Sensitivity
Sensitivity¹
Sensitivity
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There are people who are quickly affected, for the slightest reasons. They may be affected by nothing. Their senses are very delicate, and their feelings are like silk. They are distressed for any reason. They may even cry for no reason. And they think they have been wounded or insulted, even by the most beloved of their loved ones!!
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This excessive sensitivity and this excessive emotion are matters that exhaust the soul. They exhaust the person from within and exhaust the people who deal with him. Such a person needs to be broad-chested…
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The sensitive person: his chest is narrow, his temperament is narrow, his nerves are tense, and his sadness is near. Whoever deals with him does not find rest.
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As for the broad-chested person, in colloquial speech they call him “bahbouh.”
This person allows everyone to speak with him comfortably, without fear and without caution, because he does not become distressed quickly and does not take matters with bad suspicion. -
The self-centered aspect or the personal aspect does not flare up in him.
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He is not overcome by depression, nor sadness, nor distress, nor psychological fatigue, nor psychological constriction. Rather, he is a simple, easy person who can preserve his friendships without being shaken by people’s behaviors.
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Sensitivity is a form of self-centeredness mixed with much emotion, and a person’s emotion in it is directed toward himself, not toward others.
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The sensitive person is often sensitive toward the following matters: he is sensitive regarding his dignity, people’s respect for him, and people’s treatment of him. He is sensitive regarding his rights, or what he thinks are his rights. He may also be sensitive regarding his comfort, and regarding his superiority and distinction, and here he may be very sensitive in a comparative way, that is, he compares, for example, how people treat him with how they treat others, with a kind of excessive delicacy…
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The sensitive person’s nerves are very delicate and very fine, quickly affected. Often his reactions appear quickly on his face, and his features expose them…
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Psychological sensitivity is of two kinds: a kind that is affected inwardly and becomes weary in silence, and a kind that rebels and takes revenge for itself.
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We often find the sensitive person much given to complaint, irritable, feeling persecuted. He may also be much given to reproach, much investigation, much thinking about the meaning of people’s words, their intentions, and what is hidden behind their behaviors.
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The sensitive person may not tolerate people and withdraw into himself. He may attribute this to an idealism he believes in but does not see realized in the surrounding society.
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An article by His Holiness Pope Shenouda III – Al-Keraza Magazine – Sixth Year – Issue No. Twelve – 21-3-1975.
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