Personality types: Jung's model of typology - Inner City Books

118 A Dinner Party with the Typeshe arrived late. (It had taken him half an hour to find hisglasses before leaving.) It did not bother him that the foodwas mediocre. He ate his meal in an abstracted way, glancingnow and then at the newspaper beside his plate.After dinner, he went for a long walk under the starry sky,not realizing till too late that he had left his overcoat at therestaurant. Strolling along he was unaccountably inspired tocreate a poem—a sonnet filled with metaphysical wonders.And he was overwhelmed with joy.All of a sudden he remembered that he had been invited tothe dinner party. But it was now too late. This error, or lapse,reflected his unacknowledged feelings exactly. Though theintrovert fears life's demands, there is also a touch of secrethaughtiness mixed in with the shyness.He thinks, "I shall send the lady my poem, the best I haveto give." But will he really do so, or just think about it? And ifhe does, will the hostess understand? This poor poet, comicaland grotesque in his shortsightedness and constant mishaps—this fool, who runs away from society with its joy and conflicts—mayhave given birth to a poem of universal meaning.The GroupThe conversation over dinner becomes quite animated. Politics,theater, sensational court cases, books and films are alldiscussed. The two extraverts, the lawyer and the industrialist,are involved in a heated debate.The professor is silent. Large parties make him feel slowand awkward, and he does not enjoy these sophisticated surroundings.At the end of the meal, against his own goodjudgment, he suddenly breaks his silence. What does he talkabout? His hobby—sleeping sickness! But since his feelingfunction is undeveloped and childlike, he does not realize thereactions of the other guests, nor does he sense his own inappropriateness.