{"id":6631,"date":"2015-09-25T23:34:14","date_gmt":"2015-09-25T23:34:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.idrlabs.com\/articles\/?p=6631"},"modified":"2020-06-20T22:38:49","modified_gmt":"2020-06-20T22:38:49","slug":"why-kanye-west-is-isfj","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.idrlabs.com\/articles\/2015\/09\/why-kanye-west-is-isfj\/","title":{"rendered":"On Kanye West and the ISFJ Type"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>By Boye Akinwande, with additions by Eva Gregersen<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>As I\u2019m sure may currently be the case for many of you, I was quite skeptical of CelebrityTypes\u2019 type assessment of Kanye West as an ISFJ when I first came across it. At the time of this writing, there appears to be no <a href=\"https:\/\/www.idrlabs.com\/articles\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/09\/1035x672-111913-kanye-west-1800-1384897712.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignright size-medium wp-image-6644\" src=\"https:\/\/www.idrlabs.com\/articles\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/09\/1035x672-111913-kanye-west-1800-1384897712-205x300.jpg\" alt=\"1035x672-111913-kanye-west-1800-1384897712\" width=\"205\" height=\"300\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.idrlabs.com\/articles\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/09\/1035x672-111913-kanye-west-1800-1384897712-205x300.jpg 205w, https:\/\/www.idrlabs.com\/articles\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/09\/1035x672-111913-kanye-west-1800-1384897712.jpg 423w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 205px) 100vw, 205px\" \/><\/a>\u201cdefault\u201d\u00a0assessment of West\u2019s type, but ISFJ almost seems like the result one would arrive at if one\u2019s intent was sarcasm. I\u00a0imagine that my issue, like yours, stemmed from the fact that I took more of a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.idrlabs.com\/articles\/2013\/06\/8-common-typing-mistakes\/\">behaviorist approach to typology<\/a> wherein the concrete behavioral traits, interests, ideas, and skills of an individual are thought to presuppose that individual\u2019s functions. According to this view, since West\u2019s behavior is characterized by recurrent social<em> faux<\/em> <em>pas<\/em> and a seemingly unapologetic vanity that stands worlds apart from the considerate and self-effacing demeanor that is <a href=\"\/isfj-description.php\">typically associated with ISFJs<\/a>, any attempt to type him as one is quite plainly ludicrous. End of story, right?<\/p>\n<p>Not quite. In accordance with the psychodynamic approach to typology employed by CelebrityTypes, the articles on the site can often be seen to caution skeptics (such as my former self) not to mistake the <em>contents<\/em> of cognition for the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.idrlabs.com\/articles\/2014\/12\/ntp-knowing-vs-ntj-willing\/\">psychic functions themselves<\/a>. In other words, while there are certainly correlations between type and such contents (behavioral traits, interests, ideas, skills, etc.), they cannot be taken as the direct constituents of a person\u2019s type, the way 90% of the internet does. For a simple explanation as to why, consider how the existence of such contents in an individual\u2019s psyche is often more a function of time and place (the culture in which he is situated, for instance).<\/p>\n<p>Jungian typology is really a theory about the nature of conscious attention (and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.idrlabs.com\/articles\/2015\/06\/the-unconscious-nature-of-the-inferior-function\/\">inattention<\/a>) that an individual directs towards the contents of consciousness. According to the psychodynamic approach, the functions exist as meta-perspectives that, in theory, are divorced from psychic contents. Rather, they operate as lenses that <a href=\"https:\/\/www.idrlabs.com\/articles\/2015\/08\/determining-function-axes-part-6\/\">fundamentally bias<\/a> the way we conceive of, structure, and relate to information in the psyche. In West\u2019s case, understanding the psychodynamic approach is paramount to understanding why CelebrityTypes assesses his type to be ISFJ.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Styles and Types<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>As <a href=\"https:\/\/www.idrlabs.com\/articles\/2014\/02\/mbti-for-skeptics\/\">previously covered on the site<\/a>, a person\u2019s psychological type does not exhaust everything about his personality. However, since many practitioners of Jungian typology are not well-acquainted with other domains of personality studies, they tend to construe everything they observe about that person\u2019s personality as having to do with his type. In the case of Kanye West, most people seem to construe the factors of his <a href=\"\/overview-of-personality-styles.php#Narcissistic\">Narcissistic personality style<\/a> as having to do with Fi. However, I would argue that this is a category mistake.