JUNGIAN TYPOLOGY POST# 11: JUNG'S FUNCTIONS IN A NUTSHELL
Hello, everyone, for the next several days, I will be posting a whole backlog of posts to my blog, in several different categories of posts, but I felt that this was the most important of the posts, so I'm posting it first.
People seem to have all kinds of weird ideas of what Jung's functions actually are. A lot of those , we can thank Grant and Beebe for. So I will write a short and brief summary of what Jung actually says the functions are in Psychological Types Chapter 10. All these summary descriptions are pulled out of that chapter
Jung's functions:
Jung says there are 4 functions: thinking, feeling, sensation and intuition.
Thinking and feeling are *rational* functions. That means they are involved in human interactions. In the MBTI, they are called *judging* functions because they are involved with decision making.
Sensation and intuition are *irrational* functions. That means they are involved in non human interactions. In the MBTI, they are called *perceiving* functions, because they are involved in thought processing.
Thinking focuses on *tasks*.
The role of thinking is to *make decisions* through *evaluation/analysis*
Conscious *extroverted* thinking is thinking projected outward. Therefore, an extroverted thinker will *externalizing* their decisions. They evaluate and analyze things *outside* of other things. [This usually involves them writing, slowly and methodically, a well thought out plan, with many goals attached. Their decisions lead them to be quite successful in life and confident in what they do, and how they believe it should be done]
Conscious*introverted* thinking is thinking projected inward. Therefore, an introverted thinker will make decisions by analyzing and evaluating in the opposite direction. Therefore, introverted thinkers evaluate and analyze things *inside* of other things. [That's why an introverted thinker generally decides "no", until they can be assured that all the potential pitfalls they see in their internal analysis will be addressed.]
Jung believed *unconscious* functions balance out the conscious functions, but when things get out of balance, the unconscious functions take on a life of their own. Marston (forefather of DISC), who's life's study was the conscious and unconscious said, in his book The Emotions of Normal People, "Whatever we don't like about a person's behavior comes from their unconscious ". And after reading Chapter 10 numerous times, it has become apparent to me that Jung believed Marston's statement wholeheartedly. Here's what he had to say about unconscious thinking:
Unconscious extroverted thinking (in conscious introverted feelers), when out of balance, is characterized by defensiveness and egotism, which leads to stubbornness and uncooperative behavior
Unconscious introverted thinking (in conscious extroverted feelers), when out of balance, is characterized by negative and depreciating thoughts about oneself, which leads to immature behavior responses and mental illness
Feeling focuses on *people*
The role of feeling is to *make decisions* through *hunches/gut reactions*
Conscious *extroverted* feeling is projected outward. That looks like a person making decisions that will create harmony and unity in their relationships (interpersonal).
Conscious *introverted* feeling is projected inward. That looks like a person making decisions that will create harmony and unity inside of themselves (intrapersonal).
Unconscious extroverted feeling (in conscious introverted thinkers), when out of balance, is characterized by attitudes that don't encourage relationship formation, and a withdrawal into solitude
Unconscious introverted feeling (in conscious extroverted thinkers), when out of balance, is characterized by attacking those who don't agree with the extroverted thinker, and those who want to change the extroverted thinker's plan
Sensation focuses on *tangibles*
The role of sensation is to: observe a *tangible* object in *reality*
Conscious *extroverted* sensation is projected outward, and it comes across as enjoying the experience with the object in the moment
Conscious *introverted* sensation is projected inward, and it comes across as a subjective view of the experience. [This subjective view, I have observed is usually a precedent, but it can also be a personification of an object, or internal biological functions associated with experiencing the object as well.]
Unconscious *extroverted* sensation (in conscious introverted intutives), when out of balance, is characterized by lack of self control and self restraint, which leads to addiction
Unconscious *introverted* sensation (in conscious extroverted intuitives), when out of balance, is characterized by one not trusting their observations, which leads them to ignoring reality, until reality ultimately rears its ugly head
Intuition focuses on *intangibles*
The role of intuition is to: observe an *intangible* object in the *unconscious*
Conscious *extroverted* intuition make assumptions about the missing idea *outside* of the concept . [Therefore, they create something bigger and better than the original, because they looked on the outside for the missing puzzle piece]
Conscious *introverted* intuition makes assumptions about the missing idea *inside* of the concept. [Therefore, they refine a concept with their own interpretations like INFJ Isabel Myers did with the concepts I'm discussing here, much to Jungians' dismay]
Unconscious *extroverted* intuition (in conscious introverted sensors), when out of balance, is characterized by distrust in their ideas, which leads to seeing danger in everything, being self-protective, irrational fears and phobias
Unconscious *Introverted* intuition (in conscious extroverted sensors), when out of balance, is characterized by distrust in their ideas, which leads to being suspicious, not trusting people, being nosy, irrational fears and phobias
[My personal experience and additions]
Everything else is a paraphrase of Jung
I hope everyone finds this helpful 👍