The language of personality types

The language of personality types

The best way to make personality typology practical is to use it as a language when talking with people.

In her biography about Carl Jung, Barbara Hannah notes that Jung was able to speak the “language” of every type:

Jung was able to speak the “language” of every type. Just as he took a lot of trouble to learn the languages of his patients (English, French, and so on), so he learned to put things into the language of the psychological type to whom he was talking. Not that people can be classified in sharply defined types, but if someone is always concerned with what a thing means (thinking) he just does not understand if you speak in terms of values (feeling), for example.

Jung: A Biography by Barbara Hannah, p. 133

I find it helpful to use John Beebe’s archetypes and definitions of the functions to think through how this would work in real life.

If a person with an INFJ type is discussing travel arrangements with an ISFJ, the conversation won’t go as well if the INFJ uses his “hero” introverted intuition and focuses on how he wants to go to Scotland because he has always felt drawn there and has a sense it will be a meaningful experience even though he can’t explain why. It would be more helpful for the INFJ to use their “parent” extraverted feeling function to present some details he knows will resonate with the ISFJ and help convincer her it is a good destination, such as hotel reviews, airplane ticket costs, possible tours to go on, and so forth.

Conversely, if it is the ISFJ making the suggestion for a travel destination, she would do well to not bog the INFJ down with details about a possible trip, but use her “parent” extraverted feeling function to first describe the vision and big picture of such a trip. The To-Do list can wait until later.

If an ESTJ type wants to discuss a potential bathroom remodel with her INTP, talking about her plans and To Do lists and the best process with her “hero” extraverted thinking function wouldn’t be the most effective. To help get him on board with the idea, she would do well to open the conversation with explaining why it is necessary to remodel the bathroom. She can use her “parent” introverted sensation function to select the right details to help him understand the goal, from which they can then proceed to talk further and get into the planning stage.

It takes work to communicate this way, and isn’t feasible for every interaction, obviously. But when you want to have an important conversation with someone, it’s worth taking a few moments to consider how to communicate with the person in a way that will resonate with the hero function of their personality type.

Continue ReadingThe language of personality types

The best books I read in 2021

The best books I read in 2021

I read a bunch of books in 2021. I thought the total was 85, but a recount just now shows it was 91, which is the most I’ve ever read in one year. I will share below the eight books I enjoyed the most. They aren’t all Jungian psychology, typology, and astrology, I promise.

Also, I have a monthly newsletter where I share the best of what I read each month. I don’t put those in blog posts, so feel free to subscribe if you’d like to get that book email.

OK, here is my top 8 of the year:

  1. C.G. Jung Speaking – This was my favorite of the year. It contains excerpts from his letters and observations from people who knew him. It is arranged chronologically so you can see the progression of his career and thoughts. It is much easier reading than his books and gives you a feel for what he must have been like as a person. I will definitely reread this.
  2. The Forsaken Garden by Nancy Ryley. This was a very close second. It is a collection of interviews with Marion Woodman, Ross Woodman, Thomas Berry, and Laurens Van Der Post. They share very deep insights about the meaning of environmental illness from a Jungian perspective. I also learned a lot more about the Romantic poets.
  3. The Overstory by Richard Powers. This novel is simply stunning. Trees are some of the main characters and I learned so much about trees that I never knew before. The first half of the book is like a collection of short stories about different characters and trees. Then in the last half of the book all the characters come together. It starts slow, but please stay with it.
  4. Lincoln’s Melancholy: How Depression Challenged a President and Fueled His Greatness by Joshua Wolf Shenk. This book takes a unique angle of examining Lincoln’s childhood and career through the lens of his melancholy. You come away feeling like you know Lincoln on a personal level. It also shows how suffering can be transformed into serving others.
  5. Destiny of the Republic: A Tale of Madness, Medicine and the Murder of a President by Candice Millard. I so enjoyed learning about President James Garfield, who unfortunately was assassinated a year into his presidency. This book also gives a fascinating look at the history of medicine at the time. Garfield would have survived if the American doctors who treated him hadn’t shunned the new discovery of germs and importance of antisepsis that Europe was already using.
  6. Myers-Briggs Typology vs. Jungian Individuation by Steve Myers. At last, a book that carefully explains the difference between MBTI and Jungian personality typology. He is respectful towards MBTI and not hyper-critical the way so many are these days. He also shows how to use typology to further individuation and overcome one-sidedness.
  7. The Heavens Declare: Astrological Ages and the Evolution of Consciousness by Alice O. Howell. What a delight it is to read Alice O. Howell. She was a Jungian astrologer who helped bridge the gap between Jungian psychology and astrology. She was allowed to teach at Jung Institutes even though she wasn’t an analyst. This book, and her Jungian Symbols in Astrology book, are collections of letters she wrote to a Jungian analyst. In addition to being fun to read they have many profound Jungian insights.
  8. Jungian Spirituality by Vivianne Crowley. This gives a brief overview of Jung’s biography and his main areas of expertise, such as alchemy, astrology, personality types, and more. I especially enjoyed the chapters about Jung’s insights on Christianity and eastern religions. This is written in a way that accessible to those who don’t know much about Jung’s psychology.

