I personally would like to learn more about Reactive types this time, since from what you said to me before that liking your anger and feeling empowered by it is a pointer towards the Reactive triad. So I kinda wonder what are the reactives' relationship with their negative emotions (specifically anger since I identify as an angry person anyways), and the whys and reasons they like feeling those feelings in the first place.
Especially since I also want to know more of its distinctions between 9w8 who can also be reactive and the ones who are more aware of their anger and turbulent feelings (but still are 9s because they are still seen as calmer and chill in terms of how they present themselves as and their core motivations), and the reactive types in general who may have a more positive slant when counting fixes and/or wings.
Reactives have an attitude of “this is wrong/bad/not allowed/I hate it, and you’re gonna hear about it, because I need to draw attention to this” (aesthetic ick/shallowness – 4, a threat/ a truth everyone is ignoring – 6, the thing nobody wants to deal with – 8). They are more negative by default, because they are noticing and fixating on what is annoying to them in that context.
To a 4, this is “being authentic.” To a 6, this is “being intelligent.” To an 8, this is “facing the thing nobody else has the guts to face. The Hard Truth.” To a 4, this is proof of how they won’t settle for peon things. To a 6, this is proof they are scanning for danger and problematic beliefs or people. To an 8, this is proof that they are stronger than others and don’t shy away from problems.
But you’re really asking, what is their relationship with anger? To a 4, anger is just how they feel. It’s familiar. And they won’t get over it sooner than they feel like doing so. To a 6, anger is either fuel or a risk, it could alienate them from others and make them a target, or make them mad enough to take a stand.
But to an 8, anger is how you get big enough that nobody stands in your way. You expand, take up all the space or air in the room, and get your way, because everyone else just gives it to you, or you push right through them. It’s a contained nuclear explosion that blasts outward and clears the path ahead of irritants.
Core 8s understand that everything requires energetic output, and they have unlimited resources for this; that every field is a battleground; that you have to fight and force others and fate itself to give you what you want out of life. 9w8s have that underlining push and anger that being reactive (this is pissing me off!!!) gives them, but they are still “I want to exert as little amount of energy as possible,” so they save those exhausting self-explosions for when they want to create a boundary. Anger to a 9w8 feels good, safe, familiar, and how “I get my way.” It’s how the 9 stops being a doormat, or getting along just to avoid trouble, or kicks itself in the butt in order to actually move forward, or has that angry assertive conversation they have been avoiding, so they can then go back into “coasting” mode.
Bottom line? Anger is the engine that makes things possible for an 8. It gives them POWER, and nobody likes to feel powerless.
Dunno if that answered your question or not, but it’s the best I got at 5am.
