Michael's Framework of Personality

• Personalities have four components — Goals, Modes, Attitudes and Flaws
• There are generally two directions. Cardinal pertains to the proactive and expansive aspect. Ordinal pertains to the reactive and inward-looking goal. A Neutral direction pertains to the middle of cardinal and ordinal.

Goals §

• The Goal is the overall direction life takes. It guides life decisions.

  • Inspiration goals focus on realizing our potential and on raw experiences.
  • Action goals are about focusing on will and power relative to others.
  • Expression goals are about relationships between ourselves and others.

• Growth (Cardinal Inspiration) - being inspired to continuously learn, develop, and realize more of one’s potential. To learn with raw experience and challenges. To search for insight and wisdom.

  • Positive Pole: Comprehension / Evolution - to learn from advancement and to make sense of everything.
  • Negative Pole Confusion / Overwhelming - a sense of being lost and unable to take everything in as everything happens in a fast rate. Developing negative dependencies

• Retardation (Ordinal Inspiration) - to minimize the pace and intensity of life experiences. To make life constrained and uncomplicated. It aims to contemplate, re-evaluate and focus inwards — with one’s thoughts and feelings.

  • Positive Pole: Simplicity / Atavism - to enjoy a life that is deliberately slow-paced, even if it were primitive compared to the modern world.
  • Negative Pole: Withdrawal / Solipsism - to be completely fearful of the outside world, potentially seeking oblivion.

• Acceptance (Cardinal Expression) - to seek harmonious, relationships. To demonstrate the commonality of everyone despite any obstacles or challenges that threaten to divide and separate. To accept others.

  • Positive Pole: Agape / Altruism - an unrestrained compassion and loving-kindness.
  • Negative Pole: Ingratiation / Sycophancy - constantly seeking signs of acceptance from others. Conforming without thinking.

• Rejection (Ordinal Expression) - to reject any requirement of fitting in with others. To be an individualist — true to oneself and free from the influence of others’ opinions.

  • Positive Pole: Discrimination / Sophistication - to demonstrate great discernment. To say things as they are even if they may hurt.
  • Negative Pole: Prejudice / Misanthropy - a loathing towards others, especially to those who are different. To say things that hurt even if they are not true.

• Dominance (Cardinal Action) - to seek power and influence over others. To assert control and change the world around them. To lead rather than to follow.

  • Positive Pole: Leadership - to take responsibility for outcomes and one’s subordinate.
  • Negative Pole: Dictatorship - to be overbearing. To seek the ends regardless of the means.

• Submission (Ordinal Action) - to yield one’s own will to a higher power. To devote themselves in service of a higher cause or power.

  • Positive Pole: Devotion / Dedication - consciously committing oneself to someone else.
  • Negative Pole: Subservience / Docility - to obey out of a fear of failure. Being unable to take charge of one’s own life.

• Relaxation (Neutral Assimilation) - life is not a means to an end. The goal is to live effortlessly and be present. To go with the flow of life itself. It doesn’t necessarily mean being passive, some effort may be needed to enjoy life. The challenge is not to stagnate, to enjoy life as is, and to live with a society that values ambition .

  • Positive Pole: Flow / Contentment - to contentedly relax into alignment with the natural unfolding of life
  • Negative Pole: Stagnation / Apathy - to sink and stagnate. To live without a purpose.

Modes §

• The Mode defines how a person acts, especially in service of the goal. Modes are dynamic in that we can adapt different modes easily.

  • Inspiration modes are focused on the inner emotional experience of moving to action
  • Expression modes are focused on confidence
  • Action modes are focused on getting things done.

• Passion (Cardinal Inspiration) - investing wholeheartedly in one’s activity and immersing oneself in the intensity of the moment.

  • Positive Pole: Self-Actualization - acting with deep involvement
  • Negative Pole: Identification - fanaticism; being unable to take an objective view to things.

• Repression (Ordinal Inspiration) - remove personal feelings from one’s activity

  • Positive Pole: Reserve - acting with inner focus, grace, and discipline.
  • Negative Pole: Inhibition - excessively blocking the self.

• Power (Cardinal Expression)- to act with great certainty and confidence.

  • Positive Pole: Authority - acting boldly and with confidence in one’s own abilities.
  • Negative Pole: Oppression - being overconfident, overpowering, or prideful

• Caution (Ordinal Expression) - to act with the knowledge of one’s lack of knowledge and being mindful of risk.

  • Positive Pole: Deliberation - being prudent and forward thinking.
  • Negative Pole: Aversion - being indecisive, hesitant or anxious

• Aggression (Cardinal Action) - to act with force and achieve immediate impact. To power through obstacles.

  • Positive Pole: Dynamism - acting with vigor and force.
  • Negative Pole: Belligerence - to act aggressively and with too much assertiveness.

• Perseverance (Ordinal Action) - to act with persistence regardless of challenge

  • Positive Pole: Persistence - determination; to be able to endure.
  • Negative Pole: Immutability - to be inflexible, unable to change course.

• Observation (Neutral Assimilation) - to watch what happens instead of acting immediately.

  • Positive Pole: Clarity - vigilance; anticipating what would happen, being pragmatic and piqued.
  • Negative Pole: Surveillance - paranoia; watching without acting.

Attitude §

• One’s Attitude defines how one sees themselves and the world in general. Every attitude is some form of personal Philosophy.

