Temperament vs. Personality: a historical overview

The terms temperament and personality get tossed about interchangeably, when in reality they are two separate concepts.

Briefly, temperament is innate, something we are born with and can’t change, whereas personality is shaped by both internal and external factors.

Ancient Greek philosophers, physicians, and physicists came up with the concept of temperament. Temperament means “mixture.” Specifically, temperament is a mixture of the four elements (air, earth, fire, water), the four qualities (hot, cold, wet, dry), and the four humors (blood, yellow bile, black bile, and phlegm). Physicians worked to treat imbalances in the temperament.

Plato (fifth century BCE) was the first to call earth, air, fire, and water “elements” and said that diseases resulted from deficiencies or excesses in the elements.

Hippocrates (born 460 BCE) devised the system of the humors by applying the four elements and four qualities to the human body. The macrocosm (world) was correlated to the microcosm (body). As above, so below.

Aristotle (born 384 BCE) and Stoicism (began around 300 BCE) described the “active” qualities as hot and cold.

Galens (born 131 CE) was attending physician to Marcus Aurelius and was a follower of Aristotle and Hippocrates. He embraced the humor theory of Hippocrates and the element/quality theories of both Hippocrates and Aristotle, and also correlates the four seasons to the humors. His was the first holistic theory of health because it showed a connection between personality, mind and body.

By the time of Marsilio Ficino in the 15th century, the four humors of choleric, melancholic, sanguine and phlegmatic were associated with psychological characteristics and not just physical ones.

The four humors are defined as:

Choleric – Decisive, independent, goal-oriented.

Melancholic – Low energy, deep thinkers, analytical.

Phlegmatic – Opposite of choleric. Passive, easy-going, timid, empathetic.

Sanguine – Buoyant, hopeful, confident, cheerful, robust.

All told, the temperament theory was dominant for around 1700 years.

Carl Jung, in his book Psychological Types, published in 1921, came up with the four cognitive functions of thinking, feeling, sensation and intuition. He acknowledged a debt to the ancient temperament theory as a foundation from which his new typology emerged. However, Jung was critical of the temperaments:

The four temperaments are obviously differentiations in terms of affectivity, that is, they are correlated with manifest affective reactions. But this is a superficial classification from the psychological point of view; it judges only by appearance.

Psychological Types by CG Jung, paragraph 547

Jung said that a person who looks phlegmatic might actually be choleric on the inside and said that there needed to be a more objective system:

We have, therefore, to find criteria which can be accepted as binding not only by the judging subject but also by the judged object.

Psychological Types by CG Jung, paragraph 888

Jungian analyst Liz Greene, and others, have correlated his four functions to the four elements:

Earth = sensation
Air = thinking
Water = feeling
Fire = intuition

Dorian Greenbaum describes a theory that applies the four functions to the four humors. This associates the two “active” qualities of hot and dry with extroversion and introversion respectively, and also adds “wet” and “dry:”

Extraverted (hot) thinking or extraverted sensation (dry) = choleric
Extraverted (hot) feeling or extraverted intuition (wet) = sanguine
Introverted (cold) thinking or introverted sensation (dry) = melancholic
Introverted (cold) feeling or introverted intuition (wet) = phlegmatic

Combining the ancient concept of temperament with Jung’s typology is a way to enrich your understanding of your personality. Astrology is a way to find your elemental makeup, and also gives insights into personality beyond regular personality typology, which I will blog about in future posts.

Sources:

Relating by Liz Greene

Temperament: Astrology’s Forgotten Key by Dorian Gieseler Greenbaum

Continue ReadingTemperament vs. Personality: a historical overview

My guide to all my posts about John Beebe’s 8 function personality type model

My guide to all my posts about John Beebe’s 8 function personality type model

Below is a guide to all the posts I have written, many of which include infographics, about the archetypal typology model of John Beebe. I will keep this pinned to the top of the blog for easy reference.

