Emotionality and Fantasy

“What you need is to humanize yourself, to see the other as such and not as an expression of your unattainable models; all of these are dreams, fantasies created to avoid loving surrender, without guarantees or reservations. Feel (emotionally and sensorially) instead of thinking and imagining the transcendent love, the one that makes you touch the skies. That love, as a transforming force, exists. It is a real and known experience. The mistake is not accepting its gratuitousness and impermanence.” (Francisco Peñarrubia)

The use of fantasy is central to this character. Although it affects him less than his sexual counterpart, E7, it is an essential element for maintaining his inner peace and healing the

narcissistic wounds that life inflicts upon him. In these fantasies, he can live his ideal self, his ideal family, and his ideal world, while also expressing what he does not dare to reveal in the real world: his rawest sexual impulses and aggression. Let us not forget that he is a mental character with a strong energy charge, one who does not dare to express many of his impulses in the real world. One way he processes that energy is through fantasy. Good examples of this are Jules Verne, Anton Chekhov, and José Martí. All of them tapped into their rich, energized fantasies in their stories. Most Social 7s do not fully grasp this, settling instead for using fantasy to tell, sustain, and survive in reality.

I will now allow myself a few lines in the first person. Apparently, emotionality and fantasy began weaving their first self-help networks from my earliest age, working together and aligned in pursuit of a single common goal: survival. What I most remember from my childhood are the states of desired solitude, achieving moments of transcendent plenitude. Since my father worked in the fields, we spent the three months of summer vacation with him and the rest of my family. I recall sitting on some giant rocks (though they certainly weren't that big) in a eucalyptus forest, which seemed giant to me at the time. From there, I simply tried to focus on the leaves of the branches, attempting to analyze the sound the wind made as it passed through them. It was a routine I followed almost daily, trying to fill the void in my emotional body. That was how I found a way to survive my childhood, doing it in an adult way. With little space for play or fun around me, I settled into solitude to avoid being disturbed, knowing deep down that I wouldn’t be in danger.

Meanwhile, I fantasized about my own movies. I chose the actors, the music, the script; I designed sets and costumes and rehearsed the scenes as many times as necessary. I always did it alone. I don’t recall ever inviting anyone to watch my “works” because I sensed no one would understand them, and perhaps I was also afraid of being criticized. We know what that means for a Social 7, who almost always experiences criticism as an expression of heartbreak.

Those outdoor recreational activities were true meditative spaces that convinced me I could exist, even with a chance of belonging and surviving in such a painful world. It was about coming home, and that is why I now relate them to meditation, where we try to do the same thing in a way. I guess, as a child, I would miss my brave new world. By then, I felt that my peace and tranquility had been taken from me without my consent. It seems I had traded my mother's womb for Earth's womb to feel safer again.

I experienced my childhood as an intermediate stage between sleep and awakening, between the unconscious and the conscious, and perhaps even between life and death. Sometimes I imagined that life was a joke in poor taste, and I hoped to be awakened at any moment. Later, in my teens, I maintained the need for seclusion and solitude, but now, with the company of books and selective gatherings. Hesse, Fromm, Goethe, Nietzsche, Master

Eckhart, and so many others. I also tried to read Chopin titles on my grandmother's piano, which she had forgotten before she died. Back then, I sensed that at some point I would have to enter the outside world, and I wanted to prepare myself as much as possible. One good strategy would be to follow Leonardo's polymath model of Homo universalis, which is why I kept studying (something I’ve done all my life).

I was a devourer of books on almost all subjects. I read everything that was put in my hands, and through my reading, I traveled, fantasized, and visited all places at all times. I conversed with the protagonists, and many times they surprised me by changing the endings of stories. I also knew I wanted to be a doctor, though I always had the profound sense of being a twentieth-century medieval abbot who, in addition to studying medicine and theology, would have explored all the sciences, both East and West. It seemed the monastery seclusion of the abbey, far from bothering me, would be pleasant, as it ensured I could maintain relational asepsis with the outside world while also having all the time in the world to satisfy my narcissistic literary gluttony.

I finally decided to specialize in psychiatry, even though my romantic idealism later led me to not want (or not be able) to finish graduate school. While I enjoyed reading the classic texts, I didn’t feel the same way when I attended practices and seminars. I naively believed we would try to “cure souls” (the etymological origin of the word “psychiatry”), and in reality, these were not even recognized.

This autobiographical exhibition shows how the Social 7 lives life with a cinematographic attitude. Through imagination and fantasy, he reconstructs reality and diminishes the impact of emotional pain and frustration. The creation of an ideal universe represents the best escape route from reality, allowing him to imagine a world suited to his preferences, where he remains in control and harmony is guaranteed.

