The eight functions

From four letters to eight functions

The four letters of a type are a code. Read the right way, they give the order of all eight functions, from the most natural to the most hidden.

The four letters

E or IWhere your energy goes: out to the world, or into yourself. It decides which function leads.
S or NHow you take in information: concrete facts (sensing) or patterns and meanings (intuition).
T or FHow you decide: by logic (thinking) or by values (feeling).
J or PWhich of the two faces the outer world: your way of deciding (J) or your way of perceiving (P).

Myers

Build a stack

INFJ, step by step: J means the deciding letter, F, faces outward (Fe), so the perceiving letter, N, faces inward (Ni). I means the inward one leads: Ni first, Fe second. Each one then pairs with its opposite: Ti third, Se fourth. The shadow is the same four facing the other way: Ne, Fi, Te, Si.

The rule that surprises everyone

J and P describe how you deal with the outer world. An INFJ is J because their deciding function, Fe, faces outward, even though the function that leads them, Ni, is a perceiving one. In the same way, an INTP is P, yet leads with a deciding function, Ti. For introverts, the letter J or P points to their second function, not their first.

This is why a type cannot be read letter by letter. The letters are a code for the stack, and the stack is what describes the mind.

Myers Grant

The four in the light

The first four functions make up the conscious personality, the ego. Grant set their order, with the direction changing at each step; Beebe named their roles.

Hero, the first function. Your most natural strength, the one you lead with.
Parent, the second. It supports the Hero, faces the other way, and is how you take care of others.
Eternal Child, the third. The opposite of the Parent on its axis: playful, innocent, easily hurt.
Anima or Animus, the fourth. The opposite of the Hero on its axis: your weak spot and your doorway to growth.

The Hero and the fourth function form one axis, which Beebe called the spine of the type. The Parent and the Child form the other, the arms.

Grant Beebe

The four in the shadow

Beebe's discovery was that the other four functions are not missing. They are the same four, facing the other way, and they sit in the shadow, each one behind its partner in the light.

Opposing Personality, the fifth. The shadow of the Hero.
Senex or Witch, the sixth. The shadow of the Parent.
Trickster, the seventh. The shadow of the Child.
Demon or Daimon, the eighth. The shadow of the fourth function.

So a type uses only four functions, but each one twice: once in the light, once in the shadow, facing the other way. They show up when you are stressed, defensive or pushed beyond your strengths, and each one hides a gift. Beebe's eight archetypes tells their story.

Beebe

Your shadow is another type

Read the four shadow functions in order and you get a stack that belongs to another type: the one with every function facing the other way. The INFJ's shadow, Ne Fi Te Si, is exactly the ENFP's light. Each type carries another one inside, and meets it out in the world. Pairs between types goes further.

Beebe