Introverted Sensation (Si) - This is
the perception of what merely is, but as it is
to the subject. The subjective conditions of
the experience are emphasized to such a de-
gree that all objective certainty disappears. It
is no longer important that something be im-
pressive to others; it is only important that it
be impressive to oneself. What others pass over as unimportant,
the introverted sensor always takes notice of, due to their unique
personal history with the thing. The introverted sensor's attention
is not earned through flashy presentation, but through personal
connection. One senses all that a thing represents for them, even
more than they sense the thing itself. As the impressionist painter
Claude Monet wrote, “In Paris one is too preoccupied by what one
sees and what one hears, however strong one is; what I am doing
here [on the other hand] has, I think, the merit of not resembling
anyone, because it is simply the expression of what I myself have
experienced."2
Truth is thus proportionate to the degree of its subjective pres-
ence, and a sensation is subjectively present to the degree that it
resembles one of the subject's archetypal sensations. Introverted
sensation abstracts from experience those elements it considers
truly important, separating the wheat from the chaff, and forming
a number of ideal sensations by which all new incoming sensa-
tions are understood. For instance, if both sensation types were
stung by a bee, the extravert would focus on all that distinguishes
the pain from other such experiences, but the introvert would fo-
cus on the similarities between related experiences, i.e. where the
pain falls on their subjective palette of abstracted pains. Every-
thing new is related to something old and personal.
