Divining Character

These two words constituted one of the original names I had when I was first looking to discover the name of my "Genius".

I did actually weep a little when I said these words out aloud at the time but the intensity of feeling didn't last, not as it has for the name "Constructing Coherence"

It is however something that I do do - Divining Character, although it's always done as a means toward the building of understanding and entente between myself and others.

I adore doing "personality" quizzes! *blush* I'm actually very fond of Temperament Typing especially using the famous Myers-Briggs Type Indicator or Kiersey's version thereof. Even the little pop quizzes over at Tickle totally suck me in! hahaha ;)

Ever since I was a young teen, I've been fascinated by the pieces of my psyche, nature, mind, thought, and emotional make-up. I love knowing how I tick and why!

In turn, I'm intrigued - sometimes obessively - with how other people operate and why. I am constantly on intuitive, empathic, even systematic alert for signals and signs, portents and observations in others that help me to understand them better and gain insight into what they're made of. I'm almost driven by the need to get inside people's heads (and hearts too occasionally) to find out exactly what makes them... themselves! What are their attributes? What are their loves; likes; dislikes; hates; emotional responses to such and such; background; modus operandi and so on?

And just like a person who uses a dowsing rod to try to unearth deeply hidden waters... So I use Temperament Analysis and Personality Quizzes to try to unearth valuable information about character both within myself and in others.

This need to understand character and to seek out that which makes a person similar to myself is a constant fascination to me. I don't have a clue why it intrigues me so to want to find out about people and why its so important to me to find that mutual common ground of understanding. One day I'm hoping to find the Perfect Quiz that will answer those questions! :)

But this habit of mine does have its drawbacks. My tendency is to judge people fairly quickly and summarise their personality/temperament on little more than a few skewed observations and intuitive assumptions on my part. I am however, always prepared to second guess myself and try to prove any negative assumptions wrong, at least for the first two or three encounters! ;)

Ironically, for all my love of the Personality and Temperament, I'd make a poor psychoanalyst nor a good psychologist! I'm not objective enough and way too empathetic in that I tend to take other peoples issues on board and identify with them too intimately! Building understanding is a subjective art not a rational science really, and I am way more of an "artist" than a scientist.

I still love personality quizzes though and probably always will. Despite the fact that they are sometimes silly and impractical, I do often learn something about myself and other people from them.

These "tests" may or may not be accurate! A lot of the material they're based on can be mere subjective nonsense, but I don't care about overall accuracy really - especially in those nonsensical tickle quizzes! They're merely a tool for insight and observation and just plain good fun really! :)