This presentation was given by Luanne Sberna, M.A., on March 28, 2010, in the Community Room of the Fletcher Free Library, Burlington, Vermont. Ms. Sberna has studied psychological type and applied it in her work as a psychotherapist and educator for over 20 years. She is a Myers Briggs Type Indicator Master Practitioner and also specializes in Dance-Movement Therapy. She is the president of The C.G. Jung Society of Vermont.
(Editor’s note: Ms. Sberna’s power point slides would not upload to the e-journal so, unfortunately, we are not able to include her presentation diagrams here. For those interested in obtaining the power point slides, please contact Luanne at JunginVermont2@Burlingtontelecom.net
Psychological Type and Archetype
Many people today are familiar with Psychological Type due to the popularity of the Myers Briggs Type Indicator. This presentation returns to Typology’s roots as one of C. G. Jung’s principal theoretical concepts. As this is a broad topic, it will be impossible to include everything that has been published about the subject. What will be addressed is an overview of Jung’s formulation of Type Theory and its relationship to archetype. This will be followed by a brief review of: the two typological attitudes of Extraversion and Introversion, the four functions-- Intuition, Sensing, Feeling and Thinking-- and type development. This will lead to a foray into the shadowy aspects of type, usually represented by the inferior function. Finally, the interface of the personal and the cultural with the archetypal aspects of Psychological Type will be addressed.
In 1921 Carl Jung published Psychological Types, which was the fruit of many years of clinical practice, study, observation and incubation of his ideas on the process of Individuation. Eight years earlier Jung’s views on the attitudes of extraversion and introversion had actually contributed to his split with Freud, who did not agree with Jung’s ideas and wanted Jung to adhere to his own theories of the psyche. However, this was not possible, as Jung knew he had to follow his own “vision of a transpersonal inner authority.” (Giannini, p. 30). Following their split, Jung entered what we would probably call a mid-life crisis today. During this period of creative introversion, he was able, according to John Giannini author of Compass of the Soul, to discover
his native typology as an introverted intuitive; in the past he had considered himself an introverted thinking type, evidence that he himself had been caught in a typological complex...his true intuitive type sat in a secondary and despised place in his intuitive thinking (NT) coupling and haunted him as a semi-unconscious complex representing not his inferior orientation, but his natural possibilities. During this time [1912-1916], he finally followed his intuitive capacities and let himself fall into the frightening imagery and emotions of his psychic depth (Giannini, p. 30).
Jung was becoming aware of many types of psychic opposites including the attitudes and functions of type, and said he had “arrived at the central concept of...[his] psychology: the process of individuation.” (Jung, cited in Giannini, p. 30). According to Giannini, “Typology must be understood as part of this dynamic process of the Soul in the context of Jung’s theory of psychic energy.” (Giannini, pp. 30-31) From the start, Jung acknowledged the archetypal nature of the aspects of type, often referring to myth and literature to demonstrate their timeless nature. For example, he compared the extraverted, sensing and feeling qualities of Dionysian expression to the introverted, intuitive and thinking qualities of Apollo (Jung, 1971, pp. 144-45).
Jung did not intend that typology be used to pigeonhole human beings, nor did he intend that it be considered purely a conscious psychology. In other words, the aspects of type are “half conscious and half unconscious.” (Giannini, p. 33) Jung began to use type mandalas or “compasses” to clarify this (Figure 2).
Giannini says that: Jung assumes that our psychological type is both inherited and innately rooted in archetypes; hence we must pay attention to an inner knowing and wisdom from the unconscious if we are to individuate, that is, actualize our inborn potential. If we ignore the Soul’s purposeful dynamism and function by embracing another type and not our native one, we inwardly constellate a negative complex that can be destructive to both mind and body, to inner relations as well as outer social relationships, as Jung himself learned (Giannini, p. 34).
In other words, Jung viewed the two attitudes–Extraversion and Introversion-and four functions-Sensation, Intuition, Thinking and Feeling- not only as everyday conscious experiences, but also as archetypes that exist in us before we experience them in consciousness. They are “inborn potentials and universal patterns hidden, seedlike, in the human soul. As archetypes, we may feel their effects in sacred and strangely felt events... This charge powers an individual’s preferred attitude and function as well as his or her despised or feared inferior attitudes and functions, which attract us or challenge us from the Soul’s depth.” (Giannini, p. 107).
Giannini, taking his lead from Jung, is emphatic in stating that we must not let our Western culture’s thinking and sensation biases create the view that the attitudes and functions are merely “nuts and bolts” of the psyche, but “the fuel that energizes us...as shaping consistent yet totally unique patterns and richly varied stories...primarily rooted in the Soul’s mystery, which tirelessly and wisely seeks to help us individuate...” (Giannini, pp. 108-109). He asserts that Jung viewed each aspect of type as an “archetypal capacity of the Soul,” which is the “master archetypal playwright” and that we can develop a conscious attitude toward them so that they can be called upon as needed which is different than just viewing them as a “consciously acquired set of traits.” (Giannini, p. 109)
THE ASPECTS OF TYPE: ATTITUDES AND FUNCTIONS
Figure 3 shows the two attitudes or orientations to the world that Jung identified, Introversion and Extraversion, and the two sets of functions or mental processes. The Perceiving set of functions, Sensation and Intuition relates to how we take in information or learn, while the Judging set, Thinking and Feeling, relates to how we choose among all that data to make decisions. The diagram shows that there is a preference for using each of the four functions in either an extraverted or introverted attitude.
