1875 - 1961
Dr. C. George Boeree
Anyone who wants to know the human psyche will learn next tonothingfrom experimental psychology. He would be better advised toabandonexact science, put away his scholar's gown, bid farewell to his study,and wander with human heart throught the world. There in thehorrorsof prisons, lunatic asylums and hospitals, in drab suburban pubs, inbrothelsand gambling-hells, in the salons of the elegant, the Stock Exchanges,socialist meetings, churches, revivalist gatherings and ecstatic sects,through love and hate, through the experience of passion in every formin his own body, he would reap richer stores of knowledge thantext-booksa foot thick could give him, and he will know how to doctor the sickwitha real knowledge of the human soul. -- Carl JungFreud said that the goal of therapy was to make the unconsciousconscious.He certainly made that the goal of his work as a theorist. And yet hemakesthe unconscious sound very unpleasant, to say the least: It is acauldronof seething desires, a bottomless pit of perverse and incestuouscravings,a burial ground for frightening experiences which nevertheless comebackto haunt us. Frankly, it doesn't sound like anything I'd like to makeconscious!
A younger colleague of his, Carl Jung, was to make the explorationofthis "inner space" his life's work. He went equipped with a backgroundin Freudian theory, of course, and with an apparently inexhaustibleknowledgeof mythology, religion, and philosophy. Jung was especiallyknowledgeablein the symbolism of complex mystical traditions such as Gnosticism,Alchemy,Kabala, and similar traditions in Hinduism and Buddhism. If anyonecouldmake sense of the unconscious and its habit of revealing itself only insymbolic form, it would be Carl Jung.
He had, in addition, a capacity for very lucid dreaming andoccasionalvisions. In the fall of 1913, he had a vision of a "monstrous flood"engulfingmost of Europe and lapping at the mountains of his native Switzerland.He saw thousands of people drowning and civilization crumbling. Then,thewaters turned into blood. This vision was followed, in the next fewweeks,by dreams of eternal winters and rivers of blood. He was afraid that hewas becoming psychotic.
But on August 1 of that year, World War I began. Jung felt thattherehad been a connection, somehow, between himself as an individual andhumanityin general that could not be explained away. From then until 1928, hewasto go through a rather painful process of self-exploration that formedthe basis of all of his later theorizing.
He carefully recorded his dreams, fantasies, and visions, and drew,painted, and sculpted them as well. He found that his experiencestendedto form themselves into persons, beginning with a wise old man and hiscompanion, a little girl. The wise old man evolved, over a number ofdreams,into a sort of spiritual guru. The little girl became "anima," thefemininesoul, who served as his main medium of communication with the deeperaspectsof his unconscious.
A leathery brown dwarf would show up guarding the entrance to theunconscious.He was "the shadow," a primitive companion for Jung's ego. Jung dreamtthat he and the dwarf killed a beautiful blond youth, whom he calledSiegfried.For Jung, this represented a warning about the dangers of the worshipofglory and heroism which would soon cause so much sorrow all over Europe-- and a warning about the dangers of some of his own tendenciestowardshero-worship, of Sigmund Freud!
Jung dreamt a great deal about the dead, the land of the dead, andtherising of the dead. These represented the unconscious itself -- not the"little" personal unconscious that Freud made such a big deal out of,buta new collective unconscious of humanity itself, an unconsciousthat could contain all the dead, not just our personal ghosts. Jungbeganto see the mentally ill as people who are haunted by these ghosts, inanage where no-one is supposed to even believe in them. If we could onlyrecapture our mythologies, we would understand these ghosts, becomecomfortablewith the dead, and heal our mental illnesses.
Critics have suggested that Jung was, very simply, ill himself whenall this happened. But Jung felt that, if you want to understand thejungle,you can't be content just to sail back and forth near the shore. You'vegot to get into it, no matter how strange and frightening it mightseem.
The elder Jung started Carl on Latin when he was six years old,beginninga long interest in language and literature -- especially ancientliterature.Besides most modern western European languages, Jung
could read several ancient ones, including Sanskrit, the language oftheoriginal Hindu holy books.Carl was a rather solitary adolescent, who didn't care much forschool,and especially couldn't take competition. He went to boarding school inBasel, Switzerland, where he found himself the object of a lot ofjealousharassment. He began to use sickness as an excuse, developing anembarrassingtendency to faint under pressure.
Although his first career choice was archeology, he went on to studymedicine at the University of Basel. While working under the famousneurologistKrafft-Ebing, he settled on psychiatry as his career.
