Differentiated Function

Differentiated functions and attitudes focus a person’s intentions and direction. Psychological type theory assumes a hierarchy of consciousness among the functions, with a superior, most differentiated (dominant) function at the top

Quenk articulates the foundational Jungian-Myersian thesis that differentiation produces a ranked hierarchy of functions, with the most differentiated function directing conscious intention and the least differentiated remaining largely unconscious.

Quenk, Naomi L., Was That Really Me? How Everyday Stress Brings Out Our Hidden Personality, 2002thesis

Dig deeper with Sebastian →

The differentiated function is nearly always misused for one’s own selfish power… nature is continuing that desire to dissociate man from his original unconscious condition… the differentiated function suddenly becomes use-less.

Jung argues that the differentiated function, though indispensable as a conscious instrument, is subject to compensatory withdrawal by the unconscious precisely so that the next function awaiting differentiation may come forward.

Jung, C.G., Dream Analysis: Notes of the Seminar Given in 1928-1930, 1984thesis

Dig deeper with Sebastian →

consciousness and the differentiated function must be as far removed as possible from the active field of emotional components. All differentiated functions are liable to be disturbed by them

Neumann contends that the effective operation of any differentiated function requires systematic insulation from the emotional-dynamic instinctual components of the unconscious, with thinking being the most vulnerable.

Neumann, Erich, The Origins and History of Consciousness (Princeton, 2019thesis

Dig deeper with Sebastian →

Jung speaks of the most differentiated function of consciousness as the ‘superior function’; this, in a man, is associated with the image of the hero… The fourth function is usually far less differentiated than the other three.

Beebe maps Jung’s hierarchy of differentiated functions onto archetypal figures, identifying the degree of differentiation with specific archetypal roles from the heroic superior function to the contrasexual inferior.

Beebe, John, Energies and Patterns in Psychological Type: The Reservoir of Consciousness, 2017thesis

Dig deeper with Sebastian →

Sixteen psychological type profiles can be distinguished simply on the basis of which of the eight function-attitudes turns out to be the most differentiated—the dominant or ‘superior’ function—and which the next most differentiated—the ‘auxiliary’ function.

Beebe establishes that the typological system rests entirely on identifying which function-attitude achieves the greatest and second-greatest degree of differentiation in a given individual.

Beebe, John, Energies and Patterns in Psychological Type: The Reservoir of Consciousness, 2017thesis

Dig deeper with Sebastian →

three of the four functions of consciousness can become differentiated, i.e., conscious, while the other remains connected with the matrix, the unconscious, and is known as the ‘inferior’ function.

Jung establishes the structural asymmetry at the heart of typology: up to three functions may achieve differentiation into consciousness, while one invariably remains bound to the unconscious as the inferior function.

Jung, Carl Gustav, The Archetypes and the Collective Unconscious, 1959thesis

Dig deeper with Sebastian →

three of which are fairly well differentiated, while the fourth, undifferentiated, ‘inferior’ function is undomesticated, unadapted, uncontrolled, and primitive. Because of its contamination with the collective unconscious, it possesses archaic and mystical qualities

Edinger situates the differentiated/undifferentiated axis within the broader quaternary symbolism, characterizing the inferior function’s lack of differentiation as a contamination with collective-unconscious archaic qualities.

Edinger, Edward F., The Psyche in Antiquity, Book One: Early Greek Philosophy From Thales to Plotinus, 1999supporting

Dig deeper with Sebastian →

two partially differentiated auxiliary functions which hardly ever attain the same degree of differentiation as the main function… they possess a higher degree of spontaneity than the main function, which displays a large measure of reliability

Drawing directly on Jung, Quenk notes that auxiliary functions remain only partially differentiated, and that this partial status gives them greater spontaneity and lesser amenability to deliberate will than the fully differentiated dominant.

Quenk, Naomi L., Was That Really Me? How Everyday Stress Brings Out Our Hidden Personality, 2002supporting

Dig deeper with Sebastian →

Since he is a man with differentiated thinking and differentiated sensation, he has a very accurate observation of reality… the superior function, as I explained, is exceedingly valuable, it gives that man a standpoint of refuge in the great turmoil

Jung illustrates clinically that a person’s differentiated functions provide psychological stability and reliable orientation, functioning as a refuge when inferior functions threaten disorientation.

Jung, C.G., Dream Analysis: Notes of the Seminar Given in 1928-1930, 1984supporting

Dig deeper with Sebastian →

the differentiation of a strong natural superior and accompanying auxiliary function that is different in every respect is the starting point for further differentiation. The other function-attitudes operate largely out of awareness

Beebe describes the differentiation of superior and auxiliary functions as the necessary developmental foundation from which further individuation of the remaining function-attitudes may proceed.

Beebe, John, Energies and Patterns in Psychological Type: The Reservoir of Consciousness, 2017supporting

Dig deeper with Sebastian →

Not long after I had recognized the differentiation of my first four functions, including their alternation of extraversion and introversion, I came across Isabel Briggs Myers’s book, Gifts Differing

Beebe offers autobiographical evidence for the experiential reality of the progressive differentiation of functions, linking personal analytic work to typological self-recognition.

Beebe, John, Energies and Patterns in Psychological Type: The Reservoir of Consciousness, 2017supporting

Dig deeper with Sebastian →

that untamed instinctive energy before which the differentiated type recoils if ever it should ‘accidentally’ manifest itself in an inferior function instead of in the ideal function, where it is prized and honoured as a divine afflatus

Jung describes the differentiated type’s characteristic recoil from undifferentiated instinctual energy appearing in inferior functions, contrasting it with the idealization of that energy when expressed through the superior function.

Jung, Carl Gustav, Psychological Types, 1921supporting

Dig deeper with Sebastian →

differentiated feeling of the feeling type can get away with anything and can be just the reverse of honesty and straightforwardness

Von Franz issues a critical corrective to idealizations of the differentiated feeling function, arguing that its very differentiation enables sophisticated rationalizations that may undermine rather than exemplify ethical integrity.

Marie-Louise von Franz, James Hillman, Lectures on Jung’s Typology, 2013supporting

Dig deeper with Sebastian →

Jung took for granted that most consciousnesses are so undifferentiated that even the auxiliary function is rarely more than ‘relatively unconscious’. Too fine a distinction regarding the attitude of the auxiliary would not have made a great deal of sense to him

Papadopoulos contextualizes debates between Wheelwright and Myers about auxiliary function attitude by noting that for Jung the general low degree of differentiation beyond the dominant function rendered such distinctions practically secondary.

Papadopoulos, Renos K., The Handbook of Jungian Psychology: Theory, Practice and Applications, 2006supporting

Dig deeper with Sebastian →

the inferior function appears to have been reduced by half. The doubling, therefore, represents a process of psychological differentiation.

Von Franz reads alchemical numerical symbolism as encoding the same psychological dynamic of progressive differentiation that structures the typological hierarchy, with the move from seven to eight paralleling the integration of the inferior function.

von Franz, Marie-Louise, Aurora Consurgens: A Document Attributed to Thomas Aquinas on the Problem of Opposites in Alchemy, 1966aside

Dig deeper with Sebastian →

there are always the types, and for certain people a certain one is differentiated and three are unconscious; that is, the majority of functions are unconscious.

Jung insists that typological differentiation is always individual in its specific content — what is differentiated differs person to person — while the structural condition of most functions remaining unconscious is universal.

Jung, C.G., Dream Analysis: Notes of the Seminar Given in 1928-1930, 1984aside

Dig deeper with Sebastian →