Feel free to contact me if there are any other topics you’d like me to cover on this topic.

Here is the index:

Intro:

The 8 Jungian functions (includes diagrams of Beebe’s semantic fields)

Overview of the archtetypal roles of the 8 functions.

The Cast of Characters of Your Personality Type: The Function Stack Order in John Beebe’s Personality Type Model

8 Things I Learned from John Beebe in Eight Hours

Archetypes of the top 4 Functions:

Hero (lead function)

Parent (auxiliary/second function)

Eternal Child (tertiary/third function)

Anima/Animus (inferior function)

Shadow Functions:

Opposing Personality (5th function)

Senex/Critical Parent (6th function)

Trickster (7th function)

Demon (8th function)

Definitions of the Functions by Personality type (infographics included):

The 8 Archetypes of Extroverted Thinking

The 8 Archetypes of Introverted Thinking

The 8 Archetypes of Introverted Feeling

The 8 Archetypes of Extroverted Feeling

The 8 Archetypes of Introverted Intuition

The 8 Archetypes of Extroverted Intuition

The 8 Archetypes of Introverted Sensation

The 8 Archetypes of Extroverted Sensation

Cultural Attitudes:

The Four Cultural Attitudes

Continue ReadingMy guide to all my posts about John Beebe’s 8 function personality type model

The demon function of your personality type

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

Continue ReadingThe demon function of your personality type

The anima/animus of your personality type

The anima/animus of your personality type

The four function is always life’s great problem: if I don’t live it, I am frustrated and half-dead and everything is boring: if I live it, it is of such a low level that I cannot use it.

Lectures on Jung’s Typology by Marie-Louis von Franz

Jung’s close associate Marie-Louise von Franz, in Lectures in Jung’s Typology, said we have a choice about developing our third (eternal child) function, but our fourth (inferior) function is under the control of the unconscious, so we are limited in what we can do with it.

Jungian analyst John Beebe says the inferior function is carried by the anima or animus, which are “archetypes of soul that can serve as tutelary figures, representing the otherness of the unconscious psyche, and also its capacity to speak to us to enlarge our conscious perspectives.”

Even though the anima/animus function is a source of embarrassment and shame, it is critical to wholeness. Beebe says the anima and animus “are like fairy bridges to the unconscious, allowing, almost magically, a relationship to develop between the two parts of the mind, conscious and unconscious, with the potential to replace this tension of opposites with the harmony of wholeness.”

The inferior function is the gateway to the unconscious. As Marie-Louise von Franz said: “The inferior function is the door through which all the figures of the unconscious come into consciousness. Our conscious realm is like a room with four doors, and it is the fourth door by which the shadow, the animus or the anima, and the personifcation of the Self come in.

Beebe writes that in his own work with patients: “I most often found the inferior function, with its uncanny emotionality, to have the character of the anima or animus, the ‘other’ within us, which becomes profoundly upset when its ideals are not met and nearly ecstatic when they are.

If you don’t know which personality type you have, the inferior function will help you identify it. The idealism and higher cause that seizes us typically comes from the inferior function even though it is the area where we are weak. The criticisms that we get upset about often point to the inferior function as well.

Von Franz describes the 8 inferior functions in Lectures on Jung’s Typology. Below is a summary of the inferior functions by personality type:

INTP and ISTP – the inferior function is extroverted feeling (Fe). The person will often place a priority on everyone getting along but may lack the skills to facilitate this.

INFJ and INTJ – the inferior function is extroverted sensation (Se). The person will often care about the quality, design, and cleanliness of things in the physical world but struggle to make that happen or be outright oblivious to it.

ISFJ and ISTJ – the inferior function is extroverted intuition (Ne). The person will have concern for the quality of the future (global warning, etc.) but be unable or very slow to take action towards it.

INFP and ISFP – the inferior function is extroverted thinking (Te). This person may be adamant about putting a project into action even though they aren’t adept at developing a process.

