Introversion and Extroversion Are Not “Symptoms.” They Are Gifts.

Recently, the DSM (Diagnostic Statistical Manual) is in the midst of being updated. This occurs every few years. The DSM is used by clinicians in the Western world, to diagnose by traits and symptoms what pathology or mental, psychological, emotional, organic or characterological disorders might be present in an individual.

Curently, some on a working committee, have put forth the idea of calling ‘introversion’ a symptom of a larger disorder. The words introversion and extroversion are, according to nearly 100 years of analytical psychology, not in any way pathological, but rather, ways of perception and ways of processing what one experiences in life.

I wrote the following letter as President of a human rights Institute: La Sociedad de Guadalupe Heritage Institute which I founded in the early 1990s and which has as its mission literacy at all levels–spiritual, written, political, economic, cultural — for the souls of the world.

Here is the letter to the DSM working committee asking them to consider the gifts of introversion rather than tagging it pathological symptom.

La Sociedad de Guadalupe Heritage Institute:

Analyzing and Creating Solutions for Issues

of Immigrants, Refugees, Deportees and Victims of Torture