Letlures on

jungS Typofogy

MARIE-LOUISE VON FRANZ

JAMES HILLMAN

SPRING PUBLICATIONS
PUTNAM, CONN.
Part One: The Inferior Function by Marie-Lousie von Franz
Copyright © 2013 Spring Publications, Inc.

Part Two: The Feeling Function by James Hillman

Copyright © 2013 Margot McLean
All rights reserved

Fifth, revised printing 2013

Cover image from Essays on Physiognomy Designed To Promote the

Knowledge and Love of Mankind by Johann Caspar Lavater (London
18_1 0)

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Lectures on Jung's typology.

Corrected printing.
Bibliography: p.
Contents: The inferior function I Marie-Louise von Franz-
The Feeling function I James Hill man.
1 . Typology (Psychology) . 2. Emotions 3. Complexes (Psychology)
4. Jung, C. G. (Carl Gustav), 1875-1961- Contributions in Typology.
I. Franz, Marie-Louise von, 1916-1998. Inferior function. 1986.
11. Hillman, James. Feeling function. 1986.
BF698.3.L43 1986 155.2'64 86-17912

ISBN 978-0-88214-1 04-6

@)The paper used in this publication meets the minimum requirements of

the American National Standard for Information Sciences- Permanence of
Paper for Printed Library Materials, ANSI Z39.48-1992.
 Contents

Part One

MARIE-LOUISE VON FRANZ

The Inferior Function

A General Characterization of the Inferior Function 9

The Four Irrational Types 33
The Four Rational Types 53
The Role of the Inferior Function in Psychic Development 72

Part Two

JAMES HILLMAN
The Feeling Function

Historical Introduction 95
Jungian Descriptions and Distinctions 104
Feeling Types 118
Inferior Feeling and Negative Feelings 127
Feeling and the Mother Complex 137
Feeling and the Anima 146
Education of the Feeling Function 157
References 179
 The Four Rational Types 59

In Psychological Types, Jung explains some of the misunderstand-

ings between the types. If I had said that this office girl was calcu-
lating and acting out of opportunism, it would have be~n absolute-
ly wrong; that was only a background motive· in her case. Such a
judgment would b~ t.h!_~~ve p;ojec~~<2E...gJ.!h~._Q.:RRQ§i!~."'t~J2e. It
is not that she is just an opportunist or is acting in a calculating way
in having such positive feelings; she has differentiated feeling. She
therefore never has strong feeling reactions; she knows that where
there is value there is always something negat.ive. Nothing is quite
black or absolutely white, but everything is grayish in reality. She
has that kind of philosophical attitude. I saw the calculation and
opportunism because· the introverted thinking type generally sees
the negative side and will say that the feeling type always knows on
which side his bread is buttered. On the other hand, one can say that
inferior feeling has the advantage that there is really no calculation
in it. The ego has nothing to do with it. But naturally this can create
unadapted situations. Think, for instance, of The Blue Angel, where
the professor falls for a vamp in a cabaret and faithfully and loyally
gets ruined by her. That would be the tragedy of the inferior feeling
function. One could honor him for his faithfulness, but one could
just as well say that he was· a fool and that his inferior feeling had
~ery bad taste. The inferior feeling of a thinking type shows either
very good or very bad taste. A thinking type can sometimes choose
very valuable people for his friends, or he can pick absolutely the
wrong ones; the inferior function has both aspects, and it rarely fits
into conventional patterns.

The Extroverted Feeling Type:

Inferior Introverted Thinking

The extroverted feeling type is characterized by the fact that his l

main adaptation is carried by ~~~c!_eguate evalyllim:,.,;,<2!_£~~,.,~b­
jects and an appropriate relation to t}lem. This type will therefore
,t!P _ . __ . _.. "ft" ____ , , _ ._ll?lt_N_~~~et~~~~*'U.~~-'9".fi~th~-~};;f'~

make friends very easily, will have very few illusions about people,
but will be capable oi.~YelY.~l&tb~iu..~U.~~.!t<iJl~.&a1iY.~,~·,§!des
...JP~.Y· These are well adjusted, very reasonable people who
roll along amiably through society, can ~~~!J9llll,~~:Ql,,&l1Jite
 60 Marie-Louise von Franz

