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Personality Types Continued:
THE FLAMBOYANT
At first glance, you MIGHT think The Flamboyant is closely related to The Extrovert... Nope. The Flamboyant personality type does share the superficial friendliness character trait but that’s about as far as it goes. Often very dramatic as though their life depends on every utterance, The Flamboyant is naive yet devious at the same time. Their flamboyance is often used to cloak their poor self-esteem and depression.
The Flamboyant individual is easily angered and emotionally temperamental - often teetering on irrational explosion. They don’t see themselves in a healthy light and often consider themselves to be abominations, evil, and just plain foul in every way. The Flamboyant is more apt to see others as sexual playthings and when they’re done playing - they’re DONE. Very manipulative and always that touch of drama to every story or event.
The Flamboyant personality type often becomes the extramarital affair as they are very promiscuous. On the other hand, they’re extremely jealous when involved in relationships. They don’t perform well under stress; the more stressful the situation, the more physiological ailments surface as these help serve The Flamboyant to gain lots of attention. To say The Flamboyant is VAIN is an understatement. Flamboyants are the kind of person that tries to make you think they’re going to commit suicide but their attempts are just that... Attempts at getting your attention and focusing only on them.
While their emotional state is in fact INTENSE, they are usually dysfunctional people that can barely pursue regular careers. You'll probably find them becoming actors, artists, or designers of some kind. Sorry but it's true.
THE HYPER
Lots of activity going on with The Hyper but almost NO PROGRESS. I know of a lot of these types. Talk about OVERKILL. The Hypers of the world are always over-thinking and beating those dead horses into the ground. A very self-centered individual, The Hyper is a careless, unstable thrill-seeker prone to bouts of explosive anger and excitement. They’re outgoing but moody. Energetic but unfocused.
Don’t try to get too intimate with The Hyper, they simply do not have the DNA to deal with your emotions. You’ll find The Hyper working in a job where things change on a daily basis. They normally like working in the outdoors in manual labor positions rather than inside using their head.
THE LONER
The Loner has absolutely no problem being engulfed in solitude... In fact, they prefer it, in fact, The Loner enjoys and prefers interests that allow him or her to be alone most of the time. They rarely look to other people for any kind of comfort so watch out if you’re trying to get close to The Loner.
The Loner definitely is NOT into social activities and rarely will you find them to be a JOINER of such. You’ll find The Loner disinterested in the approval of others. They simply don’t need or require it.
The Loner doesn’t reveal himself or herself too easily with others because he or she simply lacks the interpersonal skills to do so. It just ain’t a big deal to them.
You won’t find The Loner hangin’ out with his or her friends. They rarely possess the actual skill to get too close to others but they often share at least one close relationship with a sibling. The Loner is a reserved individual, doesn’t outwardly express a lot of emotion and rarely gets angry... Rather, they just don’t give a shit. The Loner never really sweats the small stuff and always has the big picture in mind.
While The Loner may appear not to be an ambitious person on the surface, they often excel in generic activities i.e., sports, athletics, etc. and do quite well academically... You’ll just never know it unless you pay close attention because again, they don't make a big deal out of it. They know they're good and that's pretty much the only acceptance they do need or require.
The Loner tends not to be satisfied as a member of a family and might appear to be self-absorbed and lacking in interest of family members but that’s not necessarily true because in reality, they are pretty damn harsh on themselves. This harshness helps The Loner excel. Don’t be surprised if you don’t find your Loner brother or sister showing up to family events either. These events just aren’t as significant to them as they are to the rest of the family.
People don’t easily walk up to The Loner. Those around him or her can sense their requirement of solitude so they simply leave The Loner alone and that’s okay... The Loner likes it. You’ll find The Loner working in a job that guess what? He or she is able to work ALONE.
THE MAN’S MAN
The Man’s Man is exactly what the label entails... He’s extremely masculine to the point of overkill. In fact, their masculinity is damn near compulsive! A very demanding and hard individual, The Man’s Man is aggressive, ambitious, and adventurous. He has to win... No, HE MUST WIN NO MATTER WHAT!
Just like a vampire winces at the cross, The Man’s Man winces at any kind of weakness. Need a one-dimensional character for your screenplay? Consider using The Man’s Man. He’s the epitome of one-dimensionalism. The Man’s Man is so one-dimensional, that he’s inflexible when it comes to just about everything; ESPECIALLY masculinity. He lacks originality and steers more toward his own ideas of traditional male interests and pursuits.
