#personality

In your adventures on the internet, you may have encountered this intriguing little test featured on colorquiz.com and other websites. Upon taking it, you may have been impressed, unimpressed, or reserved and skeptical about your results. In any case, you were probably curious about how it works. This article will provide a brief summary and introduction to the theory behind the Luscher Colour Test, and give a rundown of his related typology.

Luscher’s work is supposedly quite popular internationally, especially in Europe, but most of the commentary and research on it is exclusively in German. I can’t read German so I can’t investigate their validity: So, in this article, we will be taking Dr. Luscher on his word, and proceeding as if his research is sound.

Luscher’s theory rests on a couple of fundamental claims. The first is that our emotional and psychological reactions to colour are deep-rooted and pre-conscious. This means that we react a certain way to colours whether we mean to or not, and even whether we know it or not. Our sensation of colour bypasses our conscious brain and interacts directly with our emotional systems and our self-regulating (“Autonomic”) nervous system (abbreviated as “ANS”).

The second is that the essential meaning of any colour is the same for everyone. Their effect on heart-rate, respiration, arousal, metabolism etc. is universal. For example, orange-red is always exciting and stimulating, while dark blue always has a calming effect. However, a person’s subjective attitude towards the effects produced by a colour –  their preferencefor the colour – can vary widely.

This attitude is what Luscher calls the “function”. When taking the colour test, you are asked to rank the colours in order of preference. The idea is that the first colours you pick – the most preferred – are tied to emotional states that you want more of. The short-form notation for this is “+”. The next most preferred colours represent your present situation and emotional state, indicated by “x”. Next are emotional states that are neither preferred nor outright rejected, but restrained, either because the person is indifferent to them or because they are inappropriate to the current circumstances. These are indicated by “=”. Finally, the last colours picked represent states that are disagreeable. They are rejected on the grounds of being unwanted, or wanted but painfully out of reach. These are indicated by “-”.

As for the colours themselves, Luscher derived their significance and meaning in a very interesting way. Influenced by Kant, he started with purely logical distinctions. He asked, What can things do in space? They might be solid, and move things out of their path as needed, like any sturdy materiel; or they might be quiescent, adapting to other shapes, like water or air. In terms of human behaviour, this could be considered the difference between actingon the one hand, and adaptingorperceivingon the other. The final terms Luscher arrived at were “Autonomous” and “Heteronomous”, meaning “self-determined” and “other-determined” respectively. (Parallels to this duality include the Chinese Yang and Yin, as well as Jung’s Animus and Anima).

What do objects do over time? They change or stay the same. In terms of human attention, this becomes a focus on a single subject (the Self), a “Concentric” attitude; or a focus on many changing objects, an “Ex-centric” attitude. (This has certain parallels with Introversion and Extraversion, although they remain separate concepts).

These two distinctions created a classic quaternity: The Autonomous-Concentric, the Heteronomous-Excentric, and so on. Now Luscher changed his methods. He wondered, What emotional states fit into each category? And then, through extensive experimentation and trial-and-error, he found colours that naturally elicited those emotional states. His theory is part empiricism and part pure logic.

The four major colours that make up the quaternity are Dark Blue, Blue-Green, Orange-Red, and Bright Yellow. Their meaning is as follows:

DARK BLUE: Contented Self-Moderation

This colour elicits a feeling of tranquility. It has a universally calming effect on the nervous system (thereby allying itself with the parasympatheticbranch of the ANS). It is Heteronomous and Concentric: meaning, “other-determination of the Self”. The quietude and contentment tied to Blue is a kind of peaceful surrender, a relaxation that allows a person to interact with their deeper feelings. Dark Blue is therefore associated with a certain sensitivity, as well as tenderness towards loved ones. People in this state of dissolved tranquility also tend to be easily hurt.

BLUE-GREEN: Stable Self-Respect

Green is considered one of the “psychological primaries”, but it is not technically a primary colour. It is a mix of Blue and Yellow: it contains a certain tension of light and dark; not a thing-in-itself, but a binding-together. It represents the interlocking beliefs and memories that make up our identity. It is Autonomous and Concentric, meaning “a self-determination of the Self”. It is associated with self-assertion, conviction, obstinacy, and persistence. A person with this sense of immutable identity wants to believe their principles are correct; they want to be in full control of themselves; they have feelings of pride, prestige and even superiority.

