Temenos

A Greek word meaning a sacred, protected space; psychologically, descriptive of both a personal container and the sense of privacy that surrounds an analytical relationship.

Jung believed that the need to establish or preserve a temenos is often indicated by drawings or dream images of a quaternary nature, such as mandalas.

The symbol of the mandala has exactly this meaning of a holy place, a temenos, to protect the centre. And it is a symbol which is one of the most important motifs in the objectivation of unconscious images. It is a means of protecting the centre of the personality from being drawn out and from being influenced from outside.["The Tavistock Lectures," CW 18, par. 410.]

Tertium non datur

The reconciling "third," not logically foreseeable, characteristic of a resolution in a conflict situation when the tension between opposites has been held in consciousness. (See also transcendent function.)

As a rule it occurs when the analysis has constellated the opposites so powerfully that a union or synthesis of the personality becomes an imperative necessity. . . . [This situation] requires a real solution and necessitates a third thing in which the opposites can unite. Here the logic of the intellect usually fails, for in a logical antithesis there is no third. The "solvent" can only be of an irrational nature. In nature the resolution of opposites is always an energic process: she acts symbolically in the truest sense of the word, doing something that expresses both sides, just as a waterfall visibly mediates between above and below.["The Conjunction," CW 14, par. 705.]

Thinking

The mental process of interpreting what is perceived. (Compare feeling.)

In Jung’s model of typology, thinking is one of the four functions used for psychological orientation. Along with feeling, it is a rational function. If thinking is the primary function, then feeling is automatically the inferior function.

Thinking, if it is to be real thinking and true to its own principle, must rigorously exclude feeling. This, of course, does not do away with the the fact that there are individuals whose thinking and feeling are on the same level, both being of equal motive power for consciousness. But in these cases there is also no question of a differentiated type, but merely of relatively undeveloped thinking and feeling.["General Description of the Types," CW 6, par. 667.]

As a process of apperception, thinking may be active or passive.

Active thinking is an act of the will, passive thinking is a mere occurrence. In the former case, I submit the contents of ideation to a voluntary act of judgment; in the latter, conceptual connections establish themselves of their own accord, and judgments are formed that may even contradict my intention. . . . Active thinking, accordingly, would correspond to my concept of directed thinking. Passive thinking . . . I would call . . . intuitive thinking.["Definitions," ibid., par. 830.]

The capacity for directed thinking I call intellect; the capacity for passive or undirected thinking I call intellectual intuition.[Ibid., par. 832.]

Transcendent function

A psychic function that arises from the tension between consciousness and the unconscious and supports their union. (See also opposites and tertium non datur.)

When there is full parity of the opposites, attested by the ego’s absolute participation in both, this necessarily leads to a suspension of the will, for the will can no longer operate when every motive has an equally strong countermotive. Since life cannot tolerate a standstill, a damming up of vital energy results, and this would lead to an insupportable condition did not the tension of opposites produce a new, uniting function that transcends them. This function arises quite naturally from the regression of libido caused by the blockage.[Ibid., par. 824.]

The tendencies of the conscious and the unconscious are the two factors that together make up the transcendent function. It is called "transcendent" because it makes the transition from one attitude to another organically possible.["The Transcendent Function," CW 8, par. 145.]

In a conflict situation, or a state of depression for which there is no apparent reason, the development of the transcendent function depends on becoming aware of unconscious material. This is most readily available in dreams, but because they are so difficult to understand Jung considered the method of active imagination-giving "form" to dreams, fantasies, etc.–to be more useful.

Once the unconscious content has been given form and the meaning of the formulation is understood, the question arises as to how the ego will relate to this position, and how the ego and the unconscious are to come to terms. This is the second and more important stage of the procedure, the bringing together of opposites for the production of a third: the transcendent function. At this stage it is no longer the unconscious that takes the lead, but the ego.[Ibid., par. 181.]

This process requires an ego that can maintain its standpoint in face of the counterposition of the unconscious. Both are of equal value. The confrontation between the two generates a tension charged with energy and creates a living, third essence.

From the activity of the unconscious there now emerges a new content, constellated by thesis and antithesis in equal measure and standing in a compensatory relation to both. It thus forms the middle ground on which the opposites can be united. If, for instance, we conceive the opposition to be sensuality versus spirituality, then the mediatory content born out of the unconscious provides a welcome means of expression for the spiritual thesis, because of its rich spiritual associations, and also for the sensual antithesis, because of its sensuous imagery. The ego, however, torn between thesis and antithesis, finds in the middle ground its own counterpart, its sole and unique means of expression, and it eagerly seizes on this in order to be delivered from its division.["Definitions," CW 6, par. 825.]