ea~ll.Y~.st~n.,mmgmnz~itth_~t~y~_?..c@~~:vPl!ng to give
them what the.x ~.IlJ~~J;ullijc_ate...tbeirsul,QY».-diuisso-iiiar-
~~~~,5..~.~~, ..,.,. . ~

~~12~~~~~~.,.~ You find _them freq~en:ly

among women, and they generally have a very _happy family hfe
with _a lot of fr!ends. Q_n!;v:Jf t~,.~~,£EJ__,;~~-neJ)roticapy dis-
sociated do _~h~Jl~~Jlll).e,a,bit,t.h~artr~'"anciaJitt~k-al-and
£ili.~l~tfTI£Jf one goes to-a: luncheon party with an extroverted feel-
ing type, she (or he) is capable of saying little things like "What a
nice day it is today, I am so glad to see you again, I haven't seen you
for a long time!" And they really mean it! With that the car is lubri-
cated, and the party goes. One feels happy and warmed up. They
spread a kind of atmosphere of acceptance, and it is agreeable: 'We
appresiate each oth_er, so we are going to have a good day together."
They make those in their surroundings feel wonderful, and i!l the
midst of that they swim along happily and create a pleasant social
atmosphere. Only if they overdo it, or if their extroverted feeling is
already worn out and they therefore should start to think, do you
notice that this becomes a bit of a habit, that it becomes a phrase
they say mechanically. For instance, I once noticed an extroverted
feeling type, on a dreadful day when there was a horrible fog out-
side, saying mechanically: "Isn't it a wonderful day!" I thought, "Oh
dear, your main function is rattling!"
t· Because people of the extr.rul.e.rted feeling type have such a tre-
_:a_• ~n~ou~ ~~l;~cit}:for objectiv.el~
' - 1-·ing the ~ther .~_,r~oi~ssllu_ a­
~ ~-are :gs11~~!:~~_:~e~~1fice .them-
6 1
~,~~UQI Q!hersJf one is alone at home with .t~e flu, it is cert~inly
)an extroverted feeling type who will turn up first and ask who is
t
t\doing the shopping and how he can help. ~Other types are not so
}tg uick and pr~ti~al abol!1_ feeling th~ir 'v..~Y.~!o a situat~~F· To the
others, even though their affection might run as deeply, it would not
occur that they could do this or that to help, either because they are
introverts or because another function is dominant in their system.
So you find the extroverted feeling type always jumping into the
breach, for wherever something does not function properly he real-
izes it at?nce.He_ se~sthe i1nporta11ce or the value of what should be
done, and he just doe's it. :Naturaily, this can lead to resis.tance against
the outer situation.
 The Four Rational Types 61

In general, this type has very good taste. in the choice of partners
and friends, but he is a little conventional about it. He wouldn't
~t_s~g,.,~o.meo~Jpo, . mvc_h_2E.!.2l~th~,.2E~i,~~lri..£:~~~~~ .~0
!~.W~!~C~~_a~~~~E~~ework. . I~~!~!9.~~~klJeel­
~~~-!ht~!!~&J>~~~!Jh~n.feJ:i.9I. l1!.!JS1!.9.!h.,.~~d
~llailie cdisJi~jJ!l.~--'~lti~. .in!r2.Y~E!~!~,~~~!~~~~,!h~n!sln&.~J2.R,Yt
P!!~2.J2lli.~JJlti.P~,§~!,"'~.~~~ti~.ll~w~LJ2~Ji~.-'ll!~§1~~2.~,,.8,L!-!fe.
Such deeper questions are carefully avoided, and there is the reac-
tion that thinking about such problems is melancholy. The unfor-
tunate thing is that he does think of such things, but is not aware
of it, and b!~a UE~£1s !!:..i.ll~E:g. ~-~~P:e~!.~~!~~2~!!!.~!?:.~-~~!g_ £~~-~.~,~-~ega..r~

