‘Describe and Evaluate Carl Jung’s Theory Concerning Personality Types Essay

Introduction In this essay I aim to show an apprehension of Jung’s personality types by depicting and measuring his theory and to demo how they might useful in assisting a healer to find curative ends. I will besides look at some of the unfavorable judgments levelled at Jung’s theory. Carl Gustav Jung. ( 26 July 1875 – 6 June 1961 ) . was a Swiss psychologist and head-shrinker. and the laminitis of analytical psychological science. His male parent was a Pastor. and he had an stray childhood. going really introspective. it seems he had a schizophrenic personality. Although Freud was involved with analytical psychological science and worked with patients with hysterical neuroticisms ; Jung. nevertheless. worked with psychotic patients in infirmary. He was struck by the cosmopolitan symbols ( or Archetypes ) in their psychotic beliefs and hallucinations ( ref. Dennis Brown and Jonathan Redder ( 1989 ) p. 107 ) . His work and influence extends manner beyond understanding personality. and he is considered to be one of the greatest minds to hold theorised about life and how people relate to it. Carl Jung was among many great personality theoreticians who drew inspiration and counsel from the ancient theoretical accounts like star divination and the Four Dispositions. For 100s of old ages at that place has been some sort of ‘typology’ to seek and categorize individual’s attitudes and behavior. e. g. Astrology. Oriental astrologists invented the oldest signifier of typology ; believing is that there is a personality trait that is relevant to each mark and that a person’s character/personality can be classified in footings of the elements – fire H2O air and Earth. Those under fire had a ardent nature and corresponding disposition and destiny. etc. The ancient Greeks believed in the ‘four temperaments’ / ‘four humours’ . which can be traced back to Ancient Greek medical specialty and doctrine ( 400BC ) . particularly in the work of Hippocrates – the ‘Father of Medicine’ ) and in Plato’s thoughts about character and personality. It was believed that in order to keep wellness. people needed an even balance of the four organic structure fluids: blood. emotionlessness. xanthous gall. and black gall. These four organic structure fluids were linked to certain variety meats and unwellnesss and besides represented the ‘Four Temperaments’ or ‘Four Humours’ of personality. The Grecian doctor Galen ( AD 130-200 ) subsequently introduced the facet of four basic dispositions reflecting the wits: the sanguine. floaty type ; the phlegmatic. sulky type ; the choleric. choleric type ; and the melancholiac. dejected type. Galen besides classified drugs in footings of their supposed effects on the four wits. He therefore created a systematic usher or choosing drugs. which although scientifically wrong were the foundation rock of handling psychological and psychiatric unwellnesss. Carl Jung approached personality and ‘psychological types’ ( besides referred to as Jung’s psychological types ) from a position of clinical depth psychology. He was one of the few psychologists in the 20th century to keep that development extends beyond childhood and adolescence through mid-life and into old age. He focused on set uping and developing a relationship between witting and unconscious procedures. Jung believed that Page 2 there was a duologue between the witting and unconscious and without it the unconscious procedures can weaken and even endanger the personality and this is seen in one of his cardinal constructs of individualization. He believed that individualization is a life long procedure of personal development that involves set uping a connexion between the self-importance and the ego. which could be brought to its highest realization if worked with and the unconscious was confronted. ( Stevens 1999 ) Jung. like Freud. referred to the self-importance when depicting the more witting facet of personality. Unlike Freud he did non seek to understate the unconscious side of the personality. but alternatively gave it equal position. complimentary to that of the witting. He referred to the integrated personality as Self ; the Centre of the entire mind. including both the witting and the unconscious. The Self includes all of a person’s qualities and potencies whether or non they become evident at a peculiar phase of life. The end of therapy is to steer the client to go a whole a human being as personal fortunes will let. It was out of Jung’s confrontation with the unconscious. both in himself and in his patients. that he easy elaborated his psychological science. In his 1921 work. ‘Personality Types’ . Jung compared his four maps ( as shown below ) of personality to the four points on a compass. While a individual faces one way. he or she still uses the other points as a usher. Most people keep one map as the dominant one although some people may develop two over a life-time. It is merely the individual who achieves self-fulfillment that has wholly developed all four maps. His book besides acted as the compass by which Jung tried to understand how he differed