by Phil Goss
d The unknowable, random, pattern of our images, instincts or behaviours
2 What are two key philosophical influences on Jung’s use of ‘archetypes’?
a Hegel’s dialectics and Kant’s phenomenal
b Nietzsche’s eternal return and Socratic questioning
c Kant’s noumenal and Plato’s forms
d Neo-Platonism and Nietzsche’s Uberman
3 In what ways can archetypes influence our experience of life?
a Through life stages, roles and cultural and religious manifestations
b Through our beliefs, attitudes and achievements
c Through types of personality
d Through images of different types of arcs
4 Why did Jung identify the archetype of ‘The Wounded Healer’?
a His most challenging analysand was a spiritual healer
b People who go for psychotherapy take their psychological wounds to be healed
c When he fell out with Freud, they were both wounded
d People choose to be psychotherapists because they have been wounded earlier in life
5 What factors come together to create a complex?
a Shadow and the contra-sexual ‘other’
b Ego forms the core and that is surrounded by persona problems
c Personality and past factors, the present situation and an archetypal core
d Personality type, past factors and the ego-self axis archetype.
6 What other factor binds a complex together?
a A common archetype
b A common emotional tone
c An axis between ego and complex
d Archetypal personality influences
7 Why does a complex have particular power?
a It is autonomous and unconscious
b It is full of psychosexual energy
c It has at least three archetypes inside it
d It consciously controls us
8 What is the difficult link sometimes seen in mother or father complexes?
a Activation of shadow
b Activation of ego
c Activation of self
d Activation of negative anima and/or animus
9 What is a personality type?
a A person with a strong personality
b An inner influence on personality
c An outer influence on personality
d A kind of complex
10 Why did Jung initially call his approach ‘complex psychology’?
a Because of the significance of complexes to his theory and practice
b Because he thought Freud’s theories were too simplistic
c Because that was the only thing he thought analysis is about
d Because of his own complexes
9
Jung’s typological model
Jung observed differences in how people behaved and interacted, suggestive of differing types of personality. His model features an introversion–extraversion dynamic and a hierarchy of functions. This chapter explains how Jung’s work on word association and complexes led him to create his typological model, which is a framework for describing how personality types impact on human motivation, behaviour and pathology. We will explore Jung’s notions of introversion and extraversion and then relate these to his theory of four functions of personality: thinking, feeling, intuition and sensation. The framework on psychological types is explained in detail, with a case study and reflective activity.
Personality: tabula rasa or constitutional factors?
Jung’s work at the Burgholzi did not just alert him to the ways in which the unconscious operated to keep emotionally charged material at arm’s length from conscious awareness. His work on complexes highlighted distinctions between individuals, which he thought must be more than purely the result of environmental factors. His answer to the much-debated question of whether we are born as a ‘blank slate’ (tabula rasa in the Latin), or if there are already established constitutional factors, was a clear one. For Jung, fundamental personality characteristics are already established when we are born.
Whether or not you agree with Jung’s point of view, the idea that certain personality factors may play a key role in making us ‘who we are’ is one worth exploring, as it can provide us with a fresh lens through which to consider aspects of our own being and behaviour that may intrigue or challenge us.
Spotlight: The introversion–extraversion dynamic
As you may remember, Jung became convinced in his childhood that his being housed not just one personality, but two. Number one was outward facing, or extraverted, and reflected where he was in life: a boy struggling to get to grips with the world’s expectations. Number two, on the other hand, was inward looking and psychologically and spiritually mature – so mature, in fact, that Jung experienced him as an ‘old man who belonged to the centuries’ (Jung, 1963, p. 87) and where his intuitive and feeling life held sway. This introverted personality looked inwards and paved the way for the encounters he would have with his unconscious after the split with Freud.
While Jung would recognize environmental factors as important, he would see both number one and number two personalities as having their roots in something fundamentally him. Likewise his emphasis when applying these ideas more generally to all of us: there is something which makes you you, alongside all the environmental factors at work.
Jung explained how the influence of the introversion–extraversion dynamic worked in the following way, where the subject is the person and the object whatever they are relating to at a given time (another person, a job, the world in general):
‘the introverted standpoint is one which sets the ego and the subjective psychological process above the object… This attitude therefore, gives the subject a higher value than the object… The extraverted standpoint, on the contrary, subordinates the subject to the object, so that the object has the higher value.’