ENFJ and ESFJ – the inferior functon is introverted thinking (Ti). This person may champion a particular kind of philosophy even though they can’t follow the intricate strands of thinking.

ESTJ and ENTJ – the inferior function is introverted feeling (Fi). They may be attached to a particular ideal but be unable to articulate their subjective opinion.

ENFP and ENTP – the inferior function is introverted sensation (Si). When they try to bring something into reality, like a new business, which requires a focus on facts, if it doesn’t work immediately they will often give up too quickly.

ESFP and ESTP – the inferior function is introverted intuition (Ni). They want to concretize their goals, but the lack of focus can find them careening about instead of successfully implementing their vision.

My next, and final, post about the function archetypes will be about the demon function. Stay tuned!

Sources:

Lectures on Jung’s Typology by Marie-Louise von Franz and James Hillman

Energies and Patterns in Psychological Type by John Beebe

Continue ReadingThe anima/animus of your personality type

The “Trickster” function of your personality type

The “Trickster” function of your personality type

The shadow side of the eternal child (tertiary) function of the personality type is the trickster.

Jungian analyst John Beebe came up with the trickster archetype for this function (and all of the shadow function archetypes) based on his study of dream figures that display the negative of our preferred typologies.

According to Beebe, “The archetypal thrust of the trickster’s restless energy is to resist having to do things the way others think is right.” And “the trickster can be a force for self-defense in a dangerous world.” It points out the opponent’s weaknesses with withering remarks.

He says that it is “an enormous step in type development” when we can make the trickster conscious. Then we are less vulnerable to being taken advantage by others.

He cites Alfred Hitchcock as one who had a developed trickster function. There was a time Kim Novak was upset the clothes for her role did not reflect her taste. Hitchcock had extroverted feeling (Fe) as his trickster function. Giving into her would have ruined the picture, so he told her “you can wear anything you want, anything – provided it’s what the script calls for.” This succeeded in placating her.

Here is a list of trickster funtions by personality type. When you encounter that same function in someone who has it as a hero, parent, or eternal child function, your trickster may sometimes get triggered. So the more conscious you become of that, the less defensive you will be, and the less vulnerable to being taken advantage of by others.

ISTJ – extroverted feeling (Fe)
INTJ – extroverted feeling (Fe)
INFJ – extroverted thinking (Te)
ISFJ – extroverted thinking (Te)

ESTJ – introverted intuition (Ni)
ENTJ – introverted sensation (Si)
ENFJ – introverted sensation (Si)
ESFJ – introverted intuition (Ni)

ISTP – extroverted intuition (Ne)
INTP – extroverted sensation (Se)
INFP – extroverted sensation (Se)
ISFP – extroverted intuition (Ne)

ESTP – introverted feeling (Fi)
ENTP – introverted feeling (Fi)
ENFP – introverted thinking (Ti)
ESFP – introverted thinking (Ti)

In an interview with Type in Depth, Beebe says the following about integrating the Trickster:

“When I talk about the “shadow functions,” their archetypes, and the difficulties they present, I try to mention also, as with other complexes, the opportunities they offer. We need our shadow to survive. The shadow functions are what my colleague Donald Kalsched (1996) calls “self-care systems.” And it takes a certain amount of evil in yourself to be able to handle the evil that’s in the world. If you’re the kind of person who often is put in double binds by other people because you’re too naive and too sweet and too eager to please them, and then they give you contradictory expectations and put you in a box, you must learn to use your own trickster archetype to turn those double binds around. So, the integration of the shadow is very important. ” [emphasis mine]

I like how he calls shadow functions “self-care systems.” How can you use your trickster function to take care of you?

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Source: Type in Depth December 2021 issue

Continue ReadingThe “Trickster” function of your personality type

The many shades of Blast in Objective Personality

The many shades of Blast in Objective Personality

When considering savior Blast in the Objective Personality System, it’s tempting to reduce it down to talking, teaching and organizing. But first you should ask yourself which of the 8 types of savior blast is under consideration. You need to see the whole to understand the part that is Blast.

