The Characteristic Neurotic Need

The Totem is a symbol of the divine and, at the same time, of power. It is an object of worship that has its place at the center of the tribe and serves to reveal the sacred, that which must be admired and respected. In the case of the Social 5, their totem can be either inside or outside themselves, projecting, wherever it may be, an idealized image imbued

with sanctity, power, and radiance. Wherever this image is projected, the person or object will be profoundly admired for this characteristic, transforming their totem into something completely good. In the same way, everything else can become totally bad, insignificant, and disposable. The sicker the person, the more polarized the idealization and devaluation will be.

This idealization experienced by the Social 5, which we can call super-idealization, leads them to search for something elevated and special that they do not find in the concrete human world, but only in the abstract of thoughts and ideals. This search for the extraordinary and for added value leads them to disdain common life and "ordinary" people, who are sacrificed on the altar of their totem.

This orientation toward the extraordinary drives the Social 5 to always seek, whether in science or spirituality, knowledge of something they consider very important. Whatever the object of their search and idealization, they will invest all their saved energy in human relationships.

They accumulate more and more knowledge about what interests them, intending to absorb as much as possible. The basic motivation of the Social 5 is to fill, through this knowledge, the sense of lack and emptiness with which they are permanently in contact. They confuse being with knowledge and replace the direct experience of life with the world of ideas and thoughts. Thus, they live in their mental world, absorbed in theories that try to explain reality without experiencing it.

The lack of experiences plunges the Social 5 into emptiness. An emptiness that progressively increases due to their retentive attitude and the few exchanges they propose. The impoverishment of experiences leads them to an arid emotional world and the mortification of their body and instinct. In this way, the inner life of a Social 5 tends to be monotonous and boring. They compensate for the lack of life with the intensity of their quest for knowledge. "I know, therefore I am" is the phrase that sums up this personality. We are talking about an extremely observant individual with great analytical capacity; a shrewd type who almost never shows themselves and does not take center stage in the scenes they participate in; who, in the end, ends up imagining more than living.

The feeling of emptiness experienced by the Social 5 goes hand in hand with a diminished self-image (as opposed to the idealized image of their Totem) and a sense of uselessness. Their personal value is almost always questioned, measured by the ruler of their totem, which makes them believe that the knowledge acquired is never enough. This belief of "I am not, or I am not ready yet" feeds their lack of sufficient self-confidence and maintains an attitude of not exposing themselves or taking risks. A good example can be found in Leonardo da Vinci, who, after deeply seeking knowledge in various fields, always thought he hadn't studied enough. His works were left unfinished one after another, as the need for

such a long period of study prevented him from completing them on time. Charles Darwin, another representative of this subtype, took over twenty years to write The Origin of Species, always thinking that it was still incomplete.

Now, the Totem is only a symbolic figure, not something alive. The Social 5's idealization separates them from their own reality and prevents them from accepting themselves and their human condition. Identifying with their idealized part, or falling into the opposite polarity, self-devaluation, they distance themselves from themselves, becoming less alive than they could be. You risk ending up like a stone or a wooden totem, immobile and lifeless. As Claudio Naranjo says, this character establishes a polarity between the extraordinary and what does not make sense, so nothing makes sense until the extraordinary is achieved.

We find a clear example of how a Social 5 functions in the novel The Quest for the Absolute by Honoré de Balzac. It is the story of a chemist who intensely focuses on his research, in the ambitious search for an important revelation. In this process, he places his studies above all other needs, whether they be intimacy, survival, or self-care. The title of the work exemplifies the central idea of this character, who seeks the extraordinary and despises ordinary life.