Jung, 1971a, para. 6
Jung’s emphasis on value is important here, because it suggests a kind of magnetic field at work between the wider world and the individual psyche, and which at different points in life, or in different contexts, will draw us either outwards or inwards. He is also suggesting that people are not all affected by the introverted or extraverted ‘gravitational pulls’ in the same way; some people are more extraverted than introverted overall, in a way that affects definitively their whole life, and others vice versa. Extraverts are naturally drawn to, and motivated by, the external world, while the introvert is likewise influenced by the internal world.
An awareness of these more rooted personality emphases is helpful, according to Jung, because it helps explain why, for example, two siblings in the same family could be so different – one the gregarious and overtly ambitious extrovert, the other a shy and reflective introvert. Not only are such differences due to formative experiences, how they were parented, or whether they were older or younger than their sibling: it is because of who they are.
Jung also applied the principle of compensation, since he thought the unconscious of the person would always be striving to compensate for the one-sidedness of the conscious attitude. A strongly extroverted person would therefore have an overly introverted unconscious attitude: they will suppress subjective thoughts and feelings and this inner directedness of forgotten deeper influences can lead them to become egocentric, and even infantile, in their way of relating to others.
Likewise, a markedly introverted person is compensated, in the unconscious, for over-valuing their subjective experience by being exaggeratedly influenced by the very objects the person has consciously stood back from. So, the views of others and practical considerations (such as finance and career) can come to seem oppressive and deeply troubling.
As we explore further, bear in mind that Jung’s descriptions can seem rather polarized at first glance. Many Jungian thinkers and practitioners would see the relationship between introversion and extraversion, for example, better described as a continuum,
where a person may have a predominance in one direction or the other, but there will still be features of both introversion and extraversion present to some degree.
Key idea: Introversion vs extraversion
While Jung makes a case for the importance of our capacity to ‘introvert’ – to look inwards and foster a reflective, exploratory attitude towards the unconscious – it could be said that such an attitude does not equip us well for the tough realities of a competitive and often stressful world.
There is also the question of whether it is healthy for us to become too self-absorbed and the possibility that we may become withdrawn and isolated. However, writers such as Storr (1988) point out the value of solitude where it enables self-awareness and creativity to arise. Cain (2012) argues that the Western world has made a mistake in making extraversion the cultural ideal, and reminds us of the importance of the contribution introverted people have made to human progress.
Four personality functions
Jung identified four global functions which he thought impacted on how we each engage with life: thinking, feeling, intuition, and sensation. He labelled thinking and feeling as rational functions and intuition and sensation as non-rational, and visualized these as archetypal polarities on vertical and horizontal axes (see the diagram below). Each of us, for Jung, carries in us our own combination of these four functions, and will be dominated more by some than others. These influences could be positive or negative. Here is a brief description of each function, with applications given where either introversion or extraversion dominates.
(Note: Functions at each axis end can be juxtaposed – so thinking is not ‘higher’ than feeling.)
THINKING
‘Thinking is the psychological function which, following its own laws, brings the contents of ideation into conceptual connection with one another.’
Jung, 1971b, para. 830
Jung’s definition straightforwardly indicates what thinking is for – to know something and be able to link it to other things through ascribing names or associations to each thing involved. As such, this function is one that structures our experience and expectations of the outside world (a notion which could be related to the idea of schemas in cognitive psychology, though the latter tends to apply this to describe problematic psychological states where beliefs about self, others and the world tend to get too fixed (Hofman, 2011)).
• Extraverted thinking
Extraverted thinking, as the term implies, involves thoughts that are strongly influenced by what is ‘out there’: facts, views and ideas which come in from that which is objective to us (that is, not emanating from within our own minds). This is the kind of thinking associated with scientific, empirical investigation, as well as concretized, planned thinking. Jung gave Darwin as an example of an extraverted thinker who formed judgements from intellectual assessments of objective data. Extraverted thinking can also include the adoption of ideas and beliefs coming from outside us. Jung also pointed out the risk of overvaluing objectivity, denying feelings (so they are projected on to one’s thoughts whereby their importance gets exaggerated), and overlooking the value of inner ideas and resources.
• Introverted thinking
In contrast, this type of thinking relies heavily on subjective experience and inner reality. Jung portrayed how this works in terms of an individual who feels a sense of there being something at work inside them which will define their judgement more significantly than outer reality. Here, facts from outside are more likely to be used to substantiate a judgement or theory, rather than the empirical accumulation of facts leading to a firm position being taken on the matter in hand. Jung used Kant, and his subjective critique of the nature of knowledge, as an example of this. The risk here is that an introverted thinker will lose a balanced perspective, because they are preoccupied with their discovered inner ‘truths’ and may invest their feelings in these, leading to a doctrinaire and self-absorbed way of working with ideas and facts.