After graduating, he took a position at the Burghoeltzli MentalHospitalin Zurich under Eugene Bleuler, an expert on (and the namer of)schizophrenia.In 1903, he married Emma Rauschenbach. He also taught classes at theUniversityof Zurich, had a private practice, and invented word association atthistime!
Long an admirer of Freud, he met him in Vienna in 1907. The storygoesthat after they met, Freud canceled all his appointments for the day,andthey talked for 13 hours straight, such was the impact of the meetingofthese two great minds! Freud eventually came to see Jung as the crownprinceof psychoanalysis and his heir apparent.
But Jung had never been entirely sold on Freud's theory. Theirrelationshipbegan to cool in 1909, during a trip to America. They were entertainingthemselves by analyzing each others' dreams (more fun, apparently, thanshuffleboard), when Freud seemed to show an excess of resistance toJung'sefforts at analysis. Freud finally said that they'd have to stopbecausehe was afraid he would lose his authority! Jung felt rather insulted.
World War I was a painful period of self-examination for Jung. Itwas,however, also the beginning of one of the most interesting theories ofpersonality the world has ever seen.
After the war, Jung traveled widely, visiting, for example, tribalpeoplein Africa, America, and India. He retired in 1946, and began to retreatfrom public attention after his wife died in 1955. He died on June 6,1961,in Zurich.
But then Jung adds the part of the psyche that makes his theorystandout from all others: the collective unconscious. You could callit your "psychic inheritance." It is the reservoir of our experiencesasa species, a kind of knowledge we are all born with. And yet we canneverbe directly conscious of it. It influences all of our experiences andbehaviors,most especially the emotional ones, but we only know about itindirectly,by looking at those influences.
There are some experiences that show the effects of the collectiveunconsciousmore clearly than others: The experiences of love at first sight, ofdejavu (the feeling that you've been here before), and the immediaterecognitionof certain symbols and the meanings of certain myths, could all beunderstoodas the sudden conjunction of our outer reality and the inner reality ofthe collective unconscious. Grander examples are the creativeexperiencesshared by artists and musicians all over the world and in all times, orthe spiritual experiences of mystics of all religions, or the parallelsin dreams, fantasies, mythologies, fairy tales, and literature.
A nice example that has been greatly discussed recently is thenear-deathexperience. It seems that many people, of many different culturalbackgrounds,find that they have very similar recollections when they are broughtbackfrom a close encounter with death. They speak of leaving their bodies,seeing their bodies and the events surrounding them clearly, of beingpulledthrough a long tunnel towards a bright light, of seeing deceasedrelativesor religious figures waiting for them, and of their disappointment athavingto leave this happy scene to return to their bodies. Perhaps we are all"built" to experience death in this fashion.
Archetypes
The contents of the collective unconscious are called archetypes.Jung also called them dominants, imagos, mythological or primordialimages,and a few other names, but archetypes seems to have won out over these.An archetype is an unlearned tendency to experience things in a certainway.
The archetype has no form of its own, but it acts as an "organizingprinciple" on the things we see or do. It works the way that instinctswork in Freud's theory: At first, the baby just wants something to eat,without knowing what it wants. It has a rather indefinite yearningwhich,nevertheless, can be satisfied by some things and not by others. Later,with experience, the child begins to yearn for something more specificwhen it is hungry -- a bottle, a cookie, a broiled lobster, a slice ofNew York style pizza.
The archetype is like a black hole in space: You only know its thereby how it draws matter and light to itself.
The mother archetype
The mother archetype is a particularly good example. All ofourancestors had mothers. We have evolved in an environment that includeda mother or mother-substitute. We would never have survived without ourconnection with a nurturing-one during our times as helpless infants.Itstands to reason that we are "built" in a way that reflects thatevolutionaryenvironment: We come into this world ready to want mother, to seek her,to recognize her, to deal with her.
So the mother archetype is our built-in ability to recognize acertainrelationship, that of "mothering." Jung says that this is ratherabstract,and we are likely to project the archetype out into the world and ontoa particular person, usually our own mothers. Even when an archetypedoesn'thave a particular real person available, we tend to personify thearchetype,that is, turn it into a mythological "story-book" character. Thischaractersymbolizes the archetype.
The mother archetype is symbolized by the primordial mother or"earthmother" of mythology, by Eve and Mary in western traditions, and bylesspersonal symbols such as the church, the nation, a forest, or theocean.According to Jung, someone whose own mother failed to satisfy thedemandsof the archetype may well be one that spends his or her life seekingcomfortin the church, or in identification with "the motherland," or inmeditatingupon the figure of Mary, or in a life at sea.