The transcendent function is essentially an aspect of the self-regulation of the psyche. It typically manifests symbolically and is experienced as a new attitude toward oneself and life.

If the mediatory product remains intact, it forms the raw material for a process not of dissolution but of construction, in which thesis and antithesis both play their part. In this way it becomes a new content that governs the whole attitude, putting an end to the division and forcing the energy of the opposites into a common channel. The standstill is overcome and life can flow on with renewed power towards new goals.[Ibid., par. 827.]

Transference

A particular case of projection, used to describe the unconscious, emotional bond that arises in the analysand toward the analyst. (See also countertransference.)

Unconscious contents are invariably projected at first upon concrete persons and situations. Many projections can ultimately be integrated back into the individual once he has recognized their subjective origin; others resist integration, and although they may be detached from their original objects, they thereupon transfer themselves to the doctor. Among these contents the relation to the parent of opposite sex plays an important part, i.e., the relation of son to mother, daughter to father, and also that of brother to sister.["The Psychology of the Transference," CW 16, par. 357.]

Once the projections are recognized as such, the particular form of rapport known as the transference is at an end, and the problem of individual relationship begins.["The Therapeutic Value of Abreaction," ibid., par. 287.]

A transference may be either positive or negative; the former is marked by feelings of affection and respect, the latter by hostility and resistance.

For one type of person (called the infantile-rebel) a positive transference is, to begin with, an important achievement with a healing significance; for the other (the infantile-obedient) it is a dangerous backsliding, a convenient way of evading life’s duties. For the first a negative transference denotes increased insubordination, hence a backsliding and an evasion of life’s duties, for the second it is a step forward with a healing significance.["Some Crucial Points in Psychoanalysis," CW 4, par. 659.]

Jung did not regard the transference merely as a projection of infantile-erotic fantasies. Though these may be present at the beginning of analysis, they can be dissolved through the reductive method. Then the purpose of the transference becomes the main issue and guide.

An exclusively sexual interpretation of dreams and fantasies is a shocking violation of the patient’s psychological material: infantile-sexual fantasy is by no means the whole story, since the material also contains a creative element, the purpose of which is to shape a way out of the neurosis.["The Therapeutic Value of Abreaction," CW 16, par. 277.]

Although Jung made contradictory statements about the therapeutic importance of the transference–for instance:

The transference phenomenon is an inevitable feature of every thorough analysis, for it is imperative that the doctor should get into the closest possible touch with the patient’s line of psychological development.[Ibid., par. 283.]

We do not work with the "transference to the analyst," but against it and in spite of it.["Some Crucial Points in Psychoanalysis," CW 4, par. 601.]

A transference is always a hindrance; it is never an advantage.["The Tavistock Lectures," CW 18, par. 349.]

Medical treatment of the transference gives the patient a priceless opportunity to withdraw his projections, to make good his losses, and to integrate his personality.["The Psychology of the Transference," CW 16, par. 420.]

–he did not doubt its significance when it was present.

The suitably trained analyst mediates the transcendent function for the patient, i.e., helps him to bring conscious and unconscious together and so arrive at a new attitude. . . . The patient clings by means of the transference to the person who seems to promise him a renewal of attitude; through it he seeks this change, which is vital to him, even though he may not be conscious of doing so. For the patient, therefore, the analyst has the character of an indispensable figure absolutely necessary for life.["The Transcendent Function," CW 8, par. 146.]

Whatever is unconscious in the analysand and needed for healthy functioning is projected onto the analyst. This includes archetypal images of wholeness, with the result that the analyst takes on the stature of a mana-personality. The analysand’s task is then to understand such images on the subjective level, a primary aim being to constellate the patient’s own inner analyst.

Empathy is an important purposive element in the transference. By means of empathy the analysand attempts to emulate the presumably healthier attitude of the analyst, and thereby to attain a better level of adaptation.

The patient is bound to the analyst by ties of affection or resistance and cannot help following and imitating his psychic attitude. By this means he feels his way along (empathy). And with the best will in the world and for all his technical skill the analyst cannot prevent it, for empathy works surely and instinctively in spite of conscious judgment, be it never so strong.["Some Crucial Points in Psychoanalysis," CW 4, par. 661.]