FEELING
Jung regarded feeling as a function which influenced the rational aspects of human motivation and activity. This may seem like a contradictory notion because, in popular discourse, feelings are often regarded as irrational in terms of where they overwhelm us and seem to lead us into reactions and behaviours that are disproportionate and uncontained. However, Jung was not describing emotion here. His term for the latter – affect – helped to describe some of the phenomena presented through his word-association tests, which could indicate the presence and nature of a complex. Where sudden or powerful, bodily based emotion presented itself in response to a word, this gave valuable clues about that emotion. The Jungian application of feeling therefore refers to where we have control over our emotion/affect, and what we do with this: whether our tendency is to use this in an extraverted or introverted way.
• Extraverted feeling
In the same way that extraverted thinking refers to a tendency to form thoughts and views in response to what is outside of us, so extraverted feeling describes a tendency to feel in response to what happens around rather than within us. Jung gives the example of a person admiring a picture in the home of someone they are visiting, not in order to be acquiescent or even deferential, but rather because there is a genuine extraverted feeling impulse to generate or sustain a positive atmosphere with the host. Extraverted feeling is about putting feeling ‘out there’ to meet and connect with the values and perspectives of others. In this sense, collective values tend to be appreciated and accepted. The obvious drawback to this is that the capacity for individual judgement or thinking falls into the background. Jung postulated that the unconscious compensates for this through a build-up of thinking which is ‘all or nothing’. In other words, if the person, group or set of ideas to which an extraverted feeling type has attached their affiliation in any way shows a flaw, then highly critical thoughts rob those involved of any value, not unlike when a public figure turns from being idealized to vilified by the press.
• Introverted feeling
Introverted feeling has an elusive quality to it, as it turns inwards and can ‘hide’ behind surface behaviours and ways of relating. Here is Jung trying to describe what it ‘does’:
‘Its aim is not to adjust itself to the object, but to subordinate it in an unconscious effort to realize the underlying images… It glides unheedingly over all objects that do not fit in with its aim. It strives after inner intensity, for which the objects serve at most as a stimulus.’
Jung, 1971c, para. 638
The emphasis is on seeking confirmation outside a feeling state inside, which can create the appearance of detachment or coldness in the relational style of the introverted feeling type, as they carefully observe those around them and ‘take in’ their experiences of them. Although Jung did not say as much, an implication is that this can generate the capacity to make contact with what is really happening under the surface, in and around them. He uses the term sympathy in relation to this, whereas a positive correlation of introverted feeling we could now frame in the capacity to be empathic: tuning into underlying feelings in others and experiencing them within. A more negative correlation is where thinking is strongly repressed, and anxieties about ‘what others think’ get projected outwards, and rather paranoid judgements can be made about them.
Spotlight: Typology and the DSM
Ekstrom (1988) has usefully applied Jung’s typological framework to aspects of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, which is used to classify and guide treatment in psychiatric, and mental and general health contexts. Ekstrom related elements of Jung’s model to presentations of personality disorder in the third version of this manual, DSM III (APA, 1980). This provided valuable links between personality traits described by Jung’s framework and common traits found in disorders such as narcissistic and borderline personality disorders, demonstrating the relevance of Jung’s innovative approach to contemporary psychology and psychiatry.
Further development
of these links to later versions of the manual (DSM IV (2000) and DSM V (2013)) is awaited.
INTUITION
This function refers to the capacity to get a sense (or a ‘hunch’) about what might be happening under the surface of a person’s or situation’s presentation and how this could unfold: ‘The intuitive function is represented in consciousness by an attitude of expectancy, by vision and penetration…’ (Jung, 1971c, para. 610). Jung saw this as a valuable function, not least in support of meaningful therapeutic work, as it supports the therapist’s capacity to ‘tune in’ to what is happening for the analysand, and within the deeper processes of the analysis generally.
• Extraverted intuition
The emphasis, as with the other non-rational function, sensation, is on an opening out of experience of what is outside us, to get hold of what could be possible. This then can become a guide for action. Jung referred to the way in which, when all options seem closed down in a situation, the external intuitive can spot a way through. At its most positive, external intuition is thus able to unlock resources, cultural, economic and personal, in the most difficult of circumstances. Inspirational leaders (such as Winston Churchill during the Second World War) seem to be in possession of this capacity, but this ability to intuit and enable positive change to occur (a kind of positive trickster quality) can equally be available in less prominent circumstances. The less positive aspects of extraverted intuition lie in how easily the ‘putting out’ of intuition into the wider world risks a perilous overlooking of self and a kind of ‘giving away’ of what one has, so others reap the benefit of what one has highlighted (for example in helping start up a business venture).
• Introverted intuition