envy
guilt » disgust
The Fixer fixes what's broken in the world.
More industrious than creative, the Fixer prefers to focus on repairing or improving what's already there.
The Fixer may very well be the archetype that keeps society running. Their unique way of linking the society and self arguments is incredibly important for bringing about social change, and for preventing groups from making bad choices.
Emotions are arguments, each arguing for survival in one of three arenas:
SELF
The self argument argues for the extended self: You, your family, close friends and valued possessions.
WORLD
The world argument argues for survival in the physical environment, making the feeler confront danger.
SOCIETY
The society argument navigates the complexities of human society, arguing for survival in the tribe.
Eristic order describes the usual order of an archetype's emotional arguments. There's always a self, world and society argument, but the order and expression differs between archetypes.
Your eristic order goes like this:
SOCIETY
SELF
The society-self order, unique to the Fixer, allows a feeler to see society's problems plainly.
Benefits: A strong sense of society
Drawbacks: A weak sense of space
Emotions are dualities, having one of two forms that can be felt at a time:
SELF
LOVE/DISGUST
Love argues to add to or nurture the extended self, while disgust argues to remove from the self.
WORLD
FEAR/ANGER
Fear argues to model and understand the world, while anger argues to modify or destroy the world.
SOCIETY
GUILT/PRIDE
Guilt argues to do work for society, while pride argues to be a high-quality member of society.
Your first argument is the society argument, expressing as guilt.
Guilt-conscious people are intimately connected to society, inherently behaving as an agent of society's best interests.
Benefits: Details-oriented, connected
Drawbacks: Gullible, shameful, easily exploited
Your second argument is the self argument, expressing as disgust.
As the second argument, disgust is discerning, critical and often overrules the first argument, abbreviating the emotional loop completely. Disgust in this position can work like a reset button on the eristic beat. This results in a quick-thinking, witty feeler.
Benefits: Well-groomed, constructively critical
Drawbacks: Perfectionistic, irritable, abrasive
Emotions are felt in beats, like heartbeats, all three arguments made each beat.
Beats span from one base emotion to another along the LFGDAP scale.
Generally: Farther up and farther to the right are more energy-intensive.
Each beat has a point-of-view shaped by its base emotions.
Envy is the eristic combination of guilt and disgust.
As a characteristic emotion, envy is maybe one of the least flattering words. But it's just the society argument followed by the self argument. The self argument is in its disgust form, which demands a removal from the self or a bettering of the self.
So envy looks at society and then makes adjustments to the self. The word envy is usually associated with the most dramatic form of the emotion, but the Fixer won't tend to be outwardly envious. Instead they're socially aware and discerning, according to the arguments of guilt and disgust.
The Fixer's ability to identify the problems of the group cuts both ways: Anyone who messes with the Fixer can expect trouble from the Fixer's friends.
As a characteristic emotion, envy means the feeler exercises disgust (or discernment) on behalf of society.
Emotions have energy costs:
In a beat, the lower energy emotion is felt first.
The dissonance of the Fixer's inner dialogue, with the internalizing guilt and the externalizing disgust, is less pronounced than any other dissonant inner dialogue because of the similar energy levels of the two emotions. As a result, feelers in the Fixer archetype will seem cool, calm and collected to others.
The Fixer does well in a position of responsibility where he or she can continually, well, fix things.
Key to this even disposition is the ability to balance externalizing through zeal and internalizing through attachment. The Fixer may seem to have three modes: A default group-work-oriented mode, an analysis mode (attachment) and a "fix-it" mode (zeal). Envy is the well-worn groove in the middle of the spectrum, attachment and zeal the two well-worn grooves to either side.
The attachment/envy/zeal pattern is very stable and balanced.
Because of this pattern, the Fixer will find a friend in the Artist. They may get along well with the Lancer too, with a shared second disgust argument and tendency towards zeal.
The Fixer's core emotional paradox is that they are ultimately world-oriented, but don't actually have the world argument in their active emotional dialogue.
Groups, cultures and societies need to satisfy all six base emotions for their members.
They'll typically do this in one of three patterns:
Attachment/envy/zeal cultures are typically family- or individualism-oriented and hardworking.
Devotion/contempt cultures have strict rules, devoted followers and a disdain for outsiders.
Satisfaction works for smaller groups which focus on avoiding fear, guilt, disgust and anger.
All cultures are characterized by one of these three patterns.
The Fixer balances society's outlook, represented by guilt, and individualism, represented by disgust.
The Fixer easily fits in with one of the two major cultural patterns, attachment/envy/zeal:
The Artist and the Fixer both fit in well to attachment/envy/zeal.