Mana
You must understand that these archetypes are not really biologicalthings, like Freud's instincts. They are more spiritual demands. Forexample,if you dreamt about long things, Freud might suggest these thingsrepresentthe phallus and ultimately sex. But Jung might have a very differentinterpretation.Even dreaming quite specifically about a penis might not have much todowith some unfulfilled need for sex.
It is curious that in primitive societies, phallic symbols do notusuallyrefer to sex at all. They usually symbolize mana, or spiritualpower.These symbols would be displayed on occasions when the spirits arebeingcalled upon to increase the yield of corn, or fish, or to heal someone.The connection between the penis and strength, between semen and seed,between fertilization and fertility are understood by most cultures.
The shadow
Sex and the life instincts in general are, of course, representedsomewherein Jung's system. They are a part of an archetype called the shadow.It derives from our prehuman, animal past, when our concerns werelimitedto survival and reproduction, and when we weren't self-conscious.
It is the "dark side" of the ego, and the evil that we are capableofis often stored there. Actually, the shadow is amoral -- neither goodnorbad, just like animals. An animal is capable of tender care for itsyoungand vicious killing for food, but it doesn't choose to do either. Itjustdoes what it does. It is "innocent." But from our human perspective,theanimal world looks rather brutal, inhuman, so the shadow becomessomethingof a garbage can for the parts of ourselves that we can't quite admitto.
Symbols of the shadow include the snake (as in the garden of Eden),the dragon, monsters, and demons. It often guards the entrance to acaveor a pool of water, which is the collective unconscious. Next time youdream about wrestling with the devil, it may only be yourself you arewrestlingwith!
The persona
The persona represents your public image. The word is,obviously,related to the word person and personality, and comes from a Latin wordfor mask. So the persona is the mask you put on before you showyourselfto the outside world. Although it begins as an archetype, by the timeweare finished realizing it, it is the part of us most distant from thecollectiveunconscious.
At its best, it is just the "good impression" we all wish to presentas we fill the roles society requires of us. But, of course, it canalsobe the "false impression" we use to manipulate people's opinions andbehaviors.And, at its worst, it can be mistaken, even by ourselves, for our truenature: Sometimes we believe we really are what we pretend to be!
Anima and animus
A part of our persona is the role of male or female we must play.Formost people that role is determined by their physical gender. But Jung,like Freud and Adler and others, felt that we are all really bisexualinnature. When we begin our lives as fetuses, we have undifferentiatedsexorgans that only gradually, under the influence of hormones, becomemaleor female. Likewise, when we begin our social lives as infants, we areneither male nor female in the social sense. Almost immediately -- assoonas those pink or blue booties go on -- we come under the influence ofsociety,which gradually molds us into men and women.
In all societies, the expectations placed on men and women differ,usuallybased on our different roles in reproduction, but often involving manydetails that are purely traditional. In our society today, we stillhavemany remnants of these traditional expectations. Women are stillexpectedto be more nurturant and less aggressive; men are still expected to bestrong and to ignore the emotional side of life. But Jung felt theseexpectationsmeant that we had developed only half of our potential.
The anima is the female aspect present in the collectiveunconsciousof men, and the animus is the male aspect present in thecollectiveunconscious of women. Together, they are refered to as syzygy.Theanima may be personified as a young girl, very spontaneous andintuitive,or as a witch, or as the earth mother. It is likely to be associatedwithdeep emotionality and the force of life itself. The animus may bepersonifiedas a wise old man, a sorcerer, or often a number of males, and tends tobe logical, often rationalistic, even argumentative.
The anima or animus is the archetype through which you communicatewiththe collective unconscious generally, and it is important to get intotouchwith it. It is also the archetype that is responsible for much of ourlovelife: We are, as an ancient Greek myth suggests, always looking for ourother half, the half that the Gods took from us, in members of theoppositesex. When we fall in love at first sight, then we have found someonethat"fills" our anima or animus archetype particularly well!
Other archetypes
Jung said that there is no fixed number of archetypes which we couldsimply list and memorize. They overlap and easily melt into each otheras needed, and their logic is not the usual kind. But here are some hementions:
Besides mother, their are other family archetypes. Obviously, thereis father, who is often symbolized by a guide or an authorityfigure.There is also the archetype family, which represents the ideaofblood relationship and ties that run deeper than those based onconsciousreasons.
There is also the child, represented in mythology and art bychildren, infants most especially, as well as other small creatures.TheChrist child celebrated at Christmas is a manifestation of the childarchetype,and represents the future, becoming, rebirth, and salvation. Curiously,Christmas falls during the winter solstice, which in northern primitivecultures also represents the future and rebirth. People used to lightbonfiresand perform ceremonies to encourage the sun's return to them. The childarchetype often blends with other archetypes to form the child-god, orthe child-hero.
