Your vision will become clear only when you can look into your own heart. Who looks outsides, dreams; who looks inside, awakens.
-Carl Jung
Perception is a central component in the process of psychotherapy. How situations, memories, relationships, thoughts, emotions, and just about everything else, are seen and interpreted is an important consideration in understanding ourselves and our subjective experience. As the old adage goes “Perception is everything”. Although this might be up for debate, it is worth exploring just how foundational perception is to the way we see ourselves, others, and the world. Further, how does perception influence our decision making processes and in what ways might perception be leveraged to help us make decisions with confidence?
Two aspects of modern, technological life that have a profound impact on perception are social media and data. Our lives are now so interwoven with technology that it can be a challenge discerning how our perspective is shaped by it. We know from a plethora of studies that social media has enormous consequences on our emotional state, affecting every dimension of our lives (the documentary The Social Dilemma does a great job exploring this). Even though we may consciously know that social media is not an accurate representation of actual life; engaging it still changes the way we see the world “out there” and experience the world “in here”.
Data is another relevant domain of modern life with far-reaching implications on perspective. There is arguably an obsessive preoccupation with data these days. While data is both fascinating and valuable, it is necessary to acknowledge the limitations of what is considered data. The information available to be collected and registered as data is itself restricted. For example, it is possible to measure and track how many steps one takes or what types of photographs might receive the most likes on a social media platform. Yet, how do we begin to measure the subjective experience of an individual’s walk beyond the number of steps, the amount of calories burned, and the variation in heartbeat during the walk? How is the actual experience of the walk captured, beyond the bio-physical markers that can easily be translated into data?
Jung identified two predispositions in the way people operate: extraversion and introversion. Individuals who lean toward an extraverted attitude are generally more interested in the world outside - the world of objects, people, and activity. Introverted individuals are primarily concerned with the internal world of ideas, reflection, thought, and feeling. It’s helpful to think of these two attributes as a spectrum since we all possess both extraverted and introverted tendencies in unique ways. Extraversion and introversion can apply not only to individual people but also to cultures, societies, and other collective aspects of experiences. The two facets of modern life identified earlier, social media and data, are largely extraverted in nature. Even if data collected is of a personal nature (like tracking the bio-physical markers of a walk on a FitBit) the data itself, and the way of relating to that data, tends to be aligned with an extraverted attitude because the information collected and measured becomes an external “object” that is perceived. The introverted qualities of the walk are akin to the more subjective features of the walk described earlier, essentially the components that are not easily quantified or measured.
Introversion and extraversion inform our perspective in a myriad of ways and both can be valuable in helping an individual to see more clearly. I include social media and data in this inquiry on perspective because they are such dominant forces in our world today. Additionally, despite all their benefits, they pose a risk when they hold too much weight and importance. Because they are primarily extraverted in nature, they hold the potential to take us too far outside ourselves. To develop clear seeing it is essential that the more introverted side of experience, which Jung advocates for in the quote above, be taken into consideration.
This begs the question: how do we look inside? There are a multitude of ways, including writing, meditating, and tracking one’s dreams. The most valuable resource in looking inside, however, is entering a quiet state of being that allows one to listen. Even activities that might be deemed extraverted, like exercise, can be a bridge to the inside insofar that the internal experience is what is connected with, as opposed to the external variables explored earlier (speed, heartbeat, number of steps, etc.). Whatever activity or non-activity facilitates a quietness opens a way to access the inside and the rich information this part of experience offers. Maintaining a balance between an extraverted and introverted lens expands perspective and encourages a clearer way of seeing, which can help one through times of tumult, major questions and decisions, and life’s endless uncertainties.