Glossary: Sensation Function

One of the personality’s four functions. The sensation function is one of the two perceiving functions. People with strong sensation functions get their information about the world from the physical world and their physical bodies. They’re down-to-earth people who are concerned with what is actual, present, and real; they operate in the present. The sensation function can be introverted (detailed and conscientious but subjective) or extroverted (concrete and realistic but kinetic). If sensation is your primary function then intuition will, by necessity, be your inferior function.

Someone primarily identified with the sensation function excels at manipulating objects. Engineers are often sensation types; they're the hard-nosed realists who believe only in what they can see and feel with their five senses. Some may even take it to such an extreme that they even deny the reality of ideas. Introverted sensation types are also primarily concerned with the physical world but where extroverted sensation types focus on the things themselves, introverted sensation types are more concerned with the impact the world makes on them; on their memories of the world.


Things to ask yourself to determine if sensation is your primary function(1):

I pay attention to physical reality; what I see, hear, touch, taste, and smell. I’m concerned with what is actual, present, current, and real. I notice facts and I remember details that are important to me. I like to see the practical use of things and learn best when I see how to use what I’m learning. Experience speaks to me louder than words.

The following statements generally apply to me:
• I remember events as snapshots of what actually happened.
• I solve problems by working through facts until I understand the problem.
• I am pragmatic and look to the “bottom line.”
• I start with facts and then form a big picture.
• I trust experience first and trust words and symbols less.
• Sometimes I pay so much attention to facts, either present or past, that I miss new possibilities.


Introverted Sensation: Memory (seeks reliable information)

Takes in sensory information. Integrates that which is meaningful

Both introverted (Memory) and extroverted sensation (Sensation) use their senses to gather information; with Memory, that information is inwardly directed and highly personal. As with other introverted types they take in experiences and ruminate over them; experience is reviewed later as a memory, and these memories are how they learn things about the world. Memory types use past experience to guide them in the present. For this reason they seek reliable information, which leads them to give more weight to experts and personal experience. Unlike extroverted sensation, Memory does not seek new experiences and materials things; they prefer the predictable and the routine. Where Sensation seeks out the latest trends, Memory looks to the past. They’re very attached to traditional ways of doing things, impelling them to seek to preserve those traditions.

Types that use introverted sensation as their main function: ISTJs and ISFJs (Introverted Sensation/Thinking and Introverted Sensation/Feeling).

Types that use introverted sensation as their auxiliary function: ESTJs and ESFJs (Extroverted Thinking/Sensation and Extroverted Feeling/Sensation).


Extroverted Sensation: Sensation (seeks verifiable information)

Uses sense perceptions to learn what can be proven, then immediately acts.

As with Memory, Sensation relies upon the sense perceptions to learn things about the world. However, rather than holding onto experiences and ruminating over them they immediately act on them in real time, as Exploration (extroverted intuition) does. Sensation lives in a state of permanent, kinetic readiness; like a boxer or a tennis player, they "stay on their toes," always ready to react to events with speed and power. Their senses are always in a heightened state; they’re always ready for something exciting to happen, and when it does, it's immensely satisfying to them. Sensation types are instinctive and sensual; they’re novelty seeking and love pleasure. New sights, sounds, tastes, smells, sensation; they’re “sensation seekers” in the truest sense of the word. They also have a tendency to chase what’s popular or trendy.

Types that use extroverted sensation as their main function: ESTPs and ESFPs (Extroverted Sensation/Thinking and Extroverted Sensation/Feeling).

Types that use extroverted sensation as their auxiliary function: ISTPs and ISFPs (Introverted Thinking/Sensation and Introverted Feeling/Sensation).

An attitude that seeks to do justice to the unconscious as well as to one's fellow human beings cannot possibly rest on knowledge alone, in so far as this consists merely of thinking and intuition. It would lack the function that perceives values, i.e., feeling, as well as the fonction du réel, i.e., sensation, the sensible perception of reality.

- “The Psychology of the Transference,” CW 16, par.486

[I]ndividuals with the Observant trait focus on the actual world and things happening around them. They enjoy seeing, touching, feeling and experiencing – and leave theories and possibilities to others. They want to keep their feet on the ground and focus on the present, instead of wondering why or when something might happen. Consequently, people with this trait tend to be better at dealing with facts, tools and concrete objects as opposed to brainstorming about possibilities or future events, or handling abstract theories. Observant types are also significantly better at focusing on just one thing at a time instead of bursting with energy and juggling multiple activities.

- "The 5 Aspects" (16 Personalities)

Sensation must be strictly differentiated from feeling, since the latter is an entirely different process, although it may associate itself with sensation as "feeling-tone." Sensation is related not only to external stimuli but to inner ones, i.e., to changes in the internal organic processes.

- “Definitions,” CW 6, par. 792

Concrete sensation never appears in "pure" form, but is always mixed up with ideas, feelings, thoughts… The concrete sensation of a flower… conveys a perception not only of the flower as such, but also of the stem, leaves, habitat, and so on. It is also instantly mingled with feeling of pleasure or dislike which the sight of the flower evokes, or with simultaneous olfactory perceptions, or with thoughts about its botanical classification, etc. But abstract sensation immediately picks out the most salient sensuous attribute of the flower, its brilliant redness, for instance, and makes this the sole or at least the principle content of consciousness, entirely detached from all other admixtures. Abstract sensation is found chiefly among artists. Like every abstraction, it is a product of functional differentiation.

- “Definitions,” par. 794



(1) "Sensing or Intuition," The Meyers & Briggs Foundation


Link:
"The Eight Functions (Typology 201)," Dr. A.J. Drenth (Personality Junkie)
"Why Personality Hackers Uses Nicknames for the 8 Cognitive Functions," Antonia Dodge (Personality Hacker)


See also:
Introversion
Extroversion
Thinking
Feeling
Intuition
Rational functions
Irrational functions
The 16 “Types” (MBTI)

Glossary: Intuition Function

One of the personality’s four functions. The intuition function is one of the two perceiving functions, along with sensation. People with strong intuition rely on hunches, getting their information from the unconscious rather than logic, feeling, or the physical world. Where people with strong sensation are mainly focused the physical, here and now, intuitive types focus on the possible and the future. The intuition function can be introverted (visionary, even mystical, holistic and synthetic in their thinking) or extroverted (enthusiastic, spontaneous, energetic, and adventurous). If intuition is your primary function then sensation will, by necessity, be your inferior function.