Many archetypes are story characters. The hero is one ofthemain ones. He is the mana personality and the defeater of evil dragons.Basically, he represents the ego -- we do tend to identify with theheroof the story -- and is often engaged in fighting the shadow, in theformof dragons and other monsters. The hero is, however, often dumb as apost.He is, after all, ignorant of the ways of the collective unconscious.LukeSkywalker, in the Star Wars films, is the perfect example of ahero.
The hero is often out to rescue the maiden. She representspurity,innocence, and, in all likelihood, naivete. In the beginning of the StarWars story, Princess Leia is the maiden. But, as the storyprogresses,she becomes the anima, discovering the powers of the force -- thecollectiveunconscious -- and becoming an equal partner with Luke, who turns outtobe her brother.
The hero is guided by the wise old man. He is a form of theanimus,and reveals to the hero the nature of the collective unconscious. In StarWars, he is played by Obi Wan Kenobi and, later, Yoda. Notice thatthey teach Luke about the force and, as Luke matures, they die andbecomea part of him.
You might be curious as to the archetype represented by Darth Vader,the "dark father." He is the shadow and the master of the dark side ofthe force. He also turns out to be Luke and Leia's father. When hedies,he becomes one of the wise old men.
There is also an animal archetype, representing humanity'srelationshipswith the animal world. The hero's faithful horse would be an example.Snakesare often symbolic of the animal archetype, and are thought to beparticularlywise. Animals, after all, are more in touch with their natures than weare. Perhaps loyal little robots and reliable old spaceships -- theFalcon--are also symbols of animal.
And there is the trickster, often represented by a clown oramagician. The trickster's role is to hamper the hero's progress and togenerally make trouble. In Norse mythology, many of the gods'adventuresoriginate in some trick or another played on their majesties by thehalf-godLoki.
There are other archetypes that are a little more difficult to talkabout. One is the original man, represented in western religionby Adam. Another is the God archetype, representing our needtocomprehend the universe, to give a meaning to all that happens, to seeit all as having some purpose and direction.
The hermaphrodite, both male and female, represents theunionof opposites, an important idea in Jung's theory. In some religiousart,Jesus is presented as a rather feminine man. Likewise, in China, thecharacterKuan Yin began as a male saint (the bodhisattva Avalokiteshwara), butwasportrayed in such a feminine manner that he is more often thought of asthe female goddess of compassion!
The dynamics of the psyche
So much for the content of the psyche. Now let's turn to theprinciplesof its operation. Jung gives us three principles, beginning with theprinciple of opposites. Every wish immediately suggests itsopposite.If I have a good thought, for example, I cannot help but have in mesomewherethe opposite bad thought. In fact, it is a very basic point: In ordertohave a concept of good, you must have a concept of bad, just like youcan'thave up without down or black without white.
This idea came home to me when I was about eleven. I occasionallytriedto help poor innocent woodland creatures who had been hurt in some way-- often, I'm afraid, killing them in the process. Once I tried tonursea baby robin back to health. But when I picked it up, I was so struckbyhow light it was that the thought came to me that I could easily crushit in my hand. Mind you, I didn't like the idea, but it was undeniablythere.
According to Jung, it is the opposition that creates the power (or libido)of the psyche. It is like the two poles of a battery, or the splittingof an atom. It is the contrast that gives energy, so that a strongcontrastgives strong energy, and a weak contrast gives weak energy.
The second principle is the principle of equivalence. Theenergycreated from the opposition is "given" to both sides equally. So, whenI held that baby bird in my hand, there was energy to go ahead and tryto help it. But there is an equal amount of energy to go ahead andcrushit. I tried to help the bird, so that energy went into the variousbehaviorsinvolved in helping it. But what happens to the other energy?
Well, that depends on your attitude towards the wish that you didn'tfulfill. If you acknowledge it, face it, keep it available to theconsciousmind, then the energy goes towards a general improvement of yourpsyche.You grow, in other words.
But if you pretend that you never had that evil wish, if you denyandsuppress it, the energy will go towards the development of a complex.A complex is a pattern of suppressed thoughts and feelings that cluster-- constellate -- around a theme provided by some archetype. If youdenyever having thought about crushing the little bird, you might put thatidea into the form offered by the shadow (your "dark side"). Or if amandenies his emotional side, his emotionality might find its way into theanima archetype. And so on.
