Is your company encouraging psychological diversity? An Introvert’s Manifesto
By: Alexandra Serediuc - Founder Of Light Insight
Tags: Diversity And Inclusion, Organizational Culture, Alexandra Serediuc, Leadership, Introvert

We live in a society that has never been more technologically advanced. We have AI, Internet of things, private space travel, nano robots performing life saving surgeries, etc.

At the same time, from a psychological, social and political point of view it seems to me we have never been more ignorant and oblivious. We are so caught up in our small daily lives and quite frankly spend so much time lost in our jobs, our mobile devices and our exaggerated and most of the time imaginary dramas that we forgot basic truths about human nature and living in peace together as brothers and sisters from the same human race.

Do you think I am exaggerating? I’ll just name a few of the stark realities we have to deal with:

Increased xenophobia across the Globe, with the heartbreaking violence emerging from it

Increased religious fanatism and discrimination

We still have to fight against gender and sexual orientation discrimination

On top of all this, we have levels of discrimination we are not even aware of:

Financial discrimination: the world is more and more divided between the richest of the richest and the people who do not have access to food or water on a daily basis

Ageism or age discrimination: if past societies recognized their elders as the wisest of the group, cherished and respected them, in today’s society tens of industries make billions of dollars encouraging fear and hatred of getting old

And last but not least and certainly one that has a special place in my heart: psychological discrimination.

No, psychological discrimination is not just a new buzzword, and the latest trend in political correctness.

Psychological discrimination is the continuous and as-old-as-time discrimination of people who have not thought, acted nor felt the same as the majority, in line with the “standards”.

If you have a background in psychology, you are aware of how problematic and dangerous it is to define normalcy based on statistical prevalence. It is the reason why in the past women who were beaten at home, oppressed by society and husbands, living lives they hated and were angry for good reason were diagnosed with “hysteria” by none other than Sigmund Freud, the father of modern psychology.

Papa Freud, those women were not psychologically ill, they were made crazy by the injust, violent and soul crushing lives they led! And they certainly did not need to be treated with shock therapy or masturbation — they just needed some damn basic human decency and respect :)

And this is the simplest of examples, although quite a resonating one.

In today’s world, the most common psychological discrimination is against people who are different than the extroverted type: the loud, buzzing, always hyped, always happy, always seeking attention person.

Again, billions of dollars being spent by people in seminars, workshops, trainings, coaches and therapy to “overcome their introversion and shyness”, “make themselves heard”, “become more extroverted”, etc.

My response to this is: