Otroverts have websites called disassociated, are like Albert Einstein

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Otroverts have websites called disassociated, are like Albert Einstein

1 January 2026

Rami Kaminski, a New York based psychiatrist, has identified a new personality type, the otrovert:

An Otrovert is someone who feels like an eternal outsider in groups, even when they are friendly and socially capable. Media descriptions of “otroverts” commonly emphasize emotional independence from groups, original thinking, low interest in joining or in adopting group rituals, and a tendency to seek depth in a small number of relationships rather than broad group belonging.

This seems all very familiar.

Albert Einstein, for one, is cited as an example of an otrovert, although up until now he’d been more considered an introvert. Otrovert seems more like a sub-classification of an introvert though, and I dare say more could forthcoming, as one introvert is not a cookie-cutter version of another.

The same, no doubt, would go for extroverts as well.

The COVID, AI, triggered cultural vibe shift we did not see coming

30 December 2025

Sydney based Australian journalist and speech writer Brigid Delaney, writing for the Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC):

Arriving, a friend asked me how I was. I was OK, I replied, but still disorientated from my time on X. “I don’t know what’s real anymore,” I said. It was dawning on me that this feeling of not knowing reality was — for me — the vibe shift. AI had polluted my clarity, in part because it was so uncanny and real that it was very easy to be tricked.

The COVID lock-downs were the beginning, but the arrival of AI in 2022, and even the election of American President Donald Trump in 2024, have accelerated the vibe shift Delaney writes of.

I’m certainly aware of changes in the way people interact with each other, even if those are relatively subtle. I hear of people adopting hermit-like lifestyles, enveloping themselves in AI fostered domains, with AI companions, but don’t see, or hear, much about it in the circles I move. Most people seem to socialise face-to-face with family and friends as usual. Or at least create that impression.

Delaney’s article is contemplative reading, whatever your thoughts on any sort of vibe shift might be.

Socialising leads to longer life, but what about introverts?

15 October 2025

Dana G. Smith, writing for The Sydney Morning Herald;

People who have strong relationships generally live longer, and the unicorns known as “super-agers” — older adults who have the memory abilities of someone 20 years younger — tend to be especially outgoing. On the flipside, chronic loneliness raises the risk for cognitive decline and even early death.

Introverts — such as yours truly — are not hermits, they simply prefer more time by themselves. On occasion I’ve wondered if having only a small number of acquaintances might impact my health and well-being, considering long life and good health is associated with having numerous social contacts. But surely if introverts are content then there cannot be any adverse health outcomes?

Loneliness is of course a different matter, and can afflict anyone, introvert or extrovert. I suspect extroverts might struggle more here than introverts though. An out-going person who is lonely may well see their health suffer as a result.

But I sometimes wonder about introverts residing in aged-care facilities. What awareness do the staff have of introversion? Are introvert residents coerced into participating in social activities because they are deemed “too quiet”, “too self-isolating”, for their own good? It seems to me forced socialisation would be, more than anything, detrimental to their well-being.

I think caveats need to be included with research that claims strong relationships are essential for a long healthy life. That might be the case for some people, but not everyone.

Swearing may be a sign of intelligence, creativity… thank f**k for that

11 February 2025

The next time someone takes exception to your “bad language”, point them to this research:

Swearing may also be a sign of intelligence, is associated with less lying and deception at the individual level and higher integrity at the society level, and may be a sign of creativity. The offensiveness and the positive or negative consequences of swearing is highly dependent on the context.

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language, psychology

Becoming nocturnal to ensure their solitude, meet the ultra introverts

8 February 2025

I’m an introvert, but until I read Faith Hill’s 2022 article for The Atlantic, a few days ago, I’d never heard of ultra, or intense, introverts:

There’s already been some controversy in the psychological community about whether intense introversion should qualify as a disorder. The American Psychiatric Association has considered adding introversion to the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders. Pathologizing introversion sounds absurd — until you start considering the extreme end of the spectrum.

It was Carl Jung, the Swiss psychologist who identified the existence of introvert and extrovert personalities, who said there was no such thing as a pure introvert (or extrovert). Such a person, if there were one, according to Jung, would be in a lunatic asylum.

Adopting a nocturnal existence then to guarantee one’s solitude, seems like an extreme measure to me. But, introverts crave time alone, and becoming a creature of the night might be the only way some people can achieve this. But some of those described by Hill don’t seem like introverts per se, they appear to going all out to totally avoid contact with, well, everyone.

Introverts generally don’t want to completely avoid interactions with others, they instead seek to limit them. Anyone who keeps their phone permanently in do-not-disturb (DND) mode, knows what I mean. While I have set up overrides so certain people can always reach me, DND helps me manage my interactions with the outside world.

