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

Introversion and the Four Functions 79Sensation is an irrational function, because it is oriented notby a logical process of judgment but simply by what is andwhat happens. "Whereas the extraverted sensation type isguided by the intensity of objective influences," notes Jung,"the introverted type is guided by the intensity of the subjectivesensation excited by the objective stimulus." 97The introverted sensation type is like a highly sensitizedphotographic plate. The physical sensitivity to objects andother people takes in every smallest shade and detail—whatthey look like, how they feel to the touch, their taste and smelland the sounds they make. Von Franz writes that she first understoodthis type when Emma Jung gave a paper on introvertedsensation as her own dominant function.When somebody comes into the room, such a type notices theway the person comes in, the hair, the expression on the face,the clothes, and the way the person walks. . . . every detail isabsorbed. The impression comes from the object to the subject;it is as though a stone fell into deep water—the impressionfalls deeper and deeper and sinks in. Outwardly, the introvertedsensation type looks utterly stupid. He just sits andstares, and you do not know what is going on within him. Helooks like a piece of wood with no reaction at all . . . but inwardlythe impression is being absorbed. . . . The quick innerreactions go on underneath, and the outer reaction comes in adelayed way. These are the people who, if told a joke in themorning, will probably laugh at midnight. 98Introverted sensation types, if they are creative artists, havea facility for bringing a scene to life in painting or in writing.Thomas Mann, for instance, in describing every detail of ascene, evokes the whole atmosphere of a room or personality.The French Impressionist painters are also in this group; they97 Ibid., par. 650.98 Jung's Typology, pp. 27f.