<\/p>\n<p>At its base, the distinction between Fe and Fi (or <a href=\"https:\/\/www.idrlabs.com\/articles\/2012\/12\/guide-to-jungian-function-axes\/\">Fe\/Ti and Fi\/Te<\/a>) says little about the value judgments (contents) that the individual will hold. Rather, the distinction has to do with how one goes about forming judgments, deriving them from either objective (Fe) or subjective (Fi) sentiments (from the function point of view) or on the basis of one\u2019s ontological predispositions (from the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.idrlabs.com\/articles\/2015\/03\/determining-function-axes-part-3\/\">axial point of view<\/a>), seeing humans as being either more similar to each other (Fe\/Ti) or more divergent from one another (Fi\/Te).<\/p>\n<p>Hence, as it should, the psychodynamic approach to typology places us more in line with the consciousness of the individual and avoids making too many assumptions that are tied to behaviorist modes of personality studies or the non-constant (but invariably influential) culture and <em>zeitgeist <\/em>that the individual finds himself in. Doing so lifts us out of a behavioral (or <a href=\"https:\/\/www.idrlabs.com\/articles\/2014\/06\/an-aristotelian-view-of-personality-types\/\">Aristotelian<\/a>) mindset like \u201cFe types evince group-oriented behavior\u201d to a more psychodynamic mindset like \u201cFe types are prone to form object representations where they see other individuals as extensions or variations of themselves.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Next, returning to the question of <a href=\"\/global-style\/test.php\">personality styles<\/a>, it is my impression that the specific behaviors that are often coupled with the ISFJ type under the behaviorist point of view are really the behaviors of the <a href=\"\/overview-of-personality-styles.php#Dependent\">Dependent personality style<\/a>, an adaptation that is indeed overrepresented among ISFJs. Like the conjunction that often arises between <a href=\"\/intj-and-the-narcissistic-personality-style.php\">INTJs and the Narcissistic personality style<\/a>, it is not hard to see how Dependency could more easily converge with the psychic disposition of the ISFJ type than that of other types.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Defiance and Standards in ISFJs<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Before we get to West, it is worth calling attention to another ISFJ who has famously caused a ruckus with her defiance and the championing of her own standards, namely the civil rights activist Rosa Parks. Parks was an African-American woman who was riding the bus and refused to stand up so as to give up her seat for a white person. In refusing, not only was Parks defying social convention, she was also breaking the law, and hence, though most people view her behavior in a more favorable light than they do West, Parks was actually more defiant than West, even though lacking a noticeable Narcissistic disposition. Hence, contrary to a stereotype that many hold of ISFJs, they do have it in them to take a stand that goes against the dominant mores of the group, even if doing so is controversial and even if it aggravates the people around them.<\/p>\n<p>Indeed, since they are in general far more meticulous in their handling of facts than other, non-Si, types, it is not illogical that ISFJs may often draw attention to standards and factual inaccuracies that may more easily elude the awareness of other types. By way of their greater receptivity towards facts and their handling of these, the conscious attention of ISFJs may often be directed towards more minute observations specific to their immediate realities. By way of this adaptation, ISFJs may often be seen to have especially concentrated and raw emotional attachments to the people or experiences from their personal lives.<\/p>\n<p>As Jung said in <em>Psychological Types <\/em>\u00a7650, Si is amongst the most irrational functions. But because most Si types do not possess any facility whereby their Si can be expressed directly, the true nature of Si is rarely seen and Si is consequently mistaken for a wholly passive process, without machinations or designs of its own. West, being an unusually Narcissistic ISFJ, divulges more of these typically inexpressible Si machinations to the world than does your usual ISFJ. However, his sense of injustice appears too confined to his own lot and life experiences and consequently too hard for others to relate to. Too often, the end result is that his outbursts and defiance land him on an island, too remote to be reached by the sympathies of others.