Type 4

The Artist, the Dreamer

Overview

4s are drawn to authenticity, originality, individuality, and artistic expression. They’re often sensitive, expressive, passionate, and spiritual—people who want to make the world more beautiful. Deeply attuned to their inner life and to others, they seek a profound, genuine understanding of themselves and the people around them. Highly imaginative, they can become powerful sources of inspiration when they emerge from their reveries and share what they see. 4s feel most alive when they creatively express their uniqueness through personal experience and heartfelt emotion.

Core Avoidance

Often unconsciously, 4s go to great lengths to avoid the ordinary. They do whatever they can to steer clear of feeling rejected, insignificant, misunderstood, or inauthentic. Underneath is a fear of being undesirable without their “specialness” and of being emotionally abandoned.

Focus of Attention & Motivation

4s’ attention gravitates toward the past and the future, toward what’s hard to obtain (a longing for the unattainable), and toward what feels missing. They search for meaning and are especially susceptible to waves of nostalgia.
4s are fueled by artistic expression and a drive for originality and authenticity—they want to make the world more beautiful. They need their creativity to be recognized and have a strong sense of individuality. Expressing their creativity is essential to their well-being.

Core Vice & Defense Mechanism

When caught in their avoidance of the ordinary, 4s’ core vice is envy. They compare themselves to others and can feel envious when others seem to have what they lack—relationships, happiness, or recognition. Their primary defense is introjection: taking in painful feelings as if they originated within. 4s may “absorb” important others and experience them as part of the self. For example, if someone meaningful criticizes a 4, they might internalize that criticism and experience it as an inner voice. 4s often introject negative experiences because doing so can feel easier to manage than confronting them externally.

At Their Best

When they’re grounded and not driven by avoidance, 4s are expressive, introspective, empathetic, compassionate, idealistic, and passionate.
They thrive when they can freely express emotions that matter to them and are accepted as they are. In this state, they move toward their integration point (Type 1), and the best qualities of One enrich them: they become more rational, conscientious, objective, realistic, and organized.

Under Stress

When under stress and in the grip of avoidance, 4s can become moody, emotionally volatile, capricious, melancholic, and self-absorbed.
If things worsen, they move toward their disintegration point (Type 2), taking on its less healthy traits—becoming more reactive, compulsive, dramatic, and despairing.

Wings

Type 4’s neighboring types are 3 and 5. The “wing” is the neighboring type that most influences the core type.
4w3s tend to be more extroverted, ambitious, and dynamic—but also more image-conscious and potentially elitist.
4w5s tend to be more introverted, enigmatic, and intellectual—but also more withdrawn and solitary.