ORANGE-RED: Active Self-Confidence

This hue is universally exciting. It stimulates the sympathetic branch of the ANS, which raises pulse, blood pressure, and respiration rate. It is especially associated with arousal and aggression. Like Green, it is Autonomous and wants to be in control; however, it is directed towards external objects (Ex-centric). It is therefore a kind of striving or hunger, associated with desire, domination, and achievement. A person in the stimulated Red state wants to exercise their strength and sexual potency, and experience the present to its fullest. They may also want to be seen as a dynamic and exciting person, bragging or showing-off to convince others of their competence.

BRIGHT YELLOW: Open-Minded Self-Development

Bright Yellow is the lightest of the major colours, and is therefore stimulating like Orange-Red, but it lacks the solidity and purpose of the latter. This colour seems to disperse and disappear into brightness. It represents spontaneity, variability, exhilaration, and hope for the future. It is Heteronomous (other-determined) and Ex-centric (focused on objects), therefore people in this open-ended state are easily carried away with excitement by new people, places, and developments. It represents a total loosening or relaxation, and the possibility of escape from intolerable circumstances. It is a relentlessly cheerful colour that often becomes irritating to the exhausted or depressed.

The four colours have many parallels in our culture. In terms of the classical elements, they are Water, Earth, Fire, and Air. In terms of the Greek Humours, they are the Phlegmatic, Melancholic, Choleric, and Sanguine temperaments. In psychiatric terminology, they are the depressive, obsessive, manic, and paranoid types.

In the Luscher Colour Test, people are expected to pick the four major colours within the first 4 or 5 of their ranking. This is because they represent important psychological and physiological needs. The other four colours of the test are, by design, less appealing (with the possible exception of violet). The genius of this is that they become a foilto the major colours. If someone picks a major colour afterany of the generally unappealing colours, it indicates that the associated emotional state is undergoing a kind of suppression. Something has happened to make it intolerable: A rejected Blue might be someone who cannot relax or let themselves be sensitive; a rejected Green, someone who has fallen from grace and their self-esteem or sense of identity is in tatters. Yellow and Red rejected together often means the person is sick of stimulation: they are physically exhausted, or on the other hand, psychologically withdrawn.

Nevertheless, the major colours represent basic needs, and the underlying motivation of a person is always to meet and acquire them. Therefore a rejected major colour is a “want but can’t have” or a “want, but is too painful to have”. It indicates a stress point in the personality, an anxiety. When this happens, the most preferred colour takes on a compensatory quality. It becomes exaggerated and compulsive, and even if it is the “most wanted” colour of the test-taker, it never truly satisfies them.

On the flip side, one of the “foil” auxiliary colours may be picked in the first half of the test. This indicates a generally negative attitude towards life, and is also classed as an anxiety. The nature of the anxiety differs based on the colour; but if Grey or Black are picked early, it generally means that, for whatever reason, many of the major emotional states have become intolerable and the person is resorting to desperate measures to preserve themselves.

The auxiliary colours are violet, brown, grey and black. Their meaning is as follows:

VIOLET

Violet is a mixture of Red and Blue, two opposite colours. It represents domination and surrender at the same time: an “identification”, a melding-together of subject and object. It represents a desire for a sensitive, intimate, “magical” relationship. It is also something like a waking dream: everything that is thought and imagined must become reality. Violet picked first in the test is very common among children and adolescents, who we tend to consider as living in a “fantasy land”, still protected from the harsher realities of life. (This is meant as a clue about its nature, not that adults who pick Violet first are necessarily the same way). People in the Violet state want to be seen as charming and mysterious, and look for others who can charm them in the same way: they want to “cast a spell” over others and themselves.

BROWN

This hue of Brown is Orange-Red broken down by Black: Therefore it is also tied to the sexual impulse and sensuality, but its energy and vitality are gone. It mainly represents the bodily senses, physical health, and the comfort of home. Normally, it is in the indifferent “=” category, since a well-functioning body should not be the cause of much attention. However, if brown is picked early (meaning it is desired), this indicates that the person wishes for comfort, recuperation, or home. People displaced during World War II showed an especial preference for this colour. If brown is rejected or picked last, this may indicate that the person does not want to associate with any creature comforts, thinking they are made of sterner stuff. This usually produces an anxiety that is compensated by some compulsive sensuous behaviour.

