Identity and Image Management: Shadow Themes in 2/3/4
Don’t you worry: I’ll be sure to share the high side of Threes in class: my number one hero in life is a Three (as are likely Bill Clinton and Oprah).
The Talented Mr. Ripley… a delightfully clear look at a very troubled 3 Performer— who has a discontented 4 Romantic Wing and a charmer’s 2 Connector Wing… It’s suspenseful, entertaining, and a fun character study that will likely help you understand the core of The Identity Types (2-3-4)
Need I say: READ THE NOVEL! It’s a fast read and will keep you in suspense. Totally FUN!
The movie is well-done and beautiful to watch (nothing like a few hours with handsome Jude Law and Matt Damon, oh--- and lovely Cate Blanchett and Gwenyth Paltrow) but it does stray from some of the book plots. You’ll get way more on Type Three if you read the book, because you’re in Ripley’s head plenty. My notes might tell you what Three Themes to attend to.
Ask yourself: In what ways have YOU crafted an identity? Any of it falsely? In what ways have you created a life in order to AVOID FAILURE? What have you done to get approval? (Good questions for your one-to-ones.)
Chapter 1
We meet Tom on the run from bar to bar thinking he may be arrested. He works out the lies he might tell. “It wasn’t grand larceny or tampering with the mail or whatever they called it...”
Three Identity is created in an Avoidance of FAILURE. Nothing strokes a Three more than the wish for/promise of/experience of SUCCESS.
“You’ll probably succeed where the rest of us have failed” Richard’s father Mr. Greenleaf (even the name is Money! ) says to Tom, after Tom has crafted lies of connection, he accepts that he can take the ticket and task under false pretenses.
Chapter 2
Tom is living in small, gross apartment with a friend who is letting him stay there. He is embarrassed he knows someone who lives in such squalor, but he needed it and his false identity mail won’t get detected there. “Tom had been shocked at the sordidness of the place, shocked that he even knew anybody who lived like that, but he had known he wouldn’t live there very long. And now Mr. Greenleaf had turned up.
Something always turned up. That was Tom’s philosophy.”
Threes believe:" If you think it, it can be. Make it so."
“Slowly he took off his jacket and untied his tie, watching every move he made as if it were somebody else’s movements he was watching. Astonishing how much straighter he was standing now, what a different look there was to his face..”
This is a moment describing an Identity Type (2s3s4s)— being on stage and in the audience. Threes become enamored with their own press releases and images.
Chapter 3
“Tom wanted to get out of the apartment, and yet he still wanted to go to Europe. And he wanted Mr. Greenleaf to approve of him.”
Tom feels sick at the only truth he tells: his parents died when he was young and he was raised by an aunt in Boston. Rags to riches—- failure to success—— overcoming obstacles—- underdog to dog.
Threes often have personal stories of Rags to Riches, or Riches to Rags— they view much of life as climbing a mountain or working a machine. 2s3s4s are seeking approval, and the 3 DEMANDS/ASSERTS for it (yang).
Chapter 4
We meet Tom’s friend Cleo, the platonic friend to whom he tells the truth and gets affirmation.
Chapter 5
Tom sobs as the boat pulls out, with a fruit basket in the room thanking him: from two parents who want their son. (A Four Wing Moment, huh? He didn’t have parents who wanted him and he longs for it. The only way he gets it is to DECEIVE.)
Chapter 6
“He began to play a role on the ship, that of a serious young man with a serious job ahead of him.” He buys a cap and plays with his image and his identity. So long to the old dirty dull life. “He felt as he imagined immigrants felt... a clean slate!”
Three Image Management: requires cut and run... recreate a new identity.
He remembers his aunt making him chase her car while it lurched forward and her calling him “a sissy” just like his father...
He liked that his aloof act was causing the people on the boat to talk of him.
Chapter 9.
“Tom couldn’t have made himself take the hand. This was the very edge of failure as far as Mr. Green leaf was concerned, and failure with Dickie.” He goes on to join with Dickie the enjoyment that Mr Greenleaf was desperate enough to pay Tom’s way. All deceit.
