Exploring the Psyche

by Troy W. Pierce

Originally published in MoonRise News

    Peter Abelard was a popular lecturer in 12th century France, students followed him from city to city, and were prepared to camp in forests in order to learn from him. His fame is frequently linked to the founding of the University of Paris, the first university, upon which all others were directly or indirectly modeled. What was the source of this fame? Abelard was the greatest logician of the middle ages.

    After surpassing all of his possible rivals, but by no means all of his enemies, Abelard in his thirties became the tutor of Heloise who was probably seventeen at the time. Heloise was bright, educated, and possessed both a maturity and clarity of heart. Where Abelard followed his head, Heloise followed her heart. Tutoring soon turned into one of the famous romances of history, of which we have letters from later in their lives when Abelard is an abbot, and Heloise an abbess.

    We conclude our brief look at the dimensions of psychological preferences by looking at Jung's characterization of the thinking-feeling axis. Jung described thinking and feeling as the rational functions, that is, the means by which an individual evaluates and judges. There is a bias in our culture towards thinking, such that rationality is at times strictly defined in terms of thinking or of logic. However, both thinking and feeling can have a highly developed (or differentiated) form, as well as a poorly developed form.

   Thinking is associated with the ancient element of fire, and feeling with water. In the symbolism of alchemy, fire is the element of separation, as in the refining fire which separates the impurities out of a substance. Water was the element of dissolution, substances such as salt could be dissolved in water. Separation and dissolution in cycles were used in producing the philosopher's stone, a symbol of wholeness.

    The thinking function shouldn't be thought of as cognition in general, that is the working of the brain, but rather the use of rational/linguistic idea oriented cognition. The thinker is more interested in what Hume called, 'the relations of ideas,' as opposed to 'matters of fact.' Problem solving for a thinker usually involves an unconscious automatic step of abstracting the problem, then analyzing the abstract idea of the problem. This can give the impression of cold heartless calculation, as this is the ideal for the objective evaluation of a thinker. However, no thinker is heartless, just as no feeler is thoughtless. In cases of a strong preference for thinking, the thinker may consciously use thinking almost exclusively. In this case feeling doesn't go away, it functions unconsciously as moods or overwhelming emotions.

   This is what happened in the case of Abelard, he became overwhelmingly attracted to his student. In spite of her powerful and overprotective uncle. And in spite of the fact that the only future he could hope for as a mediaeval intellectual was in the church. Surely, it was not a logical decision. Great thinkers are too often victims or their undeveloped hearts.

    The imbalance of over-reliance on thought is not the only possible deficiency, the thinking function can also go undeveloped. A preference does not entail an ability, e.g., my right-handedness doesn't guarantee that I can draw with that hand, nor even print legibly. Undeveloped thinking is likely to revolve around personal opinion, following the credo 'everyone is entitled to my opinion.' Frequently referred to as pseudo-intellectuals, such individuals may have elaborate reasons for their opinions, and may think themselves 'objective,' but they fail to be trans-subjective. A notion which we will return to.

    The feeling function should not be confused with emotional states, e.g., moods, affects, etc. Jung considered emotions to be 'contaminated' feelings, contaminated, that is, by our personal complexes. Of course, the feeling function cannot be adequately characterized in the terms of the thinking function, but we can give some indications in the form of clich�s. Feelers are 'following their heart,' 'being true to their feelings,' 'following their bliss,' 'being true to themselves,' etc. In problem solving the feeler also has a tendency to make an unconscious first step of 'how do I feel about that?' or, 'how would I feel if that where to happen to me?' So that the problem is evaluated in terms of its subjective consequences. This gives rise to views that the feeler is not being rational, not being objective, not thinking, etc. This is further complicated by the fact that the thinking side of feelers is often undeveloped, leading them to give arguments in support of their conclusions, which frequently fail to satisfy thinking types.

    Undeveloped feeling tends to revolve around the act of being emotional, treating personal emotional states in the same way that the undeveloped thinker treats personal opinions. Such a state indicates a 'preference,' in that thinking or feeling is the basis of evaluation, but not a 'function' in the sense that there is no process of discernment. What both undeveloped attitudes share is a failure to be trans-subjective, which is not a term from Jung but is from my own work. Objectivity may be heralded as an ideal, but it is an abstract and ultimately metaphysical ideal. Due to its nature anyone may make the claim that they are being objective, and the further claim that they are the only one being objective in the whole world.

    The notion of trans-subjectivity gives a much stronger criterion by which either function can be evaluated. Thinking is a function of reason, consistency, soundness, valid arguments, logic, etc. These means of evaluation are trans-subjective in that if an argument is the result of a highly developed thinking function, then any thinker applying these criteria can arrive at the same conclusions. For example, Abelard's developments in syllogistic logic are still taught today. The same is true of the feeling function, it is trans-subjective in empathy, sympathy, compassion, understanding, etc. , and if a poem or piece of music is the result of a highly developed feeling function, then a feeler can feel not only their own reactions, but also the original feelings, and further, the emotions of other listeners. For example, Heloise's letters still show the wisdom of her heart, and the depth of her feelings for Abelard.

    Abelard and Heloise are further illustrative in that differences in these functions are often the sources of conflict in relationships. Some studies show that approximately 3/4 of men are thinking types, and the reverse is true of women. But more than that, we are most often attracted to people of opposite psychological types, because they are our compliment and the missing pieces we need to become whole. The problem is that we expect this wholeness to come about from our relationships, when it does not exist within ourselves. Awareness of the differences is the first step. While seeing the opposite, or secondary function, within ourselves in order to develop it is the second. Remember, the opposite in ourselves is not only undeveloped, it is also to a large extent unconscious. Our relationships will be enriched to the extent that we relate through a more developed secondary function, rather than reacting from an unconscious undeveloped function.

        © -1997 Troy W. Pierce