How to Recognize the Eight Function-Attitudes: An Approach to Psychological Typing

To recognize at first glance the true “psychological type” of a person one is starting to get to know is no doubt a knack, but to be able to identify the particular kind of consciousness that the person is presenting at a given moment of interaction is something that can be learned. The eight-function, eight-archetype model of the types that John Beebe has developed greatly facilitates this learning. With the aid of clips from classic American film, Dr. Beebe will demonstrate how this model can enable us to recognize each of the eight “functions of consciousness” that Jung described in his 1921 classic, Psychological Types. The systematic use of Dr. Beebe’s new model, developing Jung’s theory for our time, is a good way to assess the results of taking an MBTI paper and pencil instrument to see if the test findings really match the conscious orientation of the person.

Taking us into his cinematic workshop, Dr. Beebe will share with us how he determines that one function-attitude and not another is being presented to us on the screen at a particular moment. He will show how he then goes about assessing that consciousness using Jung’s typology. He will present some telling examples of how particular archetypes colors the presentation of a particular function, such as feeling, thinking, intuition, or sensation, and its attitude, extraversion or introversion, often so much as to make it seem like some other function and attitude. The goal of this daylong event is to sharpen the audience’s talent for type recognition.