Jane Fonda: Make it Better

[keirsey]

"Make it better" is her mantra.

Her autobiography, My Life So Far, is a great implicit study in Temperament. Jane Fonda has had a quite interesting journey in her life so far. A privileged and mostly ignored daughter of Henry Fonda and her suicidal mother Frances, Jane grew up not knowing herself. This is tragic situation for an Idealist, for she hid her excessive Idealist's guilt and naivety with eating disorders and marrying three times. But, she slowly kept trying to understand herself, as Idealists are wont to do, and finally did after 60 years. One of the most intriguing part of this search was it took the frantic opulent life of Ted Turner, an extremely extroverted, peripatetic Artisan to make Fonda finally need to say *stop* --- "slow down" and then take a good look at herself. It took her almost a lifetime to find her voice and calling: teaching women's issues -- teaching the stuff she actually experienced and conquered -- rather than the political knowledge that she naively tried to pass off as her own, using her fame, and Idealist credulity as an activist in her younger, reluctant-phoney, days.

Her explaining of her relationships is especially revealing: one Idealist and two Artisan husbands. She shows some of the pitfalls of the Idealist-Artisan marriage, as well as some of the advantages. Her first husband, Roger Vadim, was the classic erratic Artisan male charmer. The naive American, and young, Fonda was charmed by the sophisticated European for a couple of years. Her second husband, Tom Hayden, a political activist and an Idealist himself, seemed a better match and did last for a longer time. I did not get a very clear sense of why her and Tom's marriage failed. Neither was articulate or interested, but more probably incapable, in pinpointing the essential problem with the marriage. The fact that they are the same type, might have something to do with it. There isn't much information from their accounts to make strong conclusions. On the other hand, her last husband, who she eventually dumped, Ted Turner proved that charming Jane was possible despite them being an odd couple, showing that some Idealists can be charmed by Artisans often. Lastly, she gives us an intriguing glimpse at her father, Henry Fonda -- a greatest generation Idealist born into a very tactiturned midwest upbringing. Henry is a whole another story to be understood regarding Temperament. If the complicated interaction of Temperament and Environment does not intrigue you in Henry's case, it never will.

Her autobiography is mostly honest and open, and is an articulate exposing of the interworkings of a Teacher Idealist thoughts and feelings. Moreover, it gives us a panoramic view of both the political and social history of the last 50 years from her personal perspective -- obviously colored from her point of view -- but clearly honest and biased. It is one of the best autobiographies of a female Teacher Idealist I have found. Good work Hanoi Jane. I think she achieved what she wanted to accomplish with this book.

[Quinta]

teaching the stuff she actually experienced and conquered -

Is this typical of Teachers only? Isn't this the basis for all types of self help?

No wonder it's effective when you can stand behind what you're teaching with your life experience. It's tested and proven to work.

[keirsey]

teaching the stuff she actually experienced and conquered -

Is this typical of Teachers only? Isn't this the basis for all types of self help?

No wonder it's effective when you can stand behind what you're teaching with your life experience. It's tested and proven to work.

Other temperaments can (and try to) teach the stuff they actually experienced and conquered. Teaching as a task is difficult, "students" typically resist learning, and are not appreciative of the effort. The Temperaments vary in the effort they will go through to try to tell other people what they learned.

On the other hand, "USING the stuff she actually experienced and conquered" is the essence of "success." And being successful is the best "help" for the "self". All the individuals of the Temperaments that are "successful" -- "use the stuff one actually experienced and conquered." The recent book Outliers: The Story of Success, by Malcolm Gladwell, talks about the 10,000 hour rule, upon which an individual becomes an expert. Obviously what one becomes an "expert" in has a great deal to do with Temperament.

[mkb32]

Regarding the 10,000 hour rule, I am becoming more and more aware that I am NOT the only person at University who believes or believed they are incapable of learning.

Obviously, the majority of the freshman class is incapable of applying what they learned in high school to their courses.
More than that, the majority of them have no idea how they (as individuals) learn.
Very, very few have study skills that they can apply.

It is interesting to me to observe how different temperaments address this issue, if at all.

I am appalled at how many students immediately exclaim "They can't teach!" when in fact the issue is that the students themselves can't learn and don't know it.

I am also appalled at the amount of Professors who don't care to to teach the students how to learn or don't know that all students can't learn the way they (as individuals) teach.

I would like to be able to blame this issue on the State of GA public education system but, without hard evidence I have just a "feeling" that we are not alone.

Quite a quandary.
Self focus -vs.- Self aware.

[Goodrum]

Jane and her adopted daughter with Oprah


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Winfrey speaks with Fonda and her adopted African-American daughter, Mary Williams, for the first time together. Williams grew up as a member of the Black Panther Party, an organization founded in Oakland, CA during the 1960s to stop police brutality toward African-Americans chronicled in her recently released memoir The Lost Daughter. When Williams was 16, she left Oakland and came to live with Fonda in her Santa Monica, CA, home. They discuss how they met, and Williams shares what it was like becoming a part of Fonda’s larger-than-life world. Fonda’s biological son Troy also joins the conversation, discussing what it was like to have Williams come into their family. Later, Winfrey and Fonda speak one-on-one about the importance of giving back to the world, love and motherhood.