The Extrovert Ideal

The extrovert ideal is Cain's term for the way in which extroversion is culturally prized over introversion. She believes this ideal started around the turn of the 20th century, when people were forced out of their small towns and farms, where they knew everyone, to larger cities and towns where self-promotion became the ticket to survival in the workplace and in courtship. Gone was the importance of virtue, as the importance of talk and show became all important.

As the extrovert ideal became more and more important in the 20th century, parents told their introverted children that something was deeply wrong with them. As this idea became entrenched in psychology, parents were fearful that their more reclusive, quiet children had an "inferiority complex," and these children were often sent to therapy to correct it. In addition, parents steered their children away from solitary pursuits, such as...