The Seba library treats Tertiary Function in 8 passages, across 3 authors (including Thomson, Lenore, Beebe, John, Quenk, Naomi L.).
when it substitutes for our secondary function, the tertiary function will tell us exactly what we want to hear: that the conflict we’re experiencing is not our fault, and that we’re absolutely justified in our defensive strategies.
Thomson argues that the tertiary function is fundamentally a rationalizing agent that displaces the auxiliary and reinforces ego-defensive postures rather than promoting genuine psychological growth.
, Personality Type: An Owner’s Manual, 1998thesis
the tertiary function always counsels flight. Its solutions can’t be implemented without jettisoning a good deal of what we’ve already established.
Thomson characterizes the tertiary function as an agent of avoidance that, when heeded, drives the personality toward regressive flight from necessary confrontation rather than developmental adaptation.
, Personality Type: An Owner’s Manual, 1998thesis
The model specifies the tertiary function as opposite in attitude to the auxiliary just as the inferior is opposite in attitude to the superior.
Beebe establishes the tertiary function’s structural position within his eight-function model as attitudinally opposite to the auxiliary, situating it as a key coordinate in the full topology of typological differentiation.
, Energies and Patterns in Psychological Type: The Reservoir of Consciousness, 2017thesis
Ultimately, Extraverted Thinking, his tertiary function, jumped on board to help him deal with this perceived external problem… His tertiary function stepped in at that point.
Thomson illustrates through case analysis how the tertiary function intervenes defensively when the secondary function is resisted, redirecting energy outward in a way that distorts perception and avoids genuine intrapsychic work.
, Personality Type: An Owner’s Manual, 1998thesis
they turn to their tertiary function, Extraverted Sensation or Extraverted Intuition, to protect what’s left of their accustomed self-image. Like all tertiary functions, Extraverted Perception is helpful when ETJs are in touch with their secondary function.
Thomson demonstrates that the tertiary function has a dual valence — genuinely useful when the secondary function is operative, but defensively distorting when deployed to shield the ego from the pressure of the inferior.
, Personality Type: An Owner’s Manual, 1998supporting
tertiary function 26–7, 29–30, 36, 134–5, 140, 205; attitude of 38, 159–60; see also puella aeterna/puer aeternus
Beebe’s index entry links the tertiary function explicitly to the puer aeternus/puella aeterna archetypal complex and to the shadow of auxiliary and tertiary functions, signaling its integration within his broader archetypal model.
, Energies and Patterns in Psychological Type: The Reservoir of Consciousness, 2017supporting
tertiary function of, 246
Quenk identifies the tertiary function as a distinct and documentable feature in type-specific analyses, here for the ENTP, as part of her systematic cataloguing of functional dynamics under stress.
, Was That Really Me? How Everyday Stress Brings Out Our Hidden Personality, 2002supporting
tertiary function (Introverted Thinking) ISFP types… tertiary function (Introverted Thinking/Feeling) ISTJ types… tertiary function (Introverted Feeling) ISTP types… tertiary function (Introverted Perception)
Thomson’s index systematically maps the tertiary function across multiple type profiles, indicating that her theory assigns every type a distinctive tertiary with characteristic developmental and defensive implications.
, Personality Type: An Owner’s Manual, 1998supporting