They are not the soul of the party, but they do not even remain on the sidelines; Group conversations prefer tête-à-tête; To team sports, they prefer individual ones. They are the Otroversi, a category of people halfway between introverts and extroverted theorized by the psychiatrist Kaminski Rami in his new book “The Gift of Not Belonging: How Outsiders Thrive in a World of Jointers”.
The origin of the name. “Otrovert”, an OtroVero in Italian, is a neologism coined by Kaminski to indicate those who do not look inside himself (like the introverted), nor outside himself (like the extroverted), but rather in another direction (otro In Spanish it means more) compared to the rest of the world.
Kaminski, who claims to be part of this category, describes the othrovers as people who prefer to have dinner with a single friend rather than with a group of friends, who in work prefer to carry out assignments individually rather than in a team, who hate “community life rituals” as a degree ceremonies or office parties. “They are soloists unable to play in an orchestra,” he explains to the Guardian.
Different from the introverts. Although they have several points in common, the otroversi stand out from the introverts in some key aspects: the latter in fact tend to be calm and reserved, the opposite of the first, often casual and sociable;
The otrovi then, unlike the introverts, have no problem to speak in front of everyone by supporting their point of view; Finally, the people who belong to this third neocastry love to immerse themselves in dense conversations with a friend, unlike introverts, who prefer solitude.
Obligation to be in a group. According to Kaminski, the Otroversi are perceived as strange or wrong types because they do not like to be in a group:
“Our culture gives great value to finding ourselves with others: we think that being part of a group is a prerequisite to live a rich and satisfying life,” he explains, underlining, however, that this stigmatization of solitude as a situation to be avoided at all costs is deeply wrong.
In short, if you do not reach pathological extremes such as those of the hikikomori, there is nothing wrong with being alone, to prefer the company of a friend only rather than a group exit, to enjoy a party being on the sidelines rather than launching on the track.
