How the MBTI is More than a Four-Letter Code

“Until you make the unconscious conscious, it will direct your life and you will call it fate.”

“The privilege of a lifetime is to become who you really are.”

                        Carl Jung

How is the MBTI typically experienced?

These inspiring quotes above provide a window to the depth of understanding that can be gained through the MBTI.

Conversely, too often I hear from clients and other individuals who have completed the MBTI that they remember a 4-letter code, maybe with some general idea of what the letters represent, but their understanding ends there. Most have no idea about the richness of the theory, the ongoing research, and the profound value it can offer in our everyday experience.   

Brief History: Focus on Accessibility of the MBTI and Jungian theory and Emphasis on 

Development of Normal Differences

The MBTI is predicated on the psychological theory of Carl Jung developed more than a century ago. Again, most people that I encounter do not even know of Carl Jung, not to mention his theory that gave birth to the MBTI. Overall, the levels of complexity of the MBTI have been underappreciated by so many who encounter it, particularly in its commonplace use in work and educational settings. The MBTI instrument itself was developed by Isabel Myers and her mother, Katharine Briggs in the first half of the 20^th century, but at least 30 years ago, Katharine Myers, daughter-in-law of Isabel Myers, famously commented on the fact that results of the MBTI did not reflect the substantive contribution of Jungian theory, and proposed that, to paraphrase her,  “the branch needs to be reconnected to the tree,” meaning that the MBTI needs to be reconnected to its Jungian theoretical roots.

Katharine Briggs and Isabel Myers were struck by Jung’s unique view of normal personality differences. Together they developed the MBTI to measure these differences. Its first public use was as a research tool by Educational Testing Service in Princeton, New Jersey in the 1970’s and subsequently was introduced to the public toward the end of the 1970’s and 1980’s across a variety of domains.

Isabel Myers and Kathy Myers believed that the power of Jung's theory was no longer restricted to those who could afford years of analysis or had the background and interest to read and understand his writings. As Kathy Myers stated, "These two women (referring to Isabel Myers and Katharine Briggs) democratized psychological type." They also focused on normal developmental issues rather than pathology. Mary McCaulley, a pioneer in the development of the MBTI who worked with Isabel Myers as part of a common mission to integrate the MBTI and Jungian theory, quoted Isabel as saying, "You psychologists focus on what is wrong with people; I want to focus on what is right and what could be right," emphasizing the appreciation of differences within the context of a systematic structure.

Unfortunately, to this day, both the MBTI and Jungian theory have not achieved their proper status in mainstream psychology. For example, the MBTI has never been incorporated into the standard battery of test instruments. In addition, compared with Freud who is viewed as the father of modern psychology, Jung, who was initially a disciple of Freud, was overshadowed by Freud and charted a very different path in developing his own psychological theory. Whereas Freud may have been perceived as holding a more scientific approach in keeping with the rationalism of the times and rejecting anything religious or spiritual, Jung recognized the unconscious as the seat of religious experience in the sense of a fascination with the depths and mysteries of the human experience that could be brought into consciousness through symbols and active imagination. Jung’s theory was just as scientific as Freud’s but may have been misperceived by those who rejected the existence of any type of psychic energy which one cannot be mastered by the ego and which cannot function in the domain of conscious control.

What Does the MBTI Offer?

After working with the MBTI for more than 30 years, I have experienced its significant value and contribution to human development across the lifespan.

Overall, typology seeks to work with both the conscious and unconscious as an integrated whole, a totality of the Self. and can be understand according to:

• The Strength of Our Functional Preferences - How to recognize both our inborn preferences, and maybe even more importantly, to appreciate the less preferred, meaning less developed, aspects of ourselves.
• The Value of Learning About Our Non-Preferred Parts (i.e. Inferior Function) - Understanding the less developed aspects of our personalities, which reside in the unconscious, helps us attend to and manage these challenges, and the ways they manifest and are experienced:
• as schemas, or implicit learnings, we carry, sometimes throughout our lives
• as the “shadow” aspects of ourselves that we prefer to avoid and disown and that we instead project onto others
• as the spiritual and/or religious dimensions in our lives
• through an understanding type development and the tasks of each life stage
• as the tension of opposites between our dominant and inferior function and how we can integrate these polarities of which then produces a “third” or “transcendent function” and the fourth function that makes us whole
• The Impact on Relationships - How understanding type differences impacts our relationships with others – both positively and negatively, and through the systemic dynamics within our families, friendships, communities, work and learning situations, and extending to cultural difference and widespread global conflicts and tensions.

What are the Type Functions and Attitudes?

By understanding our different ways of perceiving and judging, otherwise known as our functions.

• Perception - We all have preferences as to how we take in information. Some individuals prefer to take in information sequentially by starting with facts and details (Sensing). Others gather information through first taking in the “big picture” and possibilities (Intuition).  
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• Judging - With regard to judging or evaluating we also have different preferences. Some prefer to evaluate information, situations, or individuals through a logical process (Thinking). Others prefer to evaluate by its impact on people (Feeling). Both are necessary ways of valuing what we perceive but we have different innate preferences for doing that.

Our functions also draw on different sources and degrees of energy, introverted and extraverted energy:

• Introverts gain their energy first and more internally to become recharged.
• Extraverts gain their energy first and more externally to become recharged.

How it might seem more complicated than that is because our perceptions and judgments (Sensing, Intuition, Thinking, and Feeling named above) are oriented toward Introversion and Extraversion differently in each of us.

Finally, our introverted or extraverted functions are affected by how we naturally approach life:

• In a more open-ended go-with-the-flow way (Perceiving), or
• In a way that seeks closure, that seeks decisiveness (Judging)

To summarize, we all have a preference for perceiving and a preference for judging. We all use each function in an introverted or extraverted manner. Finally, we all approach life in either an open-ended manner or seeking closure. That gives each of us a 4-letter type.

These are listed in the 16 boxes below:

While we can categorize these types into 16 boxes, each of us is uniquely one type which is like no other type of individual. 

But How Do We Experience and Express Our Various Types?

Social Dynamics on Multiple Levels - Firstly, as I mentioned above, type impacts our human interactions. Each personality type interacts more compatibly with some types and less compatibly with other types. However, when individuals encounter others who prefer opposite types, this can lead to projections coming from the unconscious which can promote intolerance and more extreme negative consequences.

Regarding mental health, the following are examples of mental and emotional conditions that are influenced by and can be managed by understanding one’s type:

Anxiety

Depression

Addiction

Obsessions/Compulsion

Attentional issues including inattention/distractibility and impulsivity/hyperactivity

Stress Management

Learning challenges

Personality and characterological disorders and differences (including Narcissistic Personality Disorder, Borderline Personality Disorder, Dependent Personality Disorder, Anti-Social Personality Disorder)

Managing Life Transitions - Understanding one’s type can inform and assist with managing life stage transitions. Carl Jung, whose theory informs psychological type, is a theory based on lifelong development, including the tasks of the first half of life and the second half of life.

In Summation

The MBTI expands and deepens our discovery of ourselves across a number of domains of functioning. It promotes our understanding of social dynamics in which we are engaged and how our unconscious energy affects so many aspects of our lives, which we can recognize when we do not feel in control. Through an understanding of Type, we can recognize and manage our internal and interpersonal tensions and work through these tensions toward a more integrated, balanced, and holistic, self.