Extraverted Sensation (Se)

What does Lenore mean by extraverted sensation? (Often abbreviated "Se".)

Quasi-Defining Statements

p. 145: "As a right-brain function, Sensation comes into play when events are changing so rapidly that linear analysis is impossible. We respond immediately, on the basis of visual and tactile information, guided by what we've done before."

p. 145: "Once we...know how to dance, we aren't thinking about rules or instructions. We're directly engaged by our surface perceptions--the rhythm of the music, the movements of a partner. We're changing as our situation does."

p. 146: "[Quoting Pirsig] 'The material at hand determines his thoughts and motions, which simultaneously change the nature of the material at hand. The material and his thoughts are changing together in a progression of changes.'"

p. 146: "It happens when we're kneading bread and the pressure of our hands changes with the texture of the dough. It happens when we're moving a ball downcourt for a chance at the hoop. It happens when we're driving, alert to a whole field of sights and sounds. It happens when we're playing in a band. It happens when we're knitting a sweater. Every time our actions are changing immediately and directly in concert with our surface perceptions, we're drawing on Extraverted Sensation."

As a dominant attitude:

p. 146: "The only way to cultivate Extraverted Sensation is by hands-on involvement--by strengthening the link between sensory perception and neural response. Our bodies have to get into the act. For types who use this function as their primary approach to life, true knowledge is always concrete, a product of firsthand experience."

As an inferior function:

p.235-36, on INJs: However, when these types are defending their inner world against inferior aims, they invariably focus on terms that suggest a sensate viewpoint--that is, one determined by surface criteria: gender, race, color, and so forth.

Proposed definitions

#1: Orientation by the observable

Extraverted Sensation (Se) is the attitude that whatever is manifest (apparent, observable) calls forth an obvious and natural response, that has nothing to do with the way you need to respond in any other moment. The meaning of everything is readily apparent--at the time that it appears. Whatever stands out and gets your attention here and now is precisely what needs your attention here and now. Your instincts at each moment will tell you what to do; there is no point in anticipating.

Definition #2: Orientation by gut

Extraverted Sensation is orientation to your environment by immediate, gut-level response. "Trust your gut." Orienting to your environment this way, you don't think, you don't reflect, you just react. If you feel disgusted by something, you back off from it. If you like something, you dive into it. If you feel like bopping someone on the head because they made you mad, you bop them on the head. You completely trust your immediate, instinctive response.

To orient yourself the Se way, the meaning of the signs you encounter must be obvious and trustworthy, without your having to think. If your natural response or interpretation of something is wrong or doesn't immediately work, you can't deal with it.

When you are oriented in the Se way, you live completely in the moment. You respond now to what is happening now. What happens later, you'll deal with later. What's happened in the past is irrelevant.

As a language of ego orientation

As a dominant function, Se leads to live a life of fun and pleasure, enjoying the now. From an unmitigated Se perspective, what there is to do in life is get attention and make a visible impact in the world: create a spectacle, be popular and well-liked, enjoy wine, women, and song, go along with the crowd (that's where the action is), dress fashionably, see and be seen, eat at the hippest restaurants, and generally "have a good time". If it looks good, if it feels good, what else matters? They cultivate a public image to fit what is attractive according to the currently prevailing standards of their culture (see Orientation by Pop Culture), and they merrily shift along with shifting fashions. They learn what "plays", and they play to that. They don't worry about internal contradictions, or continuity of present behavior with past traditions, or long-term consequences. They do what gets an immediate effect right now, of a sort that requires no explanation. What you do from an Se perspective is plain to everyone. From an Se perspective, anything complicated is mere speculation. What's true is what works now. Whether it works tomorrow is a matter for tomorrow. They negotiate for every physical pleasure they can possibly get, and they negotiate hard. They develop a gut sense for reading what a person really wants, and what a person really fears, and they work that for all it's worth.

As a secondary function, Se leads to make "what plays" into the object of their thoughts. The world of appearance and spectacle provides them with a subject matter to analyze and comment on from an outside perspective, especially to point out (from the sidelines) how people are attempting to be cool but failing, ha ha. often see themselves as the true leading edge of cool, hipper than hip, into what becomes popular before it becomes popular. As a path of further development and expansion of consciousness, Se shows how to "go with the flow", to "accept" what is, to "be present" to what is happening right now, recognizing that they can't control it. Incorporating an Se way of orienting themselves, they find a way for their dominant moral perspective to bear fruit in any circumstances they find themselves in. Their dominant function has led them to cultivate a way of being, or state of grace, that feels possible only in a private space, where public perception is not a factor (e.g. Michael Jackson's Never-Never Land Ranch). Se tunes them in to public perception in a way that enables them to fully be themselves wherever they are, freely giving their gifts to all comers, and unconditionally accepting the results.