Here's where the problem comes: If you pretend all your life thatyouare only good, that you don't even have the capacity to lie and cheatandsteal and kill, then all the times when you do good, that other side ofyou goes into a complex around the shadow. That complex will begin todevelopa life of its own, and it will haunt you. You might find yourselfhavingnightmares in which you go around stomping on little baby birds!
If it goes on long enough, the complex may take over, may "possess"you, and you might wind up with a multiple personality. In the movieTheThree Faces of Eve, Joanne Woodward portrayed a meek, mild woman whoeventuallydiscovered that she went out and partied like crazy on Saturday nights.She didn't smoke, but found cigarettes in her purse, didn't drink, butwoke up with hangovers, didn't fool around, but found herself in sexyoutfits.Although multiple personality is rare, it does tend to involve thesekindsof black-and-white extremes.
The final principle is the principle of entropy. This is thetendency for oppositions to come together, and so for energy todecrease,over a person's lifetime. Jung borrowed the idea from physics, whereentropyrefers to the tendency of all physical systems to "run down," that is,for all energy to become evenly distributed. If you have, for example,a heat source in one corner of the room, the whole room will eventuallybe heated.
When we are young, the opposites will tend to be extreme, and so wetend to have lots of energy. For example, adolescents tend toexaggeratemale-female differences, with boys trying hard to be macho and girlstryingequally hard to be feminine. And so their sexual activity is investedwithgreat amounts of energy! Plus, adolescents often swing from one extremeto another, being wild and crazy one minute and finding religion thenext.
As we get older, most of us come to be more comfortable with ourdifferentfacets. We are a bit less naively idealistic and recognize that we areall mixtures of good and bad. We are less threatened by the oppositesexwithin us and become more androgynous. Even physically, in old age, menand women become more alike. This process of rising above ouropposites,of seeing both sides of who we are, is called transcendence.
The self
The goal of life is to realize the self. The self is anarchetypethat represents the transcendence of all opposites, so that everyaspectof your personality is expressed equally. You are then neither and bothmale and female, neither and both ego and shadow, neither and both goodand bad, neither and both conscious and unconscious, neither and bothanindividual and the whole of creation. And yet, with no oppositions,thereis no energy, and you cease to act. Of course, you no longer need toact.
To keep it from getting too mystical, think of it as a new center, amore balanced position, for your psyche. When you are young, you focuson the ego and worry about the trivialities of the persona. When youareolder (assuming you have been developing as you should), you focus alittledeeper, on the self, and become closer to all people, all life, eventheuniverse itself. The self-realized person is actually less selfish.
Synchronicity
Personality theorists have argued for many years about whetherpsychologicalprocesses function in terms of mechanism or teleology.Mechanismis the idea that things work in through cause and effect: One thingleadsto another which leads to another, and so on, so that the pastdeterminesthe present. Teleology is the idea that we are lead on by our ideasabouta future state, by things like purposes, meanings, values, and so on.Mechanismis linked with determinism and with the natural sciences. Teleology islinked with free will and has become rather rare. It is still commonamongmoral, legal, and religious philosophers, and, of course, amongpersonalitytheorists.
Among the people discussed in this book, Freudians and behavioriststend to be mechanists, while the neo-Freudians, humanists, andexistentialiststend to be teleologists. Jung believes that both play a part. But headdsa third alternative called synchronicity.
Synchronicity is the occurrence of two events that are not linkedcausally,nor linked teleologically, yet are meaningfully related. Once, a clientwas describing a dream involving a scarab beetle when, at that veryinstant,a very similar beetle flew into the window. Often, people dream aboutsomething,like the death of a loved one, and find the next morning that theirlovedone did, in fact, die at about that time. Sometimes people pick up hephoneto call a friend, only to find that their friend is already on theline.Most psychologists would call these things coincidences, or try to showhow they are more likely to occur than we think. Jung believed the wereindications of how we are connected, with our fellow humans and withnaturein general, through the collective unconscious.
Jung was never clear about his own religious beliefs. But thisunusualidea of synchronicity is easily explained by the Hindu view of reality.In the Hindu view, our individual egos are like islands in a sea: Welookout at the world and each other and think we are separate entities.Whatwe don't see is that we are connected to each other by means of theoceanfloor beneath the waters.
The outer world is called maya, meaning illusion, and isthoughtof as God's dream or God's dance. That is, God creates it, but it hasnoreality of its own. Our individual egos they call jivatman,whichmeans individual souls. But they, too, are something of an illusion. Weare all actually extensions of the one and only Atman, or God,whoallows bits of himself to forget his identity, to become apparentlyseparateand independent, to become us. But we never truly are separate. When wedie, we wake up and realize who we were from the beginning: God.