<\/p>\n<p>By contrast, though a higher incidence of the Narcissistic personality style may readily be seen <a href=\"\/infographic\/a-closer-look-at-osama-bin-laden.php\">among the NFJ types<\/a>, the more <a href=\"https:\/\/www.idrlabs.com\/articles\/2015\/09\/determining-function-axes-part-7\/\">holistic disposition<\/a> of their Ni-Fe combination often serves to mitigate the disagreeable and self-absorbed elements of that style. In West\u2019s case, the preponderance of Si, rather than Ni, has the unfortunate consequence of making the actual standards and values that he is fighting for more specific to his situation and therefore less relatable.<\/p>\n<p><strong>West\u2019s Abrasiveness at Award Shows<\/strong><\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 30px;\">INTERVIEWER: \u201cWhat are some of the things you\u2019ve learned about yourself since becoming a family man?\u201d<br \/>\nKANYE WEST: \u201cYou know, I can\u2019t pinpoint that. I don\u2019t have the answer right on me. I got to think about it and give you a really good answer. I got a lock and loaded amount of information that I like to express on a very wide scale. But if you ask me a question like that and I go back and think on it, maybe I\u2019ll have the answer for you in a couple of days.\u201d \u2013 West: <em>Kanye West meets Zane Lowe <\/em>BBC 2015<\/p>\n<p>As I mentioned before, the view of West that predominates in the public eye is that he has an abrasive and erratic personality; a personality that seems a far cry from your stereotypical ISFJ indeed. The above exchange, however, appears to suggest something quite different about West. All else being equal, the above exchange would seem to suggest introversion and\/or introverted perception over their opposites. Furthermore, even between the two introverted perception functions, the Ni type is still characterized by immoderation, since the Ni types have inferior Se (as well as because of the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.idrlabs.com\/articles\/2015\/07\/determining-function-axes-part-4\/\">more ideational and less empirical<\/a> nature of N over S in general).[1]<\/p>\n<p>Another consideration here is that, all else being equal, Ni types would be inclined to care less about truly doing justice to questions that have no noumenal implications (<em>Psychological Types<\/em> \u00a7659). In fact, of all the types, it is on balance the Si type who is the most discerning with regards to doing justice to wordly information on the granular level, carefully processing and accounting for every detail in their striving for empirical precision.[2]<\/p>\n<p>Among the moments most responsible for West\u2019s infamy have been his public disapprovals concerning the outcomes of award shows. He has expressed frustration about not getting the accolades he felt he deserved, storming out of the 2004 American Music Awards when he discovered that he was not the recipient of an award that he felt he deserved. Likewise, West has famously come to Beyonce\u2019s defense when he felt that she too had been cheated out of an award that he felt should have been hers. And though far less publicized, West has also publicly criticized the decision to award him certain accolades that he did not feel that he had deserved. In fact, West has done so on at least four occasions.[3]<\/p>\n<p>Though public discourse seems to content itself with discussing <em>what<\/em> Kanye West has done on these occasions, the present endeavor of this article calls for something more than that. As psychological typologists, we must also ask <em>why <\/em>West has repeatedly behaved in this way, and what psychological motivations may lie behind it.<\/p>\n<p>As I hope to show in the following paragraphs, my own foray into the matter has suggested to me that West has meticulously processed the empirical facts pertaining to each of the decisions that he rose to protest. He absorbs and processes the facts, weighing each of the artists carefully in his mind; yet being an Si type, the underlying perceptions (as opposed to the resulting judgments) are profoundly personal and not directly perceivable by others. As Myers says of them, Si types are characterized by \u201cvivid private reactions\u201d to the thing sensed; reactions that are rarely discernible or comprehensible to others.