Jung believed that analyzing the transference was extremely important in order to return projected contents necessary for the individuation of the analysand. But he pointed out that even after projections have been withdrawn there remains a strong connection between the two parties. This is because of an instinctive factor that has few outlets in modern society: kinship libido.

Everyone is now a stranger among strangers. Kinship libido-which could still engender a satisfying feeling of belonging together, as for instance in the early Christian communities-has long been deprived of its object. But, being an instinct, it is not to be satisfied by any mere substitute such as a creed, party, nation, or state. It wants the human connection. That is the core of the whole transference phenomenon, and it is impossible to argue it away, because relationship to the self is at once relationship to our fellow man, and no one can be related to the latter until he is related to himself.["The Psychology of the Transference," CW 16, par. 445.]

Transformation

See rebirth.

Trauma

An intense emotional shock, often accompanied by re-pression and a splitting of the personality. (See abreaction).

Treasure hard to attain

Broadly, a reference to aspects of self-knowledge necessary for psychological individuality; specifically, a metaphor for the goal of individuation, a good working relationship with the self.

Trickster

Psychologically, descriptive of unconscious shadow tendencies of an ambivalent, mercurial nature.

[The trickster] is a forerunner of the saviour . . . . He is both subhuman and superhuman, a bestial and divine being, whose chief and most alarming characteristic is his unconsciousness.["On the Psychology of the Trickster-Figure," CW 9i, par. 472],

The so-called civilized man has forgotten the trickster. He remembers him only figuratively and metaphorically, when, irritated by his own ineptitude, he speaks of fate playing tricks on him or of things being bewitched. He never suspects that his own hidden and apparently harmless shadow has qualities whose dangerousness exceeds his wildest dreams.[Ibid., par. 478.]

Type

A characteristic general attitude or function.

[The] function-types, which one can call the thinking, feeling, sensation, and intuitive types, may be divided into two classes according to the quality of the basic function, i.e., into the rational and the irrational. The thinking and feeling types belong to the former class, the sensation and intuitive types to the latter. A further division into two classes is permitted by the predominant trend of the movement of libido, namely introversion and extraversion.["Definitions," CW 6, par. 835.]

Jung believed that the early distortion of type due to parental or other environmental influences can lead to neurosis in later life.

As a rule, whenever such a falsification of type takes place . . . the individual becomes neurotic later, and can be cured only by developing the attitude consonant with his nature.["General Description of the Types," ibid., par. 560.]

Typology

A system in which individual attitudes and behavior patterns are categorized in an attempt to explain the differences between people.

Jung’s model of typology grew out of an extensive historical review of the type question in literature, mythology, aesthetics, philosophy and psychopathology. Whereas earlier classifications were based on observations of temperamental or physiological behavior patterns, Jung’s model is concerned with the movement of energy and the way in which one habitually or preferentially orients oneself in the world.

First and foremost, it is a critical tool for the research worker, who needs definite points of view and guidelines if he is to reduce the chaotic profusion of individual experiences to any kind of order. . . . Secondly, a typology is a great help in understanding the wide variations that occur among individuals, and it also furnishes a clue to the fundamental differences in the psychological theories now current. Last but not least, it is an essential means for determining the "personal equation" of the practising psychologist, who, armed with an exact knowledge of his differentiated and inferior functions, can avoid many serious blunders in dealing with his patients.["Psychological Typology," ibid., par. 986.]

Jung differentiated eight typological groups: two personality attitudes-introversion and extraversion-and four functions-thinking, sensation, intuition and feeling, each of which may operate in an introverted or extraverted way.

Introversion and extraversion are psychological modes of adaptation. In the former, the movement of energy is toward the inner world. In the latter, interest is directed toward the outer world. In one case the subject (inner reality) and in the other the object (things and other people, outer reality) is of primary importance.

[Introversion] is normally characterized by a hesitant, reflective, retiring nature that keeps itself to itself, shrinks from objects, is always slightly on the defensive and prefers to hide behind mistrustful scru-tiny. [Extraversion] is normally characterized by an outgoing, candid, and accommodating nature that adapts easily to a given situation, quickly forms attachments, and, setting aside any possible misgivings, will often venture forth with careless confidence into unknown situations. In the first case obviously the subject, and in the second the object, is all-important.["The Problem of the Attitude-Type," CW 7, par. 62. ]

The crucial factor in determining whether one is introverted or extraverted, as opposed to which attitude is currently operative, is not what one does but rather the motivation for doing it-the direction in which one’s energy naturally, and usually, flows.