~~t~~~~~Q~~~~~~~~£~~-
""" , .............- ..._.. ~.,,.."""~"'"""""""'""'"""""'~U1!atlQ,U"""""UQ""''l~....,...,.__ ~"~-'",...•,.~,.,. .,.,,~,,.,.,.
ll~} have also seen in the extroverted feeling type very negative
thoughts about the neighboring people, very critical- I would say
overcritical- thinking judgments, which he never allows really to
come out. Jung says that the extroverted feeling type can sometimes
be the coldest person on earth. It may happen that, if you get lured
into this well-lubricated car of his extroverted feeling and feel "we
like each other and get along well together," suddenly one day he
will say something to you that will feel like getting smacked on the
head with a block of ice! One cannot guess what cynical, negative
thoughts he might have. He is not aware of them, but .,!_~~.Y..J?QJ;>..Q.Y.t
yvhen ~~.begil)§.Jo.]1av_s!b-~:fiy::~.~:"~~~n h~j~r~h~9--;,.,!.n.~B£h.m:g­
~~~~Rm-1he .inf~i2til1U~~~lW.~a:tli!h~,..~;tltl.Q}_Qttb.:e
~JiQ.l:.fyus;.,ti~s.
An extroverted feeling type once dreamed that she should estab-
lish a bird observation station. She saw in the dream a cement build-
ing, a tower built high up in the air, and on the top was a kind of lab-
oratory where one observed birds. We have such a Vogelbeobachtungs-
station (Bird Observatory) at Sempach where rings are put on girds
to know how long they live, and where. they go, and so on; she was
to do that. So we thought she should try to be aware of autonomous
thoughts, which would, as it were, alight on her head and go again.
!hat is how tl!,Qugl}.,!~.QR~!ill;~jn~i!l~;~ling,~t¥.12~,h~Jl~,§.R!f~,!.h2l:!gJ:ts
~ygh~~O..P-. his..hea.ciandJl;dng..Gff,a.g.ai,tk Before he can say, "What
am I thinking?" the thought is gone again. This woman agreed, and
 62 Marie-Louise von Franz

I asked her how it could be done technically. She said she would
take a little notebook and a pericil and tarry them around with her,
and when she had a sudden thought she would fust jot it down.
We would see afterward how they were connected. Next time she
brought one piece of paper, and on it was "If my son in-law died, my
daughter would come back home." She got such a shock from that
thought that she never put a ring on a second bird! That one bird
was quite enough for a long time. She then confessed something
even more interesting: she said that in a way she knew she some-
times had such thoughts but always figured that if she didn't write
them down they would not be effective. If she did, they would act
like black magic and affect her surroundings. So, she avoided look-
"~--ing at them.
~t Now that is exactly_~_I'ong. It iuust_!!t~_other way round: if the
~~E.~..[.!_y~e i~~~f. hi§,~~~!!Je ""tftQ.Yg!g~v!,Q.ey. don't act li~e
~·~J?-ckmag!f;.. .Ib£L.~~.~]£.~~1!i!~Q.,2£.~l).J'_"'<!~E~E.!lY.~- effesJ:. It IS
jtist when they are left alone and fly around his head without being
caught that they actually have a destructive influence on his sur-
roundings. If one analyzes an extroverted feeling type and is some-
what sensitive to the atmosphere, one very often gets a bit frozen
or cooled down in spite of his amiability. One can sense these nega-
tive thoughts swarming around in his head. Such thoughts hit one
in a disagreeable way. One sometimes sees a kind of cold flash in
the eyes and knows that th~!e i2..e.. yeEY, !legatiy~~~s>~ht about, but
the next minute it,i§ gone. It gives one the creeps. Such thoughts
~ei.a'll}7 based.~lti~~JUil~<ll~<l!!!l9J2k.,.QP U!:i.lh.~~"~~--~i~e