Eight of the 16 animal stacks have savior blast. Savior Blast is in 128 of the 512 Objective Personality types.

A quick refresh on Blast: Shannon Renee of OPS describes it as follows in their 1/16/2020 Q&A video on the OPS website: 

“What is blast? It’s being extremely conscious that you are delivering information as you are controlling the tribe. Communication is literally: have a beginning, have a middle, and have an end. When you are at the end, that is when you are giving to the tribe, so they can use it for themselves.

“Blasting is like, I want to give a plan, narrowed down points of information, so it can help them do something. Play energy is like, I’ll just talk and ramble. It’s one of the most annoying communication [styles], because you aren’t going anywhere.”

Below is a list of the 8 animal stacks that have savior Blast, starting with the most quiet or introverted and ending with the most extroverted. I’ve included the celebrities that Objective Personality has typed with these animal stacks and brief descriptions of that particular Blast combo.

Sleep Blast:

SB/C(P) — David Allen, Cassie Jaye, Steve Jobs.

It’s not surprising that the most quiet savior Blast animal stack is the one with the fewest typed celebrities. “When you combine blast with sleep…it changes the animal up. It dials down the blasting.”-Shannon Renee in the Jessica How to ADD part 1 video on the OPS website.

SB/P(C) — Rick Beato, Lindsay DeFranco, Novak Djokovic, Michael Dubin, Casey Neistat, Henry Rollins, Ray Romano, Gretchen Rubin, Zack Snyder, Sylvester Stallone, Martha Stewart, Jason Wilson.

This type will prioritize expending energy and interacting with others a bit more than SB/C.

Blast Sleep:

BS/C(P) — Margaret Atwood, Tim Ferriss, Michael Gerber, Maggie Gyllenhaal, Bruce Willis.

“Based upon all the Blast Sleep Consume that I’ve ever typed over the years … they’re very quiet, calm and introverted. They’re going to fool you because you’re going to think they don’t have Blast. — Dave Powers in the How to ADD part 1 video on the OPS website. This type has Play last, so it is similar to SB/C(P) in that they need to remind themselves to get physical exercise and get outside their heads and interact with others.

BS/P(C) — Lisa Bilyeu, Cate Blanchett, James Clear, Marie Forleo, Tulsi Gabbard, Tai Lopez, Cesar Millan, Joel Osteen, Chris Voss, Bronnie Ware.

This stack will have a bit more pep, as Play is the third animal. Consume is last, so the preference will be for getting information in the moment from interactions rather than slogging through a lot of books and information.

Blast Play:

BP/S(C) — Brene Brown, Barbara Corcoran, Viola Davis, Joe Dispenza, Kit Fife, Melinda Gates, Kamala Harris, Robert Herjavec, Mindy Kaling, Hoda Kotb, Kristen Leo, John Maxwell, Erwin McManus, Michelle Obama, Brittany Snow, Sonia Sotomayor, Oprah Winfrey.

Now we’re in extroverted territory, with Blast and Play both in the top two of the animal stack. Play is interactive and good at back and forth exchanges and drawing other people out. It can also provide a lot of detail, but Blast is at the top, so the communication will tend to be focused. Rather than rambling about lots of disparate topics, they will instead talk into detail about a single topic or event. Sleep in the third position helps ensure they pace themselves and they may often seek out downtime. For example, Oprah Winfrey sometimes describes herself as an introvert, which is likely due to have Sleep in the third position.

BP/C(S) — Chris Angel, Derren Brown, Dale Dye, Hannah Hart, Hasan Minhai, Jess McCabe, Ed Mylett, Lisa Nichols, Dr. Phil, Chael Sonnen, Stephen Speaks, Kanye West, Eugene Yang, Lauren Zander

Similar to BP/S above in regards to speaking style, except Consume is in the third slot and Sleep is last. So they run themselves into the ground more often and place more of a priority on gathering more information.