GREY

The grey is devoid of colour (achromatic), and is midway between light and dark. It neither excites nor relaxes. It represents a veil of total neutrality and detachment. In the Luscher Colour Test, it acts as a kind of fence: The colours coming after it have become intolerable, and the person wishes to wall them off with a shield of non-involvement. They may go through the motions of these states in their daily life, but entirely avoid feelingthem. The colours that precede grey are thought of as the only way forward, the only emotional states with which the person is allowed to engage. If grey is picked first, this means that non-involvement is the ultimate value. If it is last, it means that the person wants to experience everything, and will do anything to avoid the horror of neutrality. Grey usually occurs in the 5th to 7th picks.

BLACK

Black is the negation of colour itself. It represents a rejection of the intolerable conditions of life, a total surrender or despair. The colours picked after black have been “given up on” and the person believes they can offer him nothing. The colours picked before black are the only things left to pursue. Black has an intensifying, volatile effect on any colour it is paired with: Yellow and Black picked together, being the brightest and darkest colours of the test, usually means that some catastrophic change is soon to occur. Black is usually picked last in the test.

The Colour Test offers thousands of different possible interpretations, based on the positions, groupings, and interplay of the colours. Decades of use have led to a lot of nuance for an experienced practitioner to keep in mind and take advantage of. Generally, a human practitioner is able to spot more interesting patterns in a set of test results that an automated system like a online quiz. The guidelines for administering and interpreting the test are in the published book, “The Luscher Color Test”.

The system of “Anxiety and Compensation” featured in the Colour Test provides the foundations for an interesting typology. In “The 4-Color Person”, Luscher describes the ideal individual: Someone who is able to balance all four emotional states with their corresponding “senses of self” (self-moderation, self-esteem, self-confidence and self-development). However, most people under-value one or another colour, resulting in an anxiety with a corresponding compensation (an over-valuation of another colour). This system of colour pairs results in 32 “unbalanced” types.

The beauty of this type system is how straightforward and intuitive it is to grasp. For example, someone who over-values Red self-confidence is simply that: over-confident. An over-valuation is a compensation covering up an anxiety: In this case, that anxiety might be tied to the inability to achieve Blue contentment, so that the person is perpetually dissatisfied. Luscher nicknames this type “The Greedy Showoff” or “The Baiting Devil”, depending on whether the exaggerated self-confidence or the lack of contentment is the dominant factor. Let’s look at The Baiting Devil as an example of a combination type:

The baiting devil (Over-valued Red and rejected Blue, with an emphasis on rejected Blue)

Sense of self: Dissatisfaction; Pompous Overconfidence

Behaviour: Disquiet; Agitation; Provoke people in order to create contacts and relationships and to ward off their void (a  life which is devoid of relationships), their boredom, their deserted isolation, and their discontent

Baiting devils are dissatisfied because, although highly excitable and emotionally susceptible, they suffer from their lack of responsiveness, their monotony, and their lack of relationships with others. They feel fine if there is an intense encounter and erotic fascination in a relationship. And they like tasks in which they have to commit themselves personally and totally.

Baiting devils can’t stand people who hide their true feelings behind conventional cliches and, in their boredom, create a gap and a vacuum. So they bait such people. They challenge them with direct or boorish criticism. They try to strike them in their weak points. That makes the baiting devils feel superior, thereby avenging themselves for the inadequate, unsatisfying attempt at contact or for an earlier rejection.

The solution to each type-dilemma is always to accept the rejected sense-of-self, no matter how painful that is in the short-term. In this case, the Baiting Devil must accept Blue self-moderation to ease their relentless agitation and dissatisfaction caused by its suppression. Relaxing the anxiety naturally relaxes the compensation: This person will slow their compulsive and exaggerated expression of Red aggression and showiness, if their efforts are successful. The full explanation, and a description of each type, can be found in the published book “The 4-Color Person”.

In this way, Luscher subscribes to a kind of Stoic philosophy, the one that has been largely abandoned, that states that we actually have control over how we react to life’s events and tragedies – That we create our own happiness, regardless of our circumstances. He uses this analogy: When learning to ride a bike, your circumstances have an impact. You might be in a rough neighborhood (a poor locale); you might have an old, rusted, second-hand bike (having physical defects); you might not even have a teacher (absent parents).