The other pattern, devotion/contempt, may be harder for the Fixer, whose envy straddles the two 'bigger' emotions:
Envy satisfies key emotions from both devotion and contempt, making the Fixer an awkward fit.
The satisfaction of guilt and disgust through envy short-circuits the guilt in devotion and the disgust in contempt. As a result, the Fixer may just not find much use for devotion and contempt. In a devotion/contempt culture, this means the Fixer doesn't fit in, despite being a guilt-dominant archetype.
The key to overcoming this is to let go of the societal narrative. Guilt-first emotions put you in control of the societal narrative. In devotion, guilt comes second after love. For the Fixer, this means that devotion can still satisfy the needs of guilt, but only after the self-emotion of love is put in the driver's seat.
Similarly, contempt puts disgust first, while the Fixer is usually accustomed to it coming second. This double-reversal of characteristic emotions can be hard for the Fixer to master. The disgust in contempt is particularly strong because it's paired with the highest-energy emotion, pride. The Fixer may find themselves overwhelmed in a society that calls for regular contempt.
The Fixer who masters this separation of guilt and disgust will fit in well to devotion/contempt cultures and attachment/envy/zeal cultures.
Attachment and envy are a great match:
The Artist and the Fixer embody attachment and envy.
If the attachment is toxic, however, it may be too good of a match. A romantic or business partner with too-big attachment needs may take advantage of the Fixer, especially if he or she externalizes too much through disgust, anger and pride.
Just as in a devotion/contempt culture, the disgust-first emotions of hatred and contempt can weigh heavily on the Fixer, who usually satisfies disgust through envy, a disgust-second emotion. While none of the archetypes are characterized by disgust-first emotions, the Artist and the Giver can both be prone to externalizing using hatred and contempt respectively.
Beats (combinations of love, fear, guilt, disgust, anger, pride) have opposites:
Since the coping emotion has the same arguments (self/world/society), but in opposite form, it effectively "turns off" the characteristic emotion, giving you a way out of overwhelming feelings.
The coping emotion serves as a sort of shadow archetype, characterizing you in times of extreme emotion.
The Fixer copes using satisfaction, the combination of love and pride.
Satisfaction is hard to achieve, so it makes for a difficult coping strategy. As a result, the Fixer copes the least of all the archetypes.
Coping using satisfaction may look like:
Self-spoiling: The emotion of the self and the externalizing narrative emotion can push you to lavishly spend on self, family or friends.
Checking out: Vacations can help everyone from time to time, but the Fixer may check out too much.
Delusion: Delusions of the self can satisfy the emotion of pride. Sometimes, the Fixer may get a cruel reality check when a delusion comes crashing down.
Emotions can become addictive, like a drug that's made in your head. The addictions usually involve the emotions that make up your archetype's characteristic emotion:
Addiction to guilt results in a dramatic personality.
Addiction to disgust results in narcissism.
The foment response is a low-level approximation of the guilt and disgust which characterize the Fixer. Mostly, it's about getting help from society. That can mean directly asking or sticking to society's expectations.
The Fixer has a tendency to go with society's expected role or prescribed solution to a conflict. They'll tend to continue their role even if one of the other four Fs is better:
In a direct confrontation, the foment response depends on other people being around. If the Fixer is alone with the source of conflict, then the foment response is useless.
Emotions model and modify their spheres of influence—the extended self, the physical world or the feeler's tribe/society.
| Self | World | Society | |
| Model | Love | Fear | Guilt |
| Modify | Disgust | Anger | Pride |
It can be useful to think of the three dualities as pairs of opposite emotions.
They're also called the internalizing and externalizing forms of an emotion.
Love & Disgust
model/modify
Your extended self
Fear & Anger
model/modify
Your physical world
Guilt & Pride
model/modify
Your tribe/society
Virtues help you avoid the negative effects of an emotion by consciously producing the results of its opposite emotion. It's like coping but conscious and intentional. Here are your archetype's virtues:
Keeping secrets and revealing information only at the correct time. Using love to function as disgust.
discretion is your operating virtue or highest virtue. It's the virtue you need to get by.
Doing the work and making sure it's good work. The use of pride when guilt is felt.
Sympathetic pity and concern for the sufferings or misfortunes of others. When you act out of love when feeling disgust.
Read all the other archetype descriptions here:
The people most similar to you will be your own archetype:
These archetypes have the same first argument:
These archetypes share your second argument:
Archetypes with the same missing/third argument:
This archetype is the inversion of yours:
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