Hello tree dwellers. You know how everyone in the Myers-Briggs community just throws those four letter type codes around; INFJ, INTP, ESTP, ENFP etc.

People get very talky about these four-letter codes. Almost so that we can’t hear them anymore.

And O, the arguments that ensue about which type does what things and so on.

The way I see it, a Myers-Briggs type comes down to three different categories: the theoretical, the descriptive, and the attributive.

This article will lay out what a Myers-Briggs type basically comes down to in the first of the aforementioned three areas, the theoretical.

The Theoretical

This category is simple because the theory behind the Myers-Briggs type is fairly simple. So, basically the way this goes is that there are these things called functions. There are four basic functions. They go by the name of intuition, thinking, feeling, and sensation. Then there is these two little things called general-attitudes that go by the name of extraversion and introversion.

If you combine a one of the general-attitudes with one of the four basic functions you get a full-scale function.

These are eight in possible number. So, eight full-scale functions. In following they are:

– Introverted Intuition
– Introverted Thinking
– Introverted Feeling
– Introverted Sensation

– Extraverted Intuition
– Extraverted Thinking
– Extraverted Feeling
– Extraverted Sensation

Now, any of these full-scale functions can be what is called a dominant orientation of a type. So, there are eight possible dominant orientations. This is generally known as the dominant function.

Each of these full-scale functions has its exact opposite orientation such that if we know the dominant function of a type, we automatically know the inferior attitude of a type.

Introversion is opposite Extraversion
Intuition is opposite Sensation
Thinking is opposite Feeling

So, if a dominant orientation is formed around introverted thinking for example, we know that the inferior attitude will be extraverted feeling because extraversion is opposite of introversion and feeling is opposite of thinking.

That is about as far as Jung went. So, for Jung there were basically eight full-scale function types available that one could form a dominant orientation around. He hinted at a thing called an auxiliary function but didn’t go into elaboration of it.

Isabel Myers and the Doubling of the Types

Isabel Myers came along at some later juncture and elaborated on the idea of the auxiliary function. So, now instead of eight types possible, there were 16 types available because any type of the same dominant orientation could theoretically have another supplemental function available to them that didn’t conflict with the dominant function as the inferior function did.

So, to use the above example of a dominant thinking type, theoretically there could be two types of dominant thinkers because though thinking and feeling have been used up simultaneously in the assignment of dominant and inferior function, there is still left two basic functions from the original list of four – the intuition and sensation functions.

Yes, what about those two functions? So, Isabel Myers said there is a dominant thinker with auxiliary intuition and a dominant thinker with auxiliary sensation, a doubling of the eight original types. Now, there are sixteen possible types.

Great.

In addition to the general theory of a Myers-Briggs type, the auxiliary function is in the opposite general-attitude (introversion or extraversion) to the dominant. So, if you have a dominant introverted thinker with auxiliary sensation function, that auxiliary sensation function must be in the extraverted attitude. Myers also reasoned that since this was the case that the opposite function to the auxiliary – the tertiary (her coinage) must be the opposite basic function towards the auxiliary and in the opposite general attitude towards it as well, similar to the situation for the dominant-inferior deal.

So, again, in the example of the dominant introverted thinker who must necessarily, per theory, have an inferior extraverted feeling and who has been further qualified as having an auxiliary extraverted sensation function, the only basic function left that hasn’t been accounted for is intuition. Since the opposite of extraverted sensation is introverted intuition, we know that this is what the tertiary function is composed of.

Isabel Myers basically created the concept of the tertiary function. The dominant, the inferior, and the hint at an auxiliary function were all done by Jung. And Myers departs from Jung somewhat because I believe that Jung assumed that all the functions remaining after the dominant function assignment would be in the opposite general attitude to the dominant. This is true with the inferior and the auxiliary but not the tertiary per Isabel Myers invention and interpretation of it. And it is quite a neat and important invention. So, congratulations to her.

