Jungian Personality Cognitive Functions

This is meant to be a rather short post that is supposed to present a useful way of making cognitive functions in Jungian personality psychology more intelligible. I am not intending to arm a defense for this being the way of understanding Jungian personality theory, let alone the MBTI revision of it, but rather to document the way I structure my thinking regarding these things. I will list some basic claims and definitions.

I also want to be clear that there is no scientific evidence for Jungian’s personality theory. If anything, other personality theores like OCEAN, a.k.a. the Big Five, have more empirical evidence backing them. That being said, Jungian personality theory is far more plausible than as well as better argued than something like astrology, hence my fascination. Further, analytic psychology can be preserved philosophically if the object of the theory is reinterpreted. For example, Freudian psychoanalysis managed to survive in the humanities, if not psychology, due to the Lacanian reinterpretation of Freudian psychoanalysis as a theory of interpersonal therapeutic practice itself, based on the role the use of language plays in the therapeutic session. This made it so Freudian psychoanalysis no longer required being tied to a particular model of the mind, and could instead even function as a transcendental critique of psychology. There is no reason why Jungian psychology, let alone Jung’s personality theory, cannot be rehabilitated in a similar way. Regardless, I am not particularly invested in such a project myself.

Claims

• Cognitive functions are functions (things that take in input and produce output) that are cognitive (information-related).
• Cognitive (i.e., information-related) processes can be reduced to 4 basic cognitive functions: thinking, feeling, sensing, and intuiting. Other cognitive processes are merely higher-order combinations of such functions.
• Some of these cognitive functions are mutually-exclusive. That is to say, they can never process the same kind of input, and their outputs always diverge into non-overlapping kinds.
• Thinking is a cognitive function mutually exclusive to feeling, and sensing is a cognitive function mutually exclusive to intuiting.
• Nonetheless, all cognitive functions are essential to cognitive processing. Cognitive processing cannot occur if any one of these cognitive functions is absent. Experience in addition shows that they can occur in parallel (concurrently).
• These cognitive functions can occur in parallel (i.e., concurrently) or can coexist in a single person even when mutually exclusive because their inputs reflect different aspects of the same object.
• The different outputs of cognitive functions, even if divergent, reflect fully the relationship a person has to some object only when taken together, that is only when information is also seen to flow from one cognitive function to another.
• Divergent outputs of mutually-exclusive cognitive functions flow towards complementary cognitive functions in order for that information to ever arrive to the other, mutually-excluded cognitive function.
• That is, the output of thinking can only flow towards sensing or intuiting first before it ever gets to feeling, or conversely thinking can only have information flow towards it from sensing or intuiting rather than directly from feeling. A similar relationship holds between sensing and thinking/feeling, wherein thinking/feeling mediates the relationship between sensing and intuiting.
• There is a relationship between the aspects of an object required by cognitive function dualities and the flow of information about that object through those functions.
• This relationship can be understood in terms of interiority and exteriority, insofar as the division between the essential and accidental properties of an object is homologous to the division between the experiential and judgmental faculties of the subject (perceiving v. judging).
• Hence, there are interior (a.k.a., introverted) versions of the cognitive functions, and exterior (i.e., extraverted) versions of the cognitive functions.
• Absent cognitive functions are part of the unconscious and only get activated when the effectiveness and cohesion of a personality system breaks down or is threatened. Present cognitive functions themselves are technically subconscious rather than conscious, however, since they themselves control and direct awareness.
• Thinking and feeling are cognitive processes that try to converge on an end-point. Sensing and intuiting are cognitive processes that diverge in different directions away from a starting point.

Definitions

• Thinking: The process of sequencing or structuring information.
• Feeling: The process of ascribing value to information.
• Sensing: The process of producing or acquiring information.
• Intuiting: The process of extrapolating from information.
• Extraversion: Being directed towards external reality in one’s information-seeking.
• Introversion: Being directed towards internal reality in one’s information-seeking.
• Judging: Convergent on a point.
• Perceiving: Divergent from a point.

List of Cognitive Functions

Introverted Thinking (Ti), The Philosopher

Input candidates: Memories, proprioception, notions, imagery

Output: Definite logical relations among input candidates based on mentally efficient ordering principles or methods of categorization

Effect: Allows for an internal stability that aids contentment; otherwise leads to apathy or despair

As Judging function: Can lead to reliance on verification, falsifiability, or rationalization for decisions, but decisions may also be made as part of an ongoing “experiment.”

