Eric B
ⒺⓉⒷ
- Joined
- Mar 29, 2008
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- Instinctual Variant
- sp/sx
An example of the working of type as defined by the "Hero" and "Parent" ego states
I've been saying a lot recently, that what we call type basically, is, not just any "use" of particular functions, but rather the specific ego-states (archetypal complexes) that support an ego-identity. (We become aware of the activity of these complexes in terms of how close or far a function is from our sense of who we are).
The functions called "preferred", which provide their initials as the second and third letters of the type code, are not simply the ones we "use" the "most", but are basically defined by the complexes known as the Hero and the Good Parent. One conveys the ego's main state of achieving its goals, and the other is about adapting (hence, taking on a function opposite in individual or environmental orientation, and in taking in or making decisions from information) and thus becomes about "support". (I've seen a suggestion that it is the way in which we develop what Freud called the superego; i.e., it helps us to recognize the value of adapting in ways that aren't necessarily congenial to our immediate goals, but contribute to our maturity and sense of responsibility. The Hero does chooses to invest selectively in the real world, to trade some of his potential for adaptive power. That's what the Parental Complex is all about).
All of the other (stack of six) complexes and associated functions are reflections and "shadows" (opposite orientation and suppressed, usually negative aspects) of these.
An example of this that has been surfacing in my awareness for awhile is my basically 25 year old project on the trinity: www.erictb.info/triune.html
Even though I knew nothing about type and the functions back then, I all along felt the states of "Hero" and most notably, "Parent".
So as I gathered all of this relevant information from Christian history, modern sects, and scripture, I started writing the project. A natural outline came to me, as starting from the problematic original "three Person" doctrine, and then working my way down to the seemingly "ideal" (most easily comprehendable) position of only one Person; exploring each position, and its strengths, proof-texts, and weaknesses.
As the "Hero", I had gone through "the whole gamut" (as I described in my presentations of the manuscript to people and publishers), sorting through all the different doctrines and scriptural justifications ("proof-texts"), and determined individually (i) what was most likely "correct" (T). Hence, "introverted Thinking" as the "heroic" function.
So as I sat down and put together this thesis, I also, even back then, not thinking in terms of archetypes/complexes/ego states or cognitive functions and type, felt this strong "parental" sense, of "leading" my readers ("by the hand") through this "gamut" of confusion, all concerning the environment (e) of various "abstract" objects, being "concepts" (N) of theology. Hence, "extraverted iNtuition", looking at the "possibilities" each of the doctrinal positions presents, and sorting through them to try to arrive at the most probable. Even now, when I think back to writing this, I feel like I was being a "parent".
The Hero and Parent used their confident, mature "knowhow" to bravely tackle centuries of doctrinal confusion (that many could not find their way through), and come up with what I described there as the "concordance point" of all the theologies, and that makes it seem less incomprehensible.
Further evidence, is that the Hero is "shadowed" by another complex, which is sort of a "neagative hero", that conveys a sense of "obstruction", and reverses the orientation of that dominant thinking. I was always greatly put off by the way the "orthodox" apologists simply relied on an environmental (e) consensus of what was "correct" (including interpretation of scripture), in the teaching of the "historic Church". Cited in my book, you had leading apologist Walter Martin's almost iconic statement concluding one of his rebuttals to Armstrongism: "The Christian Church has always understood unity in Trinity, and Trinity in unity, the full understanding of which God has reserved to Himself until...Christ delivers the kingdom to His Father...(1 Cor.15:28)" (Herbert W. Armstrong and the Radio Church of God). The popular "Radio Bible Class" booklets my grandmother had, had one that stated (mentioning doctrines like the trinity): "These things were settled long ago by the church. The early leaders met in special councils to work them out, and there is no reason to doubt their decisions. To revive these things is unnecessary. To make matters worse, it adds to the confusion already existing in the minds of the untaught." (R.W. DeHaan, How to Recognize a Good Church, p.31).
This is the extraverted Thinking position. And to me, it felt like an obstruction to [the real] truth, and provoked a strong "oppositional" feeling, which characterizes the "Opposing Personality Complex" that shadows and also "backs up" the "Heroic Personality Complex". It would then turn to the same environmental (external, objective) authority, "historic" Church writings (helped greatly by the book Early Christian Doctrines by JND Kelley) to support the Hero's judgment. Many bishops back then were reluctant to sign the Creed, because of its symmetrical language, but went with it because it was truer than the others (and there was also politics involved as well).
