CHAT: Jung vs. Myers-Briggs (was: the enneagram)

And Rosta scripsit:

> Why loath? [BTW, I retook the test, getting much higher scores,
> with 100 on I and 90 on T. The discussions must have put me in
> a very INTPish mood. But so far I only really grasp the
> implications of the I/E parameter, despite your much-needed
> exposition of the MBTI system.]
Here's another, more classically Jungian version of it.  I take
extraversion/introversion as read.  We then consider four mental
functions:  thinking and feeling (= fuehlen = judging), which are
rational (i.e. they organize the world); and sensing and intuiting,
which are non-rational (i.e. they provide information about the world).
Thinking is about true/false, feeling about good/bad; sensing is about
details, intuiting about gestalts.

In each person, one function is the first function: the one most
accessible to the conscious mind, and used -- quite literally -- first.
The second and third functions are used instrumentally and as appropriate
by the mind, though the second function somewhat dominates the third.
The fourth function is only available to the unconscious, and therefore
is the source of creativity.

There is a constraint that if the first function is rational, then the
second and third functions are non-rational and the fourth function
is also rational.  And vice versa.  Therefore, if the first and second
functions are known, the third and fourth functions are also known.

The mapping from Myers-Briggs to this scheme is that I/E specifies
introversion/extroversion, N/S specifies that either the first or the
second function is intuiting/sensing respectively, T/F specifies that
either the first or the second function is thinking/feeling respectively,
and P/J specifies in coordination with I/E which function is first
and which is second, thus: EJ and IP mean that the rational function
(T or F) is first and the non-rational function (N or S) is second;
IJ and EP mean the opposite.

As an INTP, then, I am an introvert with intuiting and thinking as
my first two functions.  The subset IP says that thinking is my
first function, intuiting my second function; therefore, sensing is
my third function and feeling my fourth function.

--
John Cowan <jcowan@...>     http://www.reutershealth.com
I amar prestar aen, han mathon ne nen,    http://www.ccil.org/~cowan
han mathon ne chae, a han noston ne 'wilith.  --Galadriel, _LOTR:FOTR_