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. 

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.

Katherine W. Hirsh, DPhil, presented two fascinating programs in October.

​AM Session: In the morning, she presented Once Upon a Time in the Unconscious: Cinderella, Individuation & the Inferior Function. Forty-two attendees participated in this engaging session which was a perfect mix of lecture and experiential activities designed to help us explore how to embrace and appreciate our Inferior function.

Here are some highlights taken from Katherine’s handout:

Five of us met at Never Too Latte, a coffee shop in San Bruno, to talk about Type over coffee and pastry. We started out talking about consciousness, then segued into a discussion of meditation. We also talked about explanations which got us into mathematics and how different types explain things. Although we only had five people, we still had a nice mix of types – 1 E (4 I), 1 SJ, 1 NT, 3 NF – which made for some interesting conversation.

If you might be interested in attending an informal Type Talk during the Fall / Winter months, please let us know!

Consciousness, History, Psychological Type, Society - a dip in tangled waters

Peter Geyer's talk at BAAPT on Saturday morning, July 18, reminded participants that no matter how sophisticated we get in our application of type, there is a way in which none of us quite know what we're talking about when we use core psychological terms like "consciousness." The fact that we are unable to converge on definitions of concepts like this may be a sign that our field, no matter how useful and enlightening, could still be in an early stage of development.

The afternoon program, A Casual Conversation, was sparked by provocative quotes Geyer selected from Jung, Myers, and other sources and engaged participants in a searching discussion about how the practice of psychological type is developing and changing. The group found itself working to articulate what we most value about type, to identify what is at the heart of teaching type, and to analyze some conflicting goals and pressures that impact how type is studied and practiced.

A paper that outlines the ideas that Peter incorporated into his discussion is available here. Peter also shared his presentation slides with us.

Four of us met at Kristin Nisewaner's home in June to talk about Type. As we sipped coffee and nibbled on muffins and fruit, we discussed the 8 Functions as presented by Bob McAlpine in May. In particular, we delved more deeply into Bob's idea of opposites: Dynamic Opposite, Opposing Personality, and (to a lesser extent) Complementary Opposite.

All four of us prefer iNtuition (one Ne and three Ni) and we agreed that we weren't sure what the underlying model was for these "opposites". We understood the shortcuts to determining them: change the outer letters for the Opposing Personality, the inner letters for the Dynamic Opposite, and all four letters for the Complementary Opposite. 

But what does each opposite mean?

Vicki wrote out the full codes for each "opposite" and thinks she has a handle on how each opposite was determined, based on what's changing in terms of functions.

Julie said she'd send a note to Bob to ask if he might provide more background information for us.

Two hours went by too quickly. 

We hope you'll be able to join us at a future Type Talk. Perhaps in August?

Central to discussions in both the morning and afternoon was the understanding of dynamic interactions of type preference in problem solving and in sharing feedback.