Whether a person is predominantly introverted or extraverted only becomes apparent in association with one of the four functions, each with its special area of expertise: thinking refers to the process of cognitive thought, sensation is perception by means of the physical sense organs, feeling is the function of subjective judgment or valuation, and intuition refers to perception via the unconscious.

Briefly, the sensation function establishes that something exists, thinking tells us what it means, feeling tells us what it’s worth, and through intuition we have a sense of its possibilities.

In this way we can orient ourselves with respect to the immediate world as completely as when we locate a place geographically by latitude and longitude. The four functions are somewhat like the four points of the compass; they are just as arbitrary and just as indispen-sable. Nothing prevents our shifting the cardinal points as many degrees as we like in one direction or the other, or giving them differ-ent names. It is merely a question of convention and intelligibility.
But one thing I must confess: I would not for anything dispense with this compass on my psychological voyages of discovery.["A Psychological Theory of Types," CW 6, pars. 958f.]

Jung’s basic model, including the relationship between the four functions, is a quaternity, as shown in the diagram. (Thinking is here arbitrarily placed at the top; any of the other functions might be placed there, according to which one a person most favors.)

Jung believed that any one function by itself is not sufficient for ordering our experience of ourselves or the world around us; all four are required for a comprehensive understanding.

For complete orientation all four functions should contribute equally: thinking should facilitate cognition and judgment, feeling should tell us how and to what extent a thing is important or unimportant for us, sensation should convey concrete reality to us through seeing, hearing, tasting, etc., and intuition should enable us to divine the hidden possibilities in the background, since these too belong to the complete picture of a given situation.["Psychological Types," ibid., par. 900.] [Jung acknowledged that the four orienting functions do not contain everything in the conscious psyche. Will power and memory, for instance, are not included, because although they may be affected by the way one functions typologically, they are not in themselves typological determinants.]

The ideal is to have conscious access to the function or functions appropriate for particular circumstances, but in practice the four functions are not equally at the disposal of consciousness. One is invariably more differentiated, called the superior or primary function. The function opposite to the primary function is called the fourth or inferior function.

The terms "superior" and "inferior"" in this context do not imply value judgments. No function is any better than any of the others. The superior function is simply the most developed, the one a person is most likely to use; similarly, inferior does not mean pathological but merely less used compared to the favored function. Moreover, the constant influx of unconscious contents into consciousness is such that it is often difficult for oneself, let alone an outside observer, to tell which functions belong to the conscious personality and which to the unconscious.

Generally speaking, a judging observer [thinking or feeling type] will tend to seize on the conscious character, while a perceptive observer [sensation type or intuitive] will be more influenced by the unconscious character, since judgment is chiefly concerned with the conscious motivation of the psychic process, while perception registers the process itself.["General Description of the Types," ibid., par. 576.]

What happens to those functions that are not consciously brought into daily use and therefore not developed?

They remain in a more or less primitive and infantile state, often only half conscious, or even quite unconscious. The relatively undeveloped functions constitute a specific inferiority which is characteristic of each type and is an integral part of his total character. The one-sided emphasis on thinking is always accompanied by an inferiority of feeling, and differentiated sensation is injurious to intuition and vice versa.["A Psychological Theory of Types," ibid., par. 955.]

Jung described two of the four functions as rational (or judging) and two as irrational (or perceiving).
Thinking, as a function of logical discrimination, is rational. So is feeling, which as a way of evaluating our likes and dislikes can be quite as discriminating as thinking. Both are based on a reflective, linear process that coalesces into a particular judgment. Sensation and intuition are called irrational functions because they do not depend on logic. Each is a way of perceiving simply what is: sensation sees what is in the external world, intuition sees (or "picks up") what is in the inner world.

Besides the primary function, there is often a second, and sometimes a third, auxiliary function that exerts a co-determining influence on consciousness. This is always one whose nature, rational or irrational, is different from the primary function.

Jung’s model of typology is the basis for modern type tests, such as the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI) and the Singer-Loomis Personality Profile, used in organizational settings.

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