When we dream or meditate, we sink into our personal unconscious,comingcloser and closer to our true selves, the collective unconscious. It isin states like this that we are especially open to "communications"fromother egos. Synchronicity makes Jung's theory one of the rare ones thatis not only compatible with parapsychological phenomena, but actuallytriesto explain them!
Introversion and extroversion
Jung developed a personality typology that has become so popularthatsome people don't realize he did anything else! It begins with thedistinctionbetween introversion and extroversion. Introverts arepeoplewho prefer their internal world of thoughts, feelings, fantasies,dreams,and so on, while extroverts prefer the external world of things andpeopleand activities.
The words have become confused with ideas like shyness andsociability,partially because introverts tend to be shy and extroverts tend to besociable.But Jung intended for them to refer more to whether you ("ego") moreoftenfaced toward the persona and outer reality, or toward the collectiveunconsciousand its archetypes. In that sense, the introvert is somewhat morematurethan the extrovert. Our culture, of course, values the extrovert muchmore.And Jung warned that we all tend to value our own type most!
We now find the introvert-extravert dimension in several theories,notablyHans Eysenck's, although often hidden under alternative names such as"sociability"and "surgency."
The functions
Whether we are introverts or extroverts, we need to deal with theworld,inner and outer. And each of us has our preferred ways of dealing withit, ways we are comfortable with and good at. Jung suggests there arefourbasic ways, or functions:
The first is sensing. Sensing means what it says: gettinginformationby means of the senses. A sensing person is good at looking andlisteningand generally getting to know the world. Jung called this one of the irrationalfunctions,meaning that it involved perception rather than judging of information.
The second is thinking. Thinking means evaluatinginformationor ideas rationally, logically. Jung called this a rational function,meaning that it involves decision making or judging, rather than simpleintake of information.
The third is intuiting. Intuiting is a kind of perceptionthatworks outside of the usual conscious processes. It is irrational orperceptual,like sensing, but comes from the complex integration of large amountsofinformation, rather than simple seeing or hearing. Jung said it waslikeseeing around corners.
The fourth is feeling. Feeling, like thinking, is a matterofevaluating information, this time by weighing one's overall, emotionalresponse. Jung calls it rational, obviously not in the usual sense oftheword.
We all have these functions. We just have them in differentproportions,you might say. Each of us has a superior function, which wepreferand which is best developed in us, a secondary function, whichweare aware of and use in support of our superior function, a tertiaryfunction,which is only slightly less developed but not terribly conscious, andaninferiorfunction,which is poorly developed and so unconscious that we might deny itsexistencein ourselves.
Most of us develop only one or two of the functions, but our goalshouldbe to develop all four. Once again, Jung sees the transcendence ofoppositesas the ideal.
Assessment
Katharine Briggs and her daughter Isabel Briggs Myers found Jung'stypesand functions so revealing of people's personalities that they decidedto develop a paper-and-pencil test. It came to be called the Myers-BriggsType Indicator, and is one of the most popular, and most studied,testsaround.
On the basis of your answers on about 125 questions, you are placedin one of sixteen types, with the understanding that some people mightfind themselves somewhere between two or three types. What type you aresays quite a bit about you -- your likes and dislikes, your likelycareerchoices, your compatibility with others, and so on. People tend to likeit quite a bit. It has the unusual quality among personality tests ofnotbeing too judgmental: None of the types is terribly negative, nor areanyoverly positive. Rather than assessing how "crazy" you are, the"Myers-Briggs"simply opens up your personality for exploration.
The test has four scales. Extroversion - Introversion (E-I)isthe most important. Test researchers have found that about 75 % of thepopulation is extroverted.
The next one is Sensing - Intuiting (S-N), with about 75 %ofthe population sensing.
The next is Thinking - Feeling (T-F). Although these aredistributedevenly through the population, researchers have found that two-thirdsofmen are thinkers, while two-thirds of women are feelers. This mightseemlike stereotyping, but keep in mind that feeling and thinking are bothvalued equally by Jungians, and that one-third of men are feelers andone-thirdof women are thinkers. Note, though, that society does value thinkingandfeeling differently, and that feeling men and thinking women often havedifficulties dealing with people's stereotyped expectations.
The last is Judging - Perceiving (J-P), not one of Jung'soriginaldimensions. Myers and Briggs included this one in order to helpdeterminewhich of a person's functions is superior. Generally, judging peoplearemore careful, perhaps inhibited, in their lives. Perceiving people tendto be more spontaneous, sometimes careless. If you are an extrovert anda "J," you are a thinker or feeler, whichever is stronger. Extrovertedand "P" means you are a senser or intuiter. On the other hand, anintrovertwith a high "J" score will be a senser or intuiter, while an introvertwith a high "P" score will be a thinker or feeler. J and P are equallydistributed in the population.
Each type is identified by four letters, such as ENFJ. These haveprovenso popular, you can even find them on people's license plates!
ENFJ (Extroverted feeling with intuiting): These people areeasyspeakers. They tend to idealize their friends. They make good parents,but have a tendency to allow themselves to be used. They make goodtherapists,teachers, executives, and salespeople.
ENFP (Extroverted intuiting with feeling): These people lovenovelty and surprises. They are big on emotions and expression. Theyaresusceptible to muscle tension and tend to be hyperalert. they tend tofeelself-conscious. They are good at sales, advertising, politics, andacting.
ENTJ (Extroverted thinking with intuiting): In charge athome,they expect a lot from spouses and kids. They like organization andstructureand tend to make good executives and administrators.
ENTP (Extroverted intuiting with thinking): These are livelypeople, not humdrum or orderly. As mates, they are a little dangerous,especially economically. They are good at analysis and make goodentrepreneurs.They do tend to play at oneupmanship.
ESFJ (Extroverted feeling with sensing): These people likeharmony.They tend to have strong shoulds and should-nots. They may bedependent,first on parents and later on spouses. They wear their hearts on theirsleeves and excel in service occupations involving personal contact.
ESFP (Extroverted sensing with feeling): Very generous andimpulsive,they have a low tolerance for anxiety. They make good performers, theylike public relations, and they love the phone. They should avoidscholarlypursuits, especially science.
ESTJ (Extroverted thinking with sensing): These areresponsiblemates and parents and are loyal to the workplace. They are realistic,down-to-earth,orderly, and love tradition. They often find themselves joining civicclubs!
ESTP (Extroverted sensing with thinking): These areaction-orientedpeople, often sophisticated, sometimes ruthless -- our "James Bonds."Asmates, they are exciting and charming, but they have trouble withcommitment.They make good promoters, entrepreneurs, and con artists.
INFJ (Introverted intuiting with feeling): These are seriousstudents and workers who really want to contribute. They are privateandeasily hurt. They make good spouses, but tend to be physicallyreserved.People often think they are psychic. They make good therapists, generalpractitioners, ministers, and so on.
INFP (Introverted feeling with intuiting): These people areidealistic,self-sacrificing, and somewhat cool or reserved. They are very familyandhome oriented, but don't relax well. You find them in psychology,architecture,and religion, but never in business.
INTJ (Introverted intuiting with thinking): These are themostindependent of all types. They love logic and ideas and are drawn toscientificresearch. They can be rather single-minded, though.
INTP (Introverted thinking with intuiting): Faithful,preoccupied,and forgetful, these are the bookworms. They tend to be very precise intheir use of language. They are good at logic and math and make goodphilosophersand theoretical scientists, but not writers or salespeople.
ISFJ (Introverted sensing with feeling): These people areserviceand work oriented. They may suffer from fatigue and tend to beattractedto troublemakers. They are good nurses, teachers, secretaries, generalpractitioners, librarians, middle managers, and housekeepers.
ISFP (Introverted feeling with sensing): They are shy andretiring,are not talkative, but like sensuous action. They like painting,drawing,sculpting, composing, dancing -- the arts generally -- and they likenature.They are not big on commitment.
ISTJ (Introverted sensing with thinking): These aredependablepillars of strength. They often try to reform their mates and otherpeople.They make good bank examiners, auditors, accountants, tax examiners,supervisorsin libraries and hospitals, business, home ec., and phys. ed. teachers,and boy or girl scouts!
ISTP (Introverted thinking with sensing): These people areaction-orientedand fearless, and crave excitement. They are impulsive and dangerous tostop. They often like tools, instruments, and weapons, and often becometechnical experts. They are not interested in communications and areoftenincorrectly diagnosed as dyslexic or hyperactive. They tend to do badlyin school.
Even without taking the test, you may very well recognize yourselfinone or two of these types. Or ask others -- they may be moreaccurate! But, if you like, you can take my Jungian personality test on theinternet: Just click here!
But scientists, including most psychologists, have a lot of troublewith Jung. Not only does he fully support the teleological view (as domost personality theorists), but he goes a step further and talks aboutthe mystical interconnectedness of synchronicity. Not only does hepostulatean unconscious, where things are not easily available to the empiricaleye, but he postulates a collective unconscious that never has been andnever will be conscious.
In fact, Jung takes an approach that is essentially the reverse ofthemainstream's reductionism: Jung begins with the highest levels -- evenspiritualism -- and derives the lower levels of psychology andphysiologyfrom them.
Even psychologists who applaud his teleology and antireductionistpositionmay not be comfortable with him. Like Freud, Jung tries to bringeverythinginto his system. He has little room for chance, accident, orcircumstances.Personality -- and life in general -- seems "over-explained" in Jung'stheory.
I have found that his theory sometimes attracts students who havedifficultydealing with reality. When the world, especially the social world,becomestoo difficult, some people retreat into fantasy. Some, for example,becomecouch potatoes. But others turn to complex ideologies that pretend toexplaineverything. Some get involved in Gnostic or Tantric religions, the kindthat present intricate rosters of angels and demons and heavens andhells,and endlessly discuss symbols. Some go to Jung. There is nothingintrinsicallywrong with this; but for someone who is out of touch with reality, thisis hardly going to help.
These criticisms do not cut the foundation out from under Jung'stheory.But they do suggest that some careful consideration is in order.
The positive things
On the plus side, there is the Myers-Briggs and other tests based onJung's types and functions. Because they do not place people ondimensionsthat run from "good" to "bad," they are much less threatening. Theyencouragepeople to become more aware of themselves.
The archetypes, at first glance, might seem to be Jung's strangestidea.And yet they have proven to be very useful in the analysis of myths,fairytales, literature in general, artistic symbolism, and religiousexposition.They apparently capture some of the basic "units" of ourself-expression.Many people have suggested that there are only so many stories andcharactersin the world, and we just keep on rearranging the details.
This suggests that the archetypes actually do refer to some deepstructuresof the human mind. After all, from the physiological perspective, wecomeinto his world with a certain structure: We see in a certain way, hearin a certain way, "process information" in a certain way, behave in acertainway, because our neurons and glands and muscles are structured in acertainway. At least one cognitive psychologist has suggested looking for thestructures that correspond to Jung's archetypes!
Finally, Jung has opened our eyes to the differences between childdevelopmentand adult development. Children clearly emphasize differentiation --separatingone thing from another -- in their learning. "What's this?" " Why is itthis way and not that?" "What kinds are there?" They actively seekdiversity.And many people, psychologists included, have been so impressed by thisthat they have assumed that all learning is a matter ofdifferentiation,of learning more and more "things."
But Jung has pointed out that adults search more for integration,forthe transcending of opposites. Adults search for the connectionsbetweenthings, how things fit together, how they interact, how they contributeto the whole. We want to make sense of it, find the meaning of it, thepurpose of it all. Children unravel the world; adults try to knit itbacktogether.
Connections
On the one hand, Jung is still attached to his Freudian roots. Heemphasizesthe unconscious even more than Freudians do. In fact, he might be seenas the logical extension of Freud's tendency to put the causes ofthingsinto the past. Freud, too, talked about myths --Oedipus, for example --and how they impact on the modern psyche.
On the other hand, Jung has a lot in common with the neo-Freudians,humanists, and existentialists. He believes that we are meant toprogress,to move in a positive direction, and not just to adapt, as theFreudiansand behaviorists would have it. His idea of self-realization is clearlysimilar to self-actualization.
The balancing or transcending of opposites also has counterparts inother theories. Alfred Adler, Otto Rank, Andreas Angyal, David Bakan,GardnerMurphy, and Rollo May all make reference to balancing two opposingtendencies,one towards individual development and the other towards thedevelopmentof compassion or social interest. Rollo May talks about the psychebeingcomposed of many "daimons" (little gods) such as the desire for sex, orlove, or power. All are positive in their place, but should any onetakeover the whole personality, we would have "daimonic possession," ormentalillness!
Finally, we owe to Jung the broadening of interpretation, whether ofsymptoms or dreams or free-associations. While Freud developedmore-or-lessrigid (specifically, sexual) interpretations, Jung allowed for a ratherfree-wheeling "mythological" interpretation, wherein anything couldmean,well, anything. Existential analysis, in particular, has benefited fromJung's ideas.
If you are looking for something a little easier, you might try AnalyticPsychology: Its Theory and Practice, which is a collection oflecturesand is available in paperback. Or read Man and His Symbols,whichis available in several editions ranging from large ones with manycolorpictures to an inexpensive paperback. If you want a smattering of Jung,try a collection of his writings, such as Modern Library's TheBasicWritings of C. C. Jung.
The best book I've ever read about Jung, however, is theautobiographicalMemories, Dreams, Reflections, written with his student AnielaJaffé.It makes a good introduction, assuming you've read something like theprecedingchapter first.
Copyright 1997, 2006 C. George Boeree
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