Type 5: The Observer

As an Observer, you believe that to want is to lack. You strive for self-sufficiency and independence as protection from intrusion. You dread being drained or depleted, so you conserve your energy by retracting into your mind with avarice for private time, space and knowledge. This avarice plays out in the three instinctual subtype behaviors.

Self-preservation: Home/castle

What better place to protect your boundaries of privacy and person than in your own space? Through the sanctuary of your own mind or special place, you can keep others out or guard their access to you. You have avarice for your own space, whether it’s your mind, room, home or castle. In this way, you can preserve your time and energy, acquire more knowledge, build a storehouse of necessary subsistence items and assure your survival. As an Observer, you keep your precious independence by needing very little and hoarding what you think that you need. You experience pleasure doing with less, and often spurn possession and luxuries, You cling to whatever you believe assures your independence – money, books, energy, collections, food stores, even traveling from place to place with your backpack. No one owns you nor do you own anyone. You can obtain your sufficiency, so you believe, by assuring boundaries and the sanctuary of your place and person. At your worst, you can become so retracted that you end up lonely and lacking nurturance.

Social: Totems

We all need to belong. As an Observer with avarice for knowledge, time and energy, this is no easy matter. Your avarice manifests through cleaving to totems, the representation of things that a group shares, but is one step removed from ordinary involvement. Needing a knowledge-based role that buffers you from direct access, you are attracted to groups that share special knowledge, such as a field of study or systems, or a shared intellectual pursuit. You have avarice for and affiliate with people or groups who influence culture, events and seek greater knowledge through the power of the mind. You align in the mental domain with leaders, movements and systems where knowledge is valued and shared, such as history and philosophy groups, scientific and technical endeavors, sports expertise, and literary or art interests. Here you feel needed, comfortable and a part of things. You attempt to obtain sufficiency through knowledge that befits the group. At your worst, you use totems, whatever they might be, as a substitute for heartfelt human contact, paradoxically isolating yourself from others.

One-to-One: Confidence

You bond to special others by sharing confidential information, private knowledge, your energy and even feelings. In these sacred, necessary relationships you don’t need to hide or guard your boundaries. Your avarice shows as you move back within yourself for replenishment. You then can treasure the experience in your mind and memory. You release your boundaries of privacy in intense, often physical encounters. Key disclosures are made and treasured for a “lifetime” when recreated in your imagination. These shared confidences assuage the loneliness that comes from isolating yourself from feelings while maintaining your autonomy and power. At your worst, the intense one-to-one sharing can operate like an on-off switch, to the dismay of special others.

Instinctual subtype descriptions: