15. Basic psychological functions—what they do?

In this chapter, I will add further elements related to basic psychological functions, which Jung distinguish in his “Psychological Types”. That is, he distinguishes the following functions:

• Intuition,
• Sensation,
• Thinking, and
• Feeling.

These basic functions are one of the elements of the four main reference points of our psyche.

In the diagram below, I present for the record the elements of our four main reference points, which I presented so far.

During the development of the Mandala of Characters, I described four basic psychological functions (namely, Intuition, Sensation, Thinking, and Feeling) with additional terms.

Additional terms, which I present below, help me understand what functions these functions have? It means they help me answer simple questions such as:

• What are these functions do?
• How do they help us?
• How do they work?
• What exactly they do?
• Etc.

To help myself answer the above questions, I added two additional concepts to each basic psychological function.

Besides, in the diagram above, the concepts which will be on the opposite sides will be opposite in meaning.

Logic—Ethics

I will start with a pair:

• logic—ethics.

Logic will be the concept that relates basic function—Thinking.

In turn, ethics will concern basic function—Feeling.

The idea to add this pair of “logic—ethics” came from the personality typology called “Socionics”.

This typology created Aušra Augustinavičiūtė. She was a Lithuanian sociologist and psychologist.

The word “Socionics” it is a combination of words “society” and “bionics”.

The basis of Socionics are:

• Jung’s typology that is, “Psychological Types”,
• And the concept of energy-informational metabolism, created by Antoni Kępiński, He was a Polish psychiatrist, humanist, and philosopher.

Socionics is a very interesting and complex typology. For me, this is the most difficult typology to learn, but at the same time, it is fascinating.

Since the Socionics is also based on Jung’s typology, I can draw inspiration from it in creating the Mandala of Characters. And one of these inspirations is the pair “logic—ethics”.

This pair is one of the pairs of oppositional functions that are distinguished in Socionics. These are the functions:

Among the above functions, we can see the pair “logic—ethics”.

The basic functions in Socionics are named differently than in Jung’s typology. It means, in Jung’s typology, we have pair “Thinking—Feeling”.

However, I came to the conclusion that the pair “logic—ethics” will be a very good complement to the pair of basic functions “Thinking—Feeling”.

In the above diagram, we can see that:

• Logic—we can find next to the basic function—THINKING (on its left side).
• Ethics—we can find next to the basic function—FEELING (on its right side).

We can also see that logic and ethics are opposite to each other. I did so to show that these concepts are in opposition to each other.

Besides, we may also ask:
— Why is logic on the left side of THINKING?
— And why is ethics on the right side of FEELING?

This arrangement of logic and ethics is mainly because such a position of logic and ethics will suit next concepts and phrases, which I present in the following chapters of this description of the Mandala of Characters.

Morality—possibility

The next terms I added to the Mandala of Characters, is the opposite pair of concepts:

• morality—possibility.

This pair will also address the pair of basic psychological functions, which are FEELING and THINKING.

We can now see that:

• Morality is on the left side of the basic function—FEELING.
• Possibility is on the right side of the basic function—THINKING.

So in total, I added two concepts to the basic function FEELING. Thus, now we have the following set:

morality, FEELING, ethics

Ethics is often defined as the science of morality. The science of morality, however, is not the same as morality.

Ethics, among others:

• is the general set of rules and norms of conduct (or standards of behavior),
• and deals with the origin of moral codes (or values), and with this what sense they have.

In turn, morality, among others:

• it is a set of tasks that we must do, which are basically orders and bans,
• moral norms are unconditional, they must be carried out, or at least we have to agree with them.
• it is a set of norms that are a principle of how to live and act.
• is considered as truth and goodness.

So, ethics is the science about moral principles. Or it is art what uses moral principles.

Whereas morality contains rules that must be followed because they are considered as truth and goodness.

I think here we can also refer to the definition of the function—FEELING, which I created in the previous chapter.

winter—value and argument

In some sense:
— morality follows values, —and ethics are arguments supporting values.

I think that here, figuratively speaking, we can use a comparison with the sport. It means, an athlete it is not the same as a coach.
— the athlete or player must follow a strictly defined strategy of action, and must strictly respect the rules of the given sports event. In a sense, then, the athlete must follow rules that are analogous to moral principles. It means, these are rules that must be followed, and there is no other option. It is because even small misuse of sports rules can cause penalties or even disqualification.
— The coach or trainer, in turn, is an expert in a given sport. On the base of his knowledge and experience, he supervises the training of the given athletes or players. During the competition, he observes and manages their performances. After the competition, he tries to make changes that will lead to better results in the future. So, the trainer estimates the value of a given player and seeks the arguments that will further increase the value of that player.

All in all, the player should largely be guided by morality, and a trainer by ethics.

