Core Need/Motivation
Type Fours have a need to find depth and significance, searching for the ideal. 

Characteristics
Type Fours tend to be emotionally aware, original, wholehearted, and meaning-makers.

Description
Type Fours possess a heightened sensitivity to beauty, meaning, and emotional nuance and an aversion to the mundane. They are attuned to what feels authentic, alive, and deeply personal. They carry a sense that life could be much more beautiful, complete, and interesting. This compels them to put their whole heart into their work. Functionality, trends, and the “same old” feel ugly and meaningless to them. They search for and work towards uniqueness, with the goal of standing out and adding beauty to the world.

Type Fours often have a sense of longing for or melancholy about what is missing, incomplete, or inauthentic. They strive to draw out the unique beauty in people and in their work, and they seek meaning or depth in their relationships. Sometimes this striving leads them to compare themselves to others, and when they do, they often find themselves coming up short, with feelings of deficiency. They end up believing that others are happier or somehow more favored by life than they are. 

Type Fours are idealists, which can cause them to focus on their inadequacies and the inadequacies of the world around them. This idealism fuels creativity, artistry, and meaningful contribution. When discouraged, they may temporarily withdraw — but when grounded in their worth, they become powerful creators of beauty and authenticity. 

Type Fours have an unusual capacity to sit with pain — their own and others’ — without rushing to minimize or solve it. This makes them compassionate companions and emotionally honest leaders. They sometimes describe themselves as melancholy or gray.

Primary Center: Heart Center/ Emotional 

With a primary heart center, Type Fours feel deeply, and emotions can be large and fluctuating. They can alternate between deep engagement with the exterior world and then withdraw into themselves. They delight in beauty and then pull back in disappointment when an ideal experience is not reached.

The Gifts of Type Fours

Type Fours are creative, empathetic, and emotionally deep. They pour their whole heart into the work of creating beauty in the world, and even connect to things that are darkly beautiful. They can make others feel like they can be completely honest about themselves and not be rejected. Despite longing for the ideal, Type Fours can welcome the imperfections of others and be champions for the marginalized.

The Challenges of Type Fours

Type Fours feel things so deeply and desire such great beauty and ideals, and so when those things are not achieved, it can be hard for them to accept and be content with the reality of what is. Type Fours can be seen as dramatic, moody, and sometimes self-absorbed. 

Communication with Type Fours

The communication style of Type Fours is emotional and personally-focused and often has a component of creativity.

When interacting with Type Fours, it is helpful to be emotionally open, sensitive, and appreciative of their expression of feelings. In order to connect with a Type Four, you must be willing to engage with depth. When they are upset, acknowledge them without overly agreeing, knowing that they may be expressing their strong emotions at the current moment, not necessarily an emotion that is constant or permanent.