Intuition is another function that's difficult to describe because it's main focus is on potential; an intuitive knows things without knowing how they know it. This is because the information comes from the unconscious, from all the information that's constantly being collected there; intuitives have an innate, instinctive ability to access the unconscious. Extroverted intuitives are those entrepreneurs who can somehow sniff out the next big thing, before anyone else has even heard of it. Introverted intuitives are your typical shaman or medium, getting flashes of knowing from within.


Things to ask yourself to determine if intuition is your primary function(1):

Paying the most attention to impressions or the meaning and patterns of the information I get. I would rather learn by thinking a problem through than by hands-on experience. I’m interested in new things and what might be possible, so that I think more about the future than the past. I like to work with symbols or abstract theories, even if I don’t know how I will use them. I remember events more as an impression of what it was like than as actual facts or details of what happened.

The following statements generally apply to me:
• I remember events by what I read “between the lines” about their meaning.
• I solve problems by leaping between different ideas and possibilities.
• I am interested in doing things that are new and different.
• I like to see the big picture, then to find out the facts.
• I trust impressions, symbols, and metaphors more than what I actually experienced
• Sometimes I think so much about new possibilities that I never look at how to make them a reality.


Introverted Intuition: Perspectives (focuses on depth of insight)

Watches their mind form patterns. Gets inside the minds of others. Sees the far off future implications of things.

Where Exploration (extroverted intuition) asks “What if” questions (“What would happened if I pushed this button, or pulled this lever?”), Perspectives (introverted intuition) asks discovery questions (“Why do we use buttons and levers? Are there other – maybe better - ways of getting things done?”) Where Exploration expands the number of possibilities, seeking breadth of knowledge, Perspectives works toward a singular, comprehensive vision, seeking depth of knowledge. Both focus on the things that can't be known via the five senses.

People with intuition as their Driver become masters at recognizing patterns; they make spectacular leaps of thought or feeling based on very few data points... and they're often right. Unlike extroverted intuition, though, Perspectives focuses on the internal rather than external world; Perspectives is a ruminatory function that's concerned with patterns as they exist in their mind or heart. It does this by watching their mind form patterns. They may see images rather than think in words, or their intuition might manifest as a hunch or feeling. This leads them to understand the patterns of the patterns; to take a meta-perspective of the patterns. They know that their mind forms patterns in a personal, subjective way, and this is why they're able to accept that other people have their own patterns, their own perspectives. In addition, introverted intuition's grasp of their mind's pattern making facility allows them to slip into other people's perspectives with an ease that's unmatched among all the types.

Types that use introverted intuition as their main function: INTJs and INFJs (Introverted Intuition/Thinking and Introverted Intuition/Feeling).

Types that use introverted intuition as their auxiliary function: ENTJs and ENFJs (Extroverted Thinking/Intuition and Extroverted Feeling/Intuition).


Extroverted Intuition: Exploration (focuses on novelty and new connections)

Figures things out and tests in the moment. Asks “What If?” questions. Seeks to understand patterns in the world.

As with introverted intuition, extroverted intuition (Exploration) is concerned with pattern recognition but in the outer rather than inner world; as with extroverted sensation, it reacts to the world around them in real time. They “brainstorm out loud.” Exploration wants to, know right now, "What would happen if I did [fill in the blank]?" They are obsessed with pushing buttons and pulling levers, with exploring that unknown part of the city or the world, or juxtaposing known things in new and novel ways. Doing so allows them to figure out patterns as they go out and test and test and test.

Exploration is interested in breadth of knowledge more than depth of knowledge; they feel compelled to explore all options and possibilities. This often leads them to appear distractible and flighty. Extroverted intuitives are almost addicted to novelty; they see the world as an blank map, and they're just itching to go and fill it all in. They're generally fearless individuals; curiosity far outweighs caution as the pleasure they get from learning new things eclipses any fear that they may have; They’re usually pretty confident that they can figure things out when they cross any particular bridge.
Types that use extroverted intuition as their main function: ENTPs and ENFPs (Extroverted Intuition/Thinking and Extroverted Intuition/Feeling).

Types that use extroverted intuition as their auxiliary function: INTPs and INFPs (Introverted Thinking/Intuition and Introverted Feeling/Intuition).

Intuition gives outlook and insight; it revels in the garden of magical possibilities as if they were real.

- “The Psychology of the Transference,” CW 16, par. 492

Individuals with the Intuitive trait prefer to rely on their imagination, ideas and possibilities. They dream, fantasize and question why things happen the way they do, always feeling slightly detached from the actual, concrete world. One could even say that these individuals never actually feel as if they truly belong to this world. They may observe other people and events, but their mind remains directed both inwards and somewhere beyond – always questioning, wondering and making connections. When all is said and done, Intuitive types believe in novelty, in the open mind, and in never-ending improvement.

- "The 5 Aspects" (16 Personalities)

In intuition a content presents itself whole and complete, without our being able to explain or discover how this content came into existence. Intuition is a kind of instinctive apprehension, no matter of what contents... Intuitive knowledge possesses an intrinsic certainty and conviction.

- “Definitions,” CW 6, par. 770

The first is a perception of unconscious psychic data originating in the subject, the second is a perception of data dependent on subliminal perceptions of the object and on the feelings and thoughts they evoke.

