supplemental Essay: Centroversion in the Dichotomy of Extraversion Versus Introversion

In the main essay I said that age, stress, and conflict tend to push us from conventional one-sidedness into extreme one-sidedness. Once there, years of relying on our dominant function and repressing our shadow function results in the reappearance of our shadow function in daemonic form. We then project our daemonic fears out into the community around us, which makes the world seem hostile and even evil. However, eventually the stress and conflict of extreme one-sidedness forces us to lean in on the daemonic and seek centroversion as a resolution of the problem.

 

Here is how that process occurs for the dichotomy of Extraversion versus Introversion. Describing Extraversion first:

 

When extraverts run into stress and conflict, the following three steps occur:

1. Extraversion runs to extremes: Within reasonable limits, conventional extraversion is normal and healthy; a focus on community and the needs of others builds empathy and strengthens bonds. But taken to unhealthy extreme one-sidedness, attentiveness to the needs of others can turn into endless involvement in other people's dramas and overextending oneself to take care of the needs of others, leading to burn-out and depression. 

2. Introversion is repressed and turns daemonic: Conventional introversion is represented by attention to one's own needs and desires welling up from inside. But when extraversion turns into extreme one-sidedness, introversion is repressed and turns daemonic, and extraverts start fearing their own needs and desires. Addressing their personal needs threatens to distract them from their perceived duty to serve others, so extraverts begin to see their personal needs as shameful or selfish and they worry that the community will judge them poorly if they take time to withdraw a bit and address their own needs. So they try to deny their needs, which pushes them even further into the realm of extreme one-sidedness.

3. Centroversion represents a remedy for extreme one-sidedness: Getting "unstuck" from extreme one-sidedness means that extraverts must lean in on introversion and recognize that they too have personal needs and desires of their own. They need to take time to address their needs even if it means turning away from the community for a while; this means saying "no" to excessive demands of the community that threaten to drain them down to the point of burnout.

 

Here is the same process for introverts. When introverts run into stress and conflict, the following three steps occur:

1. Introversion runs to extremes: Within reasonable limits, conventional introversion is normal and healthy; a focus on introspection brings peace and self-knowledge. But taken to unhealthy extreme one-sidedness, withdrawal from the world can turn into isolation and alienation from society by hiding away and walling oneself off from the community, leading to empty navel-gazing and loss of meaning and purpose in life.

2. Extraversion is repressed and turns daemonic: Conventional extraversion is represented by the enjoyment of social interactions. But when introversion turns into extreme one-sidedness, extraversion is repressed and turns daemonic, and introverts start fearing any sort of engagement with the community around them. Addressing the needs of other people is seen as a distraction and an obstacle to their own pursuits. Extremely one-sided introverts start regarding even the simplest social interactions as intimidating, ominous, or full of potential to result in personal embarrassment or harm. Solitude is the Extremely one-sided introvert's comfort zone, but if they spend too long there even the simplest social interactions come to represent a dislocation and hardship. Comfort zones tend to shrink with time; the lives of extremely one-sided introverts become increasingly restricted by the fear of contact with other humans, which pushes them even further into the realm of extreme disengagement.

3. Centroversion represents a remedy for extreme one-sidedness: Getting "unstuck" from extreme one-sidedness means that introverts must lean in on extraversion and embrace the fact that "no man is an island." Even the most extreme introvert should desire to be at least competent enough to leave the house, run a few errands in society, and maybe exchange social pleasantries and small talk without looking like a startled rabbit. But that requires extremely one-sided introverts to lean in on their fears, move out of their comfort zone, and tackle some social situations. 

 

Finding Centroversion in between Collectivism versus Individualism

In The Development of Personality, Carl Jung talked about Collectivism versus Individualism as a "proxy" for extraversion versus introversion in adult human society. He said that neither Collectivism nor Individualism is, by itself, a preferable state of affairs. By themselves, they have a tendency to become one-sided and thus unhealthy. Instead, the "middle way" (centroversion) between the two extremes represents the healthiest option.

 

Describing Collectivism first:

 

Collectivism (extraversion) runs to extreme one-sidedness: Extraverts tend toward collectivism and interaction with the community. But when taken to the extreme, collectivism and convention are obstacles to self-actualization: The extremely one-sided extravert tends to fall into lockstep with the crowd and lose his individuality. Jung described social convention and collectivism as follows: "It is a stopgap and not an ideal, either in the moral or in the religious sense, for submission to it always means renouncing one’s wholeness and running away from the final consequences of one’s own being. [...] How could anyone but a god counterbalance the dead weight of humanity in the mass, with its everlasting convention and habit?"[1]

 

Jung said that if an individual wants to self-actualize and reach their full potential, it entails "the conscious and unavoidable segregation of the single individual from the undifferentiated and unconscious herd. This means isolation, and there is no more comforting word for it."[2] In other words, extremely one-sided extraverts need to explore individualism a bit in order to become more balanced.

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Describing Individualism:

Individualism (introversion) runs to extreme one-sidedness: On the other hand, Jung also said that self-actualization doesn't mean becoming a loner and an "individualist." Introverts tend toward individualism. But taken to the extreme, individualism is an obstacle to self-actualization as well: The extremely one-sided introvert tends to embrace the narcissism of navel-gazing and lose himself in the pursuit of irrelevancies. In Jung's opinion, excessive individualism and rebellion against the collective are just as bad as excessive collectivism. He said, "But individualism is not and never has been a natural development; it is nothing but an unnatural usurpation, a freakish, impertinent pose that proves its hollowness by crumpling up before the least obstacle. What we have in mind is something very different."[3]

 

Describing Centroversion as the solution:

Centroversion: Instead, Jung said that individuals must self-actualize but also remain a part of society: "In the first place he is part of the people as a whole, and is as much at the mercy of the power that moves the whole as anybody else. The only thing that distinguishes him from all the others is his vocation."[4]

 

To sum it up: Both society and the self-actualized individual are best served when the self-actualized individual separates himself enough from society enough to think for himself but also remains connected enough to society to enjoy the support and benefits that society provides and benefit society in turn with his new ideas and input. So ultimately the self-actualized person has to find a balance between collectivism and individualism, that is, between the two extremes of becoming such a social butterfly that he loses himself in society versus becoming a total loner.

 

Extremes of either collectivism or individualism are harmful, both to the individual and to society at large. If they represent proxies for extraversion versus introversion, then they demonstrate why neither extraversion nor introversion is the answer by itself. The answer is in the middle (centroversion), that is, in finding a "middle way" between the two.

 

From this, we generate the five-position spectrum for extraversion versus introversion incorporating centroversion:

 

Extreme one-sided extraversion <--> Conventional one-sided extraversion <-- Centroversion --> Conventional one-sided introversion <--> Extreme one-sided introversion

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Link: Return to Intuition (N)

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~Posted January 12, 2024