The Two Attitudes: Extraversion and Introversion
The attitudes of Introversion and Extraversion are innate, not of our own choosing. Jung even surmises that each may have a biological foundation in the service of adaptation to ensure the continuation of the species. (Jung, pp. 331-332) For example, extraversion would represent one form of adaptation demonstrated by the pull to propagate, while introversion is adaptive in a different way as the pull to defend and conserve energy.
It is also important to note that although we each have a preference for one attitude over the other, we need and are capable of both Introversion and Extraversion. Giannini points out a simple example of how we naturally introvert and extravert in the daily cycle that most of us go through, starting with extraverting as we enter into the actions of our workday, followed by the introverted slowing and quieting at the end of the day that leads into sleep. Of course, throughout the day, we may “escape” to our preferred attitude as a way of recuperating from the rigors of using its opposite!
Introversion: Many of us are familiar with the definition of Introversion as an inward, subjectively oriented attitude. Some of the qualities of introversion include reflection, conservation of energy, social reserve, often a quiet demeanor, with a need for space and solitude. Introverts fit the description “still waters run deep.”
However, there is more to it than this. Introversion is that attitude whereby “conscious impressions are determined by the structure of the psyche as expressed through the various archetypes.” (Giannini, p. 123) The collective unconscious, or objective psyche, which is the residing place of the archetypes, is that which influences introverts more strongly than pure outward perception even though they may not be aware of that. As Jung states in Psychological Types,
The introverted attitude is normally oriented by the psychic structure...This must not, however, be assumed to be simply identical with the subject’s ego...it is rather the psychic structure of the subject prior to any ego-development.” (Jung, p. 376).
Therefore, the Introvert “interposes a subjective view between the perception of the object and his own action...selects the subjective determinants as the decisive ones...the introvert relies principally on what the sense impression constellates in the subject [his/herself].” (Jung, p. 374)
Because of this, there can be risks to introversion. Jung states the greatest risk to introverts is the “complete identity of the ego with the self; the importance of the self reduced to nil, while the ego is inflated beyond measure. The whole world-creating force of the subjective factor becomes concentrated in the ego, producing a boundless power complex and a fatuous egocentricity.” (Jung, pp. 377-378) He considered Nietzsche an example of this, while Giannini cites the more extreme example of serial killers whose extreme isolation and depression, coupled perhaps with a cruel upbringing foment paranoia and pent up fury. These are the people whose neighbors later say were so quiet, who kept to themselves so that they suspected nothing.
Of course there is a positive side to Introversion. Introverts are persons of ideas with many fine qualities including being reflective, seeking to understand the nature of things, having the ability to focus in depth for long periods, and communicating well through writing.
Extraversion: A different dynamic is at work in Extraversion. Although we all perceive objects in the outer world, an Extravert “thinks, feels, acts, and actually lives in a way that is directly correlated with the objective conditions and their demands...” (Jung, p. 333).
Jung goes on to say about Extraverts that:
He never expects to find any absolute factors in his own inner life, since the only ones he knows are outside himself...his inner life is subordinated to external necessity...His whole consciousness looks outward, because the essential and decisive determination always come from outside. But it comes from outside only because that is where he expects it to come from...Not only people, but things seize and rivet his attention. Accordingly, they also determine his actions, which are ...have a character that is always adapted to the actual circumstances (Jung, 1971, 0. 334).
As with Introverts, there are risks to Extraverts should they become too one-sided:
This is the extravert’s danger: he gets sucked into objects and completely loses himself in them...” (Jung, 1971, pp., 336-337)
Jung says that with this lopsidedness, the “unconscious comes to light in symptomatic form...which takes the form of a nervous breakdown when the influence of the unconscious finally paralyzes all conscious action...either the subject no longer knows what he really wants and nothing interests him, or he wants too much at once and has too many interests...” (Jung, 1971, pp. 339-340)
The positive side of Extraversion includes qualities such as its action orientation and attunement to the outer environment, expressiveness, transparency and accessibility, sociability, enjoyment of life as it presents itself, confidence and broad interests. To Extraverts might apply the saying “What you see is what you get.”
Overall, it is important to remember as we next review the four functions that Introversion and Extraversion are powerful in that they exert their influence on the functions in various, eight to be exact, configurations. For example, there is extraverted thinking vs. introverted thinking, and so on for the other three functions, each having different qualities depending on whether the function is extraverted or introverted. The attitude preferred by our dominant our function does not extend, across the board, to the other functions.