Plus, part of my work is writing, and the last thing a writer wants is their train of thought being broken by the ringing of a phone. But I don’t like the idea of introversion being considered a mental disorder. I think we need to ascertain that we’re dealing with bona fide introverts, rather than those who are seeking to completely cut themselves off from everyone else.

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introversion, personality, psychology

Prolonged use of social media may make you short tempered

13 January 2025

Research from Massachusetts General Hospital, I believe, in the United States, possibly underscores what many of us already suspect: that prolonged use of social media may not be the best:

This kind of study cannot prove that your hours of doomscrolling is directly making you Tik’d off, but in light of known associations of irritability and mental health issues, maybe we should put down our phones just a little more.

While I have a few social media accounts, I’m no power user, as some of you may know. Does that not make me short tempered? Maybe that’s not for me to say…

Pack plenty of books and take yourself into internal exile in 2025

27 December 2024

The introverts among us live almost permanently in a sort of internal exile, or a rich inner life, as Waleed Aly referred to it during the COVID-19 lockdowns.

But the idea of getting away from it all, without actually going anywhere, is gaining traction more widely, writes Jacqueline Maley, for The Sydney Morning Herald. This as 2025, and the greater uncertainty that many people are anticipating, looms:

In recent months, I have been reading about the concept of “internal exile” or “internal emigration’. The term comes from the Russian, “vnutrennaya emigratsia” and means a sort of travelling into oneself, to take comfort in small pleasures – often solitary pleasures of the mind, like reading, or listening to music, or gardening or making a pleasant home.

Avid book readers have a different brain structure from other people

16 December 2024

In the same way the brain structures of introverts and extraverts differ, the same can be said for voracious readers of book as opposed to those who struggle finish books. This according to Mikael Roll, professor of phonetics, at Sweden’s Lund University.

The structure of two regions in the left hemisphere, which are crucial for language, were different in people who were good at reading.

It seems to me there is no stock-standard issue brain, they’re as varied as we are.

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psychology, reading

Doomscrolling social media does not result in brain rot

12 November 2024

So say psychologists at the Sydney based University of New South Wales (UNSW):

Dr Poppy Watson, adjunct lecturer with UNSW’s School of Psychology, says while the idea warrants exploration, there is a lack of evidence showing excessive doomscrolling of social media is responsible for the mental fatigue, lack of focus, and reduced cognitive function often attributed to ‘brain rot’.

Doomscrolling is hardly a harmless undertaking either, but the UNSW researchers attribute so-called brain rot, particularly among teenagers, more to poverty, socioeconomic status, and poor diet. Brain rot does not, for instance, seem to have impacted IQ scores, which continue to rise:

If intense, prolonged digital consumption were stultifying young people’s minds, then we could expect to see a drop in average IQ scores between pre- and post-digital generations. But as Dr Watson points out, average IQ scores have risen from the start of the 20th century and into the 21st, known as the Flynn Effect.

This as the Australian government proposal to ban social media access to people under the age of sixteen, has been attracting criticism.

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psychology, social media, trends

Conservatives and progressives have different brain structures

17 October 2024

When it comes to political leanings, I’m probably centre/left. But I have a number of family and acquaintances who definitely lean more to the right.

Of course, everyone is different, but certain of the mannerisms of the more conservative people I know are particularly distinct. To me, these seemed to go beyond regular personal preference. An inclination towards adhering to convention, and a dislike of uncertainty, to cite a few, seem quite apparent to me. And this well before discussing voting intentions.

Now some recent University College London research, published by Current Biology, seems to confirm what I’ve long suspect: there are differences in the brain structures of politically left leaning and right leaning people:

We speculate that the association of gray matter volume of the amygdala and anterior cingulate cortex with political attitudes that we observed may reflect emotional and cognitive traits of individuals that influence their inclination to certain political orientations. For example, our findings are consistent with the proposal that political orientation is associated with psychological processes for managing fear and uncertainty. The amygdala has many functions, including fear processing. Individuals with a large amygdala are more sensitive to fear, which, taken together with our findings, might suggest the testable hypothesis that individuals with larger amygdala are more inclined to integrate conservative views into their belief system. Similarly, it is striking that conservatives are more sensitive to disgust, and the insula is involved in the feeling of disgust. On the other hand, our finding of an association between anterior cingulate cortex volume and political attitudes may be linked with tolerance to uncertainty.

If medical terms baffle you, as they do me, read Sydney Morning Herald writer Angus Dalton’s analysis of the Current Biology report.

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personality, politics, psychology

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