- “Definitions,” par. 771




(1) "Sensing or Intuition," The Meyers & Briggs Foundation


Link:
"The Eight Functions (Typology 201)," Dr. A.J. Drenth (Personality Junkie)
"Why Personality Hackers Uses Nicknames for the 8 Cognitive Functions," Antonia Dodge (Personality Hacker)


See also:
Introversion
Extroversion
Thinking
Feeling
Sensation
Rational functions
Irrational functions
The 16 “Types” (MBTI)
Integrating the Four Functions

Human dogs, cats, and cows

This dream simile for the inferior function is also particularly fitting in that this function tends to have, in a negative way, a barbaric character and to cause possession. If, for example, introverts fall into extraversion, they do so in a possessed and barbaric way. I mean barbaric in the sense of being unable to exert conscious control, being swept way, being unable to put a brake on, unable to stop. This kind of exaggerated, driven extraversion is rarely found in extraverts, but in introverts it is like a car without brakes that goes on without the slightest control of consciousness. That is a rather well-known fact, because the inferior extraversion of introverts has to manifest outside, socially. An introvert may become disagreeable and arrogant, pushing and shouting so loudly that the whole room has to listen and everybody must notice. Such inferior extraversion may suddenly pop out in this way when an introvert is drunk. The introversion of the extravert is just as barbaric and possessed but not socially visible because an extravert disappears right out of life if possessed by barbaric introversion. He goes completely mad his own room, but it is not visible to other people. Extraverts who fall into their primitive introversion walk about looking very important. In dark allusions they assure everybody that they are having very deep mystical experiences about which they cannot talk, they are so important and so deep. In an important kind of way they indicate that they are deeply steeped in active imagination and the process of individuation, and you know that you must leave at once, because they have to work on that. And then they sit in a possessed way for hours, unable to relax and unable to pull out of it. If you ring them up, they say they are deep in their process of individuation and cannot go to a tea party just now, and this is thrown at you with a kind of defensive attitude. You have a strange feeling of a barbaric kind of possession. If this happens to them in the form of yoga, or Anthroposophy, then there will be that same display of something mystical of great importance going on and of an unfathomable depth into which they have now dived. There is a mixture in it, for actually they are constantly threatened with switching back to their extraversion, which explains their overemphasis on lack of time and wanting no contact with anybody. They would love to switch over to their extraversion and go to every tea party and every dinner party, so in a kind of defensive way, they say, “No, this is absolutely forbidden; now I am in the depth of the psyche.” Very often in this phase people are sure that they are the type that they now have to live. For instance, extraverts who are in the phase where they should assimilate introversion will always swear that they are and always have been introverts and that it has always been an error to call them extraverts. In this way they try to help themselves to get into this other side, which for them is so difficult to acquire. If they try to express their introverted inner experiences, they generally do so with overexcitement. They become terribly emotional and want to take the floor and have everybody listen. That is because to them it is so tremendously unique and important.

This barbaric quality of the inferior function which is mixed up with the other attitudinal type is one of the great practical problems and constitutes the great split of the human personality, for not only has one to switch from one function to another, but with the fourth function one definitely has to switch to the other attitudinal type, and then one risks (or even cannot avoid) being temporarily possessed by the opposite attitude and thereby become barbaric and unadapted. One can thank God if one’s opposite function is only personified by primitive people in dreams, for it is very often represented by Stone Age people or even by animals, so that the inferior function has not even reached a primitive human level; it is still completely on an animal level. The inferior function in that stage dwells, so to speak, in the body and can only manifest in physical symptoms and not yet on a human conscious level, not even a primitive one. When you see, for example, how sometimes an introverted intuitive stretches in the sunshine with such enjoyment of his inferior function, you have absolutely the feeling that he is like a dog sitting in the sunshine enjoying the sun or food; his sensation is still on the level of a dog or a cat or some other domestic animal.

Feeling in a thinking type very often does not go beyond the dog level. It is more difficult to imagine that the feeling type thinks like an animal, but even that is true; these people have a habit of making banal statements which one feels any cow, cat, or dog could have made if only they could speak, for they move in a realm of complete generalities… I have often been struck by the fact that feeling types think in exactly the same way [as my dog], for when you try to explain something to them, they may draw a completely general conclusion, some sweeping assertion which does not fit the situation in any way, and they do the most stupid things. Primitive thinking started in their heads, and they drew some kind of amazingly unadapted conclusion, which led to entirely wrong results. Thus you can often say that the thinking level of the feeling type is about on the dog’s level; it is as general and helpless and stiff as you can observe it in the higher animals.

In general, in most normal societies, people cover up their inferior function with a persona. One of the main reasons why one develops a persona is so as not to expose inferiorities, especially the inferiorities of the fourth function, which is contaminated with one’s animal nature, one’s unadapted emotions and affects.

- Marie Louise von Franz, Psychotherapy

Glossary: Feeling Function

One of the personality’s four functions. The feeling function is the non-intellectual judging function whose basic criteria is acceptance or rejection based on one's values and what one believes is in the interest of maintaining social harmony. The feeling function allows one to figure out what is of value, what a thing (or person) is worth. In opposition to the thinking function, judgments made by the feeling function are deeply personal. Feeling is not concerned with laws, order, and cold facts but with connection and belonging. The feeling function can be introverted (concerned with authenticity and individuality) or extroverted (concerned with adaptation to society). Along with thinking feeling is a “rational” function, meaning one makes some sort of judgment on what is being perceived. If feeling is your primary function then thinking will necessarily be your inferior function.

If thinking types have a subtle and mature grasp of thinking then feeling types have a subtle, mature, and nuanced grasp of interpersonal relationships. Extroverted feeling types are those people who have an instinctive facility for understanding and working with others. Introverted feeling types are the ones who, of all the types, are the most aware of how things impact them emotionally.


Things to ask yourself to determine if feeling is your primary function(1):

I believe I can make the best decisions by weighing what people care about and the points-of-view of persons involved in a situation. I am concerned with values and what is the best for the people involved. I like to do whatever will establish or maintain harmony. In my relationships, I appear caring, warm, and tactful.

The following statements generally apply to me:
• I have a people or communications orientation.
• I am concerned with harmony and nervous when it is missing.
• I look for what is important to others and express concern for others.
• I make decisions with my heart and want to be compassionate.
• I believe being tactful is more important than telling the “cold” truth.
• Sometimes I miss seeing or communicating the “hard truth” of situations.
• I am sometimes experienced by others as too idealistic, mushy, or indirect.


