The Rose of Being:
Jung, Consciousness, Myth, and Metaphor
~ by Gerry Anne Lenhart PHD
Chapter 1. Introduction
In Psychological Types, Jung (1971/1921) describes four basic psychic functions that are capable of becoming conscious: intuition, sensation, feeling, and thinking:
Under sensation I include all perceptions by means of the sense organs; by thinking, I mean the function of intellectual cognition and the forming of logical conclusions; feeling is a function of subjective evaluation; intuition I take as perception by way of the unconscious, or perception of unconscious events (p. 518).
Jung goes on to explain that, in his experience, there are only four basic functions, a fact that seems to be self-evident if one inquires into the possibilities. These psychic functions are the methods employed by humans to acquire knowledge of themselves and the surrounding world; cognition is not restricted to one function, and each function provides its own kind of knowledge.
Of equal importance in Jung’s typology are the attitude types of introversion and extraversion, which he (1971/1921) describes as:
distinguished by their attitude to the object. The introvert’s attitude is an abstracting one… he is always intent on withdrawing libido from the object, as though he had to prevent the object from gaining power over him. The extravert, on the contrary, has a positive relation to the object. He affirms its importance to such an extent that his subjective attitude is constantly related to and oriented by the object (p. 330).
These brief explications of his major topics, namely, the eight variations of personality and the attitude types of introversion and extraversion, are later described as having this purpose:
To provide a critical psychology which will make a methodical investigation and presentation of the empirical material possible. First, and foremost, it is a critical tool for the research worker, who needs definite points of view and guidelines if he is to reduce the chaotic profusion of individual experiences to any kind of order (1971/1921, p. 555).
Jung (1971/1921) said of his typology, “It is not a physiognomy and not an anthropological system, but a critical psychology dealing with the organization and delimitation of psychic processes that can be shown to be typical” (p. xv). Here Jung makes it clear that he was not concerned with the origins of the psychological functions, but used them as a tool in organizing empirical material. It was Jung’s purpose to describe individual types of the human personality, to explain and explore individual differences of cognition and various methods of expression in the personality by using the psychic functions of intuition, sensation, feeling, and thinking, along with the attitudinal types of introversion and extraversion.
Jung (1971/1921) states: “Since every man, as a relatively stable being possesses all the basic psychological functions, it would be a psychological necessity with a view to perfect adaptation that he should also employ them in equal measure” (p. 19). Here Jung confirms the possibility of all four functions working in equal measure in the psyche of one person. Throughout his writing, he describes what happens when one function is superior and conscious and another function is inferior and unconscious. When one conscious position is extreme, the position of the other extreme will exist in the unconscious, causing a neurosis or a maladaptation to consciousness.
The interplay of conscious and unconscious opposites, as well as opposites in general, is prevalent in Jung’s thinking and writing, and appears to be the foundation for his theory of opposites or the transcendent function. He (1971/1921) describes this as follows:
The “function” being here understood not as a basic function but as a complex function made up of other functions, and “transcendent” not as denoting a metaphysical quality but merely the fact that this function facilitates a transition from one state to another. The raw material shaped by thesis and antithesis, and in the shaping of which the opposites are united, is the living symbol (p. 480).
This definition describes the importance that Jung gave to the symbol as a means for uniting the opposites, and also describes the complex relationship of the symbol with the four psychological functions.
Anexpanded individual consciousness was not seen as important only to the person who obtains the limits of personal potential, but equally important to the society towhich he belongs. Jung (1953/1943) makes this clear when he says that “development of individuality is simultaneously a development of society. Suppression of individuality through the predominance of collective ideals and organizations is a moral defeat for society” (p. 303).
Fordham (1972) writes:
The subtitle of the first English translation of Psychological Types reads or The psychology of individuation, an addition to the first Swiss edition and not added to later ones in German; it is omitted from the recent edition in the Collected works. The addition is curious because there is no mention of individuation in the text until its definition at the end of the book (p. 112).
This is literally true...