A common query is, "What's the best match for my type?" There are many ways to look at type preferences and how they interact. This article attempts to summarize many different ways of examining this issue.
A lot of erroneous information has been circulating about typology, especially in this era of social media "experts" expounding misguided ideas. Here are some truths about a few popular misconceptions regarding the MBTI® and psychological types.
With the advent of social media came an explosion of people with strong opinions on a variety of topics. Psychological type is one such arena where enthusiastic amateurs offer opinions and engage in discussions that often stray into fantasy. This article looks at some of the more egregious examples of misinformation about typology and offers some gentle course corrections for the serious seeker.
Reactions to the current Coronavirus pandemic have varied according to the prevailing culture of the social groups affected. Consider historical precedents, such as the response of the villagers in Eyam to the encroaching Black Death that swept Europe in the 17th century. In modern times, the pandemic has created a “perfect storm” that might be regarded as an opportunity to restore the depreciated feeling function to its rightful place in collective consciousness. This paper draws upon the writings of M-L von Franz and C. G. Jung to explore the significance of the Feeling function in influencing the differing cultural attitudes present when a pandemic strikes.
I delivered the closing plenary session at the 30th Anniversary Conference for the British Association for Psychological Type in 2019. In this paper, I discuss the Jungian roots of psychologist type theory and approach it from a mythopoetic rather than scientific viewpoint.
I was asked by the Journal of Analytical Psychology to review Hillman's book, which is a compilation of writings that were published previously as articles and lectures. In this book, Hillman criticizes typology and I present some counter-arguments in my review.
I believe that wood and stone carvings of virtues and vices found in churches throughout the world represent aspects of the human psyche in personified form. I presented a paper on this topic at the XI International Conference on the Dialogical Self, held in Barcelona in June 2021. All the papers from this conference were compiled into a book, published under the Creative Commons license, so it's free to copy and distribute.
This article explores different ways of problem-solving and decision-making using a "Wheel of Type," which I've been using for many years. The article itself was inspired by a tympanum I discovered carved on a church in the south of France.
Systems coaching generally refers to coaching assorted groups of people, whether they entail corporate teams or families. However, systems are also present within individuals. Such systems, representing different value clusters, interact between coach and client, and sometimes present coaching challenges. A well-known category of these systems within individuals has been broadly defined as “typology,” encompassing Jung’s theory of psychological types, temperaments, and social styles (among others) in a tripartite view of individual psychology. In this paper, I present an outline of three well-known typological models and explain how the values they encompass play into coaching relationships. I discuss how an emergent system results from the interaction of these individual systems via the field that materializes between coach and client. I conclude with suggestions for ways coaches can utilize these typological models to reveal the values inherent in each client’s psyche in order to enhance the effectiveness of the coaching process.
A depth-psychological analysis of Martin Scorsese's movie "Hugo" taking into consideration Jung's theory of psychosocial types and Beebe's "Eight Function / Eight Archetype" model.
This article by Roger Pearman examines various approaches to type development and suggests a course of action that might be effective.
If you are a professional typologist, here are some hints and tips you may find useful.
Bryce Dallas Howard, daughter of actor and director Ron Howard, talks about her positive experience using a life coach in this New York Times article.
John Beebe introduces his Eight Function model of psychological type.
I was invited to write an article for Mensa magazine on tolerance. This is the result.