Latest Articles
America’s Addiction Epidemic
Kerri Homerick
January 21, 2026
The mainstream attitude that equates addiction with criminality tends to overlook some of the more foundational and influential components of addiction, those related to individual and cultural wounding. Those who turn to substances do so to fill a void—to bridge the vast expanse that they experience between disparate parts of themselves, and between themselves and the world.
Artificial Intelligence
Satish Kappagantula
October 7, 2025
As a species, we have been invoking the machine for centuries. The machine has become an archetype, evolving in its shape and form over the generations. One only needs to think of the massive data centers already in place today with thousands of computing elements in operation for AI training and generation. Jung (1984) reminded us that these vast machines are the dragons of our day.
The Deep Well
Rachel McKamey
June 9, 2025
I was so outwardly focused on my own anticipation and expectation of others that I dampened the voice from within so that it was barely a whisper with no sense of agency. I was quite adept at anticipating and meeting others’ needs and normalizing them over my own. I accepted things I should not have and lived without a sense of inner comfort or safe harbor, instead choosing to embark on boats where other people were at the helm.
From the Archives
Facebook Types
Casey Samulski
July 5, 2011
I think many of us would be quick to put our inferior and embarrassing Anima on the pyre, and happily satiate our Heroes. But the Hero needs to sacrifice its preeminence and allow the Anima to experiment and thrive if we are to find ourselves truly committed to what we do, not to mention fulfilled by it.
Cultural Attitudes
John Beebe
April 5, 2017
Individuation is attractive as a therapeutic goal, but adaptation, even to a self that analytic work has brought into focus, can continue to be a challenge. I have come to feel that one of my jobs as a therapist is to help the person working with me develop an attitude that can negotiate culture comfortably— one adequate to bridge the gulf between irreducibly individual self and continuously demanding world.
Trumpism
Aviva Brown
June 9, 2023
A typological analysis of the psychological forces constellated in Trumpism helps explain the situation in the United States today. The co-occurrence of the savior and trickster archetypes represents an awareness that a catastrophe has already happened that must be consciously integrated. A psychological—as opposed to a political—understanding of the forces at work in the collective psyche is necessary.
The Ugly Duckling
Christine Drucker
September 8, 2016
The image of the ugly duckling growing into a beautiful swan is a powerful and transformative symbol of hope and fulfillment for INFJs. As a metaphor for differentiation and the individuation process, the Ugly Duckling tale illuminates the struggle to separate from the demands of others in order to recognize the value and beauty of one’s essential self.
Double Introverts, Dual Extraverts
Douglass J. Wilde
May 2, 2012
I describe here how I discovered a new way to find the function-attitudes—the ‘building blocks’ of personality type—associated with any set of MBTI® results. I discovered this method almost by accident. My goal was to form teams of graduate design students working together to conceive, build, demonstrate, and report on a physical project.
Marriage as a “Hotbed of Individuation”
Jonathan Elias
April 25, 2021
Couples often wonder whether they are “ready” for such a commitment. I look for situations when each person’s “sore spot” is activated. When a couple is able to hold the tension of the activated inferior function and find a way to make their relationship a vehicle for the development of personality, then they are “ready” for marriage in one of the most crucial ways.
Dreams of Grief and Growth
Alexa Gallo
September 16, 2020
My ongoing experience with grief in relation to my inferior function has brought forth dysfunctional behavior as well as an increase in consciousness and differentiation. It has enhanced my awareness of the healing capacity and vulnerability of the inferior function. I have come to see that the vulnerability is necessary.
3000 Years of Type Dis-Integration
Walter Smith
January 5, 2011
The schizoid nature of western civilization gives credence to our emphasis on the necessity of using all of the functions (S, N, T, F), in both attitudes of Introversion (I) and Extraversion (E) … When civilizations emphasize only one part of psychological type, they diminish themselves and set themselves up to see the world through distorted lenses.