Socionics

8.4. Rational and irrational elements

First, I will present the rational and irrational elements in the diagram that is used in Socionics.

In Socionics we can see, that:

Socionics describes rational and irrational elements in this way:

• rational information elements are composed of:
  — static and object-oriented, and
  — dynamic and relation-oriented information elements.
• irrational information elements are composed of:
  — dynamic and object-oriented, and
  — static and relation-oriented information elements.

Such compositions, in total, create rational and irrational elements, which can be seen in the diagram above.

For comparison, I will show how the information elements look like on Mandala of Characters.

To adjust the above rational and irrational elements to the Mandala, I rearrange the information elements presented in the above Socionics’ diagram.

So, let us put rational and irrational elements to the Mandala of Characters. Please, take a look at the diagram below.

As for the division into rational and irrational elements, the division in Socionics coincides with Mandala in that:

• rationality coincides with Thinking (Fire) and Feeling (Water),
• irrationality coincides with Intuition (Air) and Sensation (Earth).

The construction of the Mandala of Characters also allows to show the division between rationalism and irrationalism in other ways. I describe it in the works “The Mandala of Characters—creation history” and “The Mandala of Characters—construction”. Among other things, I show it in the following two diagrams.

The diagram above shows rationalism. As we can see in the area of rationalism, I also distinguish various types of rationalism. In other words, rationalism can be influenced by:

• two basic psychological functions, namely:
  — Thinking, and
  — Feeling.
• four adaptive-defensive mechanisms, namely:
  — Extraversion,
  — Introversion,
  — Perceiving, and
  — Judging.

The next diagram shows the area of realism. I use the concept of realism in the Mandala of Characters instead of the concept of irrationalism.

During the development of the Mandala, I came to the conclusion that it is worth replacing irrationalism with another concept. Therefore, I decided to use realism (or actuality) instead of irrationalism. I did this, among other things, because irrationalism is the concept, which most of us may say not too much. It means, at first glance, we know only that irrationalism is not this, what rationalism is.

In this case, for example, realism says more than irrationalism.

Philosophically speaking, there are some differences between irrationalism and realism. However, when it comes to human personalities, which I deal with in the Mandala of Characters, irrationalism may also have a slightly negative coloration. This is because irrationalism may seem something worse that rationalism. In fact, it is not like that. The types driven by irrationalism are just different from the types driven by rationalism. Therefore, in my opinion, it is worth paying attention to the strengths of irrationalism. And after many considerations, I came to the conclusion that realism (or actuality) would better guide us to the strengths of the irrational types.

As we can see, in the area of realism, I also distinguished its different types. In other words, realism can be influenced by:

• two basic psychological functions, namely:
  — Intuition, and
  — Sensation,
• four adaptive-defensive mechanism, namely:
  — Extraversion,
  — Introversion,
  — Perceiving, and
  — Judging.