from Freud and Adler. but more significantly. could get down to chart the internal universe of people. Jung’s Four Psychological Functions are as follows: Rational Functions? Thinking ( procedure of cognitive idea ) ? Feeling ( map of subjective judgement or rating ) enabling determination doing Irrational Functions? Sensation ( perceptual experience utilizing the physical sense variety meats? Intuition ( receptiveness to unconscious contents ) supplying the information on which to do judgements. Jung held a deep grasp of originative life and considered spiritualty a cardinal portion of the human journey. There is a whole literature associating Jungian psychological science and spiritualty. chiefly from a Christian position. This literature includes Hagiographas by Kelsey ( 1974. 1982 ) and by Sanford ( 1968. 1981 ) . Caprio and Hedberg’s ( 1986 ) Coming Home: A Handbook for Researching the Sanctuary Within is a practical usher for religious work in the Christian tradition. It contains striking personal narratives. first-class illustrations. and utile exercisings. ( Frager & A ; Fadiman 2005 ) Jung’s description of personality provinces that in order to Page 3 place a psychological type it is necessary to find whether a individual is oriented chiefly toward his interior universe ( invagination ) or toward external world ( extroversion ) . known as the cardinal attitude of the person to underscore its importance. Jung’s eight personality types are as follows: ? Extroverted Thinking – Jung theorized that people understand the universe through a mix of concrete thoughts and abstract 1s. but the abstract constructs are 1s passed down from other people. Extroverted minds are frequently found working in the research scientific disciplines and mathematics. †¢Introverted Thinking – These persons interpret stimulation in the environment through a subjective and originative manner. The readings are informed by internal cognition and apprehension. Philosophers and theoretical scientists are frequently introspective thinking-oriented people. †¢Extroverted Feeling – These people judge the value of things based on nonsubjective fact. Comfortable in societal state of affairss. they form their sentiments based on socially accepted values and bulk beliefs. They are frequently found working in concern and political relations. †¢Introverted Feeling – These people make judgements based on subjective thoughts and on internally established beliefs. Oftentimes they ignore predominating attitudes and withstand societal norms of thought. Introverted feeling people thrive in callings as art critics. †¢Extroverted Feeling – These people perceive the universe as it truly exists. Their perceptual experiences are non colored by any preexistent beliefs. Jobs that require nonsubjective reappraisal. like vino taste testers and proofreaders. are best filled by extrospective feeling people. †¢Introverted Feeling – These persons interpret the universe through the lens of subjective attitudes and seldom see something for merely what it is. They make sense of the environment by giving it intending based on internal contemplation. Introverted feeling people frequently turn to assorted humanistic disciplines. including portrait picture and classical music. †¢Extroverted Intuitive – These people prefer to understand the significances of things through subliminally perceived nonsubjective fact instead than incoming centripetal information. They rely on intuitions and frequently disregard what they perceive straight from their senses. Inventors that come upon their innovation via a shot of penetration and some spiritual reformists are characterized by the extrovert intuitive type. †¢Introverted Intuitive – These persons. Jung idea. are deeply influenced by their internal motives even though they do non wholly understand them. They find intending through unconscious. subjective thoughts about the universe. Introverted intuitive people comprise a important part of mystics. phantasmagoric creative persons. and spiritual fiends. They are mysterious dreamers. concerned with possibilities instead than what is presently present. Seldom understood by others. Repress feeling. Jung described himself as an introspective intuitor. Introverts are people who prefer their internal universe of ideas. feelings. phantasies. dreams. and so on. while extraverts prefer the external universe of things and people and activities. Page 4 Today the words have become baffled with thoughts like shyness and sociableness. partly because introverts tend to be diffident and extraverts tend to be sociable. But Jung intended for them to mention more to whether you ( â€Å"ego† ) more frequently faced toward the character and outer world. or toward the corporate unconscious and its originals. In that sense. the introvert is slightly more mature than the extravert. Our civilization. of class. values the extravert much more. Jung warned that we all tend to value our ain type most. ( Boeree 1996 ) ; a impression which is peculiarly utile to healers today as it is of import non to let personal feelings to take topographic point when working with clients. Both introvert and extrovert overvalue their strengths and each tends to underestimate the other. To the extrovert. the introvert seems narcissistic and dull. and to the introvert. the extrovert appears superficial and insincere ( Fordham. 