[4]<\/p>\n<p>The theme that runs through most of West\u2019s outbursts at award shows appears to be that West <em>truly cares<\/em> about standards of fairness and justice in relation to the awards: He takes a serious interest in whether each award is bestowed upon the artist whom he perceives to deserve it the most. Understood from his own perspective, West\u2019s abrasive outbursts are really efforts to uphold the integrity of award shows as an institution for artists and musicians. Like other ISFJs before him, West will not stand for what he perceives to be arbitrariness or injustice, except in his case he is focused on something that others have a hard time seeing as worthy of such exacting moral attention, namely the proper bestowal of awards.<\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 30px;\">INTERVIEWER: \u201cHow about the Grammy? You received one, but didn&#8217;t attend the ceremony&#8230;\u201d<br \/>\nMAYNARD JAMES KEENAN: \u201cI think the Grammys are nothing more than some gigantic promotional machine for the music industry. &#8230; They don&#8217;t honor the arts or the artist for what he created. &#8230; [But having won one] why should we refuse it? \u2026 If our record company and the music business want to have a party, why should we spoil it for them? \u2026 Just because we don&#8217;t like it, why ruin it for them?\u201d \u2013 Keenan: <em>Interview with Maynard Keenan of Tool<\/em> NY Rock Magazine 2002<\/p>\n<p>While the Fi type may more easily withdraw his personal sentiments from such external metrics (such as with Maynard James Keenan as quoted above), West\u2019s cognitive loci are closer to what we would expect of an SFJ type: To West, the externalized and empirical metric matters and the formalized stamp of recognition of the peer group should be awarded to the proper person. As opposed to those more cynical takes on award shows as having more to do with advertisement and lobbying than talent, West accepts the institution of the award show at face value: Given that there is a winner, that winner should also be the <em>right<\/em> winner. And given that the winners are supposedly decided on the basis of their contributions, we are obligated to conduct a proper and careful estimation of what they may be \u2013 to ensure that every fact is \u201cfully and fairly sifted\u201d as the Duke of Wellington said.<\/p>\n<p>When asked in a recent interview about his rationale for speaking out in such instances, West likened being unjustly \u201cdefeated\u201d at music awards to when he tried out for his school basketball team and did not make the team even though he made all the shots.[5] His analogy captures an oft-expressed nightmare for ISJs, who, because they <a href=\"https:\/\/www.idrlabs.com\/articles\/2015\/06\/the-unconscious-nature-of-the-inferior-function\/\">repress Ne<\/a>, often do not like to enter situations where the rules that regulate them cannot be known with certainty. As the Si type Woodrow Wilson said, we should be able to recognize the everyday impressions of our world in even the most ceremonious retelling and evaluation of what has taken place: We cannot have one version of reality for the real world and another for the history books, and according to West, nor can we have one evaluation of an artist\u2019s contributions in the real world and another at the award shows. As he has said:<\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 30px;\">KANYE WEST: \u201cI don\u2019t want [award shows] to rewrite history right in front of us. At least, not on my clock. I really appreciate the moments that I was able to win rap album of the year or whatever. But after a while, it\u2019s like: \u2018Wait a second; this isn\u2019t fair. This is a setup.\u2019\u201d \u2013 West: <em>Behind Kanye\u2019s Mask<\/em> The New York Times 2013<\/p>\n<p>Because Si types repress Ne, they may sometimes fail to consider how different perspectives may not only be desirable, but indeed sometimes necessary, in different contexts. Because they are primarily orientated towards their own repository of thoroughgoing, yet at times also overly personalized and specific knowledge of the facts, Si types can sometimes react with incredulity and defiance when their tightly-clutched impressions of the facts do not match up with the \u201cofficial\u201d or \u201cauthoritative\u201d discernment of the same facts. In this respect, the Si type is not different from the Ni type who sees his own perspective and how his own idea must be true <a href=\"\/another-look-at-intj.php\">to the exclusion of all others<\/a>; only the Ni type deals more with possibilities where the Si type deals more with facts.[6]<\/p>\n<p><strong>The Unseen Relations of Si<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>As Jung, von Franz, and Myers have remarked, Si is usually private, unseen, poorly understood, and mistaken for an introverted version of the Si type\u2019s auxiliary function.[7] Jung and von Franz have contended that sometimes, on a few rare occasions, it will be possible to catch a glimpse of the \u201cinner irrationality\u201d of the Si type, such as for example if the Si type is an artist.