Jung\u2019s Psychological Types (1921) introduced what remains the most sophisticated typological framework in Western psychology. Where the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator stops at a four-letter code, Jung\u2019s own typology describes a fuller topography of the psyche: two attitudes, four functions, and the differentiated relationship between them that shapes how a given person apprehends reality and arrives at judgment.
This assessment draws on the extension of Jung\u2019s work developed by the contemporary Jungian analyst John Beebe. In his 1984 paper and subsequent clinical writings, Beebe showed that the eight cognitive functions (the four functions doubled by introverted/extraverted orientation) each carry a specific archetypal charge within a given psyche. What you encounter in yourself as the Hero function differs fundamentally from what you encounter in the Demon function \u2014 not only in strength, but in the archetypal role the function plays.
The Eight Functions and Their Archetypal Positions
Beebe\u2019s innovation was to recognize that the order of cognitive preference correlates with the order of archetypal imprint. The model arranges the eight functions in the following sequence:
- 1. Hero / Heroine. The dominant function. The psyche\u2019s primary instrument for engaging the world. Trusted, conscious, competent.
- 2. Parent (Good Parent). The auxiliary. How you nurture, guide, and take responsibility for others.
- 3. Child (Puer / Puella, Eternal Child). The tertiary. Where the psyche plays, improvises, and resists adult constraint.
- 4. Anima / Animus. The inferior function. Site of projection, idealization, and eventual integration. Where the inner contrasexual figure resides.
- 5. Opposing Personality. Mirror of the Hero in the shadow orientation. Where you rebel against your own dominant attitude.
- 6. Senex / Witch. Shadow of the Parent. Critical, restrictive, judgmental.
- 7. Trickster. Shadow of the Child. Deceptive, destabilizing, paradoxical.
- 8. Demon / Daimon. The deepest shadow. Where the psyche encounters what it cannot assimilate without transformation.
These archetypal positions are not personality labels. They are structural positions that any cognitive function occupies depending on the psyche it inhabits. The same function \u2014 say, introverted thinking \u2014 functions as Hero in one person and as Demon in another. The work of individuation involves making conscious the lower positions, especially the anima/animus and the shadow functions.
What the Results Will Tell You
The assessment produces a score for each of the eight functions (out of 40), ranked from strongest to weakest. The ranking reveals your function stack: which function is operating as Hero, which as Parent, which has fallen to the Demon position. The dominant-four stack is relatively stable across adult life; the lower four tend to develop in the second half, through the individuation process Jung described at length in his later writings.
For each position, you receive a paragraph-length reading that names the function\u2019s characteristic phenomenology in that archetypal role. The reading is not a diagnosis. It is a map intended to be held lightly \u2014 depth typology is descriptive, not prescriptive, and the psyche is always larger than any typological account.
How the Assessment Works
Sixty-four statements, eight per function. For each, rate how often the statement describes your experience on a five-point scale from Never to Always. The assessment takes five to seven minutes. Your results are stored only in your browser\u2019s local storage \u2014 nothing is sent to a server, no account is required.
Further Reading
For the foundational Jungian text, see Psychological Types (Collected Works, vol. 6). For Beebe\u2019s extended model, his collected essays are gathered in Energies and Patterns in Psychological Type (2017). Naomi Quenk\u2019s Beside Ourselves is a readable introduction to the inferior function (the anima/animus position) and how it manifests under stress.