1966 ) . Jung believed that a individual remained an extrovert or introvert without alteration for the whole of his life. and that heredity determines whether the libido is directed inward or outward. Whether a individual is an introvert or extravert they need to cover with both their inner and outer universe. And each has their preferable manner of covering with it. ways which they are comfy with and good at. This hypothesised stableness of the introversion-extroversion trait is consistent with empirical research utilizing Non-Jungian steps of invagination and extroversion. ( Cloniger 2000 ) Jung suggested a nexus between each of the attitudes and certain neurotic upsets which will be discussed subsequently. We now find the introvert-extravert dimension in several theories. notably Hans Eysenck’s. In Eysenck’s ( 1982 ) position people are biosocial animate beings and that psychological science stands at the hamlets of biological scientific disciplines and societal scientific disciplines. He states that psychological science must go more of a true scientific discipline with methodological analysis in all that the healer does in order to allow personality theoreticians to do anticipations that can be tested and hence do possible the development of the causal theory of personality. which he believes will necessarily assist the healer with clients showing jobs. Jung compared the witting portion of the mind ( self-importance ) to an island that rises out of the sea. We notice merely the portion above the H2O. even though there is a greater land mass below the H2O – much like an iceberg. the unconscious prevarications below ( Fordam1953 ) . The personal unconscious is a reservoir of experience unique to each single consisting of perceptual experiences. ideas. feelings and memories that have been put to one side or repressed but non ever covered by sea and therefore can be reclaimed. Whereas the personal unconscious is alone to every person. the corporate unconscious is shared or â€Å"transpersonal† and consists of certain potencies that we all portion because of our human nature. because we all live in groups and in some signifier of society or household life. He believed that the corporate unconscious did non develop separately but was inherited and consisted of preexistent signifiers. the originals. An original is a cosmopolitan thought signifier or sensitivity to react to the universe in certain ways and is important to Jung’s construct of the corporate unconscious because it emphasises potencies in which we may show our humanity. He believed that they appeared to us in dreams. art. ritual. myths and symptoms. Eysenck believed that from a point of position of scientific discipline. Jung’s part to the survey of personality types had been chiefly negative as he permitted mystical impressions to overrule empirical informations and sought to travel beyond descriptive analysis to the causal analysis of personality. A individual is non normally defined by merely one of the eight personality types. Alternatively. the different maps exist in a hierarchy. One map will hold a superior consequence and another will hold a secondary consequence. Normally. harmonizing to Jung. a individual merely makes important use Page 5 of two maps. The other two take inferior places. Jung believed that it was non sufficient to possess merely one of the above-named maps to be a all-around personality and be able to confront life’s experiences. Jung described two of the four maps as rational and two as irrational ; besides he used the footings judging/perceiving. Thinking can account for logic and judgment. Our likes/dislikes are a feeling map. These two maps are known as rational as they use our reflecting ability. Sensation and intuition are known as irrational maps because it is what is seen in the external universe ( esthesis ) and interior universe ( intuition ) . In pattern. the subsidiary map is ever one whose nature. rational or irrational. is different from the primary map. For case. feeling can non be the secondary map when thought is dominant. and frailty versa. because both are rational and judging maps ( Daryl Sharp. 1989. p. 19 ) One of the four maps may be developed more. and this would be known as a primary or superior map. whilst the others may be classed as inferior. What this means is that a primary map is one which a individual uses more. whilst possibly. other maps are non used so much ( inferior ) and these might lend to a individual experiencing unable to get by with a state of affairs in which an inferior map is needed to be active. Jung acknowledged that the four orienting maps do non incorporate everything in the witting mind. Will power and memory. for case. are non included. The ground for this is that they are non typological determinants-though of course they may be affected by the manner one maps typologically believing is ever accompanied by an lower status of feeling. and differentiated esthesis is deleterious to intuition and frailty versa ( ref. Daryl Sharp. 