Have you ever wondered how some musicians are able to craft emotionally rich lyrics and pair them with emotionally moving music so perfectly? (Music is the language of pure emotion, after all.) Yes, it is an art that takes some time to perfect; but there’s also a physiological explanation, or at least a partial explanation. Musicians are more in-tune with human emotions than non-musicians. Studying music (crafting music, not just listening) gives people an advantage over non-musicians in detecting emotional changes through faint changes in tone and pitch that are missed by non-musicians. Musical training involves listening for patterns and nuances in music and knowing how adding something will alter the musical (and emotional) integrity of the whole, and musicians’ nervous systems are better able to identify and utilize relevant patterns in music and speech alike.

Not only that, but musicians are more easily able to filter out background noise to focus on a human voice, meaning that they’re doubly better at detecting emotion in, say, a crowded bar or restaurant. Musical training also involves picking your notes out from all of the others that are played, and identifying which notes are most relevant to yours.

Why is this? Studying music actually re-wires the brain to be this way. It makes us not only more adept at detecting emotions, but also at expressing and thinking about them. Going back to my point of music being a language of pure emotion, just like speech makers have studied rhetoric and know how to quickly and succinctly make their point with their words and their tone, musicians study the emotion that music conveys, and they eventually get much better at detecting subtle variations and manipulations in this emotion. It’s not a stretch to carry this over from music to human interaction.

The effect isn’t like an on/off switch—it’s a part of the brain that’s like a muscle in that it gets stronger or weaker depending on how much and how often you use it. People who play music regularly for years have much more highly developed subcortical sensory circuitry than people who don’t. So picking up the guitar tomorrow probably won’t have an immediate effect, although playing several times a week for a few years will have a significant effect.

I’m on a roll! I also made some guesses as to the Meyers-Briggs types for the characters in Firefly/Serenity. I’m only doing main characters, so I didn’t cover all 16 types. Here’s the list:

“Mal” Malcolm Renolds – INTJ
River Tam – INTP
Simon Tam – ISFJ
Zoe Washburne – ISTJ
Hoban “Wash” Washburne – ESFP
Jayne Cobb – ISTP
Shepherd Book – ESTJ
Inara Serra – ENFJ
Kaylee Frye – ENFP

And here’s your bonus type:

The Operative (antagonist from the movie) – ISTJ

This is an interesting one for a number of reasons. One, the results are pretty spread out. We’ve got a near-equal amount from each archetype. Two, the traditional hero and villain personality types are switched. (INTJ is the classic villain type, and ISTJ is the classic hero type.) Granted, Mal isn’t your typical hero and the Operative isn’t your typical villain, which is part of why this series and the movie were so interesting.

If you don’t already know, I’m a big fan of the Meyers-Briggs Type Index. I’m also a big fan of the show Dexter. That got me thinking about typology again, as I’ve done for Lost and Harry Potter characters.

The challenge here was that the show doesn’t focus on a variety of people in a common situation—it focuses on people who are mostly working the same job. So the results are skewed heavily toward sensors and judgers. I still found it interesting, though.

Most of the main characters fall into the Guardian (SJ) camp, which makes sense, as most of them are in law enforcement. Maria LaGuerta is our ESTJ, which suits her well as head of the department. James Doakes is an ISTJ. Angel Batista is pretty clearly an ESFJ, although, interestingly enough, I also put Rita Bennett in this camp. Very different people, but there are a lot of similarities as well. Harry Morgan is an ISFJ. I knew Arthur Mitchell belonged somewhere in this camp, but I wasn’t sure quite where to put him. I ended up labeling him an ISFJ, although that could be slightly off.

Perceivers are very curious folks, so it’s no surprise that both of our lab geeks fall into the Artisan (SP) camp. Vince Masuka is an ESTP, and Dexter Morgan is very clearly an ISTP. Anton Briggs (remember him?) is an ESFP, I believe. I couldn’t get a real feel for his character, so don’t quote me on that. In our ISFP slot, we have the lovely, talented Lila Tournay. She made the perfect foil for Dexter because she was so similar to him.

We’ve got a few Rationals (NTs), all of the Judging type. Debra Morgan and Frank Lundy are both ENTJs, and Joey Quinn is our token INTJ.

Idealists (NFs) don’t have much of a place in Dexter’s world, but that makes sense. The only one I can think of is the new-this-season Lumen Ann Pierce, whom I believe is an INFJ. She’s probably pretty close on the Extravert/Introvert scale, though. Other than that, Cody probably belongs somewhere in here, but I don’t know where.