However, none of these things could reallyteach you to ride that bike anyways. This is because the last, most essential step is one that no one can teach or very well explain. To ride a bike, you have to figure out for yourself the sensation of balance. Balancing the four senses of self, achieving the right middle ground that gives you freedom and peace of mind, is something that occurs entirely within yourself, regardless of environmental factors. Again, this is like the Stoic philosophy: You cannot control events, but you can control your reaction to events. Take it for what it’s worth.

Sources:

Luscher, Max, and Scott, Ian. The Luscher Color Test. New York: Random House, 1969. Print.

Luscher, Max. The 4-Color Person. New York: Simon and Schuster, 1979. Print.

In this article we’ll stray a bit from typology to cover another tremendously important part of Jung’s theory of personality. What we’re discussing here are archetypal complexes – webs of associated mental contents and attitudes, centred around a universal archetypal pattern. These function like sub-personalities, with their own character and motives, which is the basis of the ancient idea of the man with many souls. The most prominent and universal complexes are the persona, the shadow, the animaoranimus(generalised as soul), and the self.

First, a word about the Ego. I’ve mentioned it often but I haven’t given a technical definition. The Ego is actually a complex like the others, composed of an essential grouping of mental contents, however it is not like the others listed in this article. This is because the Ego is you– at least, the you that you experience, that you are aware of, that you define yourself as. The Ego is the centre of consciousness proper. However, the other “souls” can come into contact or clash with the Ego, creating a distortion of your conscious character and attitude. In some cases the Ego can identify itself completely with another complex, in which case the person becomes more of a solitary archetype than an individual (for example, a mother identifying completely with her role as Mother).

The persona is the mask we wear, or the role we play, in society and in our interactions with others. It’s a compromise between the subjective individual and the collective, how he ensures that society will accept him. As such, part of the defining qualities of the persona are decided by the outside world; it has one foot in, one foot out. It tends to be associated with the individual’s most differentiated functions, especially the extroverted ones. An individual can have many different personas, as many as there are areas of his life where he demonstrates a different set of behaviours. One for work, to appease his bosses and colleagues; one for home, the face he shows his family. Sometimes, the Ego might identify with the persona, in which case the individual believes that how he presents himself is how he really is. This is problematic, since he becomes an exponent of the collective rather than a real individual.

The shadow is the polar opposite of the Ego. Whatever the Ego decides it is not, the shadow enthusiastically takes hold of. It is practically the same as Freud’s id, full of repressed impulses, desires, and animal instincts. However, it’s also the source of great creativity, inspiration, and primal energy. Society is configured to repress the shadow – spontaneity is the enemy of order. However, Jung generally believes this is a mistake. When we suppress or “get rid of” unwelcome thoughts, feelings, or impulses, they don’t disappear but only become unconscious. Therefore, a righteous, moralistic, and pure conscious attitude means the “animal in us only becomes more beastlike”, perhaps explaining the brutality of Christian wars. (In addition to having the most explosive and sudden manifestations, a repressed shadow is also projected onto one’s enemies, providing a convenient excuse for vilification and brutality). On the other hand, when the Ego is in sync with the shadow, the creativity and spontaneity become great gifts. That said, the good always comes with the bad. Becoming conscious of one’s dark side can be an enormously painful task. All the unconscious, undifferentiated functions are associated with the shadow.

The soul is really two archetypes, the animain a man and the animusin a woman. It is the whole existence of the opposite sex in one’s own psyche, a man’s femininity and a woman’s masculinity. As a result of cultural pressures and biological factors, the anima and animus tend to be quite unconscious in men and women respectively, although to varying degrees. They become the “inner personality” – the secret, subtle underbelly of the individual, which warrants the alternative title of “soul”. Like other unconscious contents, the soul is projected, in this case onto members of the opposite sex (especially those who closely match the qualities and characteristics of the soul-complex. In this way, the soul constitutes our pre-formed expectations in romantic relationships). This results in a passionate attraction or aversion, and the whole phenomena of infatuation. It’s as if the other person really held a piece of one’s soul. As the inner personality, the soul has another function: it guides the individual in exploring their own unconscious, even appearing as an effective “spirit guide” in dreams. Like the persona, it has one foot in, one foot out, but the latter foot rests in the collective unconscious – the mythological “inner world”. The soul is associated with the inferior function.

