Like Borderlines, Introverts are a surprisingly large and misunderstood segment of our society.<\/span><\/p>\n Reading this article, happily titled \u201cCaring for your Introvert<\/a>\u201d I couldn\u2019t help cringing at times and laughing at others. That\u2019s not to mention the pure revelatory<\/span> nature of it. Not only could I see <\/span>myself<\/span> in nearly all that it said, but I could also see my father,<\/span> and how his introversion meshed so well (and sometimes not so well) with my mother\u2019s extroversion, and how his introversion rubbed off on me and my siblings.. I also saw into my own relationships again, some with introverts, some with extroverts, and laughed as I remembered instances of both levity and tension in this new light.<\/p>\n This lovely article begins: D<\/span>o you know someone who needs hours alone every day? Who loves quiet conversations about feelings or ideas, and can give a dynamite presentation to a big audience, but seems awkward in groups and maladroit at small talk? Who has to be dragged to parties and then needs the rest of the day to recuperate? Who growls or scowls or grunts or winces when accosted with pleasantries by people who are just trying to be nice?<\/p>\n If so, do you tell this person he is \u201ctoo serious,\u201d or ask if he is okay? Regard him as aloof, arrogant, rude? Redouble your efforts to draw him out?<\/p><\/blockquote>\n Me. Me. Me. Me. Me. Me. Okay, I will criticize him on perhaps over <\/span>stating things. As I blogged before, you\u2019re not going to find anyone who is 100% one way or the other. Sometimes I don\u2019t need much time alone, if any. Sometimes I don\u2019t care much for \u2018quiet conversations\u2019 and so on. But, by and large, I do identify with these statements.<\/p>\n <\/b><\/p><\/blockquote>\n What is introversion?<\/b> In its modern sense, the concept goes back to the 1920s and the psychologist Carl Jung. Today it is a mainstay of personality tests, including the widely used Myers-Briggs Type Indicator. Introverts are not necessarily shy. Shy people are anxious or frightened or self-excoriating in social settings; introverts generally are not. Introverts are also not misanthropic, though some of us do go along with Sartre as far as to say \u201cHell is other people at breakfast.\u201d Rather, introverts are people who find other people tiring.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n Having studied Sartre, I was a bit curious about the \u201cat breakfast\u201d part of this quote (\u201cHELL IS\u2014OTHER PEOPLE\u201d being a famous line uttered by Garcin near the end of Sartre\u2019s play, \u201cNo Exit\u201d). I think the \u201cat breakfast\u201d should have been outside the quotation marks (and meaning what, I don\u2019t know) \u2013 that or it is an apocryphal reference and the author is showing his ignorance of Sartre.<\/span><\/p>\n I do agree with the statement that \u201cintroverts are people who find other people tiring.\u201d I love the people-time I do have, but yes, it does wear on me. To be my best self, I do need a 2:1 alone-time to people-time ratio; better if 3 or 4:1.<\/p>\n At work, when I am alone things soar \u2013 projects fly by, calls are made, emails sent, order comes from the chaos\u2026 When my boss and my assistant are around, and chatty<\/span>, my productivity plummets. The interactions and disturbances serve their function though, for sure, so I can\u2019t complain. How many people are introverts?<\/b> I performed exhaustive research on this question, in the form of a quick Google search. The answer: About 25 percent. Or: Just under half. Or\u2014my favorite\u2014\u201da minority in the regular population but a majority in the gifted population.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n I found this a bit funny, but can\u2019t help but wonder about its truth. People who are around people all the time, fussing about \u2018people stuff\u2019, doing \u2018people things\u2019, can\u2019t possibly have the time or mental energy to truly be creative and draw upon their gifts. For me at least, to really \u2018enter\u2019 that mode of deepest thought and creativity, where my thesis or other work just flies, I <\/span>need<\/span> hours of silence, contemplation, rumination, perhaps exercise with headphones on playing pure static \u2013 just to silence out the busy world at the college gym<\/span>. Are introverts misunderstood?<\/b> Wildly. That, it appears, is our lot in life. \u201cIt is very difficult for an extrovert to understand an introvert,\u201d write the education experts Jill D. Burruss and Lisa Kaenzig\u2026. [Extroverts] cannot imagine why someone would need to be alone; indeed, they often take umbrage at the suggestion. As often as I have tried to explain the matter to extroverts, I have never sensed that any of them really understood. They listen for a moment and then go back to barking and yipping.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n Yea\u2026 I\u2019m just soooo misunderstood. C\u2019est la vie<\/span>. And yea, when I explain this to most extroverts they give me a fairly blank look and then change the subject to Woody Guthry, their latest Physics Exam, cucumbers, shopping, or whatever other random thought has leapt into their heads. I\u2019m usually left frustrated and wishing for a way out of the now suddenly random conversation.<\/p>\n I got a kick out of the following quotes:<\/p>\n
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