Being an Introvert: Boon or Curse?

We live in a world that believes in the supremacy of those who can socialize in ‘society’. Those who can speak their minds out and can be more boisterous about their feelings are somehow considered to be better as compared to those who are less flashy in communicating their thoughts.

The psychoanalyst Carl Jung termed those with the gregarious personality type as Extroverts and those with a mellowed personality type as Introverts, though he never made any mention of one being better than the other.

Back in history, from the ancient to the pre-cold war era, Introverts often featured among the thinkers and leaders of their times. From Buddha to Moses and Gandhi to Einstein, all of them were exceptionally reticent and unassuming and placed themselves on the passive side of the introvert-extrovert pendulum.

But with the growth of capitalism, it was increasingly seen necessary for people to interact and work in groups rather than to work individually. Organizations grew larger and they required people to work in groups to increase efficiency. While this was no doubt good, the need for consensus in groups often killed the space for individual thought.

This constant need for group work has caused more harm than good. The freedom to individual artistic work has largely reduced to make way for profitable, populist work. An individual’ talents are often subdued leading to what is termed the Groupthink. Further, working in groups becomes complicated for introverts who appear as being aloof and distant, contrary to the truth, which is that they find it difficult to communicate their ideas in a group.

The biggest problem is that people see introversion as a problem. An aunt of mine thought of me to be shy, weird & depressed and even made me believe that I needed psychiatric treatment, only because I preferred reading a book indoors over babbling with my cousin and his friends in the park all day long. She saw nonsense talks with a group as being fun and relaxing and encouraged me to do the same. Having convinced myself of having a problem, I tried hard to change but found it impossible to mend ways to my aunt's satisfaction.

I soon realized that, I wasn’t shy and weird; I was just not interested in what they spoke about. It wasn’t like I thought of myself to be an intellectual or that I didn’t like to talk; it was just that I preferred having more meaningful conversations. It wasn’t that I feared people; it was just that I enjoyed less gregarious company. It wasn’t like I didn’t know how to relax; it was just that my sense of relaxation didn’t match with her view of the same.

Frankly, I do hate public speaking and being a part of a cheering crowd. My definitions of ‘fun’ and ‘boring’ may diametrically be opposite to that of extroverts, but that in no way means I hate to be heard or to have fun.

Introverted children are often put through the ordeal of having to be outgoing and animated more often. But it would only be intelligent for parents to take notice of their child’s personality and to harness his/her talents to make the best of it. We need to understand that the world needs introverts as much as it needs extroverts.