THE FOUR FUNCTIONS
The four functions are also called basic mental processes. Sensation and Intuition, are the perceiving functions or how we gather information. Thinking and Feeling are the judging functions, or how we choose among the information gathered to make decisions. All of the functions can be seen as an expression of the archetype of the Quaternity as seen in Figure 4. It is important to note that any of the functions can be placed at the top with its counterpart opposite, i.e. there is no “top” function overall. Jung wrote that:
The quaternity archetype is one of the most widespread archetypes and has proved to be one of the most useful schemata for representing the arrangement of the functions by which the conscious mind takes its bearings. It is like the crossed threads in the telescope of our understanding. The cross formed by the points of the quaternity is no less universal and has in addition the highest possible moral and religious significance for Western man. Similarly, the circle, as the symbol of completeness and perfect being, is a widespread expression for heaven, sun and God; it also expresses the primordial image of man and the soul....Psychologically it denotes concentration on and preoccupation with a center....These images are naturally only anticipations of a wholeness which is, in principle, always just beyond our reach (Jung cited in Sharp, pp. 110-111).
Jung compares the functions to the four points of a compass (a theme Giannini addresses in Compass of the Soul), the four cardinal points or directions being another manifestation of the quaternity. On this matter he says:
The four functions are somewhat like the four points of the compass; they are just as arbitrary and just as indispensable. Nothing prevents our shifting the cardinal points as many degrees as we like in one direction or the other, or giving them different names. It is merely a question of convention and intelligibility. But one thing I must confess: I would not for anything dispense with this compass on my psychological voyages of discovery. “ (Jung cited in Sharp, p. 142)
Sharp provides a succinct definition of the functions in his Jung Lexicon as:
...the sensation function establishes that something exists, thinking tells us what it means, feeling tells us what it’s worth, and through intuition we have a sense of its possibilities... (Sharp, p. 142).
Though ideally we would use each function equally well, as Jung says “they are never uniformly differentiated and equally at our disposal.” (Jung, 1971, p. 518) It is more typical to have a dominant function that is more developed, with its opposite being the least developed, or inferior function. The other remaining pair of functions serves more or less as “auxiliaries” to the dominant function.
In his essay on Psychological Typology, Jung describes what the dominant preference looks like:
There are people for whom the numinal accents falls on sensation, on the perception of actualities, and elevates it into the sole determining and overriding principle. These are the fact-minded men, in whom intellectual judgment, feeling and intuition are driven into the background by the paramount importance of actual facts. When the accent falls on thinking, judgment is reserved as to what significance should be attached to the facts in question. And on this significance will depend the way in which the individual deals with the facts. If feeling is numinal, then his adaptation will depend entirely on the feeling value he attributes to them. Finally, if the numinal accent falls on intuition, actual reality counts only in so far as it seems to harbour possibilities which then become the supreme motivating force, regardless of the way things actually are in the present (Jung, 1971, p. 554).
The numinal accent that Jung refers to is a sacred felt sense that comes from the archetypes of the collective unconscious. He does remind us continually in his writing that each of the four functions are always combined with an attitude of either extraversion or introversion. (Jung, 1971, p. 554) He and subsequent Jungians often interchange collective names with the functions such as “thinking as Logos, feeling as Soul, intuition as Spirit, and sensation as Matter.” (Giannini, p. 109). Giannini points out that the four functions have also been attached by some to the elements: air to thinking, earth to sensation, water to feeling and fire to intuition. Again, these are various archetypes based on a quaternity, all symbolizing a sort of wholeness, that the combination of functions, too, can represent.
On a final note, it has been suggested that perceiving (sensation, intuition) and judging (thinking, feeling) functions are not as distinct as we would think. For example, that there are judging aspects to sensation and intuition in that sensing collects things “in boxes, metaphorically speaking,” and intuition sees things in configurations, both of which establish limits. Establishing limits is a judging function. On the other hand, “thinking and feeling embrace cognitive fields; they know as well as judge...yet it is clear from experience and the extensive MBTI research that the perceiving functions can remain limitless within their established parameters, and so need the judging functions to move from an endless knowing to an actual doing...Finally, we need to remind ourselves that the unity of the two functions is based on the underlying principle of the psyche, the Self or Soul, as the overall archetype of wholeness...it is by virtue of the Self that each individual type unites to form any of the couplings, and in turn the four couplings, under the aegis of the Self, point us in the direction of undeveloped traits that form the typological circle, the compass of the Soul, and together help us constantly strive for wholeness and a fuller life.” (Giannini, pp. 171-172)
THE SINGER LOOMIS MODEL
A somewhat different mandala for conceptualizing the functions of type was proposed based on the typological research of Jungian analysts June Singer and Mary Loomis. They “began to question the bipolarity assumption in Jung’s theory of psychological types,” based on their understanding that “the hallmark of creative individuals was flexibility in their mental processes.” (Loomis, pp. 43-44). As Loomis says in her book, Dancing the Wheel of the Psychological Types:
...there was never a conceptual disagreement with Jung’s theory...Our quandary centered only on the dynamics of his theory. We saw typology as a dynamic process and agreed with those, including Jung himself, who would use typology as a roadmap for the individuation process (Loomis, p. 46).
They developed the Singer-Loomis Inventory of Personality and a way to view the results that incorporates the Native American medicine wheel as shown in Figure 5 (Loomis, p. 47). This mandala shows each function paired with its orientation: introversion is on the left, extraversion on the right for each function, corresponding with the Native American idea of the left as receiving, the right as the giving, outward moving side. With this mandala, rather than looking at dominant and inferior functions, by plotting percentages of preferences from the scoring on the SLIP, a pictorial representation of “whether one is more judging or perceiving, more introverted or extraverted is readily visible.” (Loomis, p. 48) This variation on an archetypal theme and type development will be described further in the next section.