.,~! life 1 wp.i~h_is)llne~[_.iUWg~ittb anLlo.th.e.I~'"l!£!1... ~~~[~: A kind of
second philoso12hy gf ]ife, c;,:~ni~al and negativistic, creeps around
~~~..Inth~ . extrov~rted f~elingtyp~, tllii~~!~.P~'lgbts
E.e IntroyerteQ; _a uA(htrefote the.¥.~:t;X ..O.(ten wrned against the
si}£kc~ l!imself.,.4tl1.!kttgmJ:J_e'"allo)MS~~hims.elfjg .thin~ !hat ~r is a -
nobody, that]li.§Jifejs..~~t.eyeJ.¥bQdy~lse
~~~"'fi.~~- ' __·. - __ --- .. .
might.. de-
-~ ~·~~ =
- . . - - . . - - .

v~r~"E..~~S4&~!.JJDJhec.path~Gof~aaiv4G1uatiQJ).,~~~tJ1~,i~Jlfm$1~~· These
thoughts dwell in the back of his mind. F..wmJj.me 10 time. when ill;
~resse~~or n9t.well .off~,9L~!!x.~~~~s- (that
is when he is alone for half a minute), thi~LU~~b.ll).~aw.his;pe;cs
!~.t~~...~.~~--~~~~~~U!J~~.l!QlUi;
.· . ··,' •. ., '
tig?..:~X,~~IX~t~l!lK,~~~21!!«-.zy~~~i~
. . - .· ' ' . .. '•
 The Four Rational Types 63

wrong." These thought~are co9-.~~~ 9:p.d primitive and very undiffer-

e~ed; ~~l"'~~l~~~if~~=~and are like a cold draft
that blows through the room and makes you shiver. The effect is
thatthe extroverted feeling type naturally hates to be alone when
such negative thoughts could come up, so as soon as he has realized
one or two of them he quickly switches on the radio or rushes out
to meet other people. He never has time to think! But he carefully
arranges his life in that way. ~
If this woman, who had the one little thought ("My only daughter
would come back home!"), had dug deeper, she would have had to
say to herself, "Okay, let's face that thought! What am I after? If I have
such a thought what is the premise, and what is the conclusion to
be drawn?" She could then have developed the following thought:
the premise is something like a devouring mother's attitude, and
the conclusion is that she wants the son-in-law removed. Why? For
what purpose? She could, for example, have said, ''Assuming that
my daughter does come home, what then?" And then she would
have seen how unpleasant it would actually be to have a sour old
maid of a daughter at home. In continuing the thought, she would
have probably dropped into a deeper layer and said, "And what
then? If my children have now left home, what is the real purpose
of my life?" She would have had to philosophize about the future
purpose of her life: "Has life still a meaning once one has brought up
the children and started them into life? And, if so, what is it? What
is the meaning of life altogether?" She would have been confront-
ed with the deep, but generally human, philosophical questions
she had never faced before, and that would have brought her into
deep water. She natur~!Y.;.~~1~ not hav~~.l~h£.~!:<2~1~..mJ:,ml',if[f
~~.~~~£iJ:~~!Jl~~J;~;:.~~~~~~!~~?~~!!l?-~
ger inferjor tbjukingfuncti~~o.uld~~S~Q,,~u.,~"g~~~!f~r
~~~C:E.W.g_,.£>1JjJ~, Because she was an extroverted feeling type, the
quest would have been a completely introverted, inner thing, like
developing an introverted philosophical view of life. That would
~.!~.~.-.-
net_c!.sil>·,·~-&..,.~£!?-..~,1,JL.~i.~'2!1<:..~~.~.- .·. . .+. ·_.-
S,l.gJVUlling..aw~.th~~RJ,~~:aQ~~tS. __
. ~_-':an~./
~~~_E~, 'f.1!£h..L~~y,e,~e. ep.,in..,~al
. c;Q~~~f ~x.tl:OX~!Sd
~!r£~~~~j.!l~l-th~~,S!!2~~~~!,.1~~!!!!.s~l?x~~£!t~.~~~~g
 64 Marie-Louise von Franz

their souls to some alr~gy~~§!~l?Ji§Q~~t~Y~!~.!!!·One case, I remember,

got converted to Catholicism and simply took over scholastic philos-