[8] What they do not say (but what I shall add) is that if the Si type is beset by Narcissistic traits, it will also frequently (but not always) be possible to see more of the Si type\u2019s inner life.<\/p>\n<p>In Kanye West\u2019s case, it is my impression that there is an interaction between his Si function and his Narcissistic personality style, where the Narcissism provides the brazenness for dragging the rest of the world into the narrowly focused and heavily personalized perceptions of Si. It also appears that, intrapsychically, there is an interaction between the two where past impressions and factual accomplishments continually reinforce the grandiose self-image that West cannot help but portray.<\/p>\n<p>While all Narcissistic personalities rely on past successes to \u201ckeep themselves warm,\u201d West\u2019s grandiosity is often grounded in statements that are uniquely factual and impression-based, in contradistinction to the more flighty and ideational cognitive style that is seen in most Narcissists (even S type Narcissists).[9] For example, as he says in his <em>First MTV Interview<\/em> from 2002:<\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 30px;\">\u201cIf you\u2019re taught you can\u2019t do anything, you won\u2019t do anything. I was taught I could do everything.\u201d<\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 30px;\">\u201cIt was instilled in me to just go out and get it.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>West is noted for making outrageously grandiose statements (such as: \u201cMy greatest pain in life is that I will never be able to see myself perform live.\u201d). An argument that is often seen against the possibility of Fe, or ISFJ, is that such outrageous, off-the-wall, and \u201cself-interested\u201d statements must bear witness to an Ne-Fi (NFP) disposition. However, as opposed to personality systems like the <a href=\"\/big-five\/test.php\">Big Five<\/a>, Jungian typology is not so much about the \u2018what\u2019 as it is about the \u2018why.\u2019 Reverse-engineering West\u2019s behavior to the most suitable functions of consciousness is the \u2018what\u2019: It is an extrovertive approach to personality studies. Trying to interpret the cognitive processes and motivations that underlie the person\u2019s behavior is the \u2018why.\u2019<\/p>\n<p><strong>The Narcissistic Adaptation<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>As a pattern of consciousness, one of Si\u2019s dispositions is to absorb and reinforce the lessons taught by experience, forming accurate, deep, and rich impressions of the way in which reality was brought to bear on the Si type. Since a child\u2019s caregivers and role models will often be central components of the person\u2019s reality in childhood, one may often see Si types referring to the lessons <a href=\"\/infographic\/ford-dependent-vs-carter-compulsive.php\">imparted to them by their role models<\/a> as, by comparison, Si types are uniquely suited to pay attention and hold on to those lessons from early childhood on.<\/p>\n<p>In West\u2019s case, he had quite an unusual mother who instilled in him from an early age that he was uniquely talented and destined for greatness. As she recounts in her memoir:<\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 30px;\">\u201cEveryone prays for their child to be healthy. \u2026 I prayed for my child to be healthy <em>and<\/em> brilliant. [When he was seven months old] I knew my prayers had been answered &#8211; beyond my wildest imagination. I never imagined that I would be the mother of someone quite as unique as Kanye West, someone God had chosen to do something very special in the world.\u201d \u2013 Donda West: <em>Raising Kanye<\/em> (Gallery Books 2009) p. 2<\/p>\n<p>As Donda West continues to make clear in her memoir, she raised West with the constant reinforcement of the notion that he was special and that he would (indeed: must) grow up to do special things. Thus she fostered what psychologists would call the \u201cgrandiose self\u201d and sowed the seeds for the development of his Narcissistic style.<\/p>\n<p>Interestingly, she also encouraged him to think for himself and to speak his mind:<\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 30px;\">\u201cOne of the biggest challenges for me \u2026 was how to discipline Kanye without killing his spirit \u2026 give him boundaries that would keep him within the parameters of what is appropriate. You may laugh and ask, &#8216;Kanye, appropriate?&#8217; And to that I would reply, &#8216;Yes, appropriate.&#8217; To me, being appropriate does not always mean conforming. Often it means just the opposite. Sometimes, refusing to conform and even confronting is not only appropriate but necessary to change the world for the better.