Shadow processes???

[sillyface]

How do the shadow processes come into play?

Reading through the descriptions of the cognitive processes, it would appear everyone uses every one at points. I'm just confused as to how to tell if something is less dominant or is the shadow. Or if something's a shadow process or simply a dominant's weakness. Does this make sense?

For instance, how do you know if each process is actually one you use or one that gets you into trouble. Like, Fe, someone can definitely care about others' feelings and worry what others think of me, and try to follow the crowd, but then also worry about how others' feelings affect THEM (Fi). As for Ne, it can make someone creative and also relieve stress, but it can get you into trouble when interpreting things incorrectly. Etc.

 

[INTP]

Do you mean shadow functions as in the regular Jungian sense or in this everyday internet forum stuff that isnt actually rooted in any proper typology?

Also, Fe and Fi isnt about what you said and Ne isnt about creativity..

 

[sillyface]

Probably in the everyday internet forum stuff. I honestly can't grasp the concepts unless they're put in layman's terms.. help?

 

[sillyface]

And even then I can't seem to grasp the concepts. Grr

 

[INTP]

Probably in the everyday internet forum stuff. I honestly can't grasp the concepts unless they're put in layman's terms.. help?

then all i got to say to it that the whole theory is bullshit

 

[sillyface]

So what is it in the Jungian sense?

 

[INTP]

So what is it in the Jungian sense?

basically those out of the four that are undeveloped and thus unconscious, mostly the inferior

 

[sillyface]

So not out of the 8 then, huh..

Do the explanations from http://www.cognitiveprocesses.com/ have any validity?

 

[INTP]

So not out of the 8 then, huh..

Do the explanations from http://www.cognitiveprocesses.com/ have any validity?

MBTI and Jung use only 4 functions and that 8 function theory is crap that is based on some misconceptions about some fundamentals of what functions actually are and basically uses 8 functions to fill up some holes that comes from not using the proper definitions and because disregarding/not concentrating on how the functions work together.

 

[Eric B]

There are only four functions in the sense of S, N, T and F. They are oriented either internally or externally, basically simulating eight different "perspectives".

"Shadow" simply means unconscious. In many people younger than middle age, the inferior will be "shadow". It should then begin developing. In a very young person, whose dominant has developed, everything else up to the auxiliary is technically "shadow". The dominant as well, for a newborn.

The four/four split, while commonly called "primary/shadow" is really "ego-syntonic/ego-dystonic". The four functions that develop will generally be assigned an orientation based on the complexes within the ego-structure. The opposite orientations will remain unconscious; hence those four combinations taking on the name "shadow".
The eight function theory is simply about the orientations being switched on occasion, by the various complexes. This theory is all about the complexes. The functions are not things that are "used". That's the mistake often made, and what makes it all sound like "bs".

This is all derived from Jung, and he did not really create a complete theory; he laid the groundwork, and then moved away from it in his later work, and others built upon it.

 

[INTP]

What Jung talks here about the unconscious function could be referred as the shadow function:

Besides this general function(dominant), the unconscious also possesses functions that can become conscious under other conditions. The thinking type, for instance, must necessarily repress and exclude feeling as far as possible, since nothing disturbs thinking so much as feeling, and the feeling type represses thinking, since nothing is more injurious to feeling than thinking. Repressed functions lapse into the unconscious. Just as only one of the four sons of Horus had a human head, so as a rule only one of the four basic functions is fully conscious and differentiated enough to be freely manipulable by the will, the others remaining partially or wholly unconscious, This "unconsciousness" does not mean that a thinking type, for this instance, is not conscious of his feelings. He knows his feelings very well, in so far as he is capable of introspection, but he denies them any validity and declares they have no influence over him. They therefore come upon him against his will, and being spontaneous and autonomous, they finally appropriate to themselves the validity which his consciousness denies them. They are activated by unconscious stimulation, and form indeed a sort of counterpersonality whose existence can be established only by analyzing the products of the unconscious.
When a function is not at one's disposal, when it is felt as something that disturbs the differentiated function, suddenly appearing and then vanishing again fitfully, when it has an obsessive character, or remains obstinately in hiding when most needed--it then has all the qualities of a quasi-unconscious function. Other peculiarities may be noted: there is always something inauthentic about it, as it contains elements that do not properly belong to it. Thus the unconscious feeling of the thinking type are not singularly fantastic nature, often in grotesque contrast to the excessively rationalistic intellectualism of his conscious attitude. His conscious thinking is purposive and controlled, but his feeling is impulsive, uncontrolled, moody, irrational, primitive, and just as archaic as the feelings of a savage.
The same is true for every function that is repressed into the unconscious. It remains fused together with elements not properly belonging to it, in a archaic condition--for the unconscious is the residue of unconquered nature in us, just as it is also the matrix of our unborn future. The unconscious functions are always seminal ones, so it is no wonder that sometime in the course of life the need will be felt to supplement and alter the conscious attitude.