4: The Individualist

4: The Individualist – The Need to Be Unique

• Strengths – Creative, Expressive, Artistic, Honest, Fashionable
• Pitfalls – Moody, Self-Absorbed, Melancholic, Easily Disappointed, Difficulty Conforming
• 4w3 – The Aristocrat
• 4w5 – The Free Spirit

Individualists are motivated to not be like anyone else, they can be withdrawn from the world because they want to be seen as distinct from it.  4s tend to both love and loathe that no one understands them or gets them.  Individualists are the “tortured artists”, the people who express themselves in ways that others might find uncouth, even if it is what everyone is thinking.

4s probably experienced shame early in life for not being understood, and since then have been looking for a way to express themselves with others who can appreciate their uniqueness rather than shutting it down.  4s are, at their best, the types who create and express themselves in ways that shift culture.

If 4s wish to grow, they will need to learn how to let themselves be understood.  They will need to learn how to be disciplined and principled rather than allow their mood to define their actions.