Introverted Feeling: Authenticity (“What feels right to me?”)

Focus is on values, motivation and conviction. Asks the question “Does this feel right to me?” Concerned with how the events in their life impact them on a subjective emotional level.

Extroverted feeling turns to others for support and connection; inward feeling, however, is directed inwardly, and more concerned with navigating their own feelings in an independent way. They're concerned with creating a system of values that allows them to understand themselves and make ethical decisions - one's motive is generally of great importance to Authenticity types. As with introverted thinking, this self-understanding gives introverted feelers a sense of inner control. When introverted feeling does act in the world, they do it indirectly through their other functions, usually their auxiliary (or Co-Pilot) function. Their introverted feeling often inspires them to help the vulnerable; these types can often be found helping the needy, and children and animals.

It uses emotion, rather than reason, to make decisions; it asks "How does this impact me on an emotional, subjective level?" Where extroverted feeling is concerned with meeting the needs of everyone in the external world, introverted feeling is concerned with meeting the needs of all the "people" in their internal world; that is, all the various parts of themselves. One part may want to do one thing (go on a diet) while the other part wants to do something completely different (eat all the cake!). Introverted feeling is about listening to all those inner voices and making the choice that rings true to them. Sometimes introverted feelers doesn't know exactly what they feel until after they've already made their choice; they find out whether or not they made the right choice by their inner response to that decision.

Types that use introverted feeling as their main function: ISFPs and INFPs (Introverted Feeling/Sensation and Introverted Feeling/Intuition).

Types that use introverted feeling as their auxiliary function: ESFPs and ENFPs (Extroverted Sensation/Feeling and Extroverted Intuition/Feeling).


Extroverted Feeling: Harmony (“How do I get everyone’s needs met?”)

Concerned with meeting the needs of others, connecting with others. Asks “What gets everyone’s needs met?” Works to meet those needs. Loves to create win/win situations.

As with introverted feeling, extroverted feeling also uses emotions to make decisions. However, where introverted feeling asks the "inner people" how they feel about something, extroverted feelers are concerned with how the people the in the external world feel. Extroverted feelers have an intuitive understanding of interpersonal relationships; they are deeply empathetic individuals, able to recreate others' emotions within themselves. They tend to seek comity with others, often by making silent agreements with others to pretend that things are ok, even when they're not. However, they are also extraverted judgers; as such, there will be times when they sacrifice harmony to assert their judgments. As with other extroverted types, they quick to act in the outer world, in this case, by immediately expressing their feelings.

Extroverted feelers are fascinated by the drama of human relationships; every interaction is a kind of off the cuff, spontaneous jam session. Extroverted feelers enjoy these entertaining dramas. The more developed expression of this comfortableness with human emotion is a broad-minded (or hearted) acceptance of the whole wide spectrum of human emotional expression. Rather than avoiding conflict, they learn to seek to have "good" conflict, to reach ever higher levels of true harmony.

Types that use extroverted feeling as their main function: ESFJs and ENFJs (Extroverted Feeling/Sensation and Extroverted Feeling/Intuition).

Types that use extroverted feeling as their auxiliary function: ISFJs and INFJs (Introverted Sensation/Feeling and Introverted Intuition/Feeling).

Emotions are often confused with feelings but this is all wrong. Feeling is a valuing function, whereas emotion is involuntary, in affect you are always a victim.

- Carl Jung, Lecture V 25May1934, Page 109

[P]eople with the Feeling trait follow their hearts and emotions and care little about hiding them. From their perspective, we should not be afraid to listen to our innermost feelings and share them with the world – these individuals tend to be compassionate, sensitive and highly emotional. They would rather cooperate than compete, although it would be a big mistake to see Feeling types as naïve or easily swayed – quite the contrary, they are likely to fight tooth and nail for what they believe in.

- "The 5 Aspects" (16 Personalities)

The feeling function is the basis for “fight or flight” decisions. As a subjective process, it may be quite independent of external stimuli.

In everyday usage, feeling is often confused with emotion. The latter, more appropriately called affect, is the result of an activated complex. Feeling not contaminated by affect can be quite cold.

Daryl Sharp, “Jung Lexicon

Most connections in the world are not relationships, they are participation mystique. One is then apparently connected, but of course it is never a real connection, it is never a relationship; but it gives the feeling of being one sheep in the flock at least.

- Carl Jung, Visions Seminar, p 625

The same is true with feeling, and a differentiated feeling type must reach the point where the thing most loved is the thing most hated, before refuge will be sought in another function.

- Carl Jung, 1925 Seminar, Page 66

The intellect is only one among several fundamental psychic functions and therefore does not suffice to give a complete picture of the world. For this another function  — feeling — is needed too. Feeling often arrives at convictions that are different from those of the intellect, and we cannot always prove that the convictions of feeling are necessarily inferior.

- Carl Jung, CW 8, Para 600

Ideas are not just counters used by the calculating mind; they are also golden vessels full of living feeling. “Freedom” is not a mere abstraction, it is also an emotion.

- Carl Jung, CW 18, pgs. 310 - 311

Religion gives us a rich application for our feelings. It gives meaning to life.

- Carl Jung, C.G. Jung Speaking, Page 69

A feeling is as indisputable a reality as the existence of an idea.

“The Psychology of the Transference,” CW 16, par. 531



(1) "Thinking or Feeling," The Meyers & Briggs Foundation



Links:
"The Eight Functions (Typology 201)," Dr. A.J. Drenth (Personality Junkie)
"Authenticity as a Decision Maker," Antonia Dodge (Personality Hacker)
"Harmony as a Decision Maker," Antonia Dodge (Personality Hacker)
"Carl Jung on 'Feeling' – Anthology"  (Carl Jung Depth Psychology)


See also:
Introversion
Extroversion
Thinking
Intuition
Sensation
Rational functions
Irrational functions
The 16 “Types” (MBTI)

Glossary: Thinking function

One of the personality’s four functions. The thinking function is the intellectual judging function; it tells us what a thing means. Thinking is characterized by a rejection of feelings in making decisions; a person with a strong thinking function analyzes issues logically and impersonally. The thinking function can be introverted (analytical, abstract, and individualistic) or it can be extroverted (concrete, goal oriented, and concerned with efficiency). Thinking is a “rational” function, meaning one makes some sort of judgment on what is being perceived. If thinking is your primary function then feeling will necessarily be your inferior function.

