A Commentary on Jung's Typology and an Introduction to the Information Metabolism (Notes)

Jung's typology differs radically from all other typologies. While others are limited to describing and classifying behavior and concentrate on psychopathologies, Jung's typology tries to describe structural differences in the thinking of normal, healthy individuals.

Augusta sees Jung's typology as outlining the "general contours," but being unfinished. Jung's typology is an improvement on Freud's model of "Ego, Super-Ego, Id," but with different varieties of psychic models (i.e. types).

"As he reviewed this model, Jung found that most or even all of a person's relationships with the world were determined by psychic structure."

"Jung's discovery is a discovery of a selection mechanism of signals received by the psyche. This mechanism could be called the information metabolism code (IM), or rules of the language that information is conveyed by."

Combinations of elements, which Jung called "psychic functions," became the basis for IM models. These can be arranged in different orders to produce different psychic structures. Jung himself emphasized the overarching importance of the leading function. Jung proposed, based on his experience — "thinking, feeling ('emotions' in Russian), sensing, and intuition." If one of these functions usually dominates, then we have a type. In addition, each function can be introverted or extraverted. This is where the 8 elements come from.

Next, Augusta appeals to Jung's writings to refute three common misconceptions:

1. "Pure types"
It would strange to suppose that one type has qualities that there is absolutely no trace of in another. Each IM type has mechanisms of introversion and extraversion, for example, but one of them is dominant. This thought was carefully elucidated by Jung himself, who said, "thus there can never be a pure type in the sense of having completely mastered one mechanism while the other is completely atrophied." The weaker mechanism is still necessary to successfully carry out one's life activities.

This does not mean, however, that each person is "a bit of an extravert and a bit of an introvert." Jung stated that type is defined by the relative dominance of one mechanism over the other, i.e. if an individual's extraversion mechanism is stronger than one's introversion mechanism, then he or she is "completely" an extravert.

2. "Balanced development of all functions"
Another common misconception is that it is possible to achieve "balanced" (i.e. equal) development of two or more elements. Jung wrote that different functions "rarely or almost never" have the same degree of strength or development. Jung came across cases when, for example, thinking and feeling were at the same level and had the same "conscious motivating force," however, these were cases when simply neither of the functions was developed.

*SIDE NOTE: for a brief discussion of what harmonious type development entails, see this page.

3. "Changing one's type"
Augusta quotes Jung:

Wherever there is... a distortion of type caused by external influences, the individual from then on becomes more or less neuroticized, and recovery is possible only through discovering (diagnosing) the individual's natural mindset.

Augusta's observations confirm that such distortion always occurs whenever people do not have partners with complementary psychic structures, and that each partner "tries to turn the other into their dual," with the possibility of developing various neuroses.

The meaning of extraversion and introversion

Next, Augusta talks about conflicting terminology and what to call extraverts and introverts — "extraverts," "extraverted types," or "extratims," etc. etc. In discussing this dichotomy, she states:

Jung divided people into extraverted and introverted individuals. In a psychologically favorable climate such individuals show almost no difference in their external activity level. Under greater psychological discomfort some people 'become introverted', i.e. 'retreat into themselves.' They retreat from those who do not acknowledge them. Others in the same conditions 'become extraverted' and become overly active in a noticeably unbalanced way, to search for those who will acknowledge them. This tendency was noted by Jung and gave rise to the terms extraversion and introversion.

Augusta notes that Jung's concept of extraversion and introversion differs from that of other authors, especially Eysenck. Hence, she writes that instead of the terms extravert and introvert she will use "extratim" and "introtim" to avoid confusion, and will use the terms extraverted or introverted to describe individuals with particularly "extraverted" or "introverted" behavior*.

*SIDE NOTE: while the terms extratim and introtim are sometimes used in Russian-language research articles on socionics, they have not become nearly as popular among socionists as the usual extravert and introvert.