Play Blast:

PB/S(C) — Felicia Day, John Dejoria, Arianna Huffington, Byron Katie.

Play is at the top, so this stack is very energetic, but Blast is there to provide at least a modicum of structure and focus. Consume is last. Sleep in the third position will help ensure they recharge a bit, but that recharging might not tend to come from Consume activities.

PB/C(S) — Daniel Amen, Chelsea Handler, Tony Horton, Kimbra J, Luvvie Jones, Mo’Nique, Mel Robbins, Tony Robbins, Lilly Singh, Gary Vaynerchuk, Lana Wachowski, Lauren Zander.

Full on extroverted types. Sleep is last so, especially younger in life, they will run themselves into the ground if they aren’t careful. Gary Vaynerchuk is a good example of this type. He narrows his focus to a handful of topics that he speaks extemporaneously about (he never prepares for or uses notes during keynote addresses, for example) and spends his days constantly talking to clients. Although he can easily talk at length, there is a focus to his talks. He heavily consumes comments on his social media posts but never reads books. 

The Objective Personality animals can help us understand and manage our energy better. Being more aware of how we use Blast, even when it is not a savior, can improve how we interact with others.

Continue ReadingThe many shades of Blast in Objective Personality

The “eternal child” function of your personality type

The “eternal child” function of your personality type

John Beebe assigns the eternal child (puer) to the third function of the personality type for good reason – it is a function that remains weak and childish throughout life.

Here is what Marie-Louise von Franz (Jung’s close associate) says about this function:

The next step in the process of psychic development is to assimilate the two auxiliary functions. One must not forget that the assimilation of these functions is such a difficult task that people generally spend a very long time at it. Sometimes people actually become a certain type, which was not their original type, for eight or ten years.

Lectures on Jung’s Typology, location 1101

The eternal child archetype is the eternal youth in all of us, “the brilliant but volatile side of ourselves that is by turns the seemingly immortal Prince or Princess and the helplessly vulnerable wounded boy or girl.” James Hillman believes that the eternal child has a special relationships to the transcendent spiritual powers of the unconscious.

The puer aetrnus comes from the child god Iacchus in the Elusinian mysteries “who was identified with the new birth these rites promised individuals who partook of them”. In a clinical setting Beebe says the eternal child is someone who displays a “false individualism.” He quotes Marie-Louise von Franz: an “arrogant attitude towards other people due to both an inferiority complex and false feelings of superiority. Such people also usually have great difficulty in finding the right kind of job, for whatever they find is never quite right or quite what they wanted.”

The parent and child functions are complements both within the psyche and between people. These two functions are the ones we lean on in our interactions with others. Our child function will be attracted to the parent form of that same function in others. For example, an INFJ has introverted thinking as the child function and will be attracted to the parent form of it in the ENTP and ESTP. The ESTJ has extroverted intuition as the child function and will be attracted to the parent form of it in the INTP and INFP. And so on.

Paralysis can overtake the eternal child function because it is hard to sustain the activity of this function. Beebe describes its up and down quality as “inflation/deflation cycle” and as a “third function crisis.” The shadow form of this function is the trickster function and it is this function that makes it hard to use our eternal child function. This will be the topic of my next post on the functions.

Sources:

Energies and Patterns of Psychological Type by John Beebe

Lectures on Jung’s Typology by Marie-Louise von Franz and James Hillman

Continue ReadingThe “eternal child” function of your personality type

The critical parent (senex) of your personality type

The critical parent (senex) of your personality type

The parent function is the auxiliary (second) function in your personality type. It is the function we use when “parenting” and encouraging others. It has a shadow side: the critical parent.