A person identified with the thinking function excels at manipulating ideas. Philosophers and theoretical physicists are your typical introverted thinkers; their main focus is on the ideas within them. Their concern is more about creating systems of understanding. Trial lawyers and high power CEOs, on the other hand, typify extroverted thinking; they care more for how ideas apply to the "real world" (whereas an introverted thinker probably feels like their inner world is the more real one). Extroverted thinkers use their thinking to measure, test, and ultimately conquer the outer world.


Things to ask yourself to determine if thinking is your primary function(1):

When I make a decision, I like to find the basic truth or principle to be applied, regardless of the specific situation involved. I like to analyze pros and cons, and then be consistent and logical in deciding. I try to be impersonal, so I won’t let my personal wishes - or other people’s wishes - influence me.

The following statements generally apply to me:
• I enjoy technical and scientific fields where logic is important.
• I notice inconsistencies.
• I look for logical explanations or solutions to most everything.
• I make decisions with my head and want to be fair.
• I believe telling the truth is more important than being tactful.
• Sometimes I miss or don’t value the “people” part of a situation.
• I can be seen as too task-oriented, uncaring, or indifferent.


Introverted Thinking: Accuracy (“What makes logical sense to me?”)

Concerned with data, truth and congruity of thought. Asks “Does this make sense?” Seeks truth without judgment.

An impersonal decision making function, one which is turned inward. Introverted thinkers are concerned with their own understanding; the primary criteria used by them is "does this make sense to me?" Understanding often precedes experience; they are able to think through a subject without any objective data because they build a mental construct in their minds. Their introverted thinking brings structure and order to their inner world, giving them a sense of control (of their inner world at least). They're more interested in ideas than facts; rather than rushing out and gathering a bunch of facts they try to ensure that the conceptual foundation is solid. Philosophers, mathematicians, and theoretical physicists are quintessential introverted thinkers.

Introverted thinkers tend to be very egalitarian because they're concerned with truth, not judgment. Because their conclusions are dependent on "clean" data, they are very concerned with ensuring that the information they bring in is also unpolluted by inaccuracy. And because it relies on absolute impartiality, it's important to ensure that they've eliminated all bias in their thinking. They're constantly on the lookout for incongruities or inconsistencies. From this clean data, they aim to create accurate mental representations of reality.

Types that use introverted thinking as their main function: ISTPs and INTPs (Introverted Thinking/Sensation and Introverted Thinking/Intuition)

Types that use introverted thinking as their auxiliary function: ESTPs and ENTPs (Extroverted Sensation/Thinking and Extroverted Intuition/Thinking)


Extroverted Thinking: Effectiveness (“What works?”)

Wants to get things done. Asks “Does it work?” without regard to personal feelings. Concerned with practical applications.

As with introverted thinking, an impersonal decision making process. Unlike introverted thinking, it does this outwardly; Effectiveness users tend to "think out loud." Extroverted thinking is concerned with metrics and analysis, loves crossing things off "to do" lists; it wants to get things done. Where introverted thinking is always going back to hone their ideas, extroverted thinking is more forward-moving; it wants to get from here to there and focuses it's energies on creating plans and procedures to do so. They're more fact based than introverted thinkers; this allows them to create clear definitions, objective standards, and measurable goals. Measurement is important to extroverted thinkers; measurement tell them how close they are to their goal, and reaching one's goal is of paramount importance to extroverted thinkers. In order to do this they realize that streamlined, efficient systems that deliver results are key. This is the thing they're constantly working toward. Law is a stereotypical example of extroverted thinking.

Types that use extroverted thinking as their main function: ESTJs and ENTJs (Extroverted Thinking/Sensation and Extroverted Thinking/Intuition).

Types that use extroverted thinking as their auxiliary function: ISTJs and INTJs (Introverted Sensation/Thinking and Introverted Intuition/Thinking)



[Note: Be aware that Jung often refers to "extraverted" and "introverted" when we would use the terms "feeling" and "thinking".]

For in order to achieve abstraction, we pour what is separate and manifold into a flask, heat it up, and melt it, and thus force the volatility of the matter into the template. In that way we create a spiritus, which is an abstraction.

Carl Jung, Hans Schmid Guisan Letters, Pages 100-114

People with the Thinking trait seek logic and rational arguments, relying on their head rather than their heart. They do their best to safeguard their emotions, shielding them from the outside world and making sure that they aren’t clearly visible. “Whatever happens, you must always keep a cool head” – this is the motto of Thinking types. However, this doesn’t mean that these types are cold-blooded and indifferent. People with the Thinking trait are often just as emotional as those with the Feeling trait – but they tend to subdue and override their feelings with their rational logic.

- "The 5 Aspects" (16 Personalities)

The value of analysis, however, is not only that it is of practical use but that it is also a living knowledge in and by itself. Thinking is life just as much as doing is. Thinking is not merely a “realization” of life; life can also be a “realization” of thinking.

Carl Jung, Hans Schmid Guisan Letters, Pages 100-114

Thinking, if it is to be real thinking and true to its own principle, must rigorously exclude feeling. This, of course, does not do away with the fact that there are individuals whose thinking and feeling are on the same level, both being of equal motive power for consciousness. But in these cases there is also no question of a differentiated type, but merely of relatively undeveloped thinking and feeling.

"General Description of the Types," CW 6, par. 667

There is unchanging opposition, war in fact, between thinking and feeling. If thinking appears cold to feeling, feeling certainly appears stupid to thinking.

- Carl Jung, Lecture III, 4May1934, Page 100

Whereas the extravert needs the object to bring his type to perfection and to cleanse his feeling, the introvert experiences this as a horrible violation and disrespect of his personality, because he absolutely refuses to be, so to speak, the chemical dry cleaner for the feelings of extraverts.