  • Inspiration attitudes are focused on giving life a sense of order and meaning.
  • Expression attitudes are focused on the intellectual views of life.
  • Action attitudes are focused on the hard facts which can be acted upon

• Spiritualism (Cardinal Inspiration) - to look at life in whatever way feels good. To see life as having a higher meaning because of something transcendent.

  • Positive Pole: Verification - ensuring one’s belief fits one’s lived experiences.
  • Negative Pole: Credulity - blind faith regardless of experience.

• Stoicism (Ordinal Inspiration) - to refuse any experience of life disturb their inner calm.

  • Positive Pole: Tranquility - to view suffering as tolerable because it is meaningful.
  • Negative Pole: Resignation - to view suffering as inevitable.

• Idealism (Cardinal Expression) - to look beyond the facts to some form of ideal.

  • Positive Pole: Coalescence - looking for ideas that make better sense of things; simplicity amidst complexity.
  • Negative Pole: Naivete - blindly assuming things make perfect sense and all will work out in the end.

• Skepticism (Ordinal Expression) - to critically examine or dismiss dubious ideas.

  • Positive Pole: Investigation - check the validity of ideas that seem too good to be true.
  • Negative Pole: Suspicion - blind doubt. Immediately dismissing ideas.

• Realism (Cardinal Action) - use facts to make the most reasonable actions and conclusions.

  • Positive Pole: Perceptiveness - making conclusions based on assessments of all knowns and unknowns.
  • Negative Pole: Supposition - being too speculative, ignoring the unknowns and relying on weak evidence.

• Cynicism (Ordinal Action) - to challenge non-facts; to refuse to be misled by mere ideas or beliefs.

  • Positive Pole: Contradiction - critical thinking, exposing falsehoods.
  • Negative Pole: Denigration - belittling others with prejudice, being dismissive of other perspectives.

• Pragmatism (Neutral Assimilation)- to apply any perspective on the fly based on what suits the current situation

  • Positive Pole: Practicality - adopting whatever perspective works.
  • Negative Pole: Dogmatism - blindly assuming that the first perspective that comes to mind is the right way to look at things.

Flaws §

• There are seven aspects of character flaws. There are parallels to the Seven Deadly Sins.

• Impatience - the character hates it whenever anything interferes with their will.

  • They fear missing out — being unable to squeeze the maximum value out of every single second of life.
  • Positive Pole: Audacity - to being willing to take risks.
  • Negative Pole: Intolerance - being unable to accept disturbance.

• Martyrdom - the character feels a constant need to blame others for their own actions, as though they have no will of their own.

  • They fear being of no value to anyone while at the same time feeling that they are being unfairly blamed. They believe that such blame is valid.
  • Positive Pole: Selflessness - a conscious willingness to put others first. If genuine, it may be seen as selfless commitment to others.
  • Negative Pole: Mortification - self inflicted suffering. To believe that suffering is necessary

• Greed - the character feels a need to grasp and hoard as though there were an intolerable lack of some vital substance.

  • They fear lacking something (whatever it may be). Thus, they crave this needed thing or envy others who have that thing. This fear may cause one to feel that any gains are not enough because the resulting pleasure was transient.
  • Positive Pole: Egoism - self-centered acquisitiveness. To satisfy one’s need and desires.
  • Negative Pole: Voracity - to acquire more than what is necessary and deprive others of it, regardless of what it takes.

• Self-Destruction - the character’s very existence is increasingly intolerable. There is a constant inner turmoil that makes them want to get away from themselves

  • They fear losing control and being vulnerable. They want to take back control of their life but do so with substitute habits
  • Positive Pole: Sacrifice - self-destruction under conscious control. To deliberately give up something for a good cause rather than fear
  • Negative Pole: Suicide - the loss of life to eliminate inner conflict.

• Arrogance - the character feels a need to be seen as better than others because being ordinary is intolerable

  • They fear any vulnerability due to negative perceptions from others.
  • Positive Pole: Pride - a sense of self-esteem and self-worth — recognizing one’s own good qualities.
  • Negative Pole: Vanity - unjustified pride — regarding others as inferior and the self as superior

• Self-deprecation - the character feels a need to be seen as little as possible because they believe themselves to be miserably inadequate. \

  • They fear never being enough to please others — they see themselves as inferior.
  • Positive Pole: Humility - a state of little ego, recognizing the self as ordinary.
  • Negative Pole: Self-abasement - a state of unwarranted humility to the point of degradation.

• Stubbornness - the character feels a need to keep all things just as they are and resist any outside influence, even positive ones.

  • They fear being in unfamiliar circumstances.
  • Positive Pole: Determination - to maintain the status quo because it makes sense.
  • Negative Pole: Obstinacy - to maintain the status quo regardless of logic or desirability.

• Under this system, we can observe parallels to Jungian archetypes

  • The persona layer is the cover to hide the shadow.
  • The shadow is hidden underneath a layer of negativity and denial. It is single-minded, desperate, being driven by their worst fears.
  • Fear is at the core of emotions. This is reminiscent of the Enneagram of Personality. The character’s flaw is an attempt to avoid a kind of fear.

• Each chief feature has a fundamental fear associated with them. They are characterized with stopping this fear from coming true.

Chief Feature	Fear	Sin
Self-Deprecation	Inadequacy	Envy
Self-Destruction	Loss of Control	Gluttony
Martyrdom	Worthlessness	Lust
Stubbornness	Change / New situations	Sloth
Greed	Lack, not having enough	Greed
Arrogance	Vulnerability	Pride
Impatience	Missed / Loss Opportunities	Wrath

Links §

• Michael’s Teachings