Before I introduce you to the Extraverted feeling type of person, we must first outline
the features of extraverted feeling as a psychological function in general.
"In precisely the same way as extraverted thinking strives to rid itself of subjective
influences, extraverted feeling has to undergo a process of differentiation before it is
finally denuded of every subjective trimming."
Extraverted Feeling is intertwined to generally accepted norms and traditions, or to objective
facts. For instance, feelings induced by actions perceived as taboo by the majority will be
banished from the person's feeling repertoire. What is valued are socially acceptable endeavors,
and of a collective nature; like going to church, to the movies, attending a football
cup, activities that illicit feelings everyone sees as just, or that can be felt in a group,
and that others seem to feel on the regular. Here, and more or less like extraverted thinking,
the extraverted feeling function works as a judgement metric in that what is felt as
socially acceptable is labeled good, the rest is malevolent.
"The valuations resulting from the act of feeling either correspond directly with objective
values or accord with traditional and generally accepted standards."
The extraverted feeling function absorbs what external objects have to offer feeling wise.
It operates according to the nature of extraverted consciousness which features an outward-directedness.
The person gets his feelings from the environment, draws from something to himself. What he feels
are the limits of what the object provides to feel.
Perhaps, and as far my speculation goes, the opposite might be the introverted who feels
the personal impressions he himself asbribes to the object. I assume that by an actually
joyful event, happiness induced in the extraverted, but sadness in the introverted, as he does
not only, or not even, feel the limits of the happening, but might also project his
worries and fantasies onto it which will distort it.
Keep in mind that concerning extraverted psyche, disorders mainly happen because the object
gains the upper hand over the function. And the latter exaggerated, garner a hysterical
turn.
In this case, and similar to extraverted thinking, things can go in the wrong if the subject
starts to wholly lose oneself in externals. What was at first a person who can feel the
emotions something or someone offers, the feeling function having been exaggerated,
loosens the personality structure to a point it can be easily swallowed by the stimulus
provider. The subject melts in the object. Emotions and facials he displays gain an imitative
character. A smile turns an unconscious smirk.
He may go as far as to resort to people please, to be agreeable in excess, totally unaware
that he's faining emotions as a means to an end.
This façade can be pleasurable, to the aestete. To those of a thinking type, can go undetectable.
They can do without genuine displays of feeling, gauge others of their intellectual prowess.
"Over-extraverted feeling may satisfy aesthetic expectations, but it does not speak to the
heart; it appeals merely to the senses or—worse still—only to reason."
"It no longer makes that agreeable and refreshing impression which invariably accompanies genuine
feeling; instead, one suspects a pose, or that the person is acting, even though he
may be quite unconscious of any egocentric motives. "
In addition to mimickry, this neurotic state of being overly immersed in externals causes
an exaggeration. Feeling overrides all other functions--identity is lost.
"The subject becomes so enmeshed in the network of individual feeling processes that to the
observer it seems as though there were merely a feeling process and no longer a subject
of feeling". "Feeling in this state has lost all human
warmth; it gives the impression of being put on, fickle, unreliable, and in the worst cases
hysterical. "
- The personality loses touch with identity, a loss of control over its functions follow;
from an outer view others perceive no subject in the driving seat, only scattered feeling
processes alternating one after another. The feelings emerge compulsively; hysterical,
excessive laughter; sudden break downs, and a mix of both; a neurotic state.
So to reiterate: First, we have a healthy normal feeling function
that is dependent on the environment for orientation. Insofar as the subject is able to distinguish
between his identity and his feelings he is psychically stable.
But when a life crisis comes about, or in the natural case, whenever the person became
reliant on people or objects to maintain that stability, the extraverted feeling function
then has to work in excess, craving more and more of externals, in turn, the person reaches
to a point in which he cannot be calm or normal unless there's something intense to feel.
In which case, even the slightest stimuli induces reactions out of proportion.
From here follows hysteria, mimickry and people pleasing, strange vibes, gushing talk and
suchlike extraverted tendencies which are an exaggeration of the normal attitude.
"The force of extraverted feeling then pulls the personality into the object, the object
assimilates him, whereupon the personal quality of the feeling, which constitutes its chief
charm, disappears. It becomes cold, “unfeeling,” untrustworthy. It has ulterior motives, or
at least makes an impartial observer suspect them. "
I will talk more of this disordered side in the next one. Some concepts may still seem
vague, given that this video is one part of the series, which is why I urge you to watch
the next ones as well as previous to grasp some technical terms should they be repeated.