“As a child, when I went to sleep in a negative state, I imagined that I had a beautiful dream. Thus, I would see again in my fantasy some scenes of an adventure movie I had been passionate about in the previous days. My imagination was so vivid that I became the protagonist of the film. Reliving the most exciting moments changed my mood, and when I woke up the next morning, I had the feeling that I had continued the fantasy during my dream.” (Testimonial collected by Vincenzo D'Ambrosio)

Fantasy allows us to deflect the emotional stimuli that the Social 7 is not capable of sustaining in the here and now. Just as fantasy is his great neurotic ally, emotionality is his staunch enemy. The emotional brain is almost completely disabled in the Social 7. Rationalization absorbs the energy produced in the emotional center. The result of this process is a complete loss of the habit of perceiving and discriminating the sensations that make up various emotions—an ataraxia that plays a leading role in the functioning of the Social 7, especially when it marks relationships with oneself and others from a fair distance.

In all situations, the energy tends to rise toward the head. Thus, the Social 7 gives the mental processes the main energy charge. Also, the habit of avoiding situations and not wanting to live in the present frustrating moment prevents him from receiving the information that comes from the emotional center to use it in a congruent way. Instead, it creates energy blockages that inevitably cause discomfort. He is afraid to feel, to truly feel, as this pulls him away from his ideal self-image. And he is terrified of emotional pain. Therefore, he disconnects the emotional center. He doesn't trust his emotions. He doesn't trust his body. He prefers his dead fantasies to real, excited contact.

Therefore, at least two types of emotional problems are evident. On one hand, there is the accumulation of anger that, as we have seen, cannot be expressed, except when it reaches saturation, with all the internal tension that implies. Secondly, there is the excessive investment in thought, which activates a fantasy that creates a satisfying virtual reality, putting him in a good mood and driving away frustration. In this way, imagination plays an important role in maintaining balance, even if it is unstable and unsatisfying.

“My fantasies with girls [...] as a way to not feel the pain and loneliness.” (Testimonial collected by Vincenzo D'Ambrosio)

Fantasy is designed to change the negative experience of the moment and create a positive emotional state that distances him from it, giving rise to a kind of self-consolation—a momentary emotional substitute that helps calm the inner world.

“I was driving up to the room of my father, who had passed away a few hours earlier, with great sadness and shock. During the journey, my mind automatically began to show me slides of mental images of the happiest moments I had with my father. So when I got to the head of his bed, I was in a state of well-being, almost paradoxical. It was so good that I wasn’t moved at all.” (Testimonial collected by Vincenzo D'Ambrosio)

As with the E5, who, moved by the passion of greed, tends to put distance between himself and the world and retreat into his inner universe, often rich in knowledge acquired through years of study, the Social 7 also withdraws into his fantasy world due to interpersonal difficulties.

“In my last years of university, at times when I was frustrated not having money to go on a trip or to make plans with friends, my mind would imagine projects, in the near future, that would bring me the prosperity I wanted at that moment. Effortless prosperity, without the frustrating burden of having to work hard to obtain it. I trusted my ability to make a mental puzzle in which money converged, little effort, and this was important—the possibility of generating prosperity in an ethical way (I could not be one of those selfish exploiters who care little about the welfare of others). So I could spend minutes, hours, until I was convinced that at some point, I would carry out my fantasy project and prosperity would

come to my life. But this desire for money was not important because of accumulating it, but because of the ability it gave me not to have to deprive myself of anything I wanted. Of course, these fantasies never came to fruition, because they went against the image I was trying to project: that of an ethical person, humane and little interested in the material aspects of life.” (Victor)

The fantasy of the Social 7 is often very quick in imagining the realization of a future project, even if it lacks foundation. Let us not forget that Ichazo posited planning as the fixation or cognitive distortion of E7. In the case of the Social subtype, this planning, as an existential anxiolytic, appears automatically, just like an alcoholic who, faced with the slightest problem, needs a drink. His dose of fantasy, often in the form of planning, will appear. From a painful present to a harmonious future in a few seconds, as if it were a shot of heroin.

His fantasies also reconnect with the past. If the effect originates from a distant mother who praises the child by focusing on its positive aspects, this same structure reappears in fantasy. Here too, the protagonist revives that vain consent, becoming the center of his imaginary scene.

In this way, fantasy becomes an essential component of the Social 7. It serves as a way to feed oneself, often at the expense of truly perceiving the richness of life and carrying out concrete projects.