The sensation function occupies a distinctive and theoretically consequential position within depth psychology’s typological canon. Jung originally subordinated sensation to feeling as a mere ‘organ function,’ only later recognizing — partly through Maria Moltzer’s 1916 proposal of intuition as a third type-consciousness and partly through his correspondence with Hans Schmid-Guisan — that sensation and intuition together constitute an ‘irrational’ axis of psychic orientation fundamentally distinct from the rational thinking-feeling axis. In Jung’s mature typology, sensation is the function of reality-perception, the ‘fonction du réel’: its standpoint is that of facts, not bodily pleasure or somatic stimulation, a distinction Jung insisted upon with some force. The function splits along the introversion-extraversion axis into markedly different characters. Extraverted sensation seeks an accumulation of concrete outer experience, becoming riveted to external reality to the point of missing subtler psychological developments. Introverted sensation, famously described by Emma Jung as a ‘highly sensitized photographic plate,’ absorbs impressions with great depth and precision while appearing outwardly impassive. Von Franz and Hillman develop clinical portraits of both variants, noting the tendency of inferior sensation — in intuitive types especially — to erupt as sinister premonition, compulsion, or prophetic fantasy. Beebe situates the function within an eight-archetype model in which each attitude-variant carries a distinct archetypal valence. The broader neuroscientific literature, while not directly addressing Jung’s typological construct, provides a partially convergent vocabulary around interoception, proprioception, and somatic self-awareness that depth psychologists may fruitfully read alongside the typological tradition.
The psychological function of sensation is the perception of reality, and the standpoint of the sensation type is simply the standpoint of facts.
Jung draws a sharp distinction between bodily sensations and the psychological sensation function, defining the latter as the principle of factual reality-perception rather than somatic experience.
, Dream Analysis: Notes of the Seminar Given in 1928-1930, 1984thesis
sensation was more than an ‘organ function… subordinate to feeling’ as he had thought in 1915 … there was another axis of orientation altogether that his theory would need to take into account, the ‘irrational’ axis of sensation–intuition.
Beebe traces the theoretical development by which Jung elevated sensation from a subordinate organ-function to one pole of the irrational axis, constituting a fundamental reorientation of the typological system.
, Energies and Patterns in Psychological Type: The Reservoir of Consciousness, 2017thesis
the introverted sensation type was like a highly sensitized photographic plate … every detail is absorbed. The impression comes from the object to the subject. It is as though a stone fell into deep water.
Von Franz records Emma Jung’s phenomenological self-description of introverted sensation as deep, absorbing impression-processing that appears outwardly as blankness but is inwardly precise and thorough.
, Lectures on Jung’s Typology, 2013thesis
Extraverted sensation, as a cognitive process, seeks ‘an accumulation of actual experiences of concrete objects’ and the function can become, in the moment, so riveted on the reality ‘out there’ that it cannot recognise that other things may also be happening.
The Handbook characterizes extraverted sensation as a function of total absorption in concrete outer reality, with the attendant liability of missing simultaneous psychological or interpersonal dimensions.
, The Handbook of Jungian Psychology: Theory, Practice and Applications, 2006thesis
With the introverted sensation type, the movement from the object comes toward him. The novels by Thomas Mann have a very subjective character, while his intuition is concerned with events which go on in the background.
Von Franz differentiates introverted from extraverted sensation by the directionality of impression — inward, toward the subject — and links inferior extraverted intuition of the introverted sensation type to a prophetic concern with collective outer events.
, Psychotherapy, 1993supporting
Because the introverted sensation type’s superior function is introverted, his intuition is extraverted and therefore is generally triggered off by outer events … intuitions are very often of a sinister character, with dark premonitions.
Von Franz explains that the inferior extraverted intuition of the introverted sensation type is provoked by external triggers and characteristically assumes a compulsive, persecutory, or pessimistic quality when unassimilated.
, Psychotherapy, 1993supporting
His greatest inner experience, a revelation of the Godhead … came from seeing a ray of light being reflected in a tin plate. That sensation experience snapped him into an inner ecstasy.
Von Franz illustrates the transformative potential of inferior extraverted sensation in an introverted intuitive type, using Jakob Böhme’s visionary experience as an example of how a concrete sensory stimulus can catalyze spiritual illumination.
, Lectures on Jung’s Typology, 2013supporting
the very existence of a judgment means that the rational type’s relation to the object will never become an absolute tie, as it is in the case of the sensation type.
Jung distinguishes the sensation type’s unreserved, unmediated bond to the object from the rational type’s relationship, arguing that the sensation type’s tie to outer reality is absolute rather than evaluated.
, Psychological Types, 1921supporting
someone with superior extraverted thinking and auxiliary introverted sensation will have introverted thinking and extraverted sensation strongly in shadow.
Beebe’s eight-function model, reported here, specifies how introverted sensation functions as an auxiliary in particular type profiles and how the corresponding shadow-attitudes fall to the opposing and other shadow-carrying archetypes.
, The Handbook of Jungian Psychology: Theory, Practice and Applications, 2006supporting
it was in dreams that I met my anima as a humble, introverted-sensation type Chinese laundress, and it was she who could provide me a bridge to the practicalities of life that my conscious standpoint, ever theoretical, tended to leave out.
Beebe illustrates, via autobiographical dream material, how the sensation function can be carried by the anima for an introverted-intuitive type, bridging the dominant function to neglected practical reality.
, Energies and Patterns in Psychological Type: The Reservoir of Consciousness, 2017supporting
does the intuitive thinking person suffer more from knocking his head on sensation facts or from feeling problems? Here you can decide which is the first, and which the well-developed second, function.
Von Franz proposes that identifying a person’s greatest suffering — specifically whether it centers on confronting sensation facts — serves as a diagnostic criterion for locating sensation’s position in the functional hierarchy.
, Lectures on Jung’s Typology, 2013supporting
Se. | engaging | experiencing | enjoying … Si. | implementing | verifying | accounting
Beebe offers a triadic verbal characterization of both extraverted and introverted sensation processes, distinguishing the outward-engaging, experiential quality of Se from the inward-implementing, verificatory quality of Si.
, Energies and Patterns in Psychological Type: The Reservoir of Consciousness, 2017supporting
we use the word feeling quite loosely, since in a particular context it may refer to sense perception, thoughts, intuition or an emotional reaction.
Sharp notes the ordinary-language conflation of sensation, feeling, and other psychic processes, implicitly underscoring why Jung’s technical distinction of the sensation function from feeling requires careful definitional discipline.
, Personality Types: Jung’s Model of Typology, 1987aside
naturally only these functions can appear as auxiliary whose nature is not opposed to the dominant function.
Beebe cites Jung’s rule governing auxiliary function selection, which directly constrains which attitude-variant of sensation may serve as auxiliary depending on the nature of the dominant function.
, Energies and Patterns in Psychological Type: The Reservoir of Consciousness, 2017aside
Chapter 14. Extraverted Sensation … Chapter 15. Introverted Sensation
Thomson’s chapter organization signals the sustained, dedicated treatment both extraverted and introverted sensation receive in her typological manual, indicating the function’s canonical status in post-Jungian popular literature.
, Personality Type: An Owner’s Manual, 1998aside