Extraverted Thinking (Te), The Bureaucrat

Input candidates: Paper, chairs, cables, candles (any objects or people in the external world)

Output: Definite spatio-temporally efficient methods of organization for input candidates (criteria besides spatio-temporal efficiency influenced by other cognitive functions)

Effect: Allows for the external world to be predictable and for expectations to therefore be manageable, reducing stress and anxiety; otherwise leads to reduced resilience

As Judging function: Can lead to deferring decisions to convention or tradition, but decisions may also be made as part of an ongoing long-term plan or project.

Introverted Feeling (Fi), The Monk

Input candidates: Memories, proprioception, notions, imagery

Output: Establishes or discovers emotional functional relevance or importance of input candidates (i.e., what input candidates improve emotional functioning)

Effect: Allows for improved self-expression and self-advocacy that aid in resiliency and reduces interpersonal risk; otherwise can lead to disillusionment/resentment or ruminating on emotions

As Judging function: Can lead to making decisions based on what reflects personal tastes and manifests an ideal kind of life for the given person

Extraverted Feeling (Fe), The Therapist

Input candidates: Paper, chairs, cables, candles (any objects in the external world)

Output: Establishes or discovers emotional functional relevance or importance of input candidates (i.e., what input candidates improve emotional functioning)

Effect: Allows for the ability to “set” the feeling or mood of a setting, and skills at inducing emotions from self or others, and accessing the emotional center of a dynamic; otherwise, can lead to feelings of exclusion, and emotional self-neglect

As Judging function: Can lead to making decisions based on what tastes and ideals best reflects, or “works” for, one’s relationships or for the group

Introverted Intuition (Ni), The Artist

Input candidates: Memories, proprioception, notions, imagery

Output: Establishes or discovers the range of possible meanings that input candidates may have across contexts, and by “meaning” is meant that which the input candidates stand in for or represent

Effect: Allows for a sharper attunement to culture and an enhanced experience of material culture whereby they have a readier grasp of the social function narrative, myth and symbolism has for them; otherwise, can lead to idiosyncratic interpretations of events and distorted self-perception

As Perceiving function: Can lead to spending time exploring narratives and myths, producing symbols, and accumulating or exploring cultural knowledge, as well as playing around with language and signs in a social capacity, and experimenting with one’s social position, presentation, etc.

Extraverted Intuition (Ne), The Scientist

Input candidates: Books, toys, rocks, water (any objects or people in the world)

Output: Establishes or discovers the range of possible ways input candidates can develop or change in response to changing external circumstances, and how the many changes that occur for it affect the possibilities of other things.

Effect: Allows for an increased ability to identify the potential in something or someone and cultivate it, spot innovative solutions to problems, or discover better ways of doing things; otherwise, can lead to cultural antagonism and social instability

As Perceiving function: Can lead to spending time testing other’s reactions, examining or probing people’s behaviors, seeking out novelty, playing around with objects through non-standard uses or adjusting specific parts of a situation, experimenting

Introverted Sensing (Si), The Librarian/Historian

Input candidates: Memories, proprioception, notions, imagery

Output: Catalogues or discovers facts within or regarding the input candidates to the degree that they hold visceral impact. There is an effort towards vivid recall and fidelity of experiences so as to recreate internal states.

Effect: Allows for an increased ability to mine the past for new insights and relive or recreate experiences as well as concoct newfound questions; otherwise, could lead to rumination on the past or physical self-neglect

As Perceiving function: Can lead to spending time hoarding and maintaining things, as if building a personal museum reflective of one’s personal history, as well as manipulating things in imaginary space or engaging in simulation.

Extravert Sensing (Se), The Athlete

Input candidates: Weights, punching bags, toys (any object or person in the world)

Output: Establishes or discovers the range of physical attributes of something and maps it onto sensations and relates it to personal motion by exploring all the possible sensations that can be induced through physical interaction.

Effect: Allows for an increased responsiveness and sensitivity to immediate physical changes in the surrounding environment, as well as an increased awareness and concern for physical limits and power; otherwise, can lead to impulsiveness or obliviousness towards abstract concerns or problems

As Perceiving function: Can lead to spending time with rough play, physical activities or gustatory activities, and seeking ways of increasing pleasure or endurance/resistance to pain, and exploring the movement of things