As Tom tells a joke to Dickie and March: “He took a breath and began. He made it very funny, and merge left like someone who hadn’t had anything funny to laugh at in years.… His tongue rattled on almost independently of his brain. His brain was estimating how high his stock was shooting up with Nicki and Marge he could see it in their faces.” Threes are seeking approval for the image they portray: like being on stage and responding to the audience.
“Oh, I can do a number of things – valeting, babysitting, accounting – I’ve got an unfortunate talent for figures. No matter how drunk I get, I can always tell when the waiter’s cheating me on the bill. I can forge your signature, fly a helicopter, handle dice, impersonate practically anybody, cook – and do a one l-man show in the night club in case the regular entertainer’s sick. Shall I go on?… He could’ve gone on.
Chapter 11
Letter from Mr Greenleaf throws Tom into a panic:
“In view of the fact you have been with Dickie over a month and that he shows no more sign of coming home and then before you went, I can only conclude that you haven’t been successful.… I sincerely hope the trip has a forwarded you some pleasure despite the failure of its main objective.” (Failure and being unsuccessful: for a Three is: OUCH!!! )
Chapter 14
“Not a Single one of the Americans seem to know his name. Tom felt completely comfortable, as he had never felt before at any party that he could remember. He behaved as he had always wanted to behave at a party. This was the clean slate he had thought about on the boat coming over from America. This was the real annihilation of his past and of himself, Tom Ripley, who was made up of the past, and his rebirth as a completely new person.” (Notice that 3s have DOUBT (6) about their own worth and identities— sometimes they only way they can shift their worth/experience is to ANNIHILATE (Type 9 Self-Forgetting) and cut and run and recreate a whole new identity. Americans do this a lot, and Portland is filled with people who say things like: “I used to be a corporate lawyer in New York, but now I own a hemp yarn shop for left-handed knitters in North Portland…”— identity based on what you won, what you failed, or what you are no, or what you are becoming….. HOW DO YOU DO THIS?)
Questions for Consideration Related to the Novel/Film
The Talented Mr. Ripley… a delightfully clear look at a very troubled 3 Performer— who has a discontented 4 Romantic Wing and a charmer’s 2 Connector Wing… It’s suspenseful, entertaining, and a fun character study that will likely help you understand the core of The Identity Types (2-3-4)
Need I say: READ THE NOVEL! It’s a fast read and will keep you in suspense. Totally FUN!
The movie is well-done and beautiful to watch (nothing like a few hours with handsome Jude Law and Matt Damon, oh--- and lovely Cate Blanchett and Gwenyth Paltrow) but it does stray from some of the book plots. You’ll get way more on Type Three if you read the book, because you’re in Ripley’s head plenty. My notes might tell you what Three Themes to attend to.
Ask yourself: In what ways have YOU crafted an identity? Any of it falsely? In what ways have you created a life in order to AVOID FAILURE? What have you done to get approval? (Good questions for your one-to-ones.)
Chapter 1
We meet Tom on the run from bar to bar thinking he may be arrested. He works out the lies he might tell. “It wasn’t grand larceny or tampering with the mail or whatever they called it...”
Three Identity is created in an Avoidance of FAILURE. Nothing strokes a Three more than the wish for/promise of/experience of SUCCESS.
“You’ll probably succeed where the rest of us have failed” Richard’s father Mr. Greenleaf (even the name is Money! ) says to Tom, after Tom has crafted lies of connection, he accepts that he can take the ticket and task under false pretenses.
Chapter 2
Tom is living in small, gross apartment with a friend who is letting him stay there. He is embarrassed he knows someone who lives in such squalor, but he needed it and his false identity mail won’t get detected there. “Tom had been shocked at the sordidness of the place, shocked that he even knew anybody who lived like that, but he had known he wouldn’t live there very long. And now Mr. Greenleaf had turned up.
Something always turned up. That was Tom’s philosophy.”
Threes believe:" If you think it, it can be. Make it so."
“Slowly he took off his jacket and untied his tie, watching every move he made as if it were somebody else’s movements he was watching. Astonishing how much straighter he was standing now, what a different look there was to his face..”
This is a moment describing an Identity Type (2s3s4s)— being on stage and in the audience. Threes become enamored with their own press releases and images.
Chapter 3
“Tom wanted to get out of the apartment, and yet he still wanted to go to Europe. And he wanted Mr. Greenleaf to approve of him.”