TYPE DEVELOPMENT AND HIERARCHY OF FUNCTIONS
As stated above, Jung considered type development an important part of the process of individuation. Marie-Louise von Franz elaborates on this process in Lectures on Jung’s Typology (Figure 6). About the role of type in development, she says,
Consciousness evolves in childhood from the unconscious. From our point of view, the unconscious is a primary, and consciousness a secondary, fact. Therefore the unconscious totality and the structure of the total personality exist in time before the conscious personality and could be looked at in this way...When the functions develop in the field of consciousness -A, B, C, D - there comes up from below...one of the main functions of the ego. The ego then uses mainly the operation of... [this function] in the organization of its field of consciousness. Slowly, another function appears and gradually they all - under favorable conditions - appear in the field of consciousness (von Franz, p. 21-22).
Thus, there is a building process in type development, and the seeds of their order are already within us. This building process whereby one function and then gradually the others become developed over time varies in individuals. The function which first develops most strongly in us during our childhood is called the dominant function. Again, it can be either introverted or extraverted in attitude. As we continue to mature an auxiliary function with the opposite attitude develops to bolster or complement the dominant function, followed by its opposite, called the tertiary function. The most difficult function to assimilate and use with skill is the opposite of the dominant, and is called the fourth or inferior function. It’s attitude is believed to be opposite to that of the dominant function, as we saw in Figure 1.
Of course, on one level, most of us are capable of using all of the different functions paired with either attitude as situations call for it. However, we have certain strengths of personality based on our type dynamics, which makes us more skillful at using some pairings of attitude and function than others. In a sense, our individual four letter type is like a metamodel of our personality, exerting an archetypal pull for good or ill on us. Our ability to be conscious of and work with this “compass of the soul,” propels us on the path of individuation.
In her lectures, von Franz makes it clear that this process of indivi-duation, in which we come to terms with the four functions, is related to the archetypal:
alchemical symbolism that speaks of the problem of the four elements...then comes the fifth essence, which is not another additional element, but is, so to speak, the essence of all four and yet none of the four; it is the four in one...the quintessentia or philosopher’s stone...this is a stepping out, so to speak, of identification with one’s own consciousness, and dwelling, or trying to dwell, on this middle plane...In alchemy, as well as in the development of the personality, the solution to the problem of the functions is the first step, but it is enormously difficult to get even as far as that (von Franz, pp. 78-79).
Thus, we can see that individuation, the assimilation of the four functions, is an archetypal process symbolically portrayed as the philosopher’s stone, or turning base metal into gold in alchemy.
The Inferior Function
Von Franz leads us deeply into that phase of type development which is most difficult: the assimilation of “the unconscious psychological problem,” (von Franz, p. 78), in other words, the inferior function. In a very short space, she has a great deal to say about the inferior and it’s archetypal qualities as well as about the assimilation of all the functions so that they are one and yet not one. She likens the integration of all four functions to the enlightenment of a zen monk who no longer has a type preference, but can access whatever function and orientation is called for in any given situation. (von Franz, p. 79) She modified her original type diagram to illustrate this development in Figure 7.
Of the process of assimilating the inferior function, von Franz says:
The inferior function cannot be assimilated within the structure of the conscious attitude; it is too deeply implicated in and contaminated by the unconscious. It can be ‘raised’ somewhat, but in the process of raising it, consciousness is pulled down. In the process of this dynamic interplay, the middle realm is established...overcoming the tyranny of the dominant function in the ego complex...The inferior function is an important bridge to the experience of the deeper layers of the unconscious. Going to it and staying with it, not just taking a quick bath in it, effects a tremendous change in the whole structure of the personality (von Franz, pp. 73-74).
When we cannot assimilate the fourth function, we end up its captive so to speak. She uses the example of the film The Blue Angel in which the inferior feeling function of the middle aged college professor pulls his “ego-consciousness to a completely primitive level” (von Franz, p. 76) so that he falls madly in love with the vampy young cabaret performer, played by Marlene Dietrich, who debases him. He ends up becoming a circus clown. This is an example of living out the inferior in concrete form without assimilating it. Von Franz says that in such cases, we lose the whole upper structure of the personality as well.
The better alternative is to work with the inferior:
So what does one do? At that moment this alchemical recipe comes into place: namely the effort to deal with the fourth function by putting it into a spherical vessel, by giving it a frame of fantasy. One can get on not by living the fourth function in a concrete outer or inner way, but by giving it the possibility of a fantasy expression, whether in writing or painting or dancing or in any other form of active imagination. Jung found that active imagination was practically the only means for dealing with the fourth function (von Franz, p. 77).
For example, a dominant intuitive type might engage in sensory experiences such as sculpting, making the inferior visible in some way. For me, as an inferior sensing type, dance and movement engages that part of me in active imagination or what has come to be called “authentic movement”. Another example could be where dominant thinking types may wish to express their inferior feeling function by painting in bold colors that express strong feeling.
