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Using Your Personality Type to Improve Your Creative Practice

5/6/2014

10 Comments

 
Cover of book:

How does the way we perceive the world, and make decisions according to psychological preferences, affect our creative practice?

The personal development guide, Creative You: Using Your Personality Type To Thrive by David B. Goldstein and Otto Kroeger, has the answers.

​Imagine a glossy mag personality quiz written by Eric Maisel and you’ll have some idea of where Creative You is coming from. 
​
The book starts with a simple either-or questionnaire to ascertain which of 16 creative types you belong using the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI) as its basis.

​(The MBTI is a Jungian self-inventory designed to identify our personality type, strengths, and preferences.)


Once you're curiosity is piqued as to what your personality type will reveal about your natural creative assets, next comes detailed descriptions of all the types so that you thoroughly can bone up on yours. 
16 MBTI Personality Types Image from Wikepedia
16 MBTI Personality Types - Image from Wikepedia

Find your creative tribe using MBTI

Although I had some initial resistance to assuming the label of a particular type, it was soon dispelled by the book’s warm, encouraging and affirming tone tone.

Knowing David Goldstein on social media, I can testify that this warmth is not something contrived just for the book.

David is an artist as well as a successful entrepreneur, researcher, speaker and writer and, of course, he's MBTI-certified.

He spent over six years researching the connection between creativity and psychological types and this research is perfectly complemented by the input from his 

co-author, the recently deceased, Otto Kroeger - or ‘Mr. MBTI’ - as he was known.

Otto
was an organisational consultant specialising in the use of the MBTI Assessment as well as the author of numerous bestselling books on the subject, including Type Talk.

​
He had a unique talent for breathing life into the presentation of psychological type,

"...making the complicated understandable, actionable and...entertaining."
​Hile Rutledge, President of OKA

​and Creative You certainly delivers on these counts.

As well as interviews and stories from the author’s lives there is plenty of anecdotal wisdom from acclaimed composers, performers, artists, writers, and scientists - all of which gives a feeling for the creative ‘personality’ tribe to which we belong.
Picture
Picture
David Goldstein & Otto Kroeger

Using your Creative Type to enhance your studio practice

Artistic practice is isolated by nature, with little opportunity for direct feedback and constructive criticism.

We stand back and squint at our easels or ask for a critique on our poetry from peers, but even then, it's hard to be objective about our art and to know whether we are getting our point across.

According to Creative You, for ‘Intuitives’ like me - and likely you, as 69% of all artists and entertainers fall into this category - clear communication can be an issue and we could benefit from being less obscure in getting our point over.
Painting of woman leaping towards a ladder hanging in the sky
The Ladder © CherryJeffs 2014
50 x 40cm, Mixed-media on canvas
This advice sparked my recent decision to radically rework The Ladder to make the vision in my head more tangible on canvas.

​Remembering the baffled faces of two acquaintances who had recently visited my studio, I asked myself,

"What is it I want to say? Is there more I could be doing to get my point across?" 

​The answer was yes, and I found myself empowered by acting on it.
​

Creative Type for Career, Criticism and Collaboration

“Knowing your creative differences gives you confidence, like the way you feel when walking into a party wearing perfectly tailored clothing; when you’re acting creatively within your personality, it fits.”
David B. Goldstein and Otto Kroeger, Creative You

​For me, some of the most interesting parts of the book lie towards the end with discussions on how to:
​
  • orientate your career to take advantage of your creative type
  • react to criticism, criticise others and be your own critic
  • use collaboration to compensate for your weaknesses and blind-spots
 ​
There is also a section on how to encourage creativity in children according to their type which would work equally effectively to encourage your creative ‘inner child’.
​

Should I Read Creative You?

Want more?

With a book on personality types, there are inevitably going to be parts that you don’t want to read. 

But Goldstein and Kroeger do a good job of including sufficient information on each type without making huge sections of the book uninteresting for everyone else - particularly in the latter part of the book where they give general scenarios in which knowing your type can be helpful, with examples of the types most affected in those situations.

​Although this left me wanting more, it made for a coherent reading experience and stopped me skipping as much of the text as I might have.

So does Creative You convince?

I think it does. It gives you a framework of tools and techniques to help maximise your innate, positive traits and mitigate your weaknesses. 

I certainly recognised myself in lots of the descriptions and found myself reflected in the examples of my type, as well as engaged by the recommendations for maximising my assets. 

​Curiously, I share my personality type with Einstein. Although I doubt I’ll be winning any Nobel prizes in the near future, I gotta tell you I also share his birthday…
​
  • Read: an excerpt from Creative You
  • Comment: Have you done an MBTI test? What personality type are you? (I'm INTP)

© Author: Cherry Jeffs



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10 Comments
David Goldstein link
5/6/2014 07:24:52 am

I've found that understanding my personality type has tremendously helped with my creativity in painting and writing.

Creativity takes courage and once I've known myself, I've had the confidence to be myself and express myself. I'm happy that you found CREATIVE YOU to be useful Cherry!! And thanks for helping to share our ideas to help others!

Reply
Cherry Jeffs
5/6/2014 08:55:34 am

You're welcome, David. Confidence is crucial as is feeling comfortable with yourself and respecting your own way of doing things - all of which are explored in your book.

