The Inferior Function: Opening to the Interior

There is a crack in everything / That’s how the light gets in. LEONARD COHEN

 

Jung’s system of typology—our characteristic way of orienting to the world—led to the creation of the widely used Myers-Briggs Type Indicator. Jung observed four essential ego functions. Thinking and feeling are rational functions of assigning value and making decisions, and intuition and sensation are non-rational modes of perception and attention. Ordered hierarchically from most to least developed, our inferior function lies closest to the unconscious and tends to manifest through tasks, people and situations that throw us off balance: we feel confused, overloaded, and unable to get a grip. The inferior function pushes in through the cracks in ego’s efforts at supremacy and opens us to what is unknown and unlived. For Jung, however, this seeming weak spot in the personality was also “the treasure hard to attain,” for it is also the source of our aliveness, freedom, and fun.

 

Dream

I was swimming in the ocean at nighttime. I was surrounded by a school of gigantic, hot-pink jellyfish the size of hot air balloons. They were almost bioluminescent. I looked down and saw a massive sea creature rising from the depths. At first, I thought it was a blue whale. As it got closer, however, I realized it was the size of several blue whales and shaped almost like a man. I was filled with terror and awe and swam away to the shore. On the shore, I was talking urgently with Doctor Who. Suddenly, we were attacked by Daleks (a fictional alien species). As they flew toward us, we ran away toward the ocean. We didn’t go underwater, however, we ran on top of it. As we ran across the sea pursued by the Daleks, the jellyfish and whale man from before rose out of the water, running and flying around us to protect us. 

 

References

Lenore Thomson. Personality Type: An Owner’s Manual. https://www.amazon.com/Personality-Type-Practical-Understanding-Yourself/dp/0877739870/ref=sr_1_1?crid=11WCVMO2CS0BO&keywords=Lenore+Thomson+Personality+Type&qid=1663764521&s=books&sprefix=lenore+thomson+personality+type%2Cstripbooks%2C63&sr=1-1

 

Marie-Louise von Franz, Lectures on Jung’s Typology. https://www.amazon.com/Lectures-Jungs-Typology-Marie-Louise-Franz-ebook/dp/B00G2CBJ0K/ref=sr_1_1?crid=KQU165MH6E1C&keywords=jung%27s+typology+marie-louise+von+franz&qid=1663764457&s=books&sprefix=jung%27s+typololy+marie-louise+von+franz%2Cstripbooks%2C58&sr=1-1

 

Ann Ulanov. The Danger and the Treasure of the Inferior Function, Psychological Perspectives, 52: 9-53, 2009.