This leads us to the middle ground where
one transmits as it were, his feeling of life into an inner center, and the four functions remain only as instruments which can be used at will, taking them up and putting them down again. The ego and its conscious activity are no longer identical with any of the functions...the functions have become instruments of a consciousness which is no longer rooted in them or driven by them. It has its basis of operation in another dimension, a dimension that can only be created by the world of imagination. That is why Jung calls this the transcendent function. This right kind of imagination creates the uniting symbols...this is...the philosopher’s stone...From then on, as the text says, one moves without movement, runs without running... (von Franz, pp. 78-79).
Singer and Loomis have a different perspective on the process of type development which they see as moving cyclically through each of the eight function/attitude pairings. They use a Native American medicine wheel called the Star Maiden Circle (Figure 8) and its cycles: The Circle of Foxes, The Dance of the Coyotes and the Walk of the Wolf, all of which can be superimposed on the Singer-Loomis Medicine Wheel of the Eight Cognitive Modes. The Star Maiden Circle incorporates the quaternity of the four directions each of which has qualities ascribed to it. The south is the place of trust, innocence, giving and emotions; the west of the physical body, introspection and insight; the north of receiving with the mind, wisdom and logic; and the east of determining with the spirit, illumination and enlightenment. (Loomis, p. 57-77)
The process begins in the south and cycles clockwise around the circle. The Circle of Foxes (Figure 9), called the “dark dance,” represents where we all begin as children and can become stuck in repeating patterns, like the fox chasing its own tail, the place of illusion. (Loomis, p, 59-66) The light dance begins with the Dance of The Coyote, who is the Trickster, symbolizing that changes begin as one is becoming conscious of complexes, patterns of behavior, and possibilities. Loomis states that the Dance of The Coyote is not a circle but bridges back and forth across the circle. The Dance of the Coyote, too, is a bridge between the dark dance and the true “light mirror dance of the Star Maiden Circle,” which culminates in the Walk of the Wolf (Figure 10) (Loomis, pp. 66-77). They write:
The Walk of the Wolf is not attained by making just one change on the Circle of Foxes. There are many, many changes to be made, and they are made by beginning the Dance of the Coyote. These entail bridging from one point on the circle to the opposite side...engaging the dance, then identifying your mythology and the core beliefs that...have become a major part of your persona...you will see, your reliance on particular typological functions is directly related to your mythology and core beliefs...because our core beliefs include a particular typological style, an examination of the way we function can be fruitful in pointing out the direction we need to move if we are to break old patterns (Loomis, pp. 75-77).
As we work our way through life and around the Walk of the Wolf, we are “open to the promptings of our Higher Selves. In Jungian terms, the ego and the Self are in continuous dialogue...We are the unique persons we were born to be.” (Loomis, p. 74) Thus these medicine wheel mandalas are a blend Native American symbols for archetypal patterns of individuation.
THE ARCHETYPAL FUNCTION COUPLINGS
There are other archetypal dynamics that are possible among the four functions. In his book Compass of the Soul, John Giannini cites the work of many type researchers in laying out these dynamics. The Osmond Group, for example, follows in Isabel Briggs Myers footsteps in their work regarding the combinations of perception and judgment. (Giannini, p. 192) They suggest looking at the couplings in regards not just to individual development but also in relation to individuation as social. (Figure 11) Quoted in Giannini, Osmond and his group say:
...instead of asking what a thinking-sensation and a thinking-intuitive have in common, we ask what a thinking-sensation and a sensation-thinking have in common. The categories are the same, but the focus is now different: it is on pairs of functions rather than on a first and second or auxiliary function. The four groupings in the new schema...we shall call “umwelts” or self-worlds, after the manner of the ethnologist Jakob von Uexkull. These entities turn out to have a nature and attributes importantly different from those of the functions. Unlike the functions which tell one what a person is experiencing-thoughts, feelings, sensations, intuitions-the umwelts tell one how the person experiences the world. The functions give one the contents of consciousness, the umwelts the form of consciousness (Giannini, p. 190).
For Giannini this was a revelation. He realized the were talking about functions as archetypes, saying:
I realized that the pairings were more comprehensive and viable avenues for Soul-making than the individual function types, both in inner work and in interpersonal relations. Archetypes, as Jung pointed out, are forms or formal potential structures existing in all persons that are revealed through their manifest images and traits. These four couplings began to emerge in my mind as the essential archetypes of human conduct (Giannini, p. 191).
Myers table “Effects of Combinations of Perception and Judgment” (Figure 12) gives us a deeper perspective on the couplings effect on personality. Giannini began to see a dynamic in the Osmond Group’s mandala (Figure 13) where he considered the left and right sides as brain hemispheres: the “realities of the left side” focusing on techniques of the creative process whereas “the possibilities of the right side focus on the art of a creative process.” (Giannini, p. 194) He also began to envision the life process as a clockwise movement around the mandala, with the beginning of life being more practical and the latter half more philosophical. He also discerned a counterclockwise movement related to the creative process that will be discussed later.
