Going deeper
Who says what
Typology is a conversation across a century. The same ideas come back under different names, and some names mean different things to different authors. Here they are side by side.
The authors
Carl Jung, 1921 Jung
The two attitudes and four functions, the dominant and inferior functions, and the ego, shadow, anima and individuation. He did not order all eight.
Isabel Briggs Myers and Katharine Briggs, 1940s to 1980 Myers
The four letters, the J and P preference, and the 16 types made practical through a questionnaire.
David Keirsey, 1978 Keirsey
The four temperaments by core need: NF, NT, SJ and SP. He worked from behaviour more than from functions.
Harold Grant, 1983 Grant
The order of four functions for each type, alternating attitudes, and their development over a life.
John Beebe, from the 1980s Beebe
All eight functions, each in a seat with an archetype, four in the light and four in the shadow. The model this book is built on.
Naomi Quenk, 1993 Quenk
The grip: how the inferior function takes over under stress.
Socionics, from the 1970s Socionics
A parallel system from Jung's types, built in Lithuania, with its own names and a theory of relationships between types. Careful: its J and P letters work differently for introverts, so the same four letters can name different types.
CS Joseph, 2010s CS Joseph
Built on Beebe: the four sides of the mind, and named pairs of types (golden, pedagogue, duality).
Joseph Campbell, 1949 Campbell
Not a typologist: the hero's journey under the myths of the world, which this book reads alongside Beebe.
One idea, many names
| Idea | Jung | Myers and Grant | Beebe | CS Joseph | Socionics |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Function 1 | Superior, dominant | Dominant | Hero | Hero | Leading |
| Function 2 | Auxiliary | Auxiliary | Parent | Parent | Creative |
| Function 3 | Tertiary | Eternal Child | Child | Role | |
| Function 4 | Inferior | Inferior | Anima or Animus | Inferior | Vulnerable |
| Function 5 | Opposing Personality | Nemesis | Suggestive | ||
| Function 6 | Senex or Witch | Critic | Mobilizing | ||
| Function 7 | Trickster | Trickster | Ignoring | ||
| Function 8 | Demon or Daimon | Demon | Demonstrative | ||
| The unconscious half | Shadow | Shadow, seats 5 to 8 | Unconscious | Vital ring | |
| Groups of types | Temperaments (Keirsey) | Quadras | |||
| The type that completes yours | The shadow type | Golden pair, duality | Dual |
Socionics places its functions in a different order and does not map one to one onto Beebe's seats: read that column as the closest equivalent, not a translation. MazWiz reading
Where they agree, and where they do not
They agree that everyone has all the functions, that a type is an order of preference, and that what we use least is not gone but unconscious, and acts.
They differ on how much the shadow functions can be used, on how types relate (Socionics and CS Joseph have strong theories, Beebe is more cautious), and on whether type can be measured. The MBTI questionnaire measures four preferences; the functions themselves are hard to test, and research has mostly studied the letters, not the stacks.
This book follows Beebe's model, says where an idea comes from, and marks our own readings as such. Use it as a map, not as a verdict.
MazWiz reading