And so this is the basic theory of a Myers-Briggs type. You take one of Jung’s four basic functions of intuition, thinking, feeling, or sensation and assign one of them as the dominant orientation of any given individual’s psychic structure. Once you assign this, the opposite function to the basic function of the dominant position, is classed as an inferior function and as such relatively undifferentiated and undeveloped in a person’s psyche.

It’s a heads or tails thing. If heads is up, tails is down and vice-versa. Two sides of a coin can’t be up simultaneously.

Then you take one of the two basic general-attitudes of introversion or extraversion and assign one of them as a dominant orientation. If one is a dominant function then the other is an inferior function. Simple.

The combination of one of the four basic functions with one of the two general-attitudes leads to eight possible dominant orientations because 2 x 4 = 8.

This leaves one of the two remaining basic and opposed functions to be assigned as an auxiliary function which is like a subdominant and the other one falls to the inferior function of the auxiliary, which is the tertiary.

The tertiary function is like an alternate inferior function by this theory, however, in practice that is not exactly true, and in some respects, the tertiary function is more similar to an alternate auxiliary function.

But, by the Myers-Briggs breakdown, the theory basically goes like this: There are two functions you are good at – dominant and auxiliary – and two functions that you are bad at – inferior and tertiary. The other four full-scale functions are largely ignored and seem not to exist in this analysis.

So, pretty simple theory.

And things are generally fine at this theoretical level. Everyone can more or less agree on this. There are four basic functions, two general-attitude orientations, and four functional positions that are accounted for in a type, two of which are strong and two of which are relatively weak.

The main point of contention here would be the supposed weakness of the tertiary function. My take on the tertiary is that it simultaneously difficult and easy.

The Descriptive and Some Missing Theoretical Elements

Things get mightily fucked up at the level of the descriptive. And I will explain why in my next article in this series. I think this fuckedupness is also caused by some missing fundamental definitions from the level of the theoretical that leads to descriptive errors when reasoning from the available theory on Myers-Briggs types.

For example, the four basic functions and the two general-attitudes are understood fairly well. I think many enthusiasts of this community understand the four basic functions and the two general attitudes fairly well, and by extension, their combination into the eight full-scale functions.

Where I feel many err in description is at the level of a full-scale type, which would be one of the sixteen Myers-Briggs types. The reason for this is because of a lack of understanding about how the dominant and auxiliary positions differ from each other in characteristic fashion. In other words, the dominant and auxiliary function suffer from either a lack of proper definition or are completely misunderstood by many.

A full-scale function (cognitive function) will differ depending on whether it is present as dominant or auxiliary function.

Another problem is that there are full-scale functions unaccounted for in all of the sixteen types that lead to descriptive errors and misattributions of types to persons. For example, an INFJ by theoretical definition is said to be a type that has introverted intuition as a dominant, extraverted feeling as an auxiliary, introverted thinking as a tertiary, and extraverted sensation as an inferior function. I have noticed that the basic function in the auxiliary position but in the opposite general-attitude – introverted feeling for an INFJ – is a very important full-scale (cognitive) function for any of the 16 types. So, naturally if one didn’t know this, descriptive errors would abound on this basis, and by extension, errors of misattribution to people that are of this type. Why? Because, as an example, the INFJ type, is supposed to have strong extraverted feeling. Introverted feeling is not even accounted for in this type. However, I have noticed very strong Fi in most INFJs. So, this is a correction I’m hoping to introduce to the theory of Myers-Briggs.

I call this function that is unaccounted for in all the sixteen types, the id function. In many ways, it is the most important function because of how strong and overpowering it is.

And like I said I don’t even think the well-known function positions are understood thoroughly which leads to all kinds of errors and assumptions. For example, what is the difference between introverted intuition in the dominant position vs. the auxiliary position? It is one thing to understand a cognitive function in and of itself and it is another thing to understand how it is qualified and emended by being in a certain functional position within the economy of any given Myers-Briggs type.

Next time I will get more into this.

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