Friends,
This week we’re clarifying some core principles from Jungian psychology so that we can use them to cultivate genuine inner wisdom, and step away from the poppy sloppy ‘hacks’ that masquerade as wisdom.
Ready? Let’s dive in.
1. The Personality Test Misconception
A lot of people find personality tests to be an entry point into self-understanding. That’s okay, but they can also derail this journey, if used improperly.
Jung (who is the father of personality psychology) found personality tests to be quite dangerous when used to label The Self, which he thought of as dynamic and constantly evolving.
The most famous and dubious example of improper usage is the MBTI which is famously based on Jungian concepts of extroversion, introversion and the four cognitive functions (thinking, feeling, sensation and intuition).
The MBTI, apart from being empirically lacking, is actually antithetical to the Jungian model of personality as he believed these concepts were fluid, that one person could possess all of them at different points over the course of a lifetime.
Using the MBTI as an entry point to understand cognitive functions and personality tendencies is fine but Jung believed that using such tests as rigid identity markers to reductively view yourself and others could actively derail your individuation journey.
Here’s a practical alternative:
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