Reply
J.T.
4/7/2014 11:21:54 am

I am of the INTJ temperament. This has led to confusion regarding my creative path. Especially discomforting was learning that extraverted sensing is my inferior function in my functional stack. I found a very informative text that may be of use to your readers. It's titled: "Was That Really Me" and is written by Dr. Naomi Quenck. Naomi's book takes a deep look into our inferior function, and how it is often triggered by stress. Naomi uses the term "in the grip" when speaking of a person wrestling with inferior function under stress. I found her insights clarified many wrong assumptions I had regarding it. I was unaware that Jung considered our inferior function as a vital balancing force in our psyche, and that if offers a window into our unconscious. And how lengthy experiences of being "in the grip" could actually bring positive growth and change.

Reply
Cherry Jeffs
10/7/2014 11:09:44 am

That sounds fascinating, J.T. I will definitely check it out. It's so often the case that a part of our psyche we perceive as 'negative' proves key to understanding ourselves better or becomes something we turn on our head to become an asset :)

Reply
Nela link
16/8/2014 07:24:58 am

Interesting concept, I'll check out the excerpt :) So the book offers practical solutions for each type's drawbacks?

I'm an INFP, though on one particular test I came out around the middle of the E-I spectrum (a little on the introvert side), and I mostly identify with ambivert.
I love creating in solitude and need a lot of down-time, but I also have the need to share my creations with others and exchange ideas.

Reply
Cherry Jeffs link
16/8/2014 09:23:41 am

Yes, Nela, there's lots of advice about how to offset the 'negatives'. I've found that, while it didn't all hit me with a mighty 'aha!', what I learned has worked itself into my body of knowledge about myself and is subtly affecting my decisions.

Reply
J.T.
16/8/2014 11:45:27 am

Please understand that inferior functions are not "drawbacks." To view them in negative light is not good. They are simply parts of our

selves/temperament that are not developed as fully as the dominate functions we use daily. Actually, we use all parts of our temperament. As

an INTJ, my least developed function, believe it or not, is extraverted sensing. And I am an ARTIST! How can this be? What I found out was

that during our teen years, our fourth or inferior function often jumps ahead of the line in development. I loved art and making things as a

teenager. On my own time that is. I chose printing/graphic arts as my career. But as is often the case, this career backfired. It turned into

industrial deadline production. Often, we find outlets for our inferior function through hobbies and relaxing activities. What is so amazing is that

at age 38, I chose to go back to school and become a dental lab technician. Again, lots of details, handwork, using a microscope, small parts,

lots of deadlines. Repetitive work. The exact opposite of what an NT, intuitive/thinking person is best suited for. I spent another 14 years

chasing that career, only to be laid off four times! I mean the doors closed in my face again and again. I chose handwork, craftsmanship as my

livelihood in high school as I did not know what else to to. I was terrible in math. And English as well. The only way to earn a living was with

my hands. Yet my intuitive/creative mind kept surfacing again and again. So I started my own metal-casting business. Kept it going for 8 years.

But casting 3,000 of the same piece year after year drove me bats. In the past decade I have had 17 people tell me I need to be a writer. So I

narrowed it down to being an author/illustrator. Those seem to be the two skills I have. Never in my life have I been so blocked. It's not from

discipline. I come to the drawing table each day from 9:00 am - 11:00 am, and from 12:00 pm - 2:00 pm. Rain or shine. Hot or cold. Joyful or

sad. Happy or grumpy. I was able to get inklings of a story, and created 30 storyboards for it. Now I have no idea what to do next. I guess

my extraverted sensing got overworked these past 30 years. But heck, life isn't a tidy neat package, or pages between two covers of a book.

I'm 53 years old, look behind and see career wreckage behind me. I have drawing skills I want to use, but don't know how to trust them, or

just enjoy them. When I was little art was just fun. No expectations. No career. No goals. "Simply original state of innocence, primary creative

experience of disappearing - pure absorption in free play. " Stephen Nacmanovitch in his book titled: "Free Play" speaks of this. "But

eventually we experience life's battles, the long list of evils that seem to come intrinsically woven into our existence on earth, as well as the

internal impedimenta of fear and judgment." The mature artist comes back around, spiral fashion, to a state that resembles child's play, but

which has been seasoned by the terrors and trials it took to get there." Carl Jung said it best: " . . .there are hardly any exceptions to the rule

that a person must pay dearly for the divine gift of creative fire."

Nobody can save me. Fix me. Rescue me. I've got to go in the cave with Darth Vader just like Luke Skywalker did. Remember it wasn't

Darth Vader at all? Skywalker pulls the mask off and sees his own face staring back. Just like a blue heron, I too must stand on my own two

thin legs. I even found a blue heron feather last week. Looked it up, and found that it is a Native American message totem. And comes into

your life to remind you to stand on your own two legs. And remain on the path you have chosen.

Reply
Cherry Jeffs link
16/8/2014 11:51:05 am

I agree about drawbacks, that's why I used inverted commas around 'negatives'. I find it a challenge to continually look at how our 'negatives' can be turned into 'positives' since they are part of our unique nature as you say.
Amazing about the heron feather - a message indeed!

Reply
J.T.
16/8/2014 12:16:15 pm

My apologies for the appearance of my post. Been having computer issues lately.

Reply
Cherry Jeffs
16/8/2014 02:10:58 pm

No probs on that front - but your comment came in about five times! (I deleted the extras.)

Reply



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