If you read any of these books, or have any favorite books of your own you’d like to share, please email me or message me on Instagram. I’d like to hear from you!

Continue ReadingThe best books I read in 2021

The middle two functions of the personality: are there “jumpers?”

The middle two functions of the personality: are there “jumpers?”

The Objective Personality system expands the personality types to include “jumpers:” types where the third function is more used or respected than the second function. For example, an INFJ type could respect their third Ti (introverted thinking) function more than their second function of Fe (extraverted feeling).

This concept is not exclusive to Objective Personality and actually originates with Jungian typology. Carl Jung said that during the first half of life the middle two functions are vying for the second slot in order to “help” the ego. This is the source of most problems in the first half of life:

For example, if an individual has differentiated introverted feeling as a superior function, most problems in the first half of life will have to do with the opposition between sensing and intuiting, either in the extraverted or introverted modes, trying to align with the superior introverted feeling function. Through the opposition another function is being differentiated out for consciousness.

Typically for Jung only in the second half of life does one truly get into the problem of opposites involving the superior and inferior function in the classic sense described, for example, in Chapter IV [of Psychological Types]

Jung’s Typology in Perspective by Angelo, p. 160

Therefore the personality type of someone into their 30’s or so is going to fluctuate due to this jumper-type activity. Furthermore, Jung thought that for most people, the auxiliary function remains mostly unconscious, so getting too nuanced about type wouldn’t have been of much interest to him.

Jungian analyst Joseph Henderson, who worked closely with Jung, thought everyone was a jumper type, and said that his own type was Ne/Fe (an ENTP with extraverted feeling preference). Jungian analyst John Beebe, however, thinks this is a mistake:

Even those who recognized both Jo Wheelwright’s intuition and his feeling (and there were many who could only see one or the other of these functions when engaged by him) did not always know what to call them (some thought Jo’s extraverted intuition was simply intrusiveness, or narcissism), and few could figure out which of these functions was primary and which secondary (most people assumed that he had ‘extraverted feeling’ as his main modus operandi, not realizing, I believe, that they were conflating the extraversion of his superior function (intuition) with the availability or readiness of his auxiliary function (introverted feeling). This kind of conflation of the two leading functions into one—comprising the attitude of the dominant and the function of the auxiliary—is a very easy mistake to make in attempting type diagnosis.  [emphasis mine]

Energies and Patterns of Psychological Type by John Beebe

Therefore, before coming to the conclusion someone has a jumper tendency in their type, one should check and see if you are conflating the attitude portion (i.e. the extraversion or introversion ) of the dominant function with the second/auxiliary function.

Marie-Louise von Franz said it was possible for someone to develop the third/tertiary function before developing the second/auxiliary function.

One of my issues with jumper types is that a jumper type would have the problem of being even more one-sided than a regular type because the top two functions (called “saviors” in Objective Personality typology) would both be either extraverted or introverted.

Overall I agree with Beebe that the order of the four functions is qualitative and not strictly linear at all times, because the archetypal roles of the personality (Hero, Parent, Child, Anima/Animus) display differently in each person. He also says that “a century of type research” has verified that the functions do not express the same way in each person. There is “normal variation” in the “strength and reliability of the functions” according to the preferences of that individual.

We all have our jumper moments. As Beebe says, “It is as if [the functions] form an interacting cast of characters through which the different functions may express themselves in the ongoing drama of self and shadow that is anyone’s lived psychological life.”

Continue ReadingThe middle two functions of the personality: are there “jumpers?”