Symmetry (such as the oft drawn images of three perfectly "co-equal" and "co-eternal" entities that were supposed to be the Persons of the Godhead) are the domain of introverted Thinking, however the function will also determine when a symmetry doesn't fit the rest of the data. Extraverted Thinking, while striving for precision in implementation of decisions, is not as precise in the actual framing of it. Whatever is most efficient, externally. The Nicene formula "worked" for the Church, so no further clarification is needed. When people question it, we have a ready answer to people trying to understand an "infinite God".
So the Hero then set out to determine individually what was truth. The "environment" of men and their religious councils were not seen as trustworthy. The Church and its "consensuses" had long favored things that were flat out wrong (like colonial chattel slavery and racism, the conspicuously absent "sins" in their polemics on morality in America. They were not just morally "bad" [F] but also theologically and sociologically false [T]).
Sometimes, individuals need to sit down and determine things like this themselves, free from the baggage of what others determine. (I see the other way, as "not thinking", but rather "letting others think for you". But then they see my way as not really thinking, as they mistrust "subjectivity" in favor of total "objectivity", and think in terms of stuff like "common sense", where what's "true" or "correct" is always set by the environment).
Seeing how they so strongly rejected dissension did produce a fear of being wrong, especially since I had found no religious group that held my exact views, and by the time of writing this, had settled on "new-evangelicalism" as the best shot for "fellowship". I nervously offered my manuscript to some leaders, and they seemed impressed. While staunchly holding to the standard Trinity doctrine, they were aware that the language and formulation of it were really not exact.
So while not giving in on what the religious environment (e) said was "correct", I was impacted on the desire to be seen as [personally] "good" (F) by it. Even before finding those fellowships, I used to be jealous of the apologists, seeing their egos were so invested in this doctrine that so insulted the intelligence of myself and others, and imagined they in their Sunday services being so respected, and in unity with the members; looked up to for valiantly keeping the "error" of those other doctrines out.
This was the reflection of the hero, inferior extraverted Feeling, connected with an "inferiority" complex.
So this is an example of how my operate according to my type, and its functions, as differentiated by the ego states. Other types would likely approach the whole thing very differently. They could see the logic and possibilities of the concepts, but their hero and parent would divide the data differently.
I've been saying a lot recently, that what we call type basically, is, not just any "use" of particular functions, but rather the specific ego-states (archetypal complexes) that support an ego-identity. (We become aware of the activity of these complexes in terms of how close or far a function is from our sense of who we are).
The functions called "preferred", which provide their initials as the second and third letters of the type code, are not simply the ones we "use" the "most", but are basically defined by the complexes known as the Hero and the Good Parent. One conveys the ego's main state of achieving its goals, and the other is about adapting (hence, taking on a function opposite in individual or environmental orientation, and in taking in or making decisions from information) and thus becomes about "support". (I've seen a suggestion that it is the way in which we develop what Freud called the superego; i.e., it helps us to recognize the value of adapting in ways that aren't necessarily congenial to our immediate goals, but contribute to our maturity and sense of responsibility. The Hero does chooses to invest selectively in the real world, to trade some of his potential for adaptive power. That's what the Parental Complex is all about).
All of the other (stack of six) complexes and associated functions are reflections and "shadows" (opposite orientation and suppressed, usually negative aspects) of these.
An example of this that has been surfacing in my awareness for awhile is my basically 25 year old project on the trinity: www.erictb.info/triune.html
Even though I knew nothing about type and the functions back then, I all along felt the states of "Hero" and most notably, "Parent".
So as I gathered all of this relevant information from Christian history, modern sects, and scripture, I started writing the project. A natural outline came to me, as starting from the problematic original "three Person" doctrine, and then working my way down to the seemingly "ideal" (most easily comprehendable) position of only one Person; exploring each position, and its strengths, proof-texts, and weaknesses.
As the "Hero", I had gone through "the whole gamut" (as I described in my presentations of the manuscript to people and publishers), sorting through all the different doctrines and scriptural justifications ("proof-texts"), and determined individually (i) what was most likely "correct" (T). Hence, "introverted Thinking" as the "heroic" function.
