Revealing the Harmonies

Many of our high school teachers have recommended that we all take a psychology course, at some point in our lives. I completely agree. Unfortunately, my schedule next year does not permit any space for psychology – though I will put an effort to include it as a part of my discoveries in years to come.

Joey introduced me to this word a couple months ago, and personally, it's become one of my favourite words – introspection. It is the process of self-observation and analysis of one's own thoughts and feelings. And though we may all differ on the extent we practice introspection – we all take part from time to time, and it is a part of reflection, self growth, and personal identity.

However, introspection has its limits; naturally, analysis on oneself can have many potentially flaws, such as bias, fallacies, and just, incorrect interpretations – to the extent that one has to justify, or introspect, their introspections…; well, that just gets a little too complicated. Overthinking =D

And that brings us to why we study psychology, or why people see psychologists. To see and learn from a more systematic, experienced, and more knowledgeable take on why we think what we think. Another branch leads us into tests – to discover the meaning behind one's thoughts, and validity of certain statements, and the characterization of one's personality.

Last summer [2008] at Shad UNB, I was introduced to the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator, a personality assessment test partially based on the works of Carl Jung. There are tests available online, though they are not official; the assessment can be done clinically through the official tests – there will be opportunities to take these throughout your life.

Of course, one can also look on their own thoughts and self-assess their own types. I am not here to give a lecture on how the MBTI works; that's what Wikipedia is for. However, in the bliss of summer, and if you're feeling a little low on productivity (well, you're reading this, and I'm writing this – maybe we've got nothing better to do =P), doing a little work on your own analysis and discovery of MBTI would be my prescription (besides creating a little music, of course). And feel free to try those online tests [see links on the bottom of the Wikipedia page on MBTI), though they aren't the best.

Once you've discovered or found your own type, read about it. See if anything clicks, whether anything seems to describe you, better than you could yourself. If so – you've likely got a match. If not, then maybe keep working on it. This may not be the most accurate method, but you'll have launched yourself into self-discovery, and what could be better than that? Have Fun!