Books to read if new to Jungian psychology

Books to read if new to Jungian psychology

Someone on Instagram who is new to individuation and Jung recently messaged me to ask for book recommendations. I’ve been asked this before so I figured I would put my list in a blog post as well.

First I’ll quick mention that a few months ago I started a monthly email where I give very brief book reviews of the books I read the previous month. This is separate from the emails of my blog posts and the content in those newsletters isn’t posted on my blog. Click here if you would like to subscribe to the book newsletter. It is kind of an extension of my Instagram where I post daily quotes from the books I read.

OK, here is the list of my recommended Jungian books:

Creating a Life by James Hollis (and all books by James Hollis). I can’t think of a better gateway to Jungian psychology. He is a former English literature professor and writes in an elegant way.

Inner Work by Robert A. Johnson. His writing is so clear and he explains the practices of dream work and active imagination in a way that is easy to understand and immediately start implementing.

The Force of Character by James Hillman. I love Hillman’s work. This book is the one to start with if you haven’t read any of his other books. He considered himself a renegade psychologist and taught at the Jung Institute in Zurich early in his career. After you read that book, I recommend The Soul’s Code: In Search of Character and Calling and We’ve Had 100 Years of Psychotherapy – And the World’s Getting Worse. Hillman is a deconstructionist so I feel it’s important to read his more accessible books first, and also first gain more of an understanding of the Jungian basics, before reading his other books.

The Way of Woman by Helen Luke. Full of gentle wisdom. I especially like her compassionate take on divorce and her insights on Christianity, the I Ching, and spirituality.

Jungian Spirituality by Vivianne Crowley. This gives a brief overview of Jung’s life and his main areas of expertise, such as alchemy, astrology, personality types, and more. I especially enjoy the chapters about Jung’s insights on Christianity and eastern religions. This is written in a very accessible way.

The Heroine’s Journey by Maureen Murdock. This is a little dated at times because it was written in the early 1990’s, but the insights about mother/daughter relationships alone make it a worthwhile read.

Jung: His Life and Work by Barbara Hannah. Hannah spent a considerable amount of time with Jung and lived near him when she was roommates with Marie-Louise von Franz. This biography of Jung is a pleasure to read and has many behind-the scenes glimpses of his daily life and she shares a lot of the things he said in conversation with her. She also doesn’t shy away from telling some of the details about his relationship with Toni Wolff. She manages to provide a mostly objective take on Jung, although here and there you can see the adulation.

C.G. Jung Speaking is a collection of excerpts from Jung’s letters and speeches arranged in chronological order. It also contains reflections from people who knew Jung and recount conversations with him. I read this slowly over a few months and was enthralled with experiencing Jung in this way. It was like spending time with Jung and I learned so much more about him.

If you read any of these books, feel free to message me on Instagram or via email and let me know what you think of the book. If you’d like recommendations for Jungian books about personality types and astrology, let me know, and I’ll give you some.

Continue ReadingBooks to read if new to Jungian psychology

Got inferior sensation? Give this a try

Got inferior sensation? Give this a try

I have been following a morning practice as of late that, it now occurs to me, is a perfect exercise for those of us with inferior sensation.

Dominant intuitive types of ENFP, ENTP, INFJ, and INTJ have inferior sensation. This means we can experience overwhelm of the senses and not feel grounded.

I came across a Tik Tok a few weeks ago about sleep paralysis and she recommended a grounding exercise as a way to prevent this and it is helpful for far more than sleep paralysis, of course. You sit on a chair or bench with feet on the ground (don’t cross your legs, this stops the flow of energy). Sit straight up and let the energy in your body drop down. Focus on relaxing every muscle from your scalp, , abdomen, calves, feet. This strengthens your connection to the earth. As an alternative you can lie down on the ground. Do this for at least 15 minutes a day but even 5 minutes will help. If you meditate, you can do it in this position.

I have been do this every morning and listen to Hemi-Sync’s morning exercise while doing so.

Breathing exercises also help with inferior sensation, stress, and anxiety. The physiological sigh is one I have been using lately.

If you have inferior sensation, I’d love to hear about what works for you. Feel free to message me on Instagram or email me.

Continue ReadingGot inferior sensation? Give this a try

100th anniversary of Jung’s Psychological Types: my new video series

100th anniversary of Jung’s Psychological Types: my new video series

Today I started a series on YouTube about Jung’s Psychological Types book, which is 100-years-old this year.

