Our often-used shorthand illustration with a line drawn between the four allegedly conscious function-attitudes and the four “unconscious” ones is misleading because consciousness is not a sufficiently reliable characteristic for distinguishing these two sides of the psyche’s typology. It’s related to what distinguishes them, but only as a secondary and fairly unpredictable characteristic.
unconscious
The ego asks why anyone in his or her right mind should actually allow the troublesome aspects of his or her personality to be expressed. Jung’s answer is “for the development of character.” …For Jung, the inferior function is thus not just a trouble-maker extraordinaire, it is a moral exigency as well.