Self-Dramatizers and Self-Extinguishers...

This is sort of my twist on Jung's old introvert/extravert whammy. To refresh: Introverts withdraw energy from the world and tend to be quieter and more interested in their own internal world. Think Marcel Proust. Extraverts direct their energy outward toward other people and action in the external world. Think Bill Clinton.

So... Self-dramatizers are people who (often elaborately) play out their internal fantasies and neuroses in reality. They are big, mesmerizing and potentially dangerous personalities, slightly oblivious, prone to lies, mythmaking, are generally unemployable and rely on trust funds or benefactors to keep their bubble intact. Think Zero Mostel/Max Bialystock. Self-Extinguishers are highly sensitive people who are hyperaware of themselves and the world around them. They are careful, non-impulsive, and self-censoring often to the point of a kind of invisibility. They too have internal fantasies and neuroses that well up and must be extinguished or diffused before they begin to show in the external world. They are generally unemployable and rely on trust funds or benefactors to keep their bubble intact. Think young Sissy Spacek.










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