Finally, there is the self. The self is the totality of the whole personality, everything that is conscious as well as unconscious. It is also the centre, the guiding, organising, unifying principle of the psyche. According to Jung, the task of a lifetime is to know the self (“self-knowledge”, duh), and by knowing it we actualise and embody it. In practise, the self is our “inner voice”, represented in certain religions by inner divinity, and in certain cultures as an “inner man/woman” or ancestor. Since, in some ways, it is a vision of what we could potentially become, it can appear in dreams and stories as a wise old man (in men) or a wise-woman (in women), although also as a cruel senex or terrifying Earth-mother. Later on, it could appear as a hermaphrodite, since it unifies both anima and animus, and even a Mandala (“magic circle”). This article actually lists the sequence of personal development in order – before one can start to develop the self, he has to detach himself from his persona, come to terms with his shadow, and reunite with his soul. The self is the cohesive unity of all the other aspects, which was always present but only had to be discovered and listened to. The self is associated with all the functions in equal measure.

To recap: The archetypal complexes are the many sub-personalities of an individual. The Ego is the centre of consciousness, what he considers to be “me”. The persona is our outwards face, the role we play to fit into society. The shadow is everything that is rejected by the Ego, and includes all the animal energy and impulses. The soul or anima/animus is the contrasexual aspect of a man or woman. It helps them relate to the opposite sex, and it is also the inwards face that brings them in touch with the deep unconscious. The self is the archetype of unity, the totality of the whole personality. The task of life is to know the self, and in knowing it, to become it.

The inferior function is the Achilles’ Heel of each type. The challenges of life normally make it necessary that an individual develop and rely on one primary tool – their dominant function. However, to the extent that it receives the lion’s share of energy, its opposite (Thinking v. Feeling, Sensation v. Intuition) is deprived of it. As a result, this function consistently lags behind in differentiation and development, becoming the problem child of the whole personality, apparently with a mind of its own.

This lack of energy given to the inferior function essentially amounts to a repression. It’s important to note that this repression is not necessarily total. A Thinking type still has feelings, and a Sensation type will still receive intuitions. However, they are not guided by them per se. In fact, these contents are seldom welcome and rarely usable and productive in the same way that the products of the dominant are. This is because they float up from repressed inferior, which has one foot firmly entrenched in the unconscious. To the extent that it does operate in consciousness, it is always in accordance with the governing principle of the dominant function, often parroting or rephrasing its viewpoints. Its back is broken – it can only function under its own principle in the unconscious.

Before we continue, we should examine the nature of “consciousness” and “the unconscious”. Consciousness has the qualities of illumination, wakefulness, and clarity. It is often represented by the Sun or the civilising Hero. Everything conscious is cleanly divided into its various parts, made useful and in alignment with the individual’s conscious goals and desires. By contrast, the unconscious is murky and hidden from view. It’s represented by the depths of the ocean, or the land below the horizon, the underworld. It contains the untamed “Nature” inside the individual, where everything blends into everything else, operates on instinct, and is not bothered by contradictions. This is the realm that the inferior function finds itself in, which has several consequences.

The first is concretismin the original sense of the word, meaning “grown together”. The inferior function intermingles with other unconscious contents, such as memory-complexes, Freudian urges, or the next-most-repressed function. In particular, the inferior function comes into contact with the mythological archetypes, which contaminate it with a certain fantastical or unreal quality. When the products of the inferior functions are expressed or enter consciousness, they carry these associations with them.

The second consequence is ambitendency. Everything in nature has both a light and a dark aspect, Yin and Yang. It is only in consciousness that these opposites come into conflict, since they have to be separated out in order to function in a directed and productive way. In the unconscious, they exist together. This means that the individual has difficulty making anything much out of the products of his inferior, since they contain their own antitheses – they cancel themselves out. This also means that the inferior has a definite dark side. Often, a person’s nastiest moments are carried out by the inferior, destructive, vindictive, and hell-raising. On the other hand it also has a profound light side. For example, its raw, unadulterated nature means that a person is always completely authentic through their inferior, and it often brings a refreshing, childlike simplicity out of them.

The third is that, like all unconscious contents, the inferior function and its products (that are unable to enter consciousness) are projected. The conscious personality sees its own unconscious as belonging to different people and things in their daily life. The aforementioned dark aspects are projected onto one’s enemies, and the light aspects onto friends and lovers, in either case creating a strong emotional tie. This is a way in which the unconscious can reach the conscious ego in an indirect way, for better or for worse.