Tom feels sick at the only truth he tells: his parents died when he was young and he was raised by an aunt in Boston. Rags to riches—- failure to success—— overcoming obstacles—- underdog to dog.
Threes often have personal stories of Rags to Riches, or Riches to Rags— they view much of life as climbing a mountain or working a machine. 2s3s4s are seeking approval, and the 3 DEMANDS/ASSERTS for it (yang).
Chapter 4
We meet Tom’s friend Cleo, the platonic friend to whom he tells the truth and gets affirmation.
Chapter 5
Tom sobs as the boat pulls out, with a fruit basket in the room thanking him: from two parents who want their son. (A Four Wing Moment, huh? He didn’t have parents who wanted him and he longs for it. The only way he gets it is to DECEIVE.)
Chapter 6
“He began to play a role on the ship, that of a serious young man with a serious job ahead of him.” He buys a cap and plays with his image and his identity. So long to the old dirty dull life. “He felt as he imagined immigrants felt... a clean slate!”
Three Image Management: requires cut and run... recreate a new identity.
He remembers his aunt making him chase her car while it lurched forward and her calling him “a sissy” just like his father...
He liked that his aloof act was causing the people on the boat to talk of him.
Chapter 9.
“Tom couldn’t have made himself take the hand. This was the very edge of failure as far as Mr. Green leaf was concerned, and failure with Dickie.” He goes on to join with Dickie the enjoyment that Mr Greenleaf was desperate enough to pay Tom’s way. All deceit.
As Tom tells a joke to Dickie and March: “He took a breath and began. He made it very funny, and merge left like someone who hadn’t had anything funny to laugh at in years.… His tongue rattled on almost independently of his brain. His brain was estimating how high his stock was shooting up with Nicki and Marge he could see it in their faces.” Threes are seeking approval for the image they portray: like being on stage and responding to the audience.
“Oh, I can do a number of things – valeting, babysitting, accounting – I’ve got an unfortunate talent for figures. No matter how drunk I get, I can always tell when the waiter’s cheating me on the bill. I can forge your signature, fly a helicopter, handle dice, impersonate practically anybody, cook – and do a one l-man show in the night club in case the regular entertainer’s sick. Shall I go on?… He could’ve gone on.
Chapter 11
Letter from Mr Greenleaf throws Tom into a panic:
“In view of the fact you have been with Dickie over a month and that he shows no more sign of coming home and then before you went, I can only conclude that you haven’t been successful.… I sincerely hope the trip has a forwarded you some pleasure despite the failure of its main objective.” (Failure and being unsuccessful: for a Three is: OUCH!!! )
Chapter 14
“Not a Single one of the Americans seem to know his name. Tom felt completely comfortable, as he had never felt before at any party that he could remember. He behaved as he had always wanted to behave at a party. This was the clean slate he had thought about on the boat coming over from America. This was the real annihilation of his past and of himself, Tom Ripley, who was made up of the past, and his rebirth as a completely new person.” (Notice that 3s have DOUBT (6) about their own worth and identities— sometimes they only way they can shift their worth/experience is to ANNIHILATE (Type 9 Self-Forgetting) and cut and run and recreate a whole new identity. Americans do this a lot, and Portland is filled with people who say things like: “I used to be a corporate lawyer in New York, but now I own a hemp yarn shop for left-handed knitters in North Portland…”— identity based on what you won, what you failed, or what you are no, or what you are becoming….. HOW DO YOU DO THIS?)
Questions for Consideration Related to the Novel/Film
- In what ways have YOU crafted an identity? Any of it falsely?
- In what ways have you created a life in order to AVOID FAILURE?
- What have you done to get approval?
- If you avoided answering how you are a coward during the Hamlet discussions, can you answer how are you a failure here?
- How do you experience failure?
- How have you avoided failure, and at what cost?
- How do you avoid failure today?
- Have you had the experience of recreating yourself in the eyes of other people?
- Were you moving towards, away or against anything at the time?
- What has it had you consider about Type Threes and the issues of: self-deceit, image, esteem, authenticity, veracity, failure, etc.?
| wagner_type_three.pdf |
| description_type_three_the_performer.pdf |