What is important to me is to understand. For me, writing is a matter of seeking this understanding, part of the process of understanding… Certain things get formulated. If I had a good enough memory to really retain everything that I think, I doubt very much that I would have written anything – I know my own laziness. What is important to me is the thought process itself. As long as I have succeeded in thinking something through, I am personally quite satisfied. If I then succeed in expressing my thought process adequately in writing, that satisfies me also…You ask about the effects of my work on others. If I may wax ironical, that is a masculine question. Men always want to be terribly influential, but I see that as somewhat external. Do I imagine myself being influential? No. I want to understand. And if others understand – in the same sense that I have understood – that gives me a sense of satisfaction, like feeling at home.Hannah Arendt, “What Remains? Language remains”, in Essays in Understanding, Harcourt Brace & Company, New York, 1993, p.3This is an archetypal enneagram Five statement! They do not write, paint or found a new branch in psychology (like C.G. Jung, a notoriously Five personality too) to share knowledge or vision out of philanthropy (in the literal sense, that of “love of humanity”) , like Twos do; nor do they express their thoughts and visions to be original, special and appreciated, like Fours. Fives are interested in processes, articulations, relationships between things as such, they like connecting facts and weaving them into dynamic systems; they only use different means of expression insofar as they are of an added value to this process.This explains why Fives do not aim to convince and do not mind disagreement – as long as they are satisfied with their thought process, fuelled by insatiable curiosity and often impressive erudition, as long as the picture they are busy at completing is complete in their mind, opinions of other people matter very little. This is not because Fives are such snobs (which occasionally they are, to be sure), nor because they find other peoples’ opinions insignificant – they are just too absorbed and exhausted by their thinking to worry about those opinions.
Hmm, not sure, I think Jung makes quite a play of arguing down his opponents; it seems quite important to him that his "reasonable" point of view is taken into account over and above the less reasonable (Freud). Though he says it gently enough, between the lines you can hear him almost screaming - "that man's a bloody idiot, he's totally wrong-footed psychiatry and lots of people are going to suffer as a consequence!"
ReplyDeleteAlso I'm not sure that one can be so sure of 4's (or 2's) intentions when making art. For many 4's they create because the HAVE to create, not to prove they are special etc. And I would say with my work, that my intentions are rather like Arendt's - I have an idea to communicate, if that brings something to someone else all well and good, if it doesn't, then simply we're not vibrating at the same frequency; c'est pas grave. For me too, I paint because I have to paint, it's what I do - Laure is the same - she sculpts because she has to sculpt, its what she does with it afterwards - impressive publicity, networking, salons etc, which shows up her type - the achieving 3. Possibly its in my subject matter you can feel my type - people, the human condition, the extraordinary in the ordinary, glimpses of the holy in the banal - but even then, is this 2 stuff? or 4 stuff? Not sure. What does our lovely cousin think?
I can never resist an opening to contribute as, being a 2, I am desperate for others to see my comments, agree with them and love me for it :)
ReplyDeleteI recently watched a video of Jung near the end of his life in conversation with a BBC man. At times he appeared detached and 5-like, at times passionately protective of himself (e.g. he said he would have gladly killed the professor at university who accused him of cheating in his paper).
Not being a 5 myself, I read with interest the idea that 5s are so wrapped up in expressing their thoughts, that they have no interest in what others think, and I am somewhat convinced that this is probably the case by the dispassionate, non-protective reactions of 5s who are challenged, reactions that are so different from my own ( I find it very hard to detach my own sense of self-worth from what I write and say).
As for creating art, I am sure you know your own intentions, lovely cousin! My perception is that you are indeed driven in your own characteristic way, but I wonder if you can be both driven by a compulsion and also enjoy the fruits of being thought special. I would certainly love to have an instinctual drive to create(mine is very sporadic) like you. In my best moments I can create without a need to be appreciated, but my shadow loves to be beamed at by the sun and told how special I am. Is this 4, or 2, or just someone who is happy to celebrate his weakness!?
Yeah but as a 2 you want to make people happy, not be told you're special, so you'd be doing stuff to make people happy. Guess I'm just about to submit my work to be hung in a hospital for a year as I know how lowering it is to hang around in hospital corridors with nothing to do but read shitty magazines, and the work I've put up in churches doesn't bear my signature and that makes me happy - the stuff is fulfilling a function, lifting people spiritually. So well, what I do with my art is very 2-ish, I can justify my existence by being "useful". Laure, a 3, wants to sell, make a living and be famous. A 4 would want to throw it out into the world and have people gasp in wonder. But all this says nothing about WHY we create, that is much deeper, visceral, God-stuff impregnating our DNA. It's a compulsion, and if we can't do it because we have family and work pressure, a part of us becomes very miserable (I have been there). It's like prayer - in the end we do it for ourselves, prayer is God's gift to us - we do it, we feel good, we don't and we wither. Creation is the same, I don't think the world needs my stuff - look there are 300 artists in my little area of Paris alone, the world has enough artists! - but if I don't do it I wither. So come on chaps, 4's 2's 5's 3's whatever; artists of the world, pick up your brushes, pens and chisels, let's celebrate our humanity and honour our inner-divinity and CREATE! (oooh how glad I am to be online again this is fun!)
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