Psychological Types

Outline

Psychological Types (1921) presents Carl Jung’s theory of personality based on two basic attitudes, introversion and extraversion, and four psychological functions: thinking, feeling, sensation, and intuition. Jung explains how these combine to shape the way people perceive the world and make judgements, and traces the idea of types through history, literature, and philosophy. The book later inspired widely used personality tools such as the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator.

• Jung's theory rests on two basic attitudes, introversion and extraversion, which describe how a person's energy is directed.
• Four psychological functions, thinking, feeling, sensation and intuition, shape how people take in the world and form judgements.
• These attitudes and functions combine in different ways, so each person perceives and decides in a distinct pattern.
• Jung traces the idea of personality types through history, literature and philosophy, not only through psychology.
• The book later inspired widely used personality tools such as the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator.

Carl Jung (1875–1961) was a Swiss psychiatrist and psychoanalyst who founded analytical psychology. After an early collaboration with Sigmund Freud, he developed his own ideas, including the collective unconscious, archetypes, and the process of individuation. His works include Psychological Types, Man and His Symbols, and Memories, Dreams, Reflections.