Do It

CHAPTER 5The Test Believer

MEET ISABEL BRIGGS

For most of her life, Isabel Briggs hid in plain sight, cocooned within the restrictions of what she thought was her destiny. It wasn't that existing in the shadows soothed her more or that she longed to be a social outcast far from the spotlight—not always at least—but it was where she was told she'd find the most peace. And in 1910, young Isabel believed it.

In her daydreams, Isabel lived and spoke in ways only her mind could imagine, but because of the label she'd been given, her body could not. Existing in both the shadows and the spotlight whenever she saw fit was a choice given to others but not Isabel. She was an introvert. And introverts had limitations.

“Isabel, come quickly!” her mother, Katharine, hollered from the foyer. Isabel was 13 years old when she found her mother at the bottom of the stairs flushed with excitement. “I knew it, honey; this confirms it,” she boasted, holding up a section of Carl Jung's work Psychological Types.

“This article explains exactly why you are an introvert!”

Isabel had heard the word before but on that particular day, it was more than just a word. It was a life sentence. Katharine swore by Carl Jung, the famous Swiss psychiatrist. Deep down she yearned to be more than just a housewife and a mother, and she knew Jung's work was her ticket out. She used every free moment she could spare to collect data and research personality types. The work was exhilarating but daunting. She knew she needed ...