Giannini also combines the Osmond Group’s mandala with the four social archetypes presented in the work of Robert Moore and Douglas Gillette: King, Warrior, Magician and Lover. As shown in Figure 14, there is a correspondence between:
∙ Structurals and The Warrior
∙ Ethereals and The Magician
∙ Oceanics and The Lover
∙ Expereals and The King/Queen
The properties of the four couplings in the Osmond Mandala include (Figures 15-18):
ST: The Warrior/Structuralist Archetype: Aggression, Fierce Implementation of Ideas. Structuralists are those who on the positive side are good at systematic fact gathering, are orderly, capable, and protective. Their negative attributes include being rigid, domineering, insensitive to the feelings of others, and unimaginative. They objectify problems. Overall, for good or ill, they are territorial and structural in that their focus is on the “structure of reality rather than its substance.,” building boundaries and limits (Giannini, pp. 196-198) Ares and Artemis are personifications in Greek mythology of this archetype.
SF: Experials/Ruler Archetype, World Parents. Experials, coined by the Osmond group, are persons who see reality as the “concrete, direct, personal experience of things as they happen minute by minute and day by day” They are our “practical moralists,” with integrity, and “derive principles of behavior from large, detailed observations” and often apply these to the service of others, valuing action over contemplation. On the other hand, this archetype predisposes them to find change and separation difficult. The goddesses Hestia and Hera depict the SF archetype.
NF: Oceanic/Lover Archetype: Eros. Idealist Temperament. These types can be seen as receptive, flexible, sensitive to the needs of others, mystical and romantic or they can seem moody, helpless, dreamy, even cruel. They subjectify problems. They are oceanic in that “they embrace wholeness” and “because of their fluid, unstructured ways,” which may have more of an affinity with Eastern rather than Western philosophies (Giannini, pp. 197-198) Dionysius and Aphrodite depict the NF archetype.
NT: Ethereals/Sage or Magician Archetype. Rational Temperament: Knowledge. NT’s such as Jung, may be described as “...deeply interested in facts because of the possibility they may sustain a theory,...brilliant, witty, imaginative” or, on the other hand, absentminded, impractical, cold, visionary. (Giannini, p. 199) They are interested in the way things could be without always following through on that with action. Apollo and Athena depict the archetypal patterns of the NT as “cultural inspirers of intellectual and artistic pursuits.” (Giannini, p. 202)
Giannini emphasizes the importance of this way of looking at function pairs because
…this awareness of the archetypal nature of the four couplings places typology much more into the center of the entire Jungian enterprise...In fact, since the typological compass is the only holistic depiction of Jung’s psychology, its four archetypal couplings seem to embrace every aspect of Jung’s system, especially culminating in a lifetime individuation process. Second, it provides a bridge to Jung for people trained in the MBTI. Third, the four archetypal function couplings...provide more comprehensive behavioral templates than the individual functions for organizing, understanding, and categorizing individuals, societies and intellectual systems in our often chaotic personal and social worlds. Fourth,...the couplings help ground the archetypal images in everyday life, even as the images enlarge and expand the gestalt of the couplings’ characteristics and fields of awareness. Finally, they help us understand more accurately our own psychic anatomy, our relationships, and our work preferences (Giannini, pp. 202-203).
Giannini goes on to point out that the individual functions “reveal the ‘content’ of human differences, whereas the couplings lay out the ‘form,’ or the fundamental intelligence, of human differences,” with form being the same as archetypes and also ‘associated with the numen, the fiery sparks of the soul’” (Giannini, p. 222) Also, that all of the type couplings, as expressions of archetypes, influence each of us, however we are each more strongly and naturally oriented towards one or two. So just as the MBTI demonstrates that we have a hierarchy of preference for using the four functions, Giannini suggests that we also have a similar type preference hierarchy for the function couplings.
He theorized that moving in a counterclockwise direction on this archetypal circle is a metaphor for the creative process. (Figure 19) Starting with an ST question that we are asked of ourselves, it incubates in the arms of the inner loving SF parent, so that the creative breakthrough occurs via our Lover or Creative Artist self and is systematized by the NT Creative Scientist. In a personal correspondence with Giannini, Mary McCaulley states that each quadrant or coupling has a different question (Figure 14):
ST: What is it?
SF: What matters?
NF: What might be
NT: How might it all fit?
Giannini lays out how dream work proceeds in this manner:
...in this circular direction, in which life poses a question, we sleep on it, then the answer emerges as a spontaneously and emotionally filled dream image in the NF quadrant. In waking life, we are then challenged to integrate the dream into a large NT vision (Giannini, p. 245).
The next diagram (Figure 20) shows how the depth element is added to this process of “claiming unrecognized potentials.” (Giannini, p. 246) Notice it has depth in that it becomes more three dimensional, and is not just a flat model. It illustrates that: “typological archetypal work must be understood integrally from the standpoint of the Self, which is both the hidden source of all archetypes, the embracing arms of both consciousness and unconsciousness, and the basis of fundamental transformation..the creative, integrating and healing source of the entire typological and archetypal compass.” (Giannini, p. 246-247). This corresponds to Edinger’s figures in Ego and Archetype of the ego arising out of the Self, where the smaller circle of ego forms within the sphere of Self; then gradually rises to the surface, to rest on the larger sphere of the Self while maintaining a “thread” of connection-the ego-Self axis. The paradox is, of course, that the Self still contains the ego.