I wasn’t sure where to place Astor. I welcome any suggestions.

A few posts back, I was talking about that personality test where you can be either a lion, an otter, a golden retriever, or a beaver. Well, I wanted to take it again to see how I’ve changed in the last seven years, and I found that there wasn’t a single good electronic version of it online—not even on the official website. So I made my own. Here it is.

Of course, now that I’ve stayed up all night coding the test, I’m too tired to take it. I’ll take it in the morning and post a comment. What types are you, my loyal readers?

Though it’s not nearly as bad now as it was in, say, high school, I have historically had a lot of angst. I’m talking J.D. Salinger levels of angst, here. Not that I’m always gloomy or pissed off about something—far from it. It was just this vague disposition. (Remember, angst is, by definition, nonspecific.)

After a few solid years for this, I realized that I really had trouble relating to people who hadn’t had some sort of anguish (either external or internal) or Existential crisis. (I’m not quite that pretentious anymore. But if you knew me or read my journal while I was in college, you probably know what I’m talking about.) It seemed to me that people without that kind of life experience had a propensity for identifying and solving all the wrong problems (of problems dealing with anguish or personal crisis, anyway). I had enough trouble identifying those problems by myself, so I pretty much avoided anyone who “just wanted to cheer me up.”

You know that old saying, adversity breeds character? The opposite is also true. All of that really seemed to come together when I read this quote from Nicholas Berdyaev:

Not the worst but the best of mankind suffer the most. The intensity with which suffering is felt may be considered an index of a man’s depth. The more the intellect is developed and the soul refined … the more sensitive does one become to pain, not only the pains of the soul but physical pains as well. … But for pain and suffering, the animal in man would be victorious.

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If you don’t already know, I’m slightly obsessed with typology. My co-worker Mandy and I just taught a class on it at work, so I’ve been putting a lot of thought into it lately, and I focused some of that thought onto my favorite TV show: Lost. Here’s what I came up with:

ESTJ – Sayid/Ilana
ISTJ – Jack
ESFJ – Penny/Charlotte
ISFJ – Jin/Boone

ESTP – Charlie
ISTP – Sawyer
ESFP – Hurley
ISFP – Kate/Sun

ENFJ – Locke
INFJ – Richard
ENFP – Libby
INFP – Desmond

ENTJ – Miles
INTJ – Ben
ENTP – Daniel
INTP – Juliette

The NTs were easy for me—each of the characters I chose just seemed to fit the type so perfectly. The only ones I’m not entirely sure about are the ESFJ (Penny/Charlotte) and the ISFP (mostly Kate, although I’m pretty sure about Sun), but the rest all seem to make sense.

A word on introverts and extraverts: introverts aren’t necessarily quieter than extraverts; they just need to process information internally. Sawyer may be a smooth talker, but spends a lot of time in his own head. It’s the same with Jack. Ben usually won’t act unless he’s thought something through (although I know there have been cases where he has).

NFs are typically the most mystically-minded of the archetypes, which places Locke right in the middle of them. It’s pretty clear from his centric episode that Richard is an NF as well. Desmond spends a lot of time on the brink, so we don’t really get to see the apprehension typical of most INFPs, but I’m pretty sure that’s what he is.

Claire doesn’t get a personality because she’s really more of a plot device than a character.

And if you’re wondering, the Man in Black is obviously another INTJ. Not as sure on Jacob, but he might be another ISTJ.

Anyway, that’s my take. I know there are a lot of characters I didn’t place, but I figured this was enough to complete the analogy. Thoughts?

What started as an idea for a joke on Facebook turned into a more serious status update, which has now turned into a blog post.

If you don’t know, a few weeks back, girls all over Facebook started posting the colors of the bras they were wearing, but nobody said why. It turns out it was for breast cancer awareness. Lately, there’s been something similar involving cryptic posts about monsters, elevators, and cars. All of this leaves me mystified.

First of all, secretive publicity stunts are annoying as hell. If they at least posted why they were posting the color of their bras, that would be something, but leaving for people to figure out on their own (or, in most cases, ignore) is a gimmick that I’d expect from an Evangelical church youth group, but not a cancer awareness group. And are they really expecting people to say, “Holy shit! I’d completely forgotten about breast cancer!” Why not spend the time raising an awareness for a condition that really needs it?