ophy; from then on she quoted only scholastic authors. Tha!\Vei~_~.i~~
~~Y.~"!~l!P.g uE ~~e ~~~~g_,f.~~S.!,~-~~-~ .£~! ,!.§l~.ing itYnJii:~ii-ah~Cl.dy
~~lStQl~s.b~9. form. The same thing can be done with Jungian psychol-
ogy: it will become a matter of simply repeating the concepts by heart
in a mechanical way, but never working out one's own standpoint.
It is a kind of pupil-like, uncreative attitude -that just takes over the
entire system unchecked and never asks, "What do I think about it?
Does this really convince me? Does it coincide with the facts -I have
checked?" If such people then meet others who themselves know how
to think, they get fanatical because 'they feel helpless. They fight for
the system they have chosen with a certain apostle~like fanaticism
because they feel uncertain about the basis of the thinking system:
how the system developed, its basic concepts, etc. They are uncertain
about it and have the feeling that it could be thrown over by a good
thinker, so they adopt an aggressive attitude.
;_(.• A~other. danger is that if an extrov~rt:d f~eling· t.ype · on . ce star.ts
,~ to think he gets completely caught up In It. Either he cannot cut off
:i his relationships sufficiently to be aloneand think, or, if he succeeds
} -which is already great progress- in cutting off these outer ties, he
gets terribly caught by them and loses sight of life. He disappears
into books, or into a library, where he gets covered with dust and is
no longer able to switch to any other activity. He gets swallowed by
his task. Both developments are very well represented in Goethe's
Faust where, first, there is the scientist absolutely cut off fro~ life
in the dusty study, and then, when Faust frees himself and goes out
into life, the inferior thinking of the feeling type is represented by
Wagner, the pupil-like servant who just repeats the banal phrases he
_has picked up in books. A famous example of the inferior thinking
of an extroverted feeling type is -_Goethe's Conversations with Ecker-
mann. It is an amazing collection of platitudes. There you see the
Wagner side of Goethe very visibly exposed to the world. He has also
published a collection of maxims, which you might meet on the
back leaf of every calendar! They are very true, you can rarely object
to them in any way, but they are so banal that any sheep could have
thought of them. That is Wagner at work in the great poet.
 The Four Rational Types 65

The Introverted Feeling Type:

Inferior Extroverted Thinking

The introverted feeling type also has the characteristic that he

adapts to life mainly by feeling, but in an introverted way. This type
is very difficult to understand. Jung says in Psychological Types ~hat
the saying "still waters run deep" applies to this type. 'Ih,~YJ'!~X~.,.a
pighlY..diffe,r~IJ."1!el~,g. ~E~J~.g.f.~ei.~~,.~,!,. P.~! !h~X. f.!2 . RQ.! .~ ~.~P.I~~§JJ1~,m .
. 2l!t~ftl$l1Y~Jh~:Y: .ei~ . ~ff~st~4.J>xth~.m .wi.tbtn. One often finds the in-
troverted feeling type in the background where important and valu-
able events are taking place, as if their introverted feeling had told
them "that is the real thing." With a kind of silent loyalty, and with-
out any explanation, they turn up in places where important and
valuable inner facts, archetypal constellations, are to be found. They
also generally exert a positive secret influence on their surroundings
by setting standards. The others observe them, and though they say
nothing, for they are too introverted to express themselves much,