As a tertiary function, Se often leads to maintain a certain show of force. If reason won't persuade you to play along sensibly, maybe that rifle on my wall will. I won't say anything explicit, but you know as well as I do that we don't want to go there. The unstated threat need not be violent, of course. It might just be to fire you. There's always something in the ENJ's bargaining position held in reserve, which would really pinch if he used it, and you know at a gut level that he wouldn't hesitate to use it if you got out of line. Some depend heavily on a Douglas Macarthur-like sense of theatrics and spectacle to keep the masses bedazzled while they do what they think needs doing. Sometimes tertiary Se leads to practice a peculiar philosophy of "honesty": the sort where if you feel like punching someone in the face, you view it as "dishonest" to refrain from doing so--a philosophy of giving vent to whatever your animal nature comes up with at the moment, and having the "courage" to deal with the consequences without anticipating them. Mild forms include yelling louder than someone to win an argument, or demonstrating by your physical demeanor that you are viscerally more committed to something than an opponent. From the Se perspective, "in a conflict, the more committed party always wins." (An Ni perspective would lead you to search for a third way, one that dissolves the conflict rather than winning it.)

As an inferior function, Se often leads in either (or both) of two directions: to shun everything of a bodily nature as corrupt and animal (e.g. Immanuel Kant), or to crave "letting loose" and table-dancing or delivering some serious violence. In the grip of the inferior function, they try to make others feel weak by displays of physical power (or trying to get others to compare themselves with physically powerful people), but usually end up only making themselves feel like helpless bugs. "See how POWERFUL I am? See my ANIMAL MAGNETISM?" Some get into guns or karate, taking an off-kilter delight in fantasies of getting into a confrontation with someone and surprising the hell out of them with the damage they can do (see Taxi Driver). Some idolize jazz musicians as people who are completely in touch with their animal selves, able to "let go". Some join academic cliques where the object is to make other people feel unpopular by snubbing them for not being up on the latest intellectual fashions--a sort of faux popularity contest, where the wider social standards are reversed and the most unintelligible gibberish gets the most attention. Some use esoteric jazz or modern art to make a twisted marriage of Ni and Se: "It might sound like an incoherent mish-mash of notes to you, but that only shows that you lack the finer discernment of the really cool people." A different way, perhaps the genuine reunification with the inferior function, is to find an unconditional pleasure in "the now" and a peaceful, live-and-let-live philosophy--enjoying each moment, "being present" no matter what comes.

Less dramatic, more recreational (and more common) forms of tertiary and inferior Se include athletics and engaging in physically dangerous activities, like auto racing and bungee jumping--providing the participants visceral proof that they have power over the physical world. Or simply enjoying these activities in a pure way, for the thrills they offer, no differently than an SP.

Naturally, you can see plenty of dominant-style Se in ISPs, secondary-style in ESPs, tertiary-style in INJs, even inferior-style in (criminal) ESPs, etc.

Extraverted Sensation in the New Testament?

Matthew 6:28-34

And why take ye thought for raiment [clothing]? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow; they toil not, neither do they spin: and yet I say unto you, that even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these. Wherefore, if God so clothe the grass of the field, which to day is, and to morrow is cast into the oven, shall he not much more clothe you, O ye of little faith?

Therefore take no thought, saying, What shall we eat? or, What shall we drink? or, Wherewithal shall we be clothed? (For after all these things do the Gentiles seek:) for your heavenly Father knoweth that ye have need of all these things. But seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you.

Take therefore no thought for the morrow: for the morrow shall take thought for the things of itself.

Negotiation, Se-style

When people negotiate Se-style, they make it viscerally apparent that pleasure immediately follows doing as they want and pain immediately follows turning them down.

The sort of negotiation that Joe Pesci's characters engage in in movies would be a hyper-Se form of ESTP-style negotiation. The person he is dealing with knows, at a physical, visceral, undebatable level, that he will be much happier if he plays along. Joe Pesci's characters expand their power, influence, and sense of who they are by sensing what viscerally matters to the people around them and using it.

As an inferior function

p.235-36, on INJs: However, when these types are defending their inner world against inferior aims, they invariably focus on terms that suggest a sensate viewpoint--that is, one determined by surface criteria: gender, race, color, and so forth.

("So forth" would also be things like "chair", "table", "nerd", etc....) Chair and table??? Explain?

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See Orientation by Pop Culture.

See also: Elmer Gantry