I don’t want to propose that bipolar disorder is as serious or kills as many people as breast cancer; but few people understand that bipolar disorder actually does kill some people, and the sympathy surrounding breast cancer is often replaced by prejudice and social stigmas around bipolar. Other mental disorders have stigmas as well, ranging from disbelief and mockery (autism and ADHD) to fear and blatant misconceptions (schizophrenia), but bipolar disorder is my battle to fight, so I’ve chosen that one.

In light of all that, here are some statistics on bipolar disorder.

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So, I have these weird dreams from time to time. Well, not too weird, in the grand scheme of things. I dream that I’m losing my teeth. It’s not like I’m older and they fall out naturally. They just fall out. I usually notice that one of them is lose, and before you know it, bam, it’s out and I’m holding it in my hand wondering what went wrong. I’ve had a dream like that about eight times this year that I can remember, which means I’ve probably had a few more as well.

I thought this had to be significant in some way, so I decided to do a little research. I did some research on a few different sites, and found out that losing teeth in dreams is a sign of anxiety. I might feel I’m losing control, or that I feel misunderstood by those close to me, or that I’m self conscious about my appearance. All of these might be true.

I guess the reason I’m so scared of all of those things, though, is that, for the first time in my life, I really do feel in control of myself and my life. I’m scared of slipping back into being at the whim of my moods, being misunderstood by those around me, and being self conscious about everything. It’s not a place I like to be.

So, in honor of my hang-ups, I’m posting a song to help you, my readers, get through your own dark spots. Ladies and gentlemen, Ms. Maria Bamford.

I don’t know if I’ve mentioned this before, but I’m a category manager for an emotional health site online. (I manage the section on bipolar disorder.) I’ve done a few blog posts, written up briefs and linked to a few articles, and written a few of my own. I only just got started, so I’m still adding more content every two weeks or so.

If you guys have any burning questions about bipolar disorder, let me know and I’ll put in the research and do an article on it. Feel free to e-mail me if you don’t want to post the question publicly.

So I’ve been doing some thinking lately about Harry Potter houses (Gryffindor, Hufflepuff, Ravenclaw, Slytherin) and Keirsey archetypes (Artisan, Guardian, Rational, Idealist). I originally said that they lined up like this:

Gryffindor – Guardians (SJs)
Hufflepuff – Idealists (NFs)
Ravenclaw – Artisans (SPs)
Slytherin – Rationals (NTs)

Something abut the Ravenclaws and Slytherins has bugged me. Artisans are the opportunists of the bunch, which lines up more closely with what Slytherin seems to be all about. Also, Rationals are all about learning. But, as Mandy pointed out, some of the Artisans are far too positive to be Slytherins. So I think it’s a little more complicated than archetypal sorting can say.

So I came up with this list of examples from the Harry Potter universe. Maybe we can trace these characters back to their houses and get a better idea from there.

Artisans
ESTP – Fred and George Weasley
ESFP – Dean Thomas
ISTP – Victor Krum
ISFP – Horace Slughorn

Guardians
ESTJ – Ron Weasley (a little unsure on this one… Minerva McGonagal would be a good second choice)
ESFJ – Ginny Weasley
ISTJ – Hermione Granger
ISFJ – Neville Longbottom (although he’s so unsure of himself, we don’t see it until the end)

Rationals
ENTJ – Draco Malfoy
ENTP – Albus Dumbledore
INTJ – Severus Snape
INTP – Luna Lovegood

Idealists
ENFJ – Cedric Diggory
ENFP – Nymphadora Tonks
INFJ – Fleur Delacour
INFP – Remus Lupin

Where does Harry fall, you might ask? In some ways, he’s very much an ISTJ—duty-bound and constantly taking on unwanted responsibilities that he’s afraid will slip through the cracks. But in other ways, he has the introspection and tortured persona of an INFJ. I think he leans more toward the former than the latter, but he’s an interesting mix.

As for Lord Voldemort, he’s very much an INTJ.

So, by my chart, the introverted Artisans and the judging Rationals are Slytherins. The extraverted Artisans are yet more Gryffindors, and the perceiving Rationals are Ravenclaws. Of course, there are exceptions to any rule, but those are my predictions.

This would make Gryffindor the overwhelmingly largest house, meaning there’s either a flaw in my logic, or a flaw in Rowling’s. (Or maybe she wanted it that way. Who knows?)