- Carl Jung, Jung-Schmid Correspondence, Pages 55-62.

If you take a typical intellectual who is terribly afraid of falling in love, you will think his fear very foolish. But he is most probably right, because he will very likely make foolish nonsense when he falls in love. He will be caught most certainly, because his feeling only reacts to an archaic or to a dangerous type of woman. This is why many intellectuals are inclined to marry beneath them. They are caught by the landlady perhaps, or by the cook, because they are unaware of their archaic feeling through which they get caught. But they are right to be afraid, because their undoing will be in their feeling. Nobody can attack them in their intellect. There they are strong and can stand alone, but in their feelings they can be influenced, they can be caught, they can be cheated, and they know it. Therefore never force a man into his feeling when he is an intellectual. He controls it with an iron hand because it is very dangerous.

- Carl Jung, CW 18, Para 20

The introverted thinker is very much in need of a developed feeling, i .e., of a less autoerotic, sentimental, melodramatic and emotional relatedness to people and things.

- Carl Jung, Letters Vol. II, Pages 163-174

I would say: the introvert also tries, through the hypothesis of abstraction, to reach the object, actually reality, which seems to him chaotic only because of the projection of his unused and therefore undeveloped feeling. He tries to conquer the object by thinking. But he wants to reach the object quite as much as the extravert.

- Carl Jung, Jung-Schmid Correspondence, Pages 55-62.

We should not pretend to understand the world only by the intellect; we apprehend it just as much by feeling. Therefore, the judgment of the intellect is, at best, only the half of truth, and must, if it be honest, also come to an understanding of its inadequacy.

- Carl Jung, CW 7, Page 628



(1) "Thinking or Feeling," The Meyers & Briggs Foundation



Links:
"The Eight Functions (Typology 201)," Dr. A.J. Drenth (Personality Junkie)
" Accuracy as a Decision Maker," Antonia Dodge (Personality Hacker)
"Effectiveness as a Decision Maker," Antonia Dodge (Personality Hacker)
"Carl Jung on 'Feeling' – Anthology," (Carl Jung Depth Psychology)



See also:
Introversion
Extroversion
Feeling
Intuition
Sensation
Rational functions
Irrational functions
The 16 “Types” (MBTI)

Servants of the serpent

Some quotes from Jung on the thinking and feeling functions. A note: for some reason (probably because he was constantly developing his theory) Jung sometimes refers to feeling types as "extraverts" and thinking types as "introverts":

Some have their reason in thinking, others in feeling. Both are servants of Logos, and in secret become worshipers of the serpent.

- Carl Jung, The Red Book, Page 280.

An introvert who does not outgrow his constant thinking is just as untenable as an extravert who cannot get out of his constant feeling.

- Carl Jung, Han Guisan Schmid, Pages 131-142

The extravert (the ideal type) must realize his feeling, the corresponding introvert his thinking. In this process, the extravert notices that his feeling is pregnant with thoughts; the introvert, that his thinking is full of feelings.

- Carl Jung, Han Guisan Schmid, Pages 131-142

The unpleasant power-complex of the female animus is encountered only when a woman does not allow her feeling to express itself naturally or handles it in an inferior way. But this, as said, can happen in all situations of life and has nothing whatever to do with the right to vote.

- Carl Jung, Letters Vol. II, Pages 477-478

Disappointment, always a shock to the feelings, is not only the mother of bitterness but the strongest possible incentive to a differentiation of feeling. The failure of a pet plan, the disappointing behaviour of someone one loves, can supply the impulse either for a more or less brutal outburst of affect or for a modification and adjustment of feeling, and hence for its higher development. This culminates in wisdom if feeling is supplemented by reflection and rational insight. Wisdom is never violent where wisdom reigns there is no conflict between thinking and feeling.

- Carl Jung, CW 14, Para 334

Only through submission to detestable duties does one gain a certain feeling of liberation which induces a creative mood.

- Carl Jung, Letters Vol. II, Pages 30-31

Just as nobody but the believer who surrenders himself wholly to God can partake of divine grace, so love reveals its highest mysteries and its wonder only to those who are capable of unqualified devotion and loyalty of feeling.

- Carl Jung, CW 10, Page 112



Link:
"Carl Jung on 'Feeling' – Anthology," Carl Jung Depth Psychology

Glossary: Irrational Functions

The axis which contains the intuition and sensation functions. Not dependent on reason (whether abstract thinking or judgment). Things perceived by the irrational functions aren’t considered irrational because they are illogical, but because they don’t require logic, they simply are. Facts are examples of things that are irrational. (See also “rational functions.”)

Intuitive individuals talk about ideas and have no difficulties with allusions or reading between the lines, while Observant types focus on facts and practical matters. This is why Intuitive types are likely to find it quite challenging to understand someone with the Observant trait, and vice versa. The former may even think that the latter is materialistic, unimaginative and simplistic, and the latter may see their Intuitive conversation partner as impractical, naïve and absent-minded. Both sets of assumptions can be quite damaging and it takes a mature person to get past them – but statements like these are fairly common.

- "The 5 Aspects" (16 Personalities)

Both intuition and sensation are functions that find fulfilment in the absolute perception of the flux of events. Hence, by their very nature, they will react to every possible occurrence and be attuned to the absolutely contingent, and must therefore lack all rational direction. For this reason I call them irrational functions, as opposed to thinking and feeling, which find fulfilment only when they are in complete harmony with the laws of reason.

“Definitions,” pars. 776f

Jung pointed out that elementary existential facts fall into this category - for instance, that the earth has a moon, that chlorine is an element or that water freezes at a certain temperature and reaches its greatest density at four degrees centigrade - as does chance. They are irrational not because they are illogical, but because they are beyond reason.

Sharp, Daryl, “Jung Lexicon”

Glossary: Rational Functions

The axis which contains the thinking and feeling functions. Jung called these rational because one has to reflect on what was perceived when using these functions. (See also “irrational functions.”)

