Did you know that Isabel Briggs Myers wrote a novel called, “Give Me Death,” that was virulently racist?
Yes, she was one of the women who developed the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator test. (And apparently, there are Personality Type YouTubers? 🤔)
I watched ‘Persona: The Dark Truth Behind Personality Tests,’ yesterday, and I recalled that fact about “Give Me Death.” I remember hearing it years ago when I was taking Psychology courses, but it was a fact that I stored away in my long-term memory.
That’s a disturbing fact, right?
When I learned that there are Personality Type YouTubers in the documentary, it was expected in today’s social media age. But it is just as annoying to me as women constantly tweeting about their astrological sign, and how they can only be with Leos or some shit. (You do know that is pseudoscience, right?)
But I bawled my eyes out learning that Kyle Behm succumbed to his depression. I know what it is like to ask yourself, ‘What is wrong with me?’ To feel worthless, to feel that you’re not deserving of love, and to always be struggling to be content with oneself.
I know I’m an introvert, I never required a personality test to inform me of that. It is definitely why I could never be a stripper, and most likely played a role in why adult companies did not shoot me as often as I would’ve liked.
I also answered personality type questions on job applications over the years:
“You rarely feel insecure.”
Strongly Disagree.
Red flag. 🚩
The trauma an individual may experience throughout their lifetime will determine how they answer these questions. And if you are like me, who tends to be too honest for her own fucking good, you probably will struggle to find employment.
It’s fucked up to me that the intention behind creating the MBTI was to create empathy in society, to then learn how racist she was, and how the test is now being used to propagate white male ideals.
We need to understand that this was just a theory. We should not be closing ourselves off to those personalities who are completely different from ours.
The idea that only privileged people (and by privileged, I mean those who are overall happy with life), should only be given more opportunities to succeed is perpetuating this endless cycle where the depressed will just keep harming themselves.
I do not think depressed and lonely individuals are bad people. We just carry so much sadness within ourselves, and we just want others to recognize that we still have worth.