Don’t expect to be able to work anything out with The Man’s Man because he only knows one kind of response... AGGRESSION. Because the Man’s Man is the epitome of masculinity or at least his idea of what masculinity is, he often seeks out the Ultra-Feminine female. Why? Because together, he looks even more like a Man’s Man! The only problem here is that just about every relationship The Man’s Man gets into with a woman becomes unstable unless she completely acquiesces to his every whim...
And that’s what he’s really after anyway.
The Man’s Man can be found working in just about any career field as long as that career field gives them enough time off to pursue their Man’s Man activities.
THE MANIPULATOR
Know anyone that always wants to dominate everyone and everything? That’s The Manipulator. You might not actually know this person to be a manipulator though... Why? Because he or she is extremely good at manipulating others i.e., it’s in their DNA (okay, not really but they manipulate so well that you’d almost think it was hereditary). The Manipulator is so charismatic at manipulating, you may never realize that they are in fact, manipulating YOU.
The Manipulator never reveals their true personality to you - that’s part of the manipulation. They strive to look good under any circumstances because this reinforces their charisma. To say that The Manipulator is cunning is an understatement. They are MASTERS at what they do. We could learn a lot from simply watching them work.
The Manipulator is so terrified of failure that they go to extremes not to take any kind of responsibility for their actions and can easily thwart blame on others and you’ll believe it. While The Manipulator will succeed at gaining small things out of you and others; that’s not actually their goal. Rather, they just want to be on top... in control. Total domination. Their antennae is always receiving the vulnerability signal of others and once they receive it, BAM! You’re caught in the web and you’ll never know what hit you until it’s all over.
The Manipulator is unbelievably skilled at getting others to doubt themselves even when circumstances surrounding that individual are obvious. The Manipulator isn’t afraid to resort to physical abuse to gain domination if all else fails; so watch out!
You’ll find The Manipulator working as an attorney, academia, sales, or just about any career field where negotiation takes place.
THE PASSIVE-AGGRESSIVE
How many Passive-Aggressive people do you know? Probably quite a few. The Passive-Aggressive personality type is definitely high on the list of psycho-babble bullshit personality types because apparently, there’s a hell of a lot US that fall into this personality type.
The Passive-Aggressive is actually a pretty hard worker, always striving to do well but at the same time, feels absolutely misunderstood i.e., he or she really wants someone to NOTICE! Yeah, they got quite the temper... Probably display jealous behavior more often than not and yeah, you guessed it... They resent just about EVERYBODY. Especially those they feel that earn awards when it was THEM who should have been awarded.
The unfortunate part about The Passive-Aggressive is that in reality, what he or she’s feeling (reward-wise) is probably justified. The sad part is that The Passive-Aggressive personality type is that she or he will most likely never truly understand how they need to change to start accumulating those rewards. They simply just keep working their asses off and of course management likes it that way!
They do try to hide their resentment but this often leads to an eruption of anger because they simply cannot keep their PASSIVE side consistent hence, passive-aggressive behavior. The longer they try to hide the resentment and anger, the harder it becomes to keep it all bottled in there so it’s like a fuse burning closer and closer to the dynamite!
In their brilliant effort to keep their true feelings all bottled up, The Passive-Aggressive actually swings back and forth between being passive and aggressive so there’s not a lot of leeway there. The switch just keeps on FLIPPIN’... If you’re in a relationship with The Passive-Aggressive, you probably don’t have to worry about being on the receiving end of any physical abuse.
The Passive-Aggressive personality type is really outstanding at implementing new changes... Just not for very long. They are very good at annoying those around them and when they are in relationships of just about any kind, they’re pretty intense... So intense that the intensity just might push the other person away.
The Passive-Aggressive will downright surprise the hell out of you when they take a particular stand that you never in a million years thought they would take... Let THIS be a sign of more to come. And yeah, because there are so many Passive-Aggressive personality types walking the earth, you’ll pretty much find them everywhere... Doing just about anything.
Next month we’ll look at a few more on the list!
Next Article in series.
The Unknown Screenwriter
A working screenwriter and producer, The Unknown Screenwriter makes his home in the Sierra Nevada Mountains of Northern California and somewhere in the state of New Mexico with just a little bit of Los Angeles thrown in when he feels he can breathe the air.