The rational attitude which permits us to declare objective values as valid at all is not the work of the individual subject, but the product of human history. Most objective values - and reason itself - are firmly established complexes of ideas handed down through the ages. Countless generations have laboured at their organization with the same necessity with which the living organism reacts to the average, constantly recurring environmental conditions, confronting them with corresponding functional complexes, as the eye, for instance, perfectly corresponds to the nature of light… Thus the laws of reason are the laws that designate and govern the average, “correct,” adapted attitude. Everything is “rational” that accords with these laws, everything that contravenes them is “irrational.”

“Definitions,” par. 785f

Carl Jung: This then was the holy ghost to him (pt. 2)

Miss Hincks: When you were speaking of bringing up your inferior function, did you mean the one in the unconscious?

Dr. Jung: Yes.

Miss Hincks: I understood you to mean that you had developed your intuition in contradistinction to your thinking.

Dr. Jung: No, I meant to place feeling in opposition to thinking. As a natural scientist, thinking and sensation were uppermost in me and intuition and feeling were in the unconscious and contaminated by the collective unconscious. You cannot get directly to the inferior function from the superior, it must always be via the auxiliary function. It is as though the unconscious were in such antagonism to the superior function that it allowed no direct attack. The process of working through the auxiliary functions goes on somewhat as follows: Suppose you have sensation strongly developed but are not fanatical about it. Then you can admit about every situation a certain aura of possibilities; that is to say, you permit an intuitive element to come in. Sensation as an auxiliary function would allow intuition to exist. But inasmuch as sensation (in the example) is a partisan of the intellect, intuition sides with the feeling, here the inferior function. Therefore the intellect will not agree with intuition, in this case, and will vote for its exclusion. Intellect will not hold together sensation and intuition, rather it will separate them. Such a destructive attempt will be checked by feeling, which backs up intuition.

Looking at it the other way around, if you are an intuitive type, you can’t get to your sensations directly. They are full of monsters, and so you have to go by way of your intellect or feeling, whichever is the auxiliary in the conscious. It needs very cool reasoning for such a man to keep himself down to reality. To sum up then, the way is from the superior to the auxiliary, from the latter to the function opposite to the auxiliary. Usually this first conflict that is aroused between the auxiliary function in the conscious and its opposite function in the unconscious is the fight that takes place in analysis. This may be called the preliminary conflict. The knock-down battle between the superior and inferior functions only takes place in life. In the example of the intellectual sensation type, I suggested the preliminary conflict would be between sensation and intuition, and the final fight between intellect and feeling.

Dr. de Angulo: Why cannot the main battle take place in analysis?

Dr. Jung: That can only happen when the analyst loses his objectivity and becomes personally involved with the patient. In this connection it can be said that the analyst is always in danger of intoxications through his unconscious. Suppose a woman comes and tells me I am her savior. While consciously I may know perfectly well she has made a terrible projection upon me, unconsciously I drink it up and possibly swell to tremendous proportions.

Mrs. Keller’s question: (This question as originally presented was lost. The problem concerned was in connection with the will.)

Dr. Jung: It cannot be said that the will of man is like a stone rolling downhill. What is true is that through the will you can release a process, say a fantasy, which then proceeds on its own course.
There are two ways of looking at will. That of Schopenhauer, for instance, who speaks of the will to live and the will to death in the sense of an urge to life and an urge to death. I like to reserve the concept of will for that small amount of energy that is disposable by us in consciousness. Now if you put this small amount toward activating the instinctive process, the latter then goes on with a force much bigger than yours.

The libido of man contains the two opposite urges or instincts: the instinct to live and the instinct to die. In youth the instinct toward life is stronger, and that is why young people don’t cling to life — they have it. The libido as an energetic phenomenon contains the pairs of opposites, otherwise there would be no movement of the libido. It is a metaphor to use the terms of life and death; any others will do, so long as they show the opposition. In animals and in primitive peoples, the pairs of opposites are closer together than in so-called civilized peoples, hence both animals and primitives part with life more easily than do we. A primitive can kill himself just for the luxury of haunting an enemy. In other words, because of our dissociation, the pairs of opposites are much further apart. This gives us our increased psychical energy, and the price we pay is one-sidedness.

http://carljungdepthpsychology.blogspot.com/2017/03/carl-jung-this-then-was-holy-ghost-to.html

Carl Jung: This then was the holy ghost to him (pt. 1)

Miss Henty’s question: Cannot the inferior functions be developed without such an overthrow of the superior functions as you described last time?

Dr. Jung: Can you lift water up from the bottom of a falls without loss of energy? You have to have energy in order to activate the inferior function, and if you don’t get this energy away from the superior function, whence is it to come? If you leave all your energy and will in the superior function you slowly go to hell — it sucks you dry. Normal people are those who can live under any circumstances without developing protests, but there are certain people in whom various conditions of life develop a protest. Take for example the effort to live a rounded life; it is most expensive. Today to bring up the inferior function is to live, but we pay dearly for it both in mistakes and in energy.

Sometimes it is not our choice — the inferior function takes us unawares. Such a situation presented itself at the time of the spread of Christianity two thousand years ago. The spiritual values had at that time sunk into the unconscious, and in order to realize them again, people had to go to tremendous lengths in the repudiation of material values. Gold, women, art — all had to be given up. Many even had to withdraw into the desert in order to free themselves from the world. Finally they came to the point of giving up life itself, and they were confronted with the arena and with being roasted alive. All this came to them through the growth of a psychological attitude. They were sacrificed because they undermined the most sacred ideals of the time. They threatened the disruption of the Roman family by their theological disputes. They refused to consider the Emperor divine. The effect they had on the collective viewpoint was similar to that produced today when anything is said against the god of Western Europe — Respectability. We today are also looking for certain other values. We seek life, not efficiency, and this seeking of ours is directly against the collective ideals of our times. Only those who have energy enough, or who have been gripped in spite of themselves, can go through this process, but once in it you have to bleed for it. It is a process that is going on all over the world today.

Mr. Robertson: What forced people into this attitude two thousand years ago?