The archetype John Beebe uses for this function is senex, which is a Latin word that means “old man” and is the root of our word “senator.” He describe it as “the critical, saturnine, old man who, metaphorically speaking, paces up and down inside each of us, waiting for the chance to put troublesome people in their place.” Senex “takes on the quality of everything that has stood the test of time and now resists change.” It also correlates to the Roman god Saturn. The senex in us “stultifies, discourages, and disables” others.

Neuroscientist Dario Nardi, author of many books about personality typology, such as The Magic Diamond, says we reject the senex function in our younger years and may come to embrace it when we are older. Some examples:

ESTJ and ESFJ might reject senex extroverted sensation (Se) by insisting their kids sit still. When they learn to embrace senex Se they become more comfortable with gut reactions and physical expressions.

ISTP and ISFP might reject senex introverted sensation (Si) by avoiding settling down or having disdain for security. Embracing senex Si could include developing a daily routine or starting a business.

ENFJ and ENTJ might reject senex extroverted intuition (Ne) by finding brainstorming to be unproductive and have a dislike of the random use of imagination. Embracing senex Ne could include using humor to approach a problem and scheduling time to think of new ideas.

INFP and INTP might reject senex introverted intuition (Ni) by lacking a position vision of the future and may dislike a focus on the mystical. By embracing senex Ni they may develop an excitement for getting others onboard with a vision or might have a mystical experience they don’t dismiss.

ESTP and ENTP might reject senex extroverted thinking (Te) by rebelling against time-constraints and limits on their ideas. When embracing senex Te they might use To-Do lists and other life-structuring devices.

ISFJ and INFJ might reject senex introverted feeling (Fi) when losing track of their own values and when they seem to lack strong convictions. They embrace senex Fi when developing a set of convictions that allow them to grow as people.

ESFP and ENFP reject senex extroverted feeling (Fe) when being non-committal in relationships or may seek personal information from others without sharing of themselves in return. They embrace senex Fe when they give, share, and support.

ISTJ and INTJ reject senex introverted thinking (Ti) by disliking theory for its own sake and endless clarification and rewording. They embrace senex Ti by thinking in more consistent ways and relying on theories that have been thoroughly developed.

It can be discouraging to persevere when dealing with the senex. We’ve all had experiences dealing with critical external authority figures. It’s the same when dealing with our inner senex. But over time you’ll understand the senex and discover wisdom.

Continue ReadingThe critical parent (senex) of your personality type

Dreams and Your Personality Type

Dreams and Your Personality Type

It can’t be emphasized enough that Jung believed his psychological types should not be used to classify people. Instead the types were to be used for “sorting out the empirical material” that comes up during psychoanalysis. This helps a patient see where a complex lives in his psyche.

Both John Beebe, in Energies and Patterns of Psychological Type, and Marie-Louise von Franz, in Lectures on Psychological Type, write about the importance of dreams when working with type.

Von Franz said that in dreams the inferior function represents itself as a figure of the opposite sex or sometimes as an animal or stone age figure. Beebe says that in dreams “the auxiliary function is carried by a stable parental figure (usually a father in a man and a mother in a woman) and the tertiary function by an unstable child figure who is given to cycles of inflation and deflation.”

Beebe, who has an ENTP personality type, said that he had a dream of a Chinese laundress, who represented his inferior (anima) introverted sensation, and her neglectful gambling husband, who represented his dominant (hero) extroverted intuition. This dream was pivotal for him in determining that his type is ENTP.

Piecing together your type with dreams:

Beebe’s describes a dream he had that validated his auxiliary (parent) and tertiary (child) function. The dream was of a father chasing his 20something son around a dining room table waving a butcher knife. The butcher knife represented the introverted thinking function and the son the extroverted feeling function. “Chastened by the dream, I gradually became less aggressive about applying overriding thinking formulations to the understanding and dismissal of my feeling when it was upset.” He also says his relation to feeling-type patients and friends also got kinder.