\u201d \u2013 Donda West: <em>Raising Kanye<\/em>\u00a0p. 8<\/p>\n<p>Not only did West\u2019s mother encourage him to speak out, she instilled an equivalence in him between acting appropriately and acting defiantly, going against the predominating mores when the situation called for it.<\/p>\n<p>It is furthermore worth noting that Donda West describes her son\u2019s temperament as naturally conforming and obedient:<\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 30px;\">\u201cRarely did I tell Kanye no. I gave him most everything he asked for. &#8230; Why? Because Kanye earned it. \u2026 He was a good kid. Had he not been, things would have been different. Had he talked back to me and refused to do what I asked of him, I would not have rewarded him. To do so would have been to enable a brat, not raise a child.\u201d \u2013 Donda West: <em>Raising Kanye<\/em> p. 9<\/p>\n<p>Donda West\u2019s description comes close to how von Franz and van der Hoop describe the default disposition of the Si type in childhood as being passive and receptive, and West himself has stressed on countless occasions how he always looked up to his mother and took his cues from her.[10] Again the analysis leads us to the conclusion that the grandiose and intemperate facade is a <em>functional<\/em>, adapted layer of the personality, whereas the deeper-lying <em>structural<\/em> properties of West\u2019s personality are quite different.<\/p>\n<p>Hence, rather than expecting ISFJs to align themselves with convention and always act appropriately, it would be more reasonable to expect ISFJs to align themselves with what they subjectively associate with these values. In West\u2019s case, he was taught to trust in his own judgments and to speak out against perceived unfairness, even if others did not.<\/p>\n<p>This approach still isn\u2019t perfect, as a person\u2019s values are still mental <em>contents<\/em>. But it\u2019s certainly better than the <a href=\"\/infographic\/nt-and-nf-traits.php\">trait-based<\/a> arguments that are usually given for West as an Fi type. In fact, when attempting to pay more attention to the functions themselves, one may often come across mental processes in West that bear witness to an <a href=\"https:\/\/www.idrlabs.com\/articles\/2015\/03\/determining-function-axes-part-3\/\">Fe\/Ti configuration<\/a>:<\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 30px;\">\u201cThe idea is more important than our personal well-being. That\u2019s the reason why a lot of time I\u2019ll say things that are not for my personal well-being. For people to create for their personal well-being is a very selfish way to create \u2026 creating to make your life better, as opposed to creating to make everyone\u2019s life better.\u201d \u2013 West: <em>You Have to Take the Lashes of Backlash<\/em> Bloomberg Television 2014<\/p>\n<p><strong>Grandiosity and Redemption Themes in African-American Culture<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Finally, I will end this piece by calling attention to certain properties and themes of contemporary African-American culture. As I said in the beginning, the non-constant culture and <em>zeitgeist <\/em>that the individual finds himself in will often influence his mental contents to a strong degree \u2013 a premise that will invariably grow in cogency when dealing with the Si type. Hence, to make sure that we are understanding the individual in relation to his culture, and not mistaking the culture for the\u00a0type, we should understand a few sociological facts about African-American culture.<\/p>\n<p>While some have contended that West\u2019s demonstrations of self-love and extravagance are mere examples of personal vanity, there is evidence to suggest that this is not the whole story. Indeed, to some African-American community leaders, self-love may well be a political act, aimed at redeeming the African-American community from its downtrodden history through unapologetic self-affirmation.[11]\u00a0 Within this cultural prism, flaunting one\u2019s success, and reveling in one\u2019s own awesomeness, is seen as a way to counteract the past marginalization of the African-American community &#8211; exploding the burden of black stereotypes by turning them on their head and portraying oneself as akin to a\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.idrlabs.com\/articles\/2015\/04\/the-greek-loves-agape\/\">\u201chuman, all too human\u201d Greek god<\/a>: Shamelessly self-indulgent and self-accepting, while at the same time being resplendently above it all.<\/p>\n<p>For his part, West has given a number of remarks to indicate that his acts are at least partially influenced by this tradition of African-American grandiosity and \u201cGreek god\u201d dandyism and that they could be seen as one reason for his behavioral extravagance. In an interview with Bloomberg Television, he said: \u201cBlack people are allowed to wear big chains and name [the brands of clothing] they have on, to say out loud what [their] stuff costs.