Because this book is difficult to read, many type enthusiasts haven’t read it. Some may not even be aware of it. By posting one short video about each of the chapters in Psychological Types, hopefully I can help make this book easier to understand and encourage people to read the book on their own.

I include practical takeaways that you can journal about. I will do an I Ching reading during each video, as Carl Jung was greatly influenced by both Taoism and the I Ching.

Please subscribe to the YouTube channel if you are interested in following along with the series. As the series unfolds I’ll add the links to each video in this post and will include this post on the Best Posts tab on the menu of this website, for easy reference.

Chapter 1

Chapter 2

Chapter 3

Chapter 4

Chapter 5

Chapter 6

Chapter 7

Chapter 8

Continue Reading100th anniversary of Jung’s Psychological Types: my new video series

A Formula For Calculating Temperament and Personality Type

A Formula For Calculating Temperament and Personality Type

As part of my question to merge astrology with personality types, the ancient concept of temperament is something I continue to study. Temperament is innate whereas personality is both innate and influenced by other factors such as environment.

The four temperament types are choleric, melancholic, phlegmatic, and sanguine.

AFAN (Association For Astrological Networking) recently had a webinar with astrologer Debbie Stapleton. She shared a formula for calculating temperament that she learned from astrology Lee Lehman. I put the formula into a spreadsheet that you are welcome to use. It is read-only so you will need to copy and paste it into your own spreadsheet to make your own entries.

If you have any questions, please email me or message me on Instagram. I also created a YouTube video that gives a demo of using the spreadsheet. I’ll have some more posts in the future about blending temperament and personality type.

Continue ReadingA Formula For Calculating Temperament and Personality Type

Spirit vs. Soul (or, integration of Sun and Moon in the Personality)

Spirit vs. Soul (or, integration of Sun and Moon in the Personality)

Archetypal psychologist James Hillman wrote eloquently about spirit vs. soul and I think it applies very much to personality types (specifically John Beebe’s model) as well as the astrology of the Sun and the Moon. I see it as a way to begin to blend astrology with Beebe’s archetypal personality type model.

The way Hillman writes about the soul in a way that also describes the Moon in astrology and the spirit in a way that describes the Sun:

Soul…is the “patient” part of us. Soul is vulnerable and suffers; it is passive and remembers. It is water to the spirit’s fire, like a mermaid who beckons the heroic spirit into the depths of passions to extinguish its certainty. Soul is imagination, a cavernous treasury…Whereas spirit chooses the better part and seeks to make all one. Look up, says spirit, gain distance; there is something beyond and above, and what is above is always, and always superior. (edited)

A Blue Fire: Selected Writings by James Hillman, p. 123

Spirit thinks soul should be more like spirit:

…from the perspective of spirit..the soul must be disciplined, its desires harnessed, imagination emptied, dreams forgotten, involvements dried. For soul, says spirit, cannot know, neither truth, nor law, nor cause. … So there must be spiritual disciplines for the soul, ways in which soul shall conform with models enunciated for it by spirit.

A Blue Fire: Selected Writings by James Hillman, p. 123

Soul thinks spirit’s ways are repressive:

But from the viewpoint of the psyche…movement upward looks like repression. There may well be more psychopathology actually going on while transcending than while being immersed in pathologizing. For any attempt at self-realization without full recognition of the psychopathology that resides, as Hegel said, inherently in the soul is in itself pathological, an exercise in self-deception.

A Blue Fire: Selected Writings by James Hillman, p. 123

When viewing type from this framework, the Sun and spirit could correlate to the Hero function of the personality type. The Moon and soul correlate to the anima/animus (inferior) function. We use both functions in developing our self. Even though the Hero is the strongest function, if we neglect the soul we fall into the grip of certainty and dryness.

As Hillman said:

…spirit is after ultimates and it reveals by means of a via negativa. “Neti, neti,” it says, “not this, not that.” Strait is the gate and only first or last things will do. Soul replies by saying, “Yes, this too has place, may find its archetypal significance, belongs in a myth.” The cooking vessel of the soul takes in everything, everything can become soul; and by taking into its imagination any and all events, psychic space grows.

