Understanding yourself and others beyond personality theory

I find taking personality tests to be very sought after for someone like me, as it has helped me immensely in my day to day life, but I'm curious what other things you all do to establish a better understanding of yourself and others. Are there daily exercises you immerse yourself in or organizations you're a part of to enhance your knowledge of your surroundings and how you interact with it? I'm interested in knowing, as improving my seemingly perfectionistic ways is important to me.

Thanks.

In my mind, there are two main things that it takes to understand people beyond type theory.

1. UNDERSTAND THAT WE'RE ANIMALS. This implies WAY more than we need to eat, fuck, etc. EVERY single mammal ever (including us) shares the same basic functions of the mid-brain (Amygdala, hippocampus, shit like that). These particular brain forms have changed very very little in comparison to the main thing that distinguishes us from other mammals: the cortex.

It's important to understand these things because these are the very same systems that have adapted to ALSO govern stressful responses within your daily lives--the very same system that was wired to help you react to a wild bore in the wild. I'd read up a bit on these more ancient of brain structures and become familiar with how they function, why they function, and how those functions effect daily choices and reactions (because they do every single day).

2. Get to know their LIVES. Within the context of a brain, this means their memories. Know their memories, but most importantly, relate them to your concept of their interpretation and outlook on reality, so you can take more away from the story in regards to what it meant for THEM to experience it.

That's all I got offhand :)

Originally Posted by Kevinaswell

In my mind, there are two main things that it takes to understand people beyond type theory.

1. UNDERSTAND THAT WE'RE ANIMALS. This implies WAY more than we need to eat, fuck, etc. EVERY single mammal ever (including us) shares the same basic functions of the mid-brain (Amygdala, hippocampus, shit like that). These particular brain forms have changed very very little in comparison to the main thing that distinguishes us from other mammals: the cortex.

It's important to understand these things because these are the very same systems that have adapted to ALSO govern stressful responses within your daily lives--the very same system that was wired to help you react to a wild bore in the wild. I'd read up a bit on these more ancient of brain structures and become familiar with how they function, why they function, and how those functions effect daily choices and reactions (because they do every single day).

2. Get to know their LIVES. Within the context of a brain, this means their memories. Know their memories, but most importantly, relate them to your concept of their interpretation and outlook on reality, so you can take more away from the story in regards to what it meant for THEM to experience it.

That's all I got offhand :)

Very good stuff there. Nice! :)

MBTI is great for understanding personality objectively....but ....let me give you an example


When I meet someone I usually type them...I'll say....oh they are using their introverted thinking...but they don't seem deep and they are having trouble in this math class....thats prolly due to a lack of N...the must be s.....yes they are definitely s because they are ....in fact the istp because they are vibin with my estj friend.

Alright ..but what happends is ...you spend too much time typing them...without even connecting. I will forget to use my main functions Fi and Ne......then i say....OH use Fi and Ne in this situation........but just by saying that....i automatically DON'T use Fi...more like Ne matched with Te or somthin.

I don't know where I was going with this....haha.

Basically just simply....being.....just let your mind guide you.....it's made to. We spend so much time fighting our natural way of doing things....when our mind was set up for us to live happy healthy lives. If I would stop analyzing myself so darn much....I just might be able to finally use my functions in the way they were supposed to be used.

Hope that helped. :)

Read. This might be obvious to a lot of people, but it isn't so much what you read as opposed to how you interpret things.
When it comes to non-fiction I enjoy reading diff. articles from diff. sources, and try to figure out where I stand with an issue, since almost all pieces or tainted with some sort of bias. At times it may seem like it defeats the purpose of knowing who I am, since I'm in the middle of just about every effin' issue there is but I've rationalized recently the reason why I am like this is b/c I want to understand everything and everyone; I am part of my environment and that environment reflects back on me.
Fiction's also good.

I always learnt more about a person trying to figure out their type for myself rather than having it told to me, even if I never came to a conclusion about their type. Typology as a means to understand people can have the opposite effect if people are lazy with it or aren't willing to actually learn from people because they assume they already know everything about how personality works.

I don't bother typing anybody though since I stopped believing in typology, but I still use the basic issues of the types as a topic of conversation to learn about people.

Tons of journaling. I just write down whatever I'm thinking or feeling. And every so often I'll either post it on here or talk to a friend about it. Many of my blog entries are just that--journal entries I decided I felt like posting.

For me it's more of a reverse approach: I generally approach people "naturally," without thinking too much about type theory, and then reflect on my experiences later to gain a better understanding.

It seems a lot of people who are into personality typing want to have a theoretical framework to make it easier to deal with situations involving people, but I personally find that approach causes me to think too much and not be able to concentrate on what I'm doing, so I prefer the reverse approach I mentioned above.

Originally Posted by MannyP

For me it's more of a reverse approach: I generally approach people "naturally," without thinking too much about type theory, and then reflect on my experiences later to gain a better understanding.

It seems a lot of people who are into personality typing want to have a theoretical framework to make it easier to deal with situations involving people, but I personally find that approach causes me to think too much and not be able to concentrate on what I'm doing, so I prefer the reverse approach I mentioned above.

Yes, I agree completely.

I never try to guess other people's MBTI type upon first meeting them.

My reliance in formulating first impressions is based on several factors, including the person's appearance, behavior, mannerisms, tone of voice, attitude, my "gut instincts", etc...

I just discovered something called PMAI - personal archetype assessment instrument.

About the Pearson-Marr Archetype Indicator Instrument - CAPT.org

Much of the world knows the work of Carl Jung on psychological type through the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator® instrument. Jung's other great contribution to human understanding is the concept of the archetype—the shared myths, themes, images, characters, patterns, and symbols present in our lives and our culture.


The PMAI™, or Pearson-Marr Archetype Indicator®, the world's first scientifically validated archetype assessment tool, does for archetypes what the MBTI® instrument does for psychological type. The PMAI and its accompanying guidebook Introduction to Archetypes open a window into unconscious archetypes and a path to self-understanding.

It's not free but it seems pretty interesting and potentially really valuable. I started a thread on it to see if anyone knows anything about it, but I suspect I'll end up getting deeper into it regardless. Right up my alley, this PMAI.