"You use words like 'introvert' and 'extrovert,' various traits of a personality. A lot of that stuff, we used in drama school, and that was kind of interesting, to realize my teachers sort of ripped off a lot of Jung. And how much of it is part of our society now, these phrases, introvert and extrovert, where it actually came from"
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Fassbender is doing something actors do well: pulling the curtain back on the machinery of personality. He’s not dunking on “introvert” and “extrovert” so much as clocking how casually we treat them as natural facts, when they’re really hand-me-down theory turned everyday shorthand. The lightly cheeky “ripped off Jung” lands because it punctures the prestige of training and of pop psychology at once: even the professionals are borrowing a framework, not discovering truth.
The intent feels twofold. First, he’s locating acting pedagogy inside a broader intellectual lineage. Drama school, in his telling, isn’t just technique; it’s a kit of categories for reading people, motivations, energy, social behavior. Second, he’s questioning how those categories escaped the classroom and colonized ordinary life. “How much of it is part of our society now” points to the way labels become identity badges: you don’t merely act introverted at a party; you are an Introvert, capital I, as if it’s destiny.
The subtext is a quiet skepticism about the modern obsession with self-sorting. These terms feel empowering because they offer an explanation for discomfort or preference, but they also flatten complexity into two marketable types. Fassbender’s curiosity - “where it actually came from” - is a reminder that our most familiar self-descriptions have authors, histories, and agendas. If a concept can be lifted from Jung into a drama exercise and then into office culture, dating apps, and memes, maybe it’s less a mirror of the soul than a script we keep rehearsing.
The intent feels twofold. First, he’s locating acting pedagogy inside a broader intellectual lineage. Drama school, in his telling, isn’t just technique; it’s a kit of categories for reading people, motivations, energy, social behavior. Second, he’s questioning how those categories escaped the classroom and colonized ordinary life. “How much of it is part of our society now” points to the way labels become identity badges: you don’t merely act introverted at a party; you are an Introvert, capital I, as if it’s destiny.
The subtext is a quiet skepticism about the modern obsession with self-sorting. These terms feel empowering because they offer an explanation for discomfort or preference, but they also flatten complexity into two marketable types. Fassbender’s curiosity - “where it actually came from” - is a reminder that our most familiar self-descriptions have authors, histories, and agendas. If a concept can be lifted from Jung into a drama exercise and then into office culture, dating apps, and memes, maybe it’s less a mirror of the soul than a script we keep rehearsing.
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| Topic | Knowledge |
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