This post might be better understood after reading a previous post, in which I presented a table of concepts from Jung’s theory, their definitions, and their manifestations in projective tests.
Jung
characterizes personality by means of two attitudes: extraversion and
introversion, and by means of four functions: thinking, intuition, sensation,
and feeling. In every person there is one dominant attitude and one dominant
function.
Extraverted individuals are
oriented toward events in the external world. They are sociable, open, and
adapt easily to different situations. They form social connections easily and
move confidently toward situations involving uncertainty. Introverted individuals are
oriented inward, toward events in their inner world. They are hesitant,
reflective, reserved, avoidant of social interactions, and inclined not to
trust people. Naturally, they are also more aware of and sensitive to their
inner world, in both cognitive and emotional respects, and develop their inner
world more extensively.
Individuals
with a highly developed thinking
function tend to connect events and pieces of information through
abstract thought. A person with strong intuition tends to use gut feelings, intuitions, and images in
order to process events in the inner or external world. People with a highly
developed sensation
function are very sensitive to the physical aspects of the world around them:
aesthetics, sights, smells, tastes, sounds, and also bodily sensations. They
also have rich mental images. Individuals with a dominant feeling function apply
emotional judgment or evaluation to the world around them: whether things are
pleasant or unpleasant, good or bad, evoke closeness or rejection, and so
forth.
Because
each person has a dominant attitude and a dominant function, eight personality
types are formed: extraverted thinking, extraverted intuitive, extraverted
sensing, extraverted feeling, introverted thinking, introverted intuitive,
introverted sensing, and introverted feeling. Moreover, each person with a particular combination of
traits has an opposite combination of traits located in the shadow—that is,
repressed into the unconscious, but expressed in certain situations in which
the person has less inhibitory control. Jung conceptualizes the functions of
thinking and feeling as opposites, and the functions of sensation and intuition
as opposites.
Thus,
a person with extraverted thinking traits will have an introverted feeling
shadow. A person with introverted intuitive traits will have an extraverted
sensing shadow. There is one further small complication: Jung argues that people generally
develop two functions rather than one. One function is dominant and the other
is auxiliary. Thus, an extraverted-thinking person with an auxiliary
sensation function will have an introverted-feeling shadow with an auxiliary
intuition function (see the diagram below). In any case, part of the
developmental/therapeutic aim is to create integration between the manifest
personality traits and the traits that are in the shadow, in order to promote
the wholeness of the self.
It
is interesting to think about children in assessment or therapy in terms of
these personality traits. What are the child’s dominant attitudes and
functions? Which attitude and which functions are in the child’s shadow, and
should ideally be developed?
And
in the family context: What are the dominant attitudes and functions of each of
the child’s parents? Which parent does the child resemble more? Does the child
have more conflict with the parent who resembles them, or with the parent who
differs from them in personality structure? Are there dominant attitudes and
functions that characterize this family? Which attitude and which functions are
in this family’s shadow? Thinking about these questions may provide a direction
for family therapy.
In
the same way, one can also think about the school system or the school
personality: Is the school’s attitude toward the world—the superintendents, the
parents, the psychologist—extraverted or introverted? For example, does the
school initiate activities and projects with other schools or various
institutions in the community, or does it prefer activities aimed at the
self-development of the teaching staff or the students? Which of the four
functions is dominant in the school? Does the school emphasize academic
achievement, corresponding to the thinking function? Creativity, spirituality,
and thinking outside the box, corresponding to intuition? Aesthetics and
cultivation of the physical environment, and sustainability, corresponding to
the sensation function? Or emotional evaluation: is there a focus on evaluating
figures or events as good or bad, desirable or undesirable? Which attitude and
which functions are repressed into the school’s unconscious and are in the
shadow? These may be the attitude and functions that should be developed in
that school.
Finally,
one can think about the interaction between the child’s personality
characteristics and the characteristics of the school system in which they study.
It is possible that the school will have greater difficulty with a child who
expresses a personality structure that lies in the “shadow” of the school
personality.
Stevens,
A. (2001). Jung: A very short introduction (Vol. 40). OUP Oxford.
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