As long as consciousness and the unconscious are in good standing with each other, when the individual more or less acts as a cohesive whole, the inferior function provides healthy compensation to the conscious attitude, a tempering voice that helps people consider multiple angles and perspectives. However, when the personality is at odds with itself, when the Ego tries to suppress the unconscious, the healthy compensation turns into outright antagonism. The inferior function then does its best to sabotage the conscious standpoint in order to bring it back in line. This process is described in greater depth in my article on Enantiodromia.

Developing and differentiating the inferior function is something that will be covered in a subsequent article, since it’s an extensive topic in its own right.

To recap: The inferior function is characterised by a lack of energy or attention. It sinks to the unconscious, where it develops the qualities of concretism (contamination by other unconscious contents) and ambitendency (being simultaneously light and dark). Its products are also projected onto other people and things. Normally it provides healthy compensation, but in neurotic circumstances it becomes antagonistic.

Everything You Need To Know

“This work sprang originally from my need to define the ways in which my outlook differed from Freud’s and Adler’s. 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 judgement. My book, therefore, was an effort to deal with the relationship of the individual to the world, to people and things. It discussed the various aspects of consciousness, the various attitudes the conscious mind might take toward the world, and thus constitutes a psychology of consciousness regarded from what might be called a clinical angle.”

- C.G. Jung, Memories, Dreams, Reflections.

Not everybody approaches the world in the same way. In fact, most people seem to differ from each other greatly – sometimes it seems like a miracle that we can even get along at all! In attempting to explore this problem, Jung devised a system of types that – although not as scientifically rigorous as modern personality inventories like the Big 5 or the MMPI – was simple, elegant, and deep. This should be repeated: Jung’s typology, although rooted in practical experience, is intuitive and symbolic in nature. It is meant firstly as a therapeutic tool and not as a strictly scientific theory.

Jung’s typology is made up of six elements. The first are two attitudes: IntroversionandExtroversion. These represent the direction of interest of the psyche and the movement of its energy, whether inwards or outwards. The others are four functions: Thinking,Feeling,SensationandIntuition. These are modes of operation that, between the four of them, roughly encompass your conscious experience. The shorthand goes like this: Sensation tells us that something is there; Thinking tells us what it is; Feeling tells us if it is agreeable or not; Intuition tells us from where it came and to where it might go.

Introversion is an inwards-turning of energy. It’s an orientation that expresses the supremacy of subjective part of life; one’s inner thoughts, feelings, personal experiences, and the deep unconscious*. This does not mean that introverts are always introspective – instead, their relation to the outside world is coloured by their subjective view in such a way that their perceptions and judgements hinge more on their private inner reality than on the shared reality of the objective world. Because their energy moves away from the object (and towards the subject), they tend to be relatively reserved, inscrutable, and shy.

*Footnote to Introversion: The “deep unconscious” here refers to the Collective Unconscious, which is covered in another article. To summarise, the subject isn’t only made up of personal experiences or memories. Just as we all have an inherited body that is only superficially different between individuals, so do we have an inherited psyche that has evolved over millions of years. Introversion relies particularly heavily on inherited, instinctual images and patterns of thought. Pushed to the extreme, these manifest as a mythological or religious quality of thought, since myths are just the collective expression of these inner archetypes through stories.

Extroversion is an outwards-turning of energy. Here the objective part of life is the most important. Extroverts think and act in a way that corresponds more directly to external conditions. They aren’t necessarily perfectly adjusted – extroversion is no guarantee of good social skills, and furthermore, neglecting their inner life often results in grief for the extrovert. However, they are constantly impelled to relate to the outer world in some way, and in turn to be affected by it, whether that means they’re on good terms with everybody, or that they pick fights with everybody. In general they are relatively open, sociable, jovial, or at least friendly and approachable.

The four functions are made up of two pairs of opposites. Sensation and Intuition make up the first pair. These are the “irrational” orperceiving functions. Sensation takes in impressions of the material world via the five senses, which often results in a pragmatic, grounded, or aesthetically-minded personality. Intuition is a subconscious or subliminal perception that, roughly speaking, presents the user with a whole where only a part is objectively visible. This often results in a speculative, flighty, or imaginative personality. Thinking and Feeling are the “rational” or judgingfunctions. Thinking takes a detached, mechanistic view of problems, and seeks to put the world in conceptual or at least logical terms. Feeling recognises and imparts subjective value onto things, deciding whether or not they are agreeable and good.