Here are client dreams that Von Franz described in Lectures on Psychological Type:

A man with inferior feeling had several dreams of collecting rare mountain flowers. Afterwards the man ended up getting stuck in a concrete interpretation of the dream. He made friends with a botanist and spent his holidays collecting mountain flowers. “The superior function, like an eagle seizing a mouse, tries to get hold of the inferior function and bring it over to its own realm.”

An extroverted sensation type neglected his inferior introverted intuition to the extent that he had a recurring dream of poor people and laborers who broke into his house at night. He was a politician and was terrified by the dream, so he started telling friends that the communists would win out. This was a wrong kind of introverted intuition based on projection.

A woman with dominant (hero) extroverted feeling had a dream about establishing a bird observation station. Von Franz advised her that she should try to be aware of her autonomous thoughts, because in a feeling type, inferior introverted thinking thoughts operate like birds, landing and flying off again. She did this by carrying a notebook with her and jotted down sudden thoughts. The first thought she jotted down was so jarring she didn’t write down any others at first: “If my son-in-law died my daughter would come back home.” But by capturing thoughts like that they are deprived of any destructive effect.

An extroverted intuitive type had a recurring dream of a dirty, bad-tempered tramp, representing the man’s neglected inferior introverted sensation. Von Franz told him to talk to the tramp in active imagination. The tramp said he was responsible for the physical symptoms that had brought the man to analysis because the tramp did not get enough attention. The tramp told him to dress in tramp clothes and go for a walk in the country with him once a week and pay attention to what he had to say. Von Franz told him to follow the tramp’s advice. It ended up putting him in touch with nature, flowers, the sunrise. His symptoms disappeared and he eventually bought a farm. This dream shows how the inferior function is the door to experience the deeper layers of the unconscious.

My personality type is INFJ and recently I had a dream about Donald Trump, who is widely considered to have an ESTP personality type. It was apparent to me he represented my inferior extroverted sensation. He was in my living room even though there was a gathering for him in my backyard. I attempted several times to take a selfie with him so I could show my grandchildren someday that I met the president, but the selfies didn’t work. This points to difficulties in accessing my inferior extroverted sensation.

If you are unsure what your personality type is, start by trying to determine your inferior function. This isn’t too hard to identity as it presents as “life’s great problem,” according to von Franz. Your dream figures will show you what your inferior function is and how to better access it.

Continue ReadingDreams and Your Personality Type

The “opposing personality” within your personality type

The “opposing personality” within your personality type

The “opposing personality” is an archetype created by Jungian psychologist John Beebe, M.D.

This function is opposite the Hero (superior) function in your personality type. Beebe describes it in the language of character pathology as “oppositional, paranoid, passive-aggressive, and avoidant.” It is the cluster of defenses we use to oppose others rather than work with them. He says it is hard to see in yourself and falls within the blind spot of the superior function.

The opposing personality is a primary resource of defense, a part of us that tends to lurch forward first when we feel our heroic superior function and its most cherished values to be under attack.

John Beebe, Energies and Patterns of Psychological Type, p. 132

In situations where we are forced to use our opposing function, the negative traits of that function will be on display. For example, an INFJ who is forced to brainstorm on the spot, which requires using extraverted intuition, may do so in cranky and oppositional way. Beebe describes that, as an ENTP, he has to use introverted intuition to describe archetypes, and pointed out how in his book he often ended up using negative, oppositional examples.

The opposing personality shows up as one of two places in the psyche as the opposite sex figure. Beebe says that a man in the grip of his opposing personality “may make ‘bitchy’ remarks or unleash a seductive charm whose purpose is to exercise control over others.” A woman might exhibit it as being overly competitive, angry, or spiteful.

The opposing personality is one of four functions that make up your shadow side. The shadow side is the part of us we repress because it is incompatible with our values. The shadow functions allow us to name these aspects of ourselves and make them more conscious The other three shadow functions are trickster, senex, and demon. I’ll write about senex next, so stay tuned.

Continue ReadingThe “opposing personality” within your personality type