they set certain standards..!B!L9.Xfrteg.J~"~l!!L~!Y.£~.~;..E~!., l~.~!.~~~~:'
verv oftep form ~he ~_thical b(lckbone of a group: without irritating
~ti;rs
o;<,f.... ...
b"-··7e;.hi;,·-;~7af~7~iiic.a['"r~:C.e:·:rs:·,t1le~"11i~ms·erves"
; ,·;:. ~:.~ .r).·~t~~-{~·,;~~". ·f.;,;~:wr :·:,~! : ->;·_ , ,~-"r-JXj;;~,.:_-' >:'l'-~-,_ ,. ~"~-~, l(~ ·;i."_;~-:7-;•"'·g"f~'*'. ,t.~:i't~f1;·~,.-}?,;~-,~ftl~, ,.,-t;, ~-~ ~~~-:v-'1-·".o:"a"- t.R-. ·- -. ~ ~- .R ~,. ,. ·1 - ~Y0,~""4':-!:~~X~'!-.;·:~-~ -'<>!" 'fG" )>I.-"?.:,O_j.'.:;~t ·~-~~
.. .. .......... ...

. h~S,~,. §H.Sh..S.RtitS.t. .$..t.,9.,,nQ.ars;l§~flf.~,tlli.~9l~y,~.gb§;"tb..9ctth~Y~,~-.~£r,~.!~X,..~~~

eH~!~. <:t·., .J?.Q8i1iY~.•inflyex+c:.~.,. Q;tlJbg~e. . ~r,Q,yn,d.th~m:~U~..,~~J.Q,Q~.Q~X~
correctly beca11se th~yh~vethe ri~~t kind. of vah1e sta,nda,rd, which

i~~~~]i~;~~~~J~ii~i~~~il\i1fj~~~
t!nR9It~;pJ..i~£l~~;,. ~~
The thinking of this type is extroverted. In striking contrast to
their silent and ·inconspicuous outer appearance, persons of the
introverted feeling type, are generally interested in an immense
number of outer facts. In their conscious personality they do not
move about much; they tend to sit in their badger's hole. B.ut their
extroverted thinking roams about in an extraordinary range of out-
er facts. If.~j£!~JJ.J!Q~~~~.Jh.~.i~-~?fJIQ~Y~It~~llbin!ingj;u. ~.!;I~~!.~ye
~YL!~Y1~£:Y~-Jh~~":H~~.~L~.~!E8~~!!'§ 2-!ft.tS}!J~y_gJ,.k~!ng ·. 9Y~r:Y.b~lJE&P
J?,Y:;:;9~Q,JJJ;Y~Jf:f;m~t~.ri,el~,,JpR m~n¥. refer~. n~.~§,..9:A4.J9R. m.~.!l;Y.. l~£.!~.? . .~.9
tl;!.~tr~ . .i.Jlte.;dqr,. J~.~t!PX~Xt~q . ,.!hinking spm~tim&~ jg§t g~,t~ . .JQ.§J . . !!l~ a
. .IDoiq§,§,Q.,t~~~t~i!~,.!hE£~.&~-~hisi?:Jh.~Y-.E~!:,. !1:~.- ~?.~~v~!. ~~.~5h,~!.r..~~y.
66 Marie-Louise von Franz

he inferiority of their extroverted thinking very often expresses

~
tself in a certain monomania: they have actually only one or two
houghts with which they race through a tremendous amount of
material. Jung always characterized the Freudian system as a typical
example of extroverted thinking.
Jung never said anything about Freud's type as a human being;
he only pointed out in his books that Freud's system represents ex-
troverted thinking. What I add now is my own personal convic-
tion, namely, that Freud himself was an introverted feeling type,
and therefore his writings bear the characteristics of his inferior
extroverted thinking. In all his works the basic ideas are few. With
them he has raced through an enormous amount of material, and
the whole system is completely oriented toward the outer object. If
one reads biographical notes about Freud, one sees that as a person
he had a most differentiated way of treating other people. He was
an excellent analyst. He had also a kind of hidden "gentlemanli-
ness," which had a positive influence upon his patients and upon
his surroundings. One must really in his case make a distinction
between his theory and his personality as a human being. I think,
from what one hears about him, that he belonged to the introvert-
ed feeling type.
The .ad~ntage of inferior extroverte<!_jEin~ingJ~..:~y£a!.,~J~st
~o~;as!s~g_,D~,gativ.~lx..a~.. ~~~wJ!b..,~..Jt'Ylli~~gh
a~~~ill~!lg~Jl§.,~J,!l~.YU~tmiU.~l." (Freud himself complaine~ that
his·dream InterpretatiOns felt awfully monotonous; the same Inter-
pretation of every dream was boring even to him.) If this tend~n- "'(

cy is not overdone, a11d if the introy~rte~ feelin.g type is aware of

