The inclination toward distancing and objectivity is represented as well in the Golden Yellow preference for the thinking function (MBTI), alongside introversion. The Golden Yellow orientation is also aligned with the three final Enneagram types: 4, 5, and 9. The fifth Enneagram type aligns most easily with introverted Golden Yellow. This type is about finding a safe place away from the hubbub of daily life. It is about being a bit of a hermit. By contrast, Enneagram 9 is about being in the midst of the hubbub but finding a thoughtful and rational compromise among disparate and often competing perspectives. The extraverted Golden Yellow is inclined toward this ninth Enneagram type. A valuable role can be played by an extraverted Golden Yellow if they are also aligned with Enneagram 9. They can serve as a peacemaker. This is probably the most constructive way an extraverted Golden Yellows can provide leadership. By contrast, the introverted Golden Yellow rarely serves in a formal leadership role. They might best serve as the Enneagram 5 author of operations manuals or as a historian of the group or organization.
We are confronted with an important irony when considering Enneagram 4. To the extent that Enneagram 4 is aligned with the Thoughtful Golden Yellow preference, then we find a contradiction in the desire of those with the Golden Yellow orientation to advocate rationality and reality, while choosing to focus on their own deep thoughts and feelings. The Golden Yellow might distrust the inner thoughts and feelings of other people (as being irrational or biased); however, they are likely to trust their own inner life and ironically rely on this inner life when making “rational” judgments about the world, especially if they hold an introverted attitude.
Michael Polanyi (1969), a noted Nobel-prize-winning biologist and philosopher, wrote about this irony when distinguishing between that TO WHICH we attend and that FROM WHICH we attend. When someone points to a specific object or event, then we tend to look to where they are pointing (“To Which”) rather than looking at the act of pointing itself (“From Which”). Why have they selected this object or event for their attention? What is the reason they have asked us to focus on this object or event? Polanyi would suggest that the notion of “objectivity” is always suspect, given that the source of this objectivity is always subjective. Our rationality is always couched in an irrationality to which we can never directly (or objectively) attend, given that we would once again have to find a place from which to engage our attention. For the introverted Golden Yellow, there is always this struggle about somehow being rational and objective in a world that doesn’t take easily to such a stance. It is hard being rational when the very act of trying to be rational is founded on a subjective and “irrational” attempt to be rational.
A Golden Yellow Portrait
As we compile a portrait of the Thoughtful Golden Yellow interpersonal preference, we find that the primary source of Joy is found in gaining an objective sense of what is happening out there in the world. The primary source of energy comes from systematically arriving at an “accurate” conception of reality [MBTI: thinking]. When seeking to focus their attention on something important, those with a Golden Yellow preference are likely to devote time (and energy) to remaining clear, consistent, and rational in addressing real-life issues—and they best do this by working with some independence from other people. This search for independence resides at the heart of an introverted attitude. Even if a Golden Yellow is extraverted, there is still, as we have noted, an inclination to retreat from other people when faced with opposition or an uncomfortable relationship with another person.
