PTypes’ Sensitive Personality Type (Page Two)

William Shakespeare

Shakespeare's Morals: The Stoic Legacy to the Renaissance

Contemporary Americans may indeed find Stoicism somewhat counter-intuitive. Whereas we tend to put high value on individual freedom and self-development, Stoics put the welfare of the whole community first. Thus we focus on our rights; Stoics on their obligations. We expect people to devote their energies to accumulating and investing personal wealth; Stoics devoted themselves to sharing wealth. We think a good bank account is the best security; Stoics valued friends more than money. We value privacy; Stoics tried to behave so well that they would have nothing to hide. It is hard for self-centered, self-protective, self-asserting, self-promoting products of laissez-faire capitalism like us to enter the mind of a precapitalist Renaissance man like Shakespeare, but with an effort of the imagination and an acquaintance with the ethical authorities of the period, we can make the leap.

Shakespeare's Horatio

Hamlet admires Horatio for the qualities that Hamlet himself does not possess. He praises Horatio for his virtue and self-control: "Horatio, thou art e'en as just a man/As e'er my conversation cop'd withal" (III.ii.56-7). Horatio's strength of character is unwavering, and Hamlet longs for the peace of mind that such stoicism must bring to Horatio:

Dost thou hear?

Since my dear soul was mistress of her choice,

And could of men distinguish her election,

Hath seal'd thee for herself, for thou hast been

As one, in suffering all, that suffers nothing,

A man that fortune's buffets and rewards

Hast ta'en with equal thanks: and blest are those

Whose blood and judgement are so well commedled

That they are not a pipe for fortune's finger

To sound what stop she please. Give me that man

That is not passion's slave, and I will wear him

In my heart's core, ay, in my heart of heart,

As i do thee. (III.ii.65-70)

Mabillard, Amanda. Shakespeare's Horatio. Shakespeare Online. 2000. http://www.shakespeare-online.com/horatiochar.html (April 9, 2002).

Values in Classical Stoicism

Hamlet

A Short Course on Shakespeare's Hamlet

'And when the ghost has vanished, what do we see standing before us? A young hero thirsting for revenge? A prince by birth, happy to be charged with unseating the usurper of his throne? Not at all! Amazement and sadness descend on this lonely spirit; he becomes bitter at the smiling villains, swears not to forget his departed father, and ends with a heavy sigh: "The time is out of joint; O cursed spite! That ever I was born to set it right!"

'In these words, so I believe, lies the key to Hamlet's whole behavior, and it is clear to me what Shakespeare has set out to portray: a heavy deed placed on a soul which is not adequate to cope with it. And it is in this sense that I find the whole play constructed. An oak tree planted in a precious pot which should only have held delicate flowers. The roots spread out, the vessel is shattered.
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, Wilhelm Meister's Apprenticeship (1796)

Google Search: hamlet sensitive

Yahoo! Groups : stoics Messages :Message 3887 of 3889

Hamlet becomes a Stoic. He embraces his fate knowing that there is an order to the cosmos, and he will play his part.

Hamlet's Hesitation...And Ours - Craig Chalquist.

The real issue is not Hamlet's hesitation but our unwillingness to understand it.

Hillary Rodham Clinton

Re: Hillary Clinton, Al Gore. - post to Jan's Oldham/Enneagram message board.

Al Gore is very Conscientious. Hillary Clinton I have typed as Sensitive (close cousin of the Conscientious). What we see in the public Hillary, I think, is a counterphobic reaction to social anxiety, or social phobia. She always has such a stiff, stricken look. When she speaks before a group, she only pretends to make eye contact; her eyes are going everywhere, up and off to the right, then off to the left, then down and around, but never catching anyone else's eyes.
Here are some of Oldham's criteria:
Individuals with the Sensitive personality style prefer the known to the unknown. They are comfortable with, even inspired by, habit, repetition, and routine.
+++ I think she's more dependent on her husband than her PR would have us believe. Perhaps that's why she hasn't left him throughout all those years- she prefers the devil she knows.
Sensitive individuals care deeply about what other people think of them.
+++ I do sense in Hillary a fear of negative evaluation and social rejection. Her superwoman posture is mostly a compensation for some hidden fear of inferiority.
They behave with deliberate discretion in their dealings with others. They do not make hasty judgments or jump in before they know what is appropriate.
+++ Hillary's got Hamlet's Syndrome - can't make a quick decision; her approach to running for the Senate is a good example.
Socially they take care to maintain a courteous, self-restrained demeanor.
+++ Hillary's the kind woman who's called a frigid "Snow Queen" in public but whose friends insist that in private with friends and family she's the most warn and friendly person you'd ever want to meet, just like the one Oldham has in his book in the Sensitive chapter.
They function best in scripted settings, vocationally and socially: when they know precisely what is expected of them, how they are supposed to relate to others, and what they are expected to say.
+++ Anyone who's watched her these last eight years can see that's this is true about Hillary.
Sensitive men and women are not quick to share their innermost thoughts and feelings with others, even those they know well.
+++ She's a very private person. Throughout the Whitewater and other investigations we heard a number of times that the First Lady was surprised and appalled by the assault on her personal privacy that she experienced since coming to Washington. She would have liked to have imposed the same wall of privacy for herself, that she imposed upon the press for her daughter. And this was her basic defense of her husband in Monicagate - that it was a private matter between her and her husband.
All in all, I think that she's much more likely to be the Senstive type rather than the Conscientious.

The Most Beautiful Woman in the World: Mrs. Hillary Rodham Clinton

http://clinton.senate.gov/ [via Google]

The Psychobiography of Hillary Rodham Clinton

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Sensitive personality type (continued)