The Four: A gift for emotional honesty

Fours are very in touch with their feelings, constantly checking in and monitoring them. As such they are very sensitive and attuned to themselves and their internal 'weather' as it were. They fully explore all of their feelings and so are familiar with them, having a level of self-awareness that can be touching and sometimes quite funny. They have a tendency to dwell on their hurt and are able to be truthful about the painful or dark sides of themselves that many people do not want to accknowledge in their own lives. For the Four it is important to be emotionally honest and they are.

However, emotional honesty has a price. Fours do not gloss over the painful stuff - either to themselves or others. Whilst this is very admirable and can actually help them to deal with it by working through it, it is also hard. Most of us can be quite uncomfortable with the truth. Why? Because we know it can be painful. It can acknowledge things which can be tough to accept. This is the same for the Four. Their desire to be emotionally honest means that they are not hiding difficult truths from themselves - or, in some cases, others. Needless to say, this is not always appreciated by those others for whom they may come across as harsh or even rude, especially if the recipient of the Four's truth is not ready to hear it Fours can therefore find themselves at odds with others without quite understanding why. They often have to learn the hard way that the pursuit of emotional honesty is not as important for others as it is for them.