This month, we'd like to introduce Sara Atkins.  

Sara lives in Berkeley and has been a member of BAAPT for one year. In her day job, she's a social worker for child protective services.

Sara has preferences for ISFJ.

NovaType: Changing the World, One Idea at a Time
​At our February meeting, Stephen Santore spoke to us about how type theory provides a foundation for encouraging us to reach for that expanded potential we have by harnessing all four mental functions and developing our psychological opposites. 

Please say hello to our board members at our next meeting.

Carol Shumate spoke to the group in January on the topic of the Trickster archetype and leadership.

Highlights

Leadership is one of the most popular topics for business literature. At the January BAAPT meeting, Carol Shumate, author, educator and long-time Type practitioner, presented some fascinating new perspectives from her forthcoming book, Leadership – Mastering the Subtle Balance. Carol has been studying and analyzing well known “epic fails” by leaders throughout history and has identified a key Type-related dynamic, based on John Beebe’s model that links the 8 Function-Attitudes to 8 archetypal energies.

Carol builds the case that leadership necessarily requires drawing on our tertiary preference, which carries the archetypal energy of the “Eternal Child”. The Eternal Child archetype carries a hopeful, positive openness. The Eternal Child’s shadow partner, in Beebe’s model, is in the unconscious 7th Function-Attitude, with the archetypal energy of the “Trickster”.  The trickster, like all the unconscious archetypes (perhaps also the conscious ones) works both for us, by coming to our defense, often by creating double binds that trap or confound our enemies, and “against” us, by double binding ourselves into situations where we must confront unconscious aspects of ourselves.

In a healthy person, a non-pathological level of narcissism (self love) is associated with “divine innocence” – which can lead to vulnerability.  We use our Trickster archetypal energy to protect against excessive vulnerability. Leaders need to balance both the optimism of the Eternal Child and the wiliness of the “Trickster”. Some leaders lose the balance and can become, in Jung’s terminology, subject to “Archetypal Possession”, where the archetypal energy dominates, becoming like a mask and obscuring the full personality. Extreme expressions of this dynamic manifest as pathological narcissism, characterized by grandiosity, rage, denial/delusions and self-absorption.

Interestingly, as Carol suggests, the best defense against narcissism in a leader is our own Trickster.  By knowing our own Trickster, we sense the Trickster energy in others and can use our Trickster wiles to avoid damage to ourselves. (Note from Vic: An example of this recognition might be President Nixon’s detractors who called him “Tricky Dick”.)

Carol shared, as handouts, descriptions of the Eternal Child and the Trickster archetypes as they typically are experienced by each of the 8 Function-Attitude pairs.  These descriptions, and more, can be found in the “F-A Type Decoder” tool that Carol co-developed with Bob McAlpine and which can be accessed through Type Resources. 

​We look forward to Carol’s book!

-- Victor Ortiz

On November 14th, Karen Keefer presented to 50 BAAPT members and guests an engaging and informative session on The Feeling Function: Word and Image. 
During the first half of the morning Karen led us through a brief look at human cognition, which she to referred as The Divided Mind. She then moved on to a discussion of the Feeling function—a reasoning process that involves assigning value. Additionally, Karen spoke to some differences between extraverted and introverted Feeling.
The second half of the morning was devoted to creating a Feeling image through a guided activity, and then reflecting on the experience. Participants were then invited to share their experience with the larger group.
Here are some comments from the program evaluations:

• I have a better handle on what the feeling function does and does not entail. Also, I really appreciate getting a higher level view of cognition. Preparatory remarks and the pace of the guided meditation were wonderful. Opened me up to an area of type I feel is difficult to accept – hard to understand!
• The experience of imagery exercise brought in fabulous current material from different authors; useful comments from other members.
• I didn’t like the second part of the program, the image part. Drawing is difficult. My mind was all over the place.

Kailin is one of our newer members, and a wonderful addition to our chapter. Here she offers us the chance to get to know her a little better…

As a person with INFJ preferences, I love learning new knowledge and being inspired by provoking thoughts, especially those that help me understand more about people. I joined BAAPT in 2012 and found it a very enriching experience. Although I prefer self-learning in a more private form as an introvert, I love being able to talk about types with so many experts in one room. It feels like being part of an interest club in which we share a special hobby and language.