Of course, in sport, a lot of attention is paid to omitting the rules. For example, attention is paid to how to break the rules and not get caught. Or how to bend the rules, or act on the edge of the rules. However, when it is uncovered, it triggers public outrage. And then it looks like athletes or players broke moral principles that should not be broken.

Morality and ethics, therefore, turn out to be fascinating concepts. And I think, they can say a lot about the basic psychological function—FEELING.

Now, let us move the next concept that is oppositional to morality. This concept is—possibility.

I chose “possibility” because we can easily associate it with opposition to “morality”. Morality does not give any possibilities. It does not give us a choice. We have to do this what is moral and period.

Possibility gives us freedom of choice. However, freedom of choice is connected with responsibility for our choices. It means we are responsible for the actions that we did after making a choice.

Therefore, the possibilities associated with choices are not so easy, and there are many dilemmas associated with them.

So, possibilities are as a great challenge, as morality.

I think, that the concept of “possibility” can be associated with existential philosophy, because it says, among others, that people are free during their existence. Freedom, however, is connected with the fact that people bear full responsibility for their actions. And they have to face the necessity of making endless choices among many possibilities that life brings.

Existential philosophy (or existentialism) is very complex. It has many varieties and branches. And this fact shows that the dilemmas associated with “possibilities” are actually are a really big challenge.

Therefore, the possibility is the second additional word describing the basic psychological function—THINKING. The first word was—logic. So, in total, we have this set:

logic, THINKING, possibility

Regarding the function—THINKING, yet I will refer to Jung’s division, which regards this function. Jung divided THINKING into active and passive intellectual activity. I talked about it in the previous chapter in my considerations about the symbolic meaning of the season—summer.

Let me remind what these mental activities are about:

1. Active intellectual activity, (that is, the act of the will).
   The task of this intellectual activity is to find the right knowledge or theory that will provide us with logical and rational cognition of something.
2. Passive intellectual activity, (that is, mere occurrence, fantasizing, intuitive thinking).
   The task of this intellectual activity is to rely on appropriate practice and attitude to be able to make a rational choice among many possibilities.

I think, that from two above concepts that I added to the function—THINKING, that is, regarding “logic” and “possibility”:

• “logic”—we can consider as—active intellectual activity, and
• “possibility”—we can consider as—passive intellectual activity.

In the previous chapter also:

• to the active intellectual activity I referred—cognition, and
• to the passive intellectual activity I referred—choice.

I think that the considerations from this and the previous chapter about Thinking in short we can summarize as follows:

Thinking—discovers the meaning and is divided into:

1. Cognition and logic, that is—knowledge (theory)—active intellectual activity (the act of the will).
2. Choice and possibility, that is—practice (training, experience)—passive intellectual activity (mere occurrence, fantasizing, intuitive thinking).

Compromise—benefit

A pair of concepts compromise—benefit concerns the pair of basic psychological functions INTUITION—SENSATION.

The idea of additional concepts, which would relate to Intuition and Sensation, came to me from a completely unexpected direction.

Once I watch on TV a program, I was interested in, and after that, I did not turn off the TV. So, TV continued to show something in the background. In the meantime appeared show called “Location, Location, Location” produced by the British — Channel Four Television Corporation.

This show is about searching for and buying flats or houses. Presenters of this show are Kirstie Allsopp and Phil Spencer. Their task is to help find the right home for all kind of buyers. During the show, those who are willing to buy a home may see a few homes. Homes, which are previously selected for them, and which may meet their expectations.

Unexpectedly, in this show, my attention was caught by a fascinating dilemma. It is about the fact that when we are looking for a home:
— on the one hand, we are looking for the perfect home, which will meet our expectations,
— and on the other hand, we have to face the fact that we will have to make many compromises and concessions.

This dilemma may occur during various purchases, but buying a home is rare and unique. It is, among others, because:

• we need a lot of money to buy a home;
• changing our home costs a lot of work and includes many problems;
• we will probably live in a new home for many years, and therefore it probably will have a significant impact on our life;
• etc.

A lot of depends on where and what kind of house it will be? It will be associated with all areas of our lives. For example, such as:

• our job;
• our family;
• development of every person who will live in a given home;
• specific neighborhood;
• easier or more difficult access to work, schools, kindergartens, shops, supermarkets, cinemas, restaurants, various entertainments, and so on;
• how far it will be to our relatives, friends and colleagues;
• etc.

Besides, the surroundings of the home are also important. For example, is it an area:

• quiet or noisy;
• easily accessible or hard-to-reach;
• beautiful and exceptional or average and not interesting;
• friendly or indifferent, or distanced;
• known or unknown;
• etc.

Therefore, the various dilemmas that we have while buying a home are the largest, and perhaps the greatest among those dilemmas that we have while buying anything. In “Location, Location, Location” show (and probably) in similar shows), sometimes we can hear very accurate identification of dilemmas accompanying buying a home. It is the pair of opposite words, namely:

• benefits—compromises.

