The demon function is the shadow side of the inferior function. It is the most distant from our ego consciousness but can deliver helpful insights in addition to the undermining ones. As John Beebe says, it is the part of us that is both devil and angel. When we act terribly, it is often through this function and archetype.
Beebe cites a Marie-Louise von Franz passage about the inferior function that he says is really about the shadow side of the inferior function. It stopped me in my tracks back when I first read it:
“The little open door of each individual’s inferior function is what contributes to the sum of collective evil in the world.”…Every German I knew at that time who fell for Nazism did so on account of his inferior function…The inferior function was in each personal realm the door where some of this collective evil could accumulate…The propaganda used the ordinary suspicions that people had against others on account of their inferior function”
Lectures on Jung’s Typology by Marie-Louise von Franz and James Hillman
She went on to say that the feeling type got caught up in arguments about party doctrine.
Intuitive types got caught up in their dependence on money and had to stay in their jobs even though they didn’t agree with the values.
The thinking types had their inferior feeling aroused; if you want to get a lie across to a thinking type you have to use a lot of emotion.
The sensation types could be persuaded that only dark possibilities existed unless Hitler’s vision was embraced.
So you can see why it is important to learn Jung’s typology. Our society depends on it!
Here is a list of the demon functions by personality type:
INTP and ISTP – introverted feeling (Fi)
INFJ and INTJ – introverted sensation (Si)
ISFJ and ISTJ – introverted intuition (Ni)
INFP and ISFP – introverted thinking (Ti)
ENFJ and ESFJ – extroverted thinking (Te)
ESTJ and ENTJ – extroverted feeling (Fe)
ENFP and ENTP – extroverted sensation (Se)
ESFP and ESTP – extroverted intuition (Ne)
This completes my series of many posts about Beebe’s 8 function model (I like to think of it as archetypal typology). Soon I will post an index to all the posts and pin it to the type of my blog.
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Sources:
Lectures on Jung’s Typology by Marie-Louise von Franz and James Hillman
Energies and Patterns in Psychological Type by John Beebe