So as I sat down and put together this thesis, I also, even back then, not thinking in terms of archetypes/complexes/ego states or cognitive functions and type, felt this strong "parental" sense, of "leading" my readers ("by the hand") through this "gamut" of confusion, all concerning the environment (e) of various "abstract" objects, being "concepts" (N) of theology. Hence, "extraverted iNtuition", looking at the "possibilities" each of the doctrinal positions presents, and sorting through them to try to arrive at the most probable. Even now, when I think back to writing this, I feel like I was being a "parent".
The Hero and Parent used their confident, mature "knowhow" to bravely tackle centuries of doctrinal confusion (that many could not find their way through), and come up with what I described there as the "concordance point" of all the theologies, and that makes it seem less incomprehensible.
Two other associated complexes
Further evidence, is that the Hero is "shadowed" by another complex, which is sort of a "neagative hero", that conveys a sense of "obstruction", and reverses the orientation of that dominant thinking. I was always greatly put off by the way the "orthodox" apologists simply relied on an environmental (e) consensus of what was "correct" (including interpretation of scripture), in the teaching of the "historic Church". Cited in my book, you had leading apologist Walter Martin's almost iconic statement concluding one of his rebuttals to Armstrongism: "The Christian Church has always understood unity in Trinity, and Trinity in unity, the full understanding of which God has reserved to Himself until...Christ delivers the kingdom to His Father...(1 Cor.15:28)" (Herbert W. Armstrong and the Radio Church of God). The popular "Radio Bible Class" booklets my grandmother had, had one that stated (mentioning doctrines like the trinity): "These things were settled long ago by the church. The early leaders met in special councils to work them out, and there is no reason to doubt their decisions. To revive these things is unnecessary. To make matters worse, it adds to the confusion already existing in the minds of the untaught." (R.W. DeHaan, How to Recognize a Good Church, p.31).
This is the extraverted Thinking position. And to me, it felt like an obstruction to [the real] truth, and provoked a strong "oppositional" feeling, which characterizes the "Opposing Personality Complex" that shadows and also "backs up" the "Heroic Personality Complex". It would then turn to the same environmental (external, objective) authority, "historic" Church writings (helped greatly by the book Early Christian Doctrines by JND Kelley) to support the Hero's judgment. Many bishops back then were reluctant to sign the Creed, because of its symmetrical language, but went with it because it was truer than the others (and there was also politics involved as well).
Symmetry (such as the oft drawn images of three perfectly "co-equal" and "co-eternal" entities that were supposed to be the Persons of the Godhead) are the domain of introverted Thinking, however the function will also determine when a symmetry doesn't fit the rest of the data. Extraverted Thinking, while striving for precision in implementation of decisions, is not as precise in the actual framing of it. Whatever is most efficient, externally. The Nicene formula "worked" for the Church, so no further clarification is needed. When people question it, we have a ready answer to people trying to understand an "infinite God".
So the Hero then set out to determine individually what was truth. The "environment" of men and their religious councils were not seen as trustworthy. The Church and its "consensuses" had long favored things that were flat out wrong (like colonial chattel slavery and racism, the conspicuously absent "sins" in their polemics on morality in America. They were not just morally "bad" [F] but also theologically and sociologically false [T]).
Sometimes, individuals need to sit down and determine things like this themselves, free from the baggage of what others determine. (I see the other way, as "not thinking", but rather "letting others think for you". But then they see my way as not really thinking, as they mistrust "subjectivity" in favor of total "objectivity", and think in terms of stuff like "common sense", where what's "true" or "correct" is always set by the environment).
Seeing how they so strongly rejected dissension did produce a fear of being wrong, especially since I had found no religious group that held my exact views, and by the time of writing this, had settled on "new-evangelicalism" as the best shot for "fellowship". I nervously offered my manuscript to some leaders, and they seemed impressed. While staunchly holding to the standard Trinity doctrine, they were aware that the language and formulation of it were really not exact.
So while not giving in on what the religious environment (e) said was "correct", I was impacted on the desire to be seen as [personally] "good" (F) by it. Even before finding those fellowships, I used to be jealous of the apologists, seeing their egos were so invested in this doctrine that so insulted the intelligence of myself and others, and imagined they in their Sunday services being so respected, and in unity with the members; looked up to for valiantly keeping the "error" of those other doctrines out.
This was the reflection of the hero, inferior extraverted Feeling, connected with an "inferiority" complex.
So this is an example of how my operate according to my type, and its functions, as differentiated by the ego states. Other types would likely approach the whole thing very differently. They could see the logic and possibilities of the concepts, but their hero and parent would divide the data differently.