In my view:

• compromise matches the basic psychological function—INTUITION, and
• benefit matches the basic psychological function—SENSATION.

Why so?

When it comes to “compromise”, I associated this word with the type of character, which in the Mandala of Characters I call—Air. Air is in the place where there is the basic function—INTUITION. So, this type is the most intuitive.

Representatives of the type Air often have a kind of instinct when it comes to making compromises. And it is not just about compromises that we can find between people. Also, it is about compromises that take place in the thinking of representatives of this type. It means Air type is often guided by compromises that can be found between ideas, concepts, views, beliefs, thoughts, etc.

Confirmation of this we can also find in Enneagram. The equivalent of the type Air in Enneagram is—type 9. Type 9, most often is called:

• Mediator
• Peacemaker
• Peacekeeper
• Peaceful Mediator
• Adaptive Peacemaker
• etc.

In turn, when it comes to the word “benefit”, this word suits representatives of the type—Earth. Representatives of this type have the ability to be very beneficial for themselves and others. For example, they can be very specific, honest, open, and helpful. Earth type people have a sense of how to find the shortest possible way to meet their and other's needs. Or to achieve concrete, useful, and beneficial results.

All in all, we can say that representatives of Earth-type can sense the way how to “combine business with pleasure”.

Balance—position

“Balance—position” it is the next pair of concepts that concerns the basic psychological functions INTUITION and SENSATION.

In the diagram below,
— “balance” is on the right side of INTUITION,
— and “position” is on the left side of SENSATION.

So:

• balance—refers to INTUITION, and
• position—refers to SENSATION.

Why so?

I start with the concept of “balance”, which relates to Intuition.

I think that to show it I can use the definition of the season—spring, which I presented in the previous chapter. It means:

spring—source and purpose

Also, I will recall the concept “compromise” which I mentioned above, and which also concerns Intuition. All in all, two concepts describing Intuition together with Intuition itself, creating the following set:

compromise, INTUITION, balance

I think these two definitions we can associate with each other. It means we can connect:

• compromise with source, and
• balance with purpose.

“Compromise” can we can associate with the “source”, because “compromise” discovers the “source” of problems and tries to somehow solve these problems.

In turn, “balance” we can associate with the “purpose”, because “balance” tries to somehow reach the “purpose”.

To illustrate this, I will use the metaphor of the ship and the rope-walker.

As for the ship, sometimes the ship goes straight to a destination if there are no problems and obstacles. And sometimes the ship, to reach a destination, will maneuver between various problems and obstacles. For example, between shoals, other ships, coastal rocks, etc.

When it comes to a rope-walker, when he goes to his destination, that is, to the other side of the rope, he must go forward and balance at the same time. Systematic heading to the purpose and proper balancing is a recipe for the rope-walker to reach the very end of the rope.

Let us now move to the second concept of the “balance—position” pair, that is, to “position”.

To explain what “position” is, we can simply rely on the fact that it is opposition to “balance”. I think we may summarize it in the sentence—Balancing is oppositional to taking a convenient position.

We can occupy a convenient position in various situations. Or in general, we can have a convenient position in life. A convenient position may also refer to, for example:

• having an appropriate position at work;
• having the right opinion or reputation;
• getting good results at work or at school;
• etc.

A convenient position can also be:

• appropriate material status;
• good social background;
• a privileged social position;
• etc.

Therefore, a convenient or appropriate position is avoiding situations where we need to balance, maneuver, combine, etc.

The term “position” refers to the type of character—Earth. Representatives of this type, among others, like to have a position. It is best, of course, when their position is convenient, appropriate, comfortable, etc.

However, in typical life, often their position will be not as if they wished or dreamed. But even if they are not happy with their actual position, they still prefer to be in a specific position, which they have. It is because they prefer to be in any position more than to be exposed to unnecessary balancing, maneuvering, combining, etc.

All in all, the basic psychological function—SENSATION, now has to additional concepts that relate to it. Thus, we have such a set of concepts:

position, SENSATION, benefit

The concepts “position” and “benefit” we can refer to the definition of autumn. This definition relates to the main (or classical) Element—Earth, and the basic psychological function–SENSATION. It is this definition:

autumn—existence and sense

I think we can connect:

• position with existence, and
• benefit with sense.

“Position” we can associate with “existence” because “existence” is in some sense maintaining a specific “position”.

“Benefit”, in turn, we can associate with “sense”, because “sense” makes this what is “beneficial”. For example, doing beneficial things makes sense, being beneficial or useful for others makes sense, etc.

Thus, above, I presented additional descriptions of basic psychological functions.

All in all, our four main reference points of our psyche will now look as follows.

References: