The Hidden Minds

The Framework

Impulsivity

Restraint / Impulse

The pause that weighs the urge, against the urge that acts before you can.

Every profile lands somewhere between restraint and impulse. Use this page to see which figures are pulled most strongly toward each pole, then follow the links down into the stories themselves.

Most toward Restraint

  1. 01EstherA hidden self that had to choose, once, to be seen.
  2. 02DanielUnshaken before kings and lions; undone only by what he was shown.
  3. 03ThomasHere, doubt is a kind of honesty. He only needed to touch it.
  4. 04RuthA foreign widow who clung where everyone else, sensibly, let go.
  5. 05AbsalomA wound his father never answered, turned into a throne and a knife.
  6. 06EzekielExile numbed him into a sign, until even his grief was forbidden.

Most toward Impulse

  1. 01SamsonAll that strength on the outside, and nothing governing it within.
  2. 02PeterHe lunged, failed, wept, and that was not the end of him.
  3. 03NebuchadnezzarMade godlike by power, unmade into a beast, healed by looking up.
  4. 04SaulA king who could not bear that anyone might rule better.
  5. 05EsauHe sold the birthright for a bowl of stew, then wept for the blessing he had despised.
  6. 06HamanRage at one man who would not bow, scaled up into a plan to erase a people.

Keep reading the framework

Back to all nine axes
CallingAcceptance / AvoidanceDevotionDevotion / DetachmentPowerService / Power