Personality types: Jung's model of typology - Inner City Books

Introduction to Jungian Typology 33scious will. The others are wholly or partially unconscious,and the inferior function mostly so. Thus the conscious orientationof the thinking type is balanced by unconscious feeling,and vice versa, while sensation is compensated by intuition,and so on.Jung speaks of a "numinal accent" that falls on either theobject or the subject, depending on whether one is extravertedor introverted. This numinal accent also "selects" one or otherof the four functions, whose differentiation is essentially anempirical consequence of typical differences in the functionalattitude. 29 Thus one finds extraverted feeling in an introvertedintellectual, introverted sensation in an extraverted intuitive,and so on.An additional problem in establishing a person's typologyis that unconscious, undifferentiated functions can color a personalityto such an extent that an outside observer might easilymistake one type for another.For instance, the rational types (thinking and feeling) willhave relatively inferior irrational functions (sensation and intuition);what they consciously and intentionally do may accordwith reason (from their own point of view), but whathappens to them may well be characterized by infantile,primitive sensations and intuitions. As Jung points out,Since there are vast numbers of people whose lives consistmore of what happens to them than of actions governed by rationalintentions, [an onlooker], after observing them closely,might easily describe [thinking and feeling types] as irrational.And one has to admit that only too often a man's unconsciousmakes a far stronger impression on an observer than his consciousnessdoes, and that his actions are of considerably moreimportance than his rational intentions. 3029 Psychological Types, CW 6, pars. 982ff.30 Ibid., par. 602.