1987. p. 15 ) Jung used the term ‘libido’ to specify what he meant by extravert and introvert. it was non meant in a sexual manner. like Freud. but as a term for energy. Introversion. writes Jung. â€Å"is usually characterized by a hesitant. brooding. retiring nature that keeps itself to itself. psychiatrists from objects { and } is ever somewhat on the defensive† . Conversely. Extraversion â€Å"is usually characterized by an outgoing. candid. and suiting nature that adapts easy to a given state of affairs. rapidly form fond regards. and. puting aside any possible scruples. will frequently venture Forth with careless assurance into unknown situations† . ( ref. Daryl Sharp1987. p. 13 ) . The balance between the two can be disturbed either manner. on the one side. utmost backdown. invagination or even psychosis. cuts a individual off from external world. On the other side. overly extroverted or constricted personalities may be cut off from subjective feelings or interior world ( Ref. Dennis Brown & A ; Jonathan Redder 1989p. 81 ) . Jung acknowledged that it is sometimes hard to work out what personality type some people belong to. he stated. ‘†¦It is frequently really hard to happen out whether a individual belongs to one type or the other. particularly in respect to oneself’ ( ref Jung. Anthony Stevens. 2001. p. 99 ) Peoples change their manner of behavior in different fortunes. because this is the manner they wish to be perceived. to be accepted by others. Jung referred to this as a character ( or a mask ) where a individual relays to others. person they are non. apparently to conform to others outlooks of them. This is besides known as the crude side of the personality The character Page 6 signifiers in early childhood. when a kid signifiers in his head what is acceptable to his parents. instructors etc. If it is repressed this is what Jung referred to as ‘the shadow’ . If the shadow is non allowed to come up. it will turn bigger. Jung believed that by confronting up to your shadow. it may enable you to alter it. The shadow may emerge in times of utmost anger/dreams. Jung believed that the shadow is indispensable as it allows an single to see the universe. We are each Born with a natural balance. If our natural balance is disquieted due to repression or conditioning so our heads will in some manner seek to reconstruct the balance which Jung saw as the power of the unconscious surfacing as ‘the return of the pent-up ‘ . The self-importance emerges out of the ego in childhood. It is your individualism. who you are. your ain self-importance appertaining merely to you. the Centre of consciousness. As you go into maturity there may be problem between the self-importance and ego. as the persons attitude alteration. Avowal of the Self liberates its originative energies and brings certain cognition that the best life is the life lived sub specie fraternization ( ref. . Anthony Stevens 2001. p. 157 ) . Jung seemed to put a batch of accent on the Self. I suppose this is because it is the Self. which he believed. will finally imagine alteration in behavior. He was one of the few psychologists in the 20th century to keep that development extends beyond childhood and adolescence through mid-life into old age. ( ref. Anthony Stevens 2001. p. 38 ) . . Jung disagreed with Freud on his positions on gender i. e. the ‘Oedipus complex’ . Jung preferred to name this complex ‘a love aspect’ . of a mother/child and non a sexual one/incest. as Freud believed to be the instance. Jung and Freud both agreed though. that unconscious ideas ( dreams ) were the manner to personal penetration of the person. After his separating with Freud. overtly because of dissension about the importance of gender. but possibly besides over father-son competitions. Jung once more withdrew into what Heisenberg ( 1970 ) calls a ‘creative illness’ during which he excessively conducted a ego analysis ( ref Dennis Brown and Jonathan Redder ( 1989 ) p. 107 ) . But he did non utilize ‘free association’ . but provoked unconscious imagination which he wrote down. pull his dreams. protracting narratives which he told himself. This is how he became involved in analytical psychological science. He spent long periods at his lakeside retreat. jumping between his inner world/ outer universe. Freud. looked back into a client’s childhood. whereas Jung looked to the hereafter more and did non set much importance into the past. more in what can be achieved. the ends to take for†¦ . . the hope†¦ . . of alteration. The unconscious head of a adult male. Jung believed. contained a female component ( anima ) . and a woman’s a male component ( animosity ) . These he believed to be linked to titillating desires. on what the single discoveries attractive in the opposite sex. Another belief Jung held. is that if a individual reacts really strongly to his anima/animus it may take to homosexualism. This is what he believed. non which has been proven to be true. Page 7 Jung’s theories. I believe to be utile in therapy. because if you can measure an persons personality. you can endeavour to do the