\u201d[12] Or, in an interview with The New York Times, he said: \u201cThat\u2019s how I was raised. I am in the lineage of Gil Scott-Heron, great activist-type artists. But I\u2019m also in the lineage of a Miles Davis &#8211; you know, that liked nice things also.\u201d And further: &#8220;I think that\u2019s a responsibility that I have, to push possibilities, to show people: &#8216;This is the level that things could be at.&#8217; &#8230;\u00a0The passion is for the 18-year-old version of myself. The passion is for the kids at my shows. I need to do more. I need to be able to give people more of what they want that currently is behind a glass [to them].&#8221;[13]<\/p>\n<p><strong>NOTES<\/strong><strong><br \/>\n<\/strong><\/p>\n<hr \/>\n<p>[1] Von Franz: Psychotherapy (Shambhala 1993) pp. 68-69<\/p>\n<p>[2] Myers: Gifts Differing (Davies Black 1995) p. 80<\/p>\n<p>[3] Trammell: All the Times Kanye West Gave His Own Awards to Someone Else (Fader Magazine 2015)<\/p>\n<p>[4] Myers: Gifts Differing p. 80<\/p>\n<p>[5] West, quoted in Carnamanica: Behind Kanye\u2019s Mask (The New York Times 2013)<\/p>\n<p>[6] Stepping out of the argument, if I may be allowed a personal aside, the same pattern may also be observed in West\u2019s own stated mentality concerning his recent attempts to break into the fashion industry: \u201cI have put in my 10,000 hours,\u201d he said in reference to a commonly-known regimen for success introduced in Malcolm Gladwell\u2019s <em>Outliers<\/em>. West\u2019s foray into fashion has been met with a mixed reception, and in interviews, his reactions betray a struggle to come to terms with the opacity of the \u201crules\u201d for achieving success in that field. He seems eager to subject all his knowledge to a predictable regimen and becomes frustrated when he is not able to do so. Having a hard time disengaging from his personalized and deeply-keeled sense impressions, he struggles to reconcile the diligence and thoroughness that he knows he has put into the effort with its apparent lack of success.<\/p>\n<p>[7] Von Franz: Lectures on Jung\u2019s Typology (Spring 1971) p. 27<\/p>\n<p>[8] Jung: Psychological Types \u00a7650<\/p>\n<p>[9] Millon &amp; Grossman:\u00a0 Overcoming Resistant Personality Disorders (Wiley 2007) p. 135<\/p>\n<p>[10] Kanye West: Foreword to Raising Kanye (Gallery Books 2009), cf. Van der Hoop: Conscious Orientation p. 31, and von Franz: Lectures on Jung\u2019s Typology p. 27<\/p>\n<p>[11] Miller: Slaves to Fashion: Black Dandyism and the Styling of Black Diasporic Identity (Duke University Press 2009)<\/p>\n<p>[12] West: You Have to Take the Lashes of Backlash Bloomberg Television 2014<\/p>\n<p>[13] West, quoted in Carnamanica: Behind Kanye\u2019s Mask (The New York Times 2013)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>By Boye Akinwande, with additions by Eva Gregersen As I\u2019m sure may currently be the case for many of you, I was quite skeptical of CelebrityTypes\u2019 type assessment of Kanye West as an ISFJ when I first came across it. At the time of this writing, there appears to be no \u201cdefault\u201d\u00a0assessment of West\u2019s type,[\u2026] <a class=\"continue-reading\" href=\"https:\/\/www.idrlabs.com\/articles\/2015\/09\/why-kanye-west-is-isfj\/\">Continue Reading<i class=\"demo-icon icon-right-circled2\"><\/i><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-6631","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-psychology"],"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.idrlabs.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6631","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.idrlabs.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.idrlabs.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.idrlabs.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.idrlabs.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6631"}],"version-history":[{"count":25,"href":"https:\/\/www.idrlabs.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6631\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7428,"href":"https:\/\/www.idrlabs.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6631\/revisions\/7428"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.idrlabs.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6631"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.idrlabs.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6631"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.idrlabs.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6631"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}