Dr. Jung: People could see no other way of meeting the extreme to which paganism had led.

The reversal of attitude which Christianity induced took the juice out of the literature and the art of the time. According to the philologists, everything of value disappeared then; only a faint flame remaining burning in Apuleius. But as a matter of fact, it was simply that the main stream of creative power left the channel dug by antiquity and sought a new bed. A new literature and art grew up, of which Tertullian is an example. The libido went over into spiritual values and an enormous change took place in human mentality in three hundred years. These collective movements are always hard for the individual to sustain. They grip people from the unconscious without their being able to know what has happened to them. Thus the literature of those days was full of a sickish sentimentality — the spark had gone from the conscious standpoint and was buried in the unconscious. These people in the early Christian era were unaware of the general movement contemporaneous with them. They could not realize they were Christians, yet they were seeking initiation into all sorts of mysteries in search of the thing Christianity was offering. They could not accept it because of its origin in the hands of despised peoples.

Most of the troubles of our times come from this lack of realization that we are part of a herd that has deviated from the main currents. When you are in a herd you lose the sense of danger, and this it is that makes us unable to see where we deviate from the deep currents of collectivity.

- Carl Jung Depth Psychology

Glossary: Psychological Functions

Jung’s theory of psychological functions, which is also referred to as the “4 functions,” is a personality typology that divides people into 4 broad categories of two pairs: intuition & sensation (the perceiving, or irrational, functions) and thinking & feeling (the evaluating, or rational, functions). Intuition takes in information through unconscious perception; sensation through conscious perception; thinking evaluates that information with the mind, and feeling with the heart. Typologies such as Socionics, the MBTI, and the Keirsey Temperament Sorter are based on Jung’s theory of the four functions.

Rather than saying that there are 4 “types” of people it’s more accurate to say that there are four human psychological functions; all of us have the ability to think, feel, sense, and intuit, and we should ideally be able to access all four functions as needed. However, for various reasons which include inborn as well as learned proficiencies, we generally favor one or two functions. Because of this I generally refer to the different functions as "types" in order to keep things simple.

Jung’s personality typology is one of his easiest concepts to grasp, as well as one of the most powerful. Understanding the 8 different “types” (the 4 functions along with the two attitudes of introversion/extroversion) can go far in helping us understand why we all do the sometimes crazy things we do. In fact, Jung was largely motivated in developing his theory because he wanted to know why the theories of Sigmund Freud and Alfred Adler, as well as his own theory, were so different and apparently irreconcilable. (“In attempting to answer this question, I came across the problem of types; for it is one's psychological type which from the outset determines and limits a person's judgment.”(1)). He came to the conclusion that Freud was an extrovert, and Adler (and Jung himself) were introverts; this fundamental, but unrecognized, difference in orientation is why the theories are so opposed to each other. It’s simply a matter of different types.

Sensation establishes what is actually present, thinking enables us to recognize its meaning, feeling tells us its value, and intuition points to possibilities as to whence it came and whither it is going in a given situation.

“A Psychological Theory of Types,” CW 6, par. 958

Generally speaking, a judging observer [thinking or feeling type] will tend to seize on the conscious character, while a perceptive observer [sensation type or intuitive] will be more influenced by the unconscious character, since judgment is chiefly concerned with the conscious motivation of the psychic process, while perception registers the process itself.

“General Description of the Types,” par. 576

As a rule, whenever... falsification of type takes place… the individual becomes neurotic later, and can be cured only by developing the attitude consonant with his nature.

“General Description of the Types,” par. 560

[A] feeling-attitude that seeks to fulfil the demands of reality by means of empathy may easily encounter a situation that can only be solved through thinking. In this case the feeling-attitude breaks down and the progression of libido also ceases. The vital feeling that was present before disappears, and in its place the psychic value of certain conscious contents increases in an unpleasant way; subjective contents and reactions press to the fore and the situation becomes full of affect and ripe for explosions.

- “On Psychic Energy,” CW 8, par. 61

The more [a man] identifies with one function, the more he invests it with libido, and the more he withdraws libido from the other functions. They can tolerate being deprived of libido for even quite long periods, but in the end they will react. Being drained of libido, they gradually sink below the threshold of consciousness, lose their associative connection with it, and finally lapse into the unconscious. This is a regressive development, a reversion to the infantile and finally to the archaic level… [which] brings about a dissociation of the personality.

“The Type Problem in Aesthetics,” pars. 502f


(1) Jung, Memories, Dreams, Reflections, 1989:207


Links:
Personality Type (Wikipedia)
Jungian Cognitive Functions (Wikipedia)
Jung's Theory of Psychological Types (WatchWordTest.com)


See also:
Sensation
Intuition
Thinking
Feeling
Rational functions
Irrational functions

The great sacrifice... and the reward

Ugh, it's been harder to get back in the saddle than I thought it would be! Stuff has been going on with my personal health and I've been pretty much absorbed with that. I really want to get back to Jung though. I'm working on finishing the series on personality that I stopped midway through but that is going to take some time. In the meantime, here's a great quote from MLvF!

In Tertullian and Origen we see that this transformation involves the sacrifice of the superior function. Tertullian sacrificed his intellect, thereby gaining depths of feeling through which he arrived at his famous paradoxical view of Christ. Origen, on the other hand, through self-castration, sacrificed his extraversion, his relation to the outer world, and won the wealth of Gnostic thinking. Augustine, from the point of view of typology, resembled Tertullian; until the time of his conversion he was a thinking type. The inferiority of his feeling is indicated by the licentious life he had previously led. His feeling was in the dark, until it emerged along with the violent breakthrough of his inferior function. His genuine feeling, which until then had been tied to his mother, now turned to Christ and the church. Since Augustine was an introvert, his fourth function had of necessity to be of an extraverted character and therefore it moved toward outer objects, that is, to the visible Roman Catholic church.

… With Saint Augustine the breakthrough of his feeling function was the solution. The inferior function, whatever it may be, contains the highest value, although it is experienced as the greatest handicap.

- Marie Louise von Franz, Dreams, p. 9