therapy more applicable to their ‘type’ which Jung viewed as their singularity as an person. ‘the wholeness’ . He did non conceal behind a client like Freud. preferring to utilize a face to confront method. where the client and the healer are equal ; he besides used personal work on dreams. a assortment of ways to seek and advance growing in the client. to look to the hereafter. His positions on mental unwellness gave some hope to a sick person as he believed that within the psychosis experienced there is a personality concealed. with hopes. desires etc. he tried to understand them through reading. Jung saw mental unwellness as a defect. as inferior. but tried to assist the single face this inferior side and near his extrospective side to accomplish ‘wholeness’ . On the whole. Jung’s typology is best used in the manner that one would utilize a compass ; all typological possibilities are theoretically available to the Self. but it is utile to be able to set up those coordinates that one is utilizing to chart one’s class through life. Jung accepted that this class is ne'er intractably fixed ; it may be at any clip be capable to change. Viewed in this visible radiation. consciousness of one’s psychological type is non a restraint but release. for it can open up new navigational possibilities in life. the being of which 1 might otherwise ne'er have discovered ( ref. Anthony Stevens. 2001. p. 101 ) Jung possessed his critics. chiefly Freudian. after his split with Freud ; in peculiar his Archetypes theories concentrating on Jung’s belief that the beginnings of originals ( and their footing in the corporate unconscious ) transcend to the person. in that they reflect on hereditary or cosmopolitan kernel. The review besides examines a related impression of Jung’s. that the corporate unconscious unites us with the universe around us in an immediate paranormal or synchronism sense. These impressions of Jung’s are found to be earnestly flawed. In malice of this. the review suggests that Jung’s belief in the familial footing of certain unconscious content holds some promise. With this in head. suggestions are made refering needful alteration in Jung’s theory and refering the sort of grounds required for its support. ( ref. Journey of Humanistic Psychology. Spring 1996. Vol 36 no. 261. 91. p. 223-242. Another unfavorable judgment with respects to Jung is he does non dig into childhood experience ; in contrast to Freud and depth psychology and some psychologists find his theories hard and drawn out. Besides his theory does bring forth a moderate sum of research and 2 ) Neither possible to verify or distort. ( ref. HttpYahoo. com. Page 8 Conclusion In order to expeditiously assist a client and to find curative ends it is necessary to set up whether a individual is chiefly orientated toward their inner ( invagination ) or outer universe ( extroversion ) and following to measure which are the dominant and auxillary psychological maps of the client. Jung said that people connect thoughts. feelings. experiences and information by manner of associations in the unconscious in such a manner as to impact their behaviour. He identified these groupings as ‘Complexes’ . He believed that they may be organised around a peculiar individual or object and the healer may utilize this cognition to convey to the head of the client’s consciousness a state of affairs which they may be happening hard to untangle from. The curative end of Jungian therapy is to assist the client resoluteness imbalanced facets of their personality which nowadays in a figure of differing ways of psychological perturbation. Examples include: utmost negativeness. dependences. grades of paranoia. sudden spiritual transition. in appropriate fond regards to unsuitable spouses. craze. passion. depression. hypochondrias or schizophrenic personality traits as Jung himself had as a male child. By understanding his theory and how each type may show the healer can assist them unlock the shadow sides of their personality. It is a procedure in which the client is helped to come to footings with the topographic point of ego within their ain universe and besides to assist them see that they are portion of a greater corporate unconscious. Much of Jung’s work was about the interconnection of all people and civilizations. Today more than of all time as we seek to go â€Å"one world† Jung’s work with eastern every bit good as western faiths and civilizations seems more and more appropriate. The work of Hans Eysenck through empirical surveies across the universe has shown that personality types exist in all civilizations and hence concludes that there is a familial constituent to personality types. â€Å"Such transverse cultural unanimity would be improbable if biological factors did non play a prevailing part† ( Eysenck. 1990 ) But like Jung he believed that environmental factors likely find how much an person will develop to their full potency. The usage of appropriate appraisal techniques can be priceless in assisting a healer to develop the untapped potency within the person and is so making contribute to the corporate unconsciousness and synchronism of the planet as a whole.