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Listen to the audio description while you read this page about Type 6 — The Loyal Skeptic:
more about the loyal skeptic
The Loyal Skeptic is concerned with finding certainty or security. Their sense of being safe is challenged by a world that appears to be dangerous. This may take them in one of two directions — to fear the world, or to deny there is anything to fear. They may then believe you must avoid and escape perceived danger. Or they may believe you must face and fight it.
A Loyal Skeptic will tend to be vigilant. They also tend to have many doubts, and can be highly ambivalent. They can easily misread or mistrust others. There can be difficulties with authority figures — either in the form of excess loyalty and obedience, or rebellion and opposition.
Danger can be seen everywhere. This can result in anxiety and fear — and increased vigilance. The Loyal Skeptic may focus excessively on negative future outcomes, the downside and what could go wrong. Trying to protect themselves from imagined disasters, they will end up acting in ways that create self-fulfilling prophecies.
Others may feel a sense of being scrutinized, pursued or accused — often erroneously. People can be pushed away by the excessive vigilance and attempt to control them. Others resent that the Loyal Skeptic is projecting negative things onto them, and they yearn for a more relaxed state.
Personal growth for a Loyal Skeptic is to learn to embrace uncertainty. Begin to focus on the positive aspects of life, the positive qualities in other people. The ability to trust will be helped by internally asking the question ‘What if what I think I see here is not real?’ — and then doing calm, respectful reality-testing with others.
Lost essential quality: Faith in self, others and the universe.
Compensating belief: The world is dangerous, threatening. People can’t be trusted. You must seek or defy security, avoid or face danger.
Attention/coping strategy: Becoming vigilant, questioning or doubting. Scanning for what can go wrong. Seeking certainty either by defying security and facing danger (the counter-phobic style) or by seeking security and avoiding danger (the phobic style).
Trap: Seeking certainty for which there is never enough proof.
Driving energy: Fear associated with all the possible dangers or hazards.
Avoidance: Becoming helpless and defenseless, avoided either by aligning with authority (the phobic style) or by defying it (the counter-phobic style).
Strengths: Spotting hazards, heightened intuition, loyalty, thoughtfulness.
Paradox: Seeking too much certainty in an uncertain world creates more uncertainty and anxiety.
Path of development:
- Accept insecurity as part of life
- Develop inner faith in self, others and the world
- Recognize that both flight and fight are reactions to fear
- Observe fear and calm it
- Move ahead in spite of fear
Ultimate task: Reclaiming trust in yourself, others and the world, and living comfortably with uncertainty.
The basic proposition:
You lost sight of the fundamental principle that we all begin with faith in ourselves, in others and in the universe, and came to believe instead that the world is hazardous, unpredictable and untrustworthy. So you attempt to control life and feel more certainty by gaining (or defying) security, and avoiding (or facing) perceived harm through vigilance, questioning and battling (or escaping) hazards. At the same time, you develop fear and doubt, or just incessant questioning concerning potential threats to safety and security. Your attention naturally goes to hazards and potential worst-case scenarios, and how to deal with them.
The central issue for healing:
The task for Loyal Skeptics is more obvious and straightforward than for any other type. The child who experienced the world as hazardous, unpredictable and threatening, and fell naturally into fear and doubt, needs to regain faith and trust in oneself, in other people and in the world. Faith is a big stretch for the Loyal Skeptic since faith comes before proof.
This means staying with situations that frighten you and cultivating the courage to go into and through the fear. Notice and resist the impulse to move away from fear (the phobic’s habit), or challenge fear (the counterphobic’s habit). Either way, your path of development goes right through fear and doubt. Learn to trust that you already know how to cope and that you don’t need to keep proving yourself.
Six healing and growth commitments for Type Sixes:
- Reclaim faith in yourself, others and the universe
- Work at distinguishing true impressions from projections
- Relinquish the quest for certainty and control as a substitute for faith
- Balance the tendency to put a negative spin on situations with more positive outlooks
- Welcome fear and move ahead
- Become your own authority
If the above personality type seems to fit you, we recommend you print out this page for easy reference. We also highly recommend that you listen to the audio description at the top of this page.