~~~£~~eoor.~wJJ&tw»~!l.\!~~siS:9n1t:~
tE$~I~~!:-...~~~~,gJS~P~~i!l1~!UgiJ2J~.'*By1 tbj~"~
i~.OO-W.~~l!~i.UUX£~.l~_.?P2~~~1 a
b• rlt:>•~'>n~'>T -::mrl i .. . ,...;f.,, ,l rlif+' · · "hie . . . . ,-t-"'rl t-h • - ~,
'"'~~~~tt¥<P~~~~Jl.,~~+.f~~l..~. .~~~~t~e~~

~t~
hypothesis that each fact he quotes in proof of his ideas illustrates
them in a slightly different way, and with this point in view, his ideas
should be reformulated each time. In that way he maintains the liv-
ing process of contact between thought and fact, instead of simply
 The Four Rational Types 67

imposing his thought upon facts. Inferior extroverted thinking has

just the same negative tendencies of becoming tyrannical, stiff and
unyielding, and in that way not quite adapted to its object, that all
other inferior functions have.

(A period ofquestions and answers follows.)

Question: Are the attitudinal and function types equally distributed?

Are there a~ many extravert's as introverts?
Wm Franz: We don't know for the whole of mankind; we have no stud-
ies of Chinese villages and such places. In general, we often speak of
different nations as types; we say, for example, that the Swiss are,
on the whole, introverted sensation types. This would imply that
i~certain groups one type sometimes prevails. Although there are
many Swiss who are another type, there is a statistically dominant
prevalence of the introverted sensation type. You can observe it,
for instance, in the high standard in Swiss crafts: the watchmaking
industry needs an introverted attitude with differentiated sensation
to operate correctly. So in the different countries and nations you
could say that one type is dominant and creates a prevalent attitude
in groups. But when you sum it all up- whether there are as many
of each type -I do not know. It would need investigation.

Question: Some of us are very much interested in trying to study ex-

perimentally the problem of whether or not the hypothesis concern-
ing the four functions is tenable. We have a hypothesis by which,
theoretically, we should be able to do this and to see whether or not
people can be categorized into these four different pigeonholes, so to
speak. In America there have been many attempts to find out wheth-
er people can be thought of as extroverts and introverts, and to the
best ofmy knowledge there has never been any support for the idea,
because most people are somewhere in between. What is your feel-
ing about attempts at working on this hypothesis experimentally? .
"Um Franz: I think you are absolutely right to go ahead with your
experiment. Nobody tries simply to assert that this theory of types
is true; we should have to test many millions of people statistically
-something that has not been done. As you can see from my expla-
nations, however, the diagnosis of type is very difficult, for people
68 Marie-Louise von Franz

are often in stages where they are sure they are of a certain type, but
you need the whole case history to know whether it is only a mo-
mentary stage of that person. For example, someone says that he is
an extrovert, but that means nothing; you have carefullyto take the
whole biography of that person to make a relatively safe diagnosis.
Up till now we have had no absolutely safe, scientific foundation for
our theory and we do not pretend to have.
My attitude toward this is that the idea of the four functions is
an archetypal model for looking at things and that it has the advan-
tage- and disadvantage- of all 'scientific models. Professor Pauli,
the physicist, once said something that seems to me to be very con-
vincing, namely, that no new theory, or no new fruitful invention in
the field of science, has ever been put forth without the working of
an archetypal idea. For instance, the ideas of three-dimensional or
four-dimensional space are based on an archetypal representation,
which has always worked, to a certain degree, in a very productive
way and has helped to explain a lot of phenomena. But then comes
what Pauli calls the self-limitation of a theory, namely, that if one
overexpands the idea to phenomena where it does not work, that
same fruitful idea becomes an inhibition for further scientific prog-
ress. The idea of three-dimensional space, for example, is still com-
pletely valid for ordinary mechanics, and every carpenter and ma-
son uses it when he makes a drawing or a plan, but if you try to over-
expand it into microphysics you go off the rails. So it can be said that
it was an archetypal idea that originated, as can be clearly proved,
in the scientific mind of Westerners through the dogma of the Trin-
ity. Kepler, when he made his planetary models, said that space has
three dimensions because of the Trinity! Or, take Des cartes's idea of
causality- saying that it was based on the fact that God never has
whims but always proceeds in a logical manner and therefore every-
thing must be causally connected.
All basic .ideas, even of natural science, are archetypal models,
but they work if one does not overexpand them. They work in a
fruitful way if one does not force into them facts that do not fit. So I
think the theory of the four functions has a kind of practical value,
but it is not a dogma. Jung, in his books, very clearly puts it forward
in this way, as a heuristic standpoint - a hypothesis by which you
 The Four Rational Types 69

can find out things. We know now that in all scientific investiga-
tions we ·cannot do more than put forward thinking models, make
models and see how far the facts fit, and if the facts do not coincide
we have to correct the model. Sometimes we need not revise the
whole thinking model; we simply say that it only applies in a cer-
tain area, and that as soon as one switches over to another area of
·facts, it becomes a distortion. I personally am convinced that we
have not yet exhausted the fruitfulness of the model, but that does
not mean that there are no facts that do not fit into it and might
force us to revise it.