A Blue Fire: Selected Writings by James Hillman, p. 123

Antidote to One-Sidedness

Jungian analyst Monika Wikman writes about how integration of the sun and moon (spirit and soul) is the point of depth psychology:

The interplay of sun and moon vision takes place in numerous life arenas. The awakening of the diurnal nature of the psyche, of the sun and moon principles within the individual, is the opus of depth psychology. Creativity and the healing arts make room for the binocular visions of sun and moon to play.

[…]

We could think of sun and moon as residing in the psyche-body field as our two metaphoric eyes. When the two principles marry, vision becomes binocular; that is, two visionary bodies of being integrate into one mysterious whole. Based on each one’s unique vision, they bring in different information that contributes to the vision guiding our life.

Pregnant Darkness by Monika Wikman

Think about your Hero function and the sign and house the Sun is placed in in your birth chart. The Sun shows you the area of your life where you are the “hero” and the purpose and plot line of your life. This dominant aspect of your personality has free rein here. It is where the spirit activities of religion, spiritual practice, and the intellectual life occur. The ideal is for spirit to feed your soul rather than neglect it so that we don’t become one-sided.

Now consider the sign and house the Moon is in in your chart and your anima/animus (soul) function. Symptoms occurs here, which is the soul’s way of getting our attention. Our instinctual self resides here. The moon is the storyteller of our life and tells us who we were, who we are, and who we are going to be.

Your Hero (Sun) function and Animus/Anima (Moon) function makes the transcendent function, which, per Jung, is the “alchemical solution” for the one-sidedness in psyche and life.

Sources:

A Blue Fire: Selected Works by James Hillman

Pregnant Darkness by Monika Wikman

Click here to sign up for my monthly book recommendation newsletter

Continue ReadingSpirit vs. Soul (or, integration of Sun and Moon in the Personality)

Personality Types and Shadow Work

Personality Types and Shadow Work

The phrase “shadow work” is almost trendy these days and I hesitate using it, as the way it is often used isn’t at all like the lengthy work with the shadow one undergoes in a lengthy Jungian analysis.

But Jungian analyst John Beebe’s typology system gives us a practical way to approach our shadow. Not everyone can go to a Jungian analyst and this gives us a way to approach the shadow.

I enjoyed listening to the most recent podcast episode of Personality Hacker, where they talked about Beebe’s model. They have met with Beebe and shared some insights Beebe gave them, one of which is that the shadow functions of the personality are NOT about development and growth. Rather, these functions show how we defend our ego.

For example, the shadow function of our dominant Hero function (the Opposing function) defends the ego by being avoidant, paranoid, and passive aggressive. The Senex/Witch shadow function has that old person “get off my lawn” attitude. And so on.

Another insight I enjoyed from this episode is that Beebe talked to them about topography vs. typology. The topography is location of each function: Hero, Parent, Child, Anima/Animus, Opposing Personality, Senex/Witch, Tricksters and Demon. Many personality type systems don’t sufficiently emphasize how the function changes based on the location it is in within the personality. You must consider the archetypal energy first, then the function itself.

Click here to listen to this episode of Personality Hacker. Here is a post that lists all my posts about John Beebe’s archetypal 8 function model. And click here for a link to John Beebe’s book Energies and Patterns of Psychological Type.

Continue ReadingPersonality Types and Shadow Work

3 Reasons Why it is Hard to Type People

3 Reasons Why it is Hard to Type People

I’m currently reading Personality by C.A. Meier. Dr. Meier was a close associate of Carl Jung’s, so I’ve been keen to read this book, because Jung published Psychological Types early in his career, so Meier has an understanding of Jung’s thoughts about type later on in his career.

Anyway, Meier talks briefly about how it is hard to type people, so I will provide a summary of that here.

First, Meier says that “in our neighbor the inferior function is more conspicuous than the superior one, because the main function operates naturally, almost automatically, and thus remains inconspicuous.” Also, “it is a common human weakness to see another’s Achilles heel sooner than his strong points.” We tend to look for the negative in others.

Second, in the real world we are dealing with people, not types. Things are always more complicated in the real world.

Third, type can change throughout life. “External influences such as upbringing, family tradition, education, career, the course of one’s life and fate can play a role.” Jung was very clear on this point but it is one that has seemed to be lost in many online discussions of type.

Overall he says that it is easier to make a type diagnosis by a process of elimination. This takes time, careful observation, and interaction with the person.

Continue Reading3 Reasons Why it is Hard to Type People