Giannini also reminds us that while it is often, in life, recommended to us to use external models as a way to the Self, though these are helpful on the path of individuation, “we must find our own inner archetypal ideal as King or Queen, our own inner Magician as mentor, our own inner Warrior as a stimulus to achievement, and our own inner Lover as a teacher of intimacy. Inside mentors from dreams and inspirations are necessarily primary; outside mentors must always be subordinate to these inner guides. Besides, if one is too caught up in any one archetype, the Soul often presents an emotional and cognitive initiation into one of the other archetypal realms.” (Giannini, p. 248) This process is clearly primarily introverted.
As part of the psychic process portrayed in this new mandala is that of symbols of transformation whereby symbols which often appear in dreams or active imagination as “negative, destructively uncontained or useless energies and images are changed into positive, ...useful energies and images.” (Giannini, p. 250) Of this Giannini says that at times there may be great resistance or inattentiveness to what is presented, at others the changes may
occur with significant dialogical work by the dream ego or in waking consciousness with the unconscious. The transformation itself, however, always occurs spontaneously in the unconscious, and enters consciousness with often abrupt and frightening strangeness. Consciousness, must therefore be strong enough to contain this often fearful process of change. Typologically, this demands enough extraverted, sensate thinking differentiation and objectivity to toughen, so to speak, the ego’s skin, so as to contain the change without being sucked into its powerful unconscious dynamics (Giannini, p. 251).
Thus we can see how introversion and extraversion work together to aid in the process of individuation.
Giannini uses the story of Jacob and Esau from the Old Testament to illustrate this archetypal process, focusing on Jacob’s dream the night before he meets his brother after years of exile and having stolen Esau’s birthright. In this dream he is “wrestling with an angel, symbolically representing God and his angry brother, as well as the related guilt he felt.” (Giannini, p. 251), i.e. a symbol of transformation demanding that “Jacob face his sin and seek healing.” (Giannini, p. 51) Typologically speaking, Jacob, an NF Lover type, is also seeking to integrate aspects of his ST warrior brother. In the dream, he won’t let his adversary go until he receives a new name, which is, of course, Israel. This is the reminder that “his life’s calling has a larger cultural and spiritual significance.” (Giannini, p. 151). However, just to be sure he doesn’t get too inflated with this, the angel wounds him in the hip as a reminder of his vulnerability! “Most importantly, Jacob is so changed internally that when Esau sees him he experiences his strength and holy presence and they embrace.” (Giannini, p. 252), symbolic not only of the new inner relationship of the NF and ST couplings, but also indicating a changed relationship to the outer world.
Each of us has our own unique inner mandates to change, becoming something more than what we have been, that which we have always had the “seed” within us to become, but not without upheaval. A favorite poem of mine by e.e. cummings goes like this:
my mind is
a big hunk of irrevocable nothing which touch and
taste and smell and hearing and sight keep hitting and
chipping with sharp fatal tools
in an agony of sensual twisels I perform squirms of
chrome and execute strides of cobalt
nevertheless I
feel that I cleverly am being altered that I slightly am
becoming something a little different, in fact
myself
Hereupon helpless I utter lilac shrieks and scarlet
bellowings
(cummings, 1963)
TYPE AND CULTURE
Jung, and Giannini in his footsteps, have a great deal to say about the dominant cultural typology of the West. Both feel that the ST Warrior Coupling is dominant, and overall the ESTJ Type is the dominant type. This does not mean that all individuals are ESTJ’s within our culture. Rather, in Psychological Types by Jung and Compass of the Soul by Giannini, the historical development of a Western cultural type is explained showing how that type overshadows the individuals within the culture:
Jung believed that over time, tragically, the voice of the unconscious and of feeling fantasy “became...[stigmatized as] the voice of the devil...Typologically, the outer-oriented, concrete and logical ESTJ mentality supplanted the inner-oriented, symbolic INFP attitude...later...the sciences also ‘excluded the standpoint of feeling and fantasy [intuition] (Giannini, pp. 78-79).
While there have been benefits of this ESTJ typology such as modern science and its products and where primitive feeling developed logic, both authors assert that we must return to recognition of a “primal as well as culturally sophisticated human ground, an NF mentality, without losing our pragmatic consciousness and our scientific/technological mental skills.” (Giannini, p. 76) For Jung, it is fantasy-or imagination-as the creative faculty of the psyche that continually unites opposites. By fantasy he meant the
preeminent creative activity that ‘fashions the bridge between the irreconcilable claims of subject and object, introversion and extraversion’...that unites the sensory impressions of the thing with the abstractness of the idea...” (Jung. P. 77-78).
He goes on to add that:
Fostering the personal and collective sensitivity to and consciousness of symbols as the Soul’s language, however, depends on the culture. The relation of the individual to his or her symbolic life ‘is very largely conditioned by his relation to the unconscious in general, and that in turn is conditioned by the spirit of the age...every closed system...has an undoubted tendency to suppress the unconscious in the individual, as much as possible, thus paralyzing his fantasy activities (Giannini, pp. 77-78).