Question: Does an introverted feeling type experience introverted

thinking, or is it always extroverted inferior thinking?
von Franz: If you are -an introverted feeling type, you can also think
introvertedly. You can naturally have all the functions all ways, but
it won't be such a great problem, and there will not be much inten-
sity of life in it. Jung has said that the hardest thing to understand is
not your opposite type -if you have an introverted feeling it is very
difficult to understand an extroverted thinking type- but the same
functional type with the other attitude! It would be most difficult
for an introverted feeling type to understand an extroverted feeling
type. There one feels that one does not know how the wheels go
round in that person's head; one cannot feel one's way into it. Such
people remain to a great extent a puzzle and are very difficult to un-
derstand spontaneously. Here the theory of types is tremendously
i:r_nportant practically, for it is the only thing that can prevent one
from completely misunderstanding certain people. It gives a clue
to the understanding of a person whose spontaneous reactions are
a complete puzzle, whom you would, if you reacted spontaneously,
misunderstand completely.

Question: What is the difference between inferior intuition and in-

ferior feeling?
von Franz: Intuition is an irrational function that grasps facts, future
possibilities and possibilities of evolution, but it is not a function of
judgment. Inferior intuition might have presentiments about a war,
or illnesses of other people, or of archetypal changes in the collec-
tive unconscious. Introverted in tuition has sudden hunches about
 70 Marie-Louise von Franz

the slow transformation of the collective unconscious in the flow

of time. Intuition presents facts with no valuation. Feeling is quite
different. In Jungian terms, it is a rational function- ratio: order, cal-
culation, reason - a function that establishes order and judges, say-
ing this is good and this is bad, this agreeable and this disagreeable
to me. The inferior feeling of a thinking type would judge values
and not represent facts. For example, an extroverted sensation type
who neglected his intuition to a great extent had a recurring dream
of poor people and laborers of a disagreeable type who broke into
his house at night. He was terrified by this ever-recurring dream and
began to go around in his circle of friends and at dinner parties say-
ing there was absolutely nothing that could be done: he knew the
Communists would win out. As he was a very able politician, this
had a bad effect. This was a wrong kind of intuition, based on per-
sonal projection. That is an instance of inferior intuition. Someone
with inferior feeling might suddenly start a lawsuit, convinced that
he was fighting for the right and the good, but if s·omeone else could
shoot this conviction down, he would throw the whole thing over,
including the lawsuit that he had himself begun.
The sudden change in his judgment would indicate the inferior
feeling. ~~~£le_3~e-~~!X.f~~l!£~~~IJ.-it,j§~..SW.xsti£?~ of
their inferior function. Since !t is i:q. theJJJl~1>ll§Q..Qu~th£Y~~~E:,tasily
~~atii~5If!i!li~JXb~~IG~~,~ll}~~L~"'2L~eir
~~l?$.fJ2r.~t~~~:q~,,tn~~rgg}g~~~~n,g,~~~%~~~~t~~~~d;
t,4!~Xmlt&Y~~~q,jk~~:.~@~:QQ\Q:~J";~a.:~~1\t~~~~+~lJ~ft;<~i:Jni"~y~~·~;:~~~l,Qex-
, ,.,ible~~~Jl.QtA~~;~"'~~~;p~"~.S~J1.A~JJ.l~~L~ti_Q~ll~Y.Qll,~~~I~~~Yi!~~,j&pl­
~~'~»,el,~~!;}.~~~J~2!~_g~qx~tQx"~'~¥QMI;,at.titll(;le.,,,~UJ.t";w.b'"~l,~,..XQYJeel
i~~~!~2,~J~2~,;~&~!y.~iM.t~~~t®~.~~~~I~~~r.U~~.!l~.~~The
expression on a friend's face can affect the feeling of a thinking type
because his feeling is in the unconscious and therefore open to influ-
ence. Therefore, as I mentioned before, the extroverted thinking type
can make very loyal friends but can suddenly turn against them. He
may drop you one day like a hot potato, and you don't know what
happened! Somehow, something poisonous got into his system,
someone said something, or even just made a face when your name
was mentioned! The feeling is unconscious. Such effects can only be
cured when they are taken up consciously. If you objected, in think-
 The Four Rational Types 71

ing terms, about his policy in having the lawsuit, the extroverted
thinking type would be willing to discuss it and to ask your reasons.
He would be approachable and not influenced in a wrong way, while
in. the rea.lni of feeling he would break off suddenly and without rea-
son, and without himself quite knowing why.