Originally Posted by
Claudio Naranjo, Character and Neurosis, Chapter E4
Focus on suffering: I still have not commented upon the cluster of traits usually designated by the label “masochistic.” In the understanding of these we should invoke, beyond the suffering that arises through a bad self-image, and the frustration of exaggerated neediness, the use of pain as vindictiveness and an unconscious hope of obtaining love through suffering. Ennea-type IV individuals, as a result of these dynamic factors and also of a basic emotional disposition are not only sensitive, intense, passionate, and romantic, but tend to suffer from loneliness and may harbor a tragic sense of their life or life in general. Possessed of a deep longing, dominated by nostalgia, intimately forlorn and sometimes visibly liquid-eyed and languorous, they are usually pessimistic, often bitter and sometimes cynical. Associated traits are lamenting, complaining, despondent, and self-pitying . Of particular prominence in the painful landscape of type IV psychology is what has to do with the feeling of loss, usually the echo of real experiences of loss and deprivation, sometimes present as a fear of future loss and particularly manifest as a proneness to suffering intensely from the separations and frustrations of life. Particularly striking is the propensity of type IV to the mourning response, not only in relation to persons but also pets. It is in this cluster, I think, that we are closest to the core of the character type, and particularly in the maneuver that it entails of focusing upon and expressing suffering to obtain love.