The actual effects of this, the excesses of the ESTJ type, are to be seen in Figure 21, and indeed are felt by all of us. As Giannini states, “This mean-spirited attitude...functions as a tyrannical force in both individuals and society.” (Giannini, p. 510) However, rather than dwell on that, because it is so obvious to us all at this time in history, I would like to explore solutions. Firstly, by remembering that “within a type psychology...there is a way to recover the Soul and its sacred way by valuing the wonder and mystery of individuals and their imaginative potentials...to regain the hidden forces of the heart, the compassionate feelings in our guts, the dark, creative riches of our hidden spiritual treasure.” (Giannini, p. 524)
And that is happening, paradoxically made possible by the scientific discovery exploited by the ESTJ nature, albeit with perhaps different outcomes in mind! As Giannini says, “forces ...are converging to destabilize our old mentality.” (Giannini, p. 524) We have seen the rise of Gaia Theory and Quantum physics, for example, both of which speak to us about the interconnection of life at minute levels. Science and religion, the two greatest influences of the past two thousand years, are drawing closer together because of these discoveries.
In addition to personal depth work, Giannini also espouses the work of William Edwards Deming, a physicist, engineer, and mathematician, as a guide to helping us resolve the ESTJ problem. Deming was actually the man who helped American industry to be so productive during World War II. Forgotten here afterwards, he helped to revolutionize Japanese industry after the war. Over thirty years later, when his work came to be recognized in the U.S., largely because of the superiority by that time of Japanese industry, it was misapplied with the typical western ESTJ biases. Thus, it did not have the same results and his work was sometimes discredited. However, as Giannini demonstrates, Deming’s model is a fourfold mandala (Figure 22) which can be overlaid onto the type mandala. It is a circular “System of Profound Knowledge, Deming’s final legacy, consisting of ‘four important disciplines and areas of insight and the interaction and interdependence between them’: (Giannini, p. 529) which seeks to “value each individual and to include every individual...” (Giannini, p. 535)
Figure 23 demonstrates Deming’s system of both personal and organizational development in a Jungian context, mirroring Giannini’s mandala of the Total Life Process. Of this process, Giannini says:
the potential life journey... begins with the Soul’s inborn traits, proceeds through the SF parental influences, and moves into the ST Warrior’s challenge to make it in the outside world. ..both the SF Parental and the ST Warrior aspects of psyche take on some destructive influences manifesting themselves as fears and inhibitions in individuals and collectives. As a result, the plunge back to the Self’s resources usually encounters enormously frightening resistances along the way. Deming’s vision, therefore, may be seen as a ...dark night of the soul, in which the awakening of all the qualities of the Self, beginning with intrinsic motivation and self-esteem, are slowly and painfully realized in both individual and corporate transformation. It is for this reason that the line of development, the life’s journey for each of us, must usually go through the NF’s Lover quadrant, with its initial foreboding feelings and emotional darkness, which are also required for creative change in Deming’s psychological consciousness. Only then does our path of consciousness, first experienced as a transformation to what is essentially human and spiritual, emerge, like Deming’s path, into the NT realm as a spiritual, yet pragmatic, holistic system of organization life. Deming’s method implies that spirituality is practical and efficacious in the workplace. One’s new life meaning extends, according to Deming, “to interactions between people,” leading to “transformations of the organizations that he belongs to. ...Individual and corporate consciousness are inseparable in the Deming vision.The psychology of change is the overarching challenge here, given our rigid ESTJ culture that so fears change (Giannini, p. 541-542).
Thus, Deming’s model of transformation which he called a “metanoia” (transformative change of heart; spiritual awakening-Merriam Webster’s Collegiate Dictionary) in his 1994 book A System of Profound Knowledge is parallel to Jung’s individuation in that it is “a radical inner spiritual change of heart and a painful tempering in the fire of change that overcomes and transforms the forces of destruction. As a result, a new creative energy and positive development is awakened in every individual and every organization.” (Giannini, p. 541)
This unique model provides for the individuation process of people and organizations, where individuals are prized above things and are no longer “widgets.”
All of the various mandalas this paper has presented are depictions of the Soul’s journey toward wholeness, i.e. individuation. To reiterate, as Jung said, “I would not for anything dispense with this compass on my psychological voyages of discovery.” (Jung, 1971).
BIBLIOGRAPHY
cummings, e.e. (1963) Complete Poems, 1913-1962. New York: Harcourt, Brace Jovanovich.
Giannini, J. (2004). Compass of the Soul. Gainesville, FL: Center for the Application of Psychological Type.
Jung, C.G. (1971) Psychological Types (Vol. 6). Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.
Loomis, M.E. (1991) Dancing the Wheel of Psychological Types. Wilmette, IL: Chiron.
Merriam-Webster’s Collegiate Dictionary (2003) (Eleventh Edition).
Myers, Isabel Briggs. Introduction to Type.
Sharp, D. (1991) Jung Lexicon: A Primer of Terms & Concepts. Toronto: Inner City.
von Franz, M.-L., Hillman, J. (1979) Lectures on Jung’s Typology. Irving, TX: Spring.