However, these functions are never developed and used in an individual to the same extent. As a rule, one becomes the person’s primary approach to life – thedominantfunction. Its incompatible opposite is partially repressed as a result. This becomes theinferiorfunction. The two other functions are in a middle-state of differentiation, and therefore are less harshly polarised. One is usually theauxiliaryfunction, which supports and counterbalances the dominant – a functional sidekick. This is not a hard rule, though: both could be auxiliaries, or both could be undifferentiated inferior functions. However, the most common arrangement consists of two conscious functions, the dominant and main auxiliary, and two unconscious inferior functions.

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Fig. 1 - A Thinking dominant, Feeling inferior arrangement. The two middle functions, Sensation and Intuition, are halfway between consciousness and unconsciousness. They can be developed auxiliaries or underdeveloped inferiors.

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These dominant-auxiliary combinations begin to paint familiar pictures – the practical problem-solver with Thinking and Sensation, the esoteric creative artist with Feeling and Intuition, etc. The inferior function also tends to be recognisable. We all know people who have terrible difficulties with Feeling, or for whom material reality is always a stumbling block thanks to inferior Sensation.

Finally, in any given function type, a certain attitude will also dominate. This attitude does not exist on its own, but applies to the dominant function, so that the Thinking of a Thinking type might actually be Introverted or Extroverted. The opposite attitude, however, is repressed and combines with the inferior function. The middle functions are again in a more mercurial middle state; they often have the capacity to shift either way. This results in a distinct set of types, which are described in my Jung Abridged series.

To recap: Two attitudes, Introversion and Extroversion. Four functions: two perceiving, that is Sensation and Intuition, and two judging, that is Thinking and Feeling. One is dominant and conscious; its opposite is inferior and unconscious. The other two functions can be either conscious auxiliaries or unconscious inferiors. The dominant function has a characteristic attitude; the inferior takes the opposite attitude. Those are the basics – from here you can check out any of my other articles, which deal with many aspects of this schematic in greater depth. Enjoy!

To read people’s vibrations through patterns and observations. To be able to tell their own insecurities and fears. Our words cut to the very core because we feel the energy and see through real intentions. People bleed so much honesty they’re too busy to notice. We are innate psychics, skilled to merge facts with instincts and it has never failed us.

Us INFJs—the 1% with the gift of introverted intuition. ✨

Happy Sunday! Blessed be.

xoxo,

Mari Jo

Why does everything become about 200% less interesting when you’re obligated to do it?

I’m a dreamer but also a realist. I seek truths but will go against the norm and think bigger in order to find them. That is my personal way of dreaming.

I really like avoiding personal problems until they bite me in the face, yeah?

If you force me to open my mouth prematurely, I’m going to sound like an idiot almost every time. I’m looking at you, teachers. 

I’m so introverted and introspective that interaction with the outside world has always been tedious and terrifying. I fought to become better acclimated to societal interaction. It wasn’t easy, but I’m pretty good at it now. I have exactly as many friends as I want, and I am capable of functioning like an adult. A lot of people don’t even know that I’m an introvert, but the girl who was afraid to call to order a pizza and petrified of asking for help in the grocery store will always be inside of me somewhere. I can fool other people and even myself, but on some level, I’ll always struggle with this.

My entire life is an unorthodox metaphor.

Is there anything genuine under all this sarcasm?

I’m wicked smart. They’ve always said that. My grades have never been stellar, but I have this ability to find the quickest, most effective path between two points and do exactly what’s necessary to take it. Really, I’m not into overachieving. Sometimes it means pushing myself, but usually it just means being deliberate in my actions. It’s weird. A lot of people perceive my actions as unstructured or random, but they really, truly are not. I meander, but I do so with purpose. I never did my homework because I realized that I didn’t need to. That I didn’t need straight As to get where I wanted to go. It just wasn’t necessary, so I didn’t strain myself. And for what it’s worth, I’ve almost always been right.

During the rare times I’m pushed to tears, I cry about the most random things. I’d rather cry about anything other than what’s really bothering me, that is, if I even know what’s really bothering me. I’m so oblivious about my own feelings.

I can’t focus unless there’s a metaphorical knife pressed to my throat that has just pricked my skin and caused blood to start trickling down my chest. Otherwise, it can wait until tomorrow.