The Lenore Thomson Exegesis Wiki
What does Lenore mean by extraverted sensation?
(Often abbreviated "Se".)
p. 145: "As a right-brain function, Sensation comes into play when events are changing so rapidly that linear analysis is impossible. We respond immediately, on the basis of visual and tactile information, guided by what we've done before."
p. 145: "Once we...know how to dance, we aren't thinking about rules or instructions. We're directly engaged by our surface perceptions--the rhythm of the music, the movements of a partner. We're changing as our situation does."
p. 146: "[Quoting Pirsig] 'The material at hand determines his thoughts and motions, which simultaneously change the nature of the material at hand. The material and his thoughts are changing together in a progression of changes.'"
p. 146: "It happens when we're kneading bread and the pressure of our hands changes with the texture of the dough. It happens when we're moving a ball downcourt for a chance at the hoop. It happens when we're driving, alert to a whole field of sights and sounds. It happens when we're playing in a band. It happens when we're knitting a sweater. Every time our actions are changing immediately and directly in concert with our surface perceptions, we're drawing on Extraverted Sensation."
p. 146: "The only way to cultivate Extraverted Sensation is by hands-on involvement--by strengthening the link between sensory perception and neural response. Our bodies have to get into the act. For types who use this function as their primary approach to life, true knowledge is always concrete, a product of firsthand experience."
Extraverted Sensation (Se) is the attitude that whatever is manifest (apparent, observable) calls forth an obvious and natural response, that has nothing to do with the way you need to respond in any other moment. The meaning of everything is readily apparent--at the time that it appears. Whatever stands out and gets your attention here and now is precisely what needs your attention here and now. Your instincts at each moment will tell you what to do; there is no point in anticipating.
Matthew 6:28-34
And why take ye thought for raiment [clothing]? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow; they toil not, neither do they spin: and yet I say unto you, that even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these. Wherefore, if God so clothe the grass of the field, which to day is, and to morrow is cast into the oven, shall he not much more clothe you, O ye of little faith?
Therefore take no thought, saying, What shall we eat? or, What shall we drink? or, Wherewithal shall we be clothed? (For after all these things do the Gentiles seek:) for your heavenly Father knoweth that ye have need of all these things. But seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you.
Take therefore no thought for the morrow: for the morrow shall take thought for the things of itself.
When people negotiate Se-style, they make it viscerally apparent that pleasure immediately follows doing as they want and pain immediately follows turning them down.
The sort of negotiation that Joe Pesci's characters engage in in movies would be a hyper-Se form of ESTP-style negotiation. The person he is dealing with knows, at a physical, visceral, undebatable level, that he will be much happier if he plays along. Joe Pesci's characters expand their power, influence, and sense of who they are by sensing what viscerally matters to the people around them and using it.
See also: Jim Anchower, Sensation, other Function Attitudes.