From my experience(I'm also a sexual/self pres roud its in my urge to do something dangerous. Fours all about feeling something, whether its despair, love, or excitement and adrenaline. Usually I satisfy my urges by racing with my motorcycle; it makes me feel cool. :laughing:

 

As a sp/sx, the self-preservation instinct is extremely strong within me, and I feel the dauntlessness in every fiber of my being. So rather than the sx driving my actions, sp is the number one dictator of my actions which has given me a sort of blissful, suspended lifestyle which sacrifices future opportunities for present comfort.

This means that I will go to any extent to protect my personal space... I will go to all sorts of extremes to satisfy an insatiable thirst for risk. Conformity out of fear is my worst enemy, so I will engage in the most foolish and reckless behaviors to snub authority, but more importantly to satisfy my thrill-seeking impulse.

This has manifested itself in spending sprees, gambling, drinking, drugs, getting a mohawk haircut, blowing money on custom shoes and sunglasses that I can't afford, obsessively watching the most extreme and disturbing horror movies I can find, abruptly ending relationships, completely blowing off institutions if I feel insulted/overlooked in the slightest, and using shock value to get a reaction out of people.

Talk about bad taste!

My social behavior at times is outrageous, because I feel unstoppable in how I express myself so I will go all out to sound as flashy, loud and "glorious" as I can, which can be so off-putting to regular people.

The sp moves about in a self-styled sphere and everything in his way is either conquered or rejected.

Think Pink Floyd: The Wall.


Dauntlessness gives us a sharp, tunnel-vision, invincible kind of confidence that can easily lead us astray.

 

The only sp 4 that I can remember right now is Kristen Stewart.

 

I'd agree self pres (sp/sx), but she strikes me as very 6w5. She's got that head center thing going on, full throttle. My guess is she's ISFP and her being a fi-dom makes her seem fourish.

As far as dauntless goes in myself, I'd just say it's my determination to follow my own path.

 

Do other people have examples of the way the dauntlessness manifests in your life? Intuitively the term feels like it fits to me, but I want more concrete examples.

I have an inability to give up when I set my mind to something. Like if there's something I can't seem to figure out, a puzzle, or something that I want to understand or get to the bottom of, or when something I'm drawing/painting isn't working...just watch me. If I can't figure it out, you'll see me get angry and frustrated, threaten multiple times to give up, maybe even walk away. I may sit disconsolately for a while, lamenting my inability to fix it (5 wing peeking out there). But just watch, and you'll see that I'll come back to the problem every. Single. Time. Until I have at last exhausted myself, tried every possible approach, meditated on it, or even tried to break the stupid thing...only then will I "give up" (which is to say, table it for another try some undefined amount of time later).

So, my dauntlessness is in a great difficulty in accepting the idea that something is "impossible". It lies in a very quietly expressed ambition to make elaborate ideas become reality or to do/dream of a something bigger, better, with more connections and unity and clarity of expression.

 

LOL I have just noticed that this thread is about examples of dauntless behavior and not SP 4's examples ... :frustrating:

Well anyways...
Sp 4's generally ignore their basic needs (example: food, security, integrity, well-being, ...) They do that in order to feel specials and unique from others. They can be very trouble-maskers and that's why they can be easily mistyped as type 6. Sp 4s are also proud of their suffering and emotional pain. However they don't use it in a self-pitying way - They are self-devouring and they force themselves to make what they want and desire.

Now I have one friend who is a SP 4 and she is the prefect example of dauntless. In the past, when she got really unhealthy, she used to be a dealer of drugs... and she was on the streets in a suicidal way (exploring the dark places of the city, risking life, consuming all kind of drugs that exist...) Sp 4 seem to walk between the desire to protect life to risk it.

 

Sp 4's generally ignore their basic needs (example: food, security, integrity, well-being, ...)

I would think that kind of behavior would be indicative of sp-lastness. Isn't it the last instinct in a person's stacking that typically gets ignored? Or does it work in the opposite direction for Fours?

 

I feel like there is a lot of confusion on here (and in general) in regard to the self pres instinct in fours. And I think it really has to do with how they behave when healthy or average vs when unhealthy.

Healthy self-pres types focus on self preservation in a positive way. I think for fours this means really getting into projects/work and accomplishing things which they feel represent them, which will leave a legacy.

Unhealthy self-pres types focus on self preservation in a way that turns against itself- eating disorders, self mutilation, being reckless/deliberately entering situations which will harm them, drug and alcohol abuse, deliberately neglecting the self, suicide, etc.

Average self pres fours I think kind of reside between. Self indulgent and desiring to accomplish but self defeating at the same time.

I think van Gogh is a great example of a self pres four. All his letters are free online. They're a great read and illustrate the type beautifully: http://vangoghletters.org/vg/ (he is a 4w5, however. I think Jean Cocteau is a great example of a self pres 4w3.)

@Kyrielle, I relate very much to what you say, by the way. Thanks for sharing.

 

Here is a day in the life of a self-preserving 4 (true story).

Wakes up, feels delirious but supercharged. Stumbles over to the computer screen. Sees an empty wine bottle. Gradually remembers how last night he lost everything to some impulsive drunken bet, and uninstalled the poker application swearing the silly game off.... yet this morning he is rejuvenated.

Without thinking twice he re-downloads the online gambling game from a company that's probably operating illegally and based in some remote island.
He's fired up; determined to win; he will not walk out a loser. He drinks a red bull and starts playing.
5 more deposits and another full cup of coffee later... his credit card starts getting rejected. But he laughs it off without a hint of remorse.
What's the point of remorse when the only person I am hurting is myself?
It's only a bad beat!

With a fuming resentment for the meaninglessness of money he decides to go the mall and spend some more. The sterile, spammy light rock music played at the clothing shop infuriates him, and he wonders why they insist on playing such irritating small-list radio tunes at every department store. After exhausted from wandering around in the mall, he gets back in the car.

He has a vague notion that maybe he should go to the gym... but meh, there's not enough time. We'll save the pleasure of a workout for later!
He scrounges around his drawer and finds a pipe. Grabbing a paper clip, he bends it out of shape and starts desperately scraping the bowl. Eventually, he forms a nice little resin ball.
He steps outside, and with the blazing sun bearing down upon him, lights the resin and sucks out every inch of leftover THC. His lungs have seemingly endless capacity and he holds it in forever -- he is good at tuning out physical pain -- the possessed desire to get high outweighs the signals sent from his body to his brain.
Then, he goes to 7-11 and gets a beer. He drinks it, then he takes a shower, shaves and spruces himself up. Then he drinks another red bull and heads off to work!
Finally after work, he goes downtown to training at another job that he's only starting... he's not even sure he wants this job, he's only testing his charisma and hireability. He's surprised at the friendly interactions he has with people and always wonders how long it will be before they find out how much of a scumbag he really is.
All the while, due to being so bloated with caffeine and alcohol he really hasn't eaten much at all today!
Endlessly riding his magic carpet of elation, he arrives home, pulls out his guitar, fires up Pandora and starts playing along to blues rock radio while simultaneously reading about the Black Plague on Wikipedia (did you know that in the Middle Ages, people were so stupid they exterminated cats because they believed they were "familiars" to witches, and therefore wicked and evil... and therefore there were no cats to control the rat population arriving on ships, and this caused the Black Plague?). He does not feel lonely, and he does not feel hungry... although these are probably the needs he must attend to. Yet there is no slowdown in sight... the greatest terror is boredom.
He is numbed out to his true needs... instead, he will answer any impulse to feel alive... and everything he does is surefire.


Dauntless... or just stupid?