Typing Religions, Teachings, and Movements: Socionics

Let's see how far we can take this approach by trying to analyze socionics, which is not a religion, not quite a teaching, but certainly a movement. Note that, just as in the previous two cases, we are not actually examining the specific content of the literature - or doctrine, as the case may be - but are looking for information emphases in the field as a social entity, or group of practicioners.

Aushra Augusta, the founder of socionics, was an ILE, and this has been decisive for the field's development. Augusta discovered a logical system and formulated its key principles, but left much work undone. After her main period of work on socionics, she drifted into esoterism, and I know nothing about her post-socionics development - only that it is outside the realm of contemporary socionics. For most ILEs, the search is never over...

The initial period of socionics' development in Vilnius, Lithuania was highly oriented. Participants of her "brainstorm group" were involved in an exciting process of searching for and testing new ideas. This doesn't mean that only types enjoyed the process, though! People of many different types were involved.

Some of these people went on to become socionists, and a few are still active today. Other early enthusiasts from other cities - Kiev, St. Petersburg, and others - are now the old-timers of today's socionics. Some of the early figures have discontinued their activities, and some have parted ways after bitter disputes. This mirrors the kind of early-stage development that religious movements experience. I would guess the same thing happens in movements of all kinds. The only difference is that in religious movements the losing parties are usually threatened with damnation. In other movements the stakes aren't as high.

One of the early ambitious followers was Aleksandr Bukalov (ILE), who formed the International Institute of Socionics in Kiev. This is the most dominant socionics entity today and retains the ILE spirit. The institute prints a number of journals with articles on all sorts of speculative and open-ended topics, in addition to socionics. There are plenty of other socionics groups and organizations with a different atmosphere and emphasis, but the institute remains the most influential and is the most natural heir to Aushra Augusta, who died two years ago.

Now, socionics isn't a spiritual teaching, but we'll see that this doesn't make our typing principles at all irrelevant. If we look at the socionics "culture" that expresses itself whenever socionists of any level get together at formal and informal gatherings, we see very clear information emphases. We'll use the same process as for the previous two examples.

: Ever-present. Intriguing ideas that might lead to new insight or connections are valued everywhere. Most of the time you get the impression that people and the group as a whole are searching for something that they hope to find, but might not.

: Not at all emphasized, except for the occasional SEE speech about how to "conquer" the opposite sex using socionics.

: Not at all emphasized. If people ever do anything "productive" with socionics, it's only on the periphery of the field or within small teams of like-minded socionists who are developing some joint project. Otherwise, this aspect is mostly left out of discussion at gatherings.

: Quite emphasized. Not as a "religious" experience of course, but the process of trying out new ideas and hypotheses on each other is seen as a fun activity that brings people together.

: Hard to imagine that this is at all emphasized in the community as a whole.

: Aspects of such as diet and physical exercises are rarely mentioned, but is present in the assumption that people are applying socionics to attain balance and health in their lives. At times socionic factors (one's type or the intertype relations one is in) have been related to physiological processes, one's state of health, and disease. This suggests a latent value.

: Heavily emphasized. Even at informal socionics gatherings where people are out to enjoy themselves, people discuss socionics concepts to try to understand them better. People ask each other, "Have you read this? Have you read that?" Discussion of conceptual systems is part of the common language of socionics enthusiasts everywhere.

: There is a sort of implied value of , since socionics is about relationships, but in actuality little attention is given to one's treatment of others. Heated arguments are common at socionics gatherings, and it is common for people to type each other without considering how it will affect other people's feelings (a reflection of valued above ).

As is the case with the spiritual teachings discussed in previous posts, all information aspects can be found in sub-groups of socionics. However, when people from different sub-groups get together, the overall group information emphasis takes over, and they revert to the "language" of the general group.

Might socionics ever become an introverted system?
I can easily imagine this happening some day. The most likely result would be a LII or LSI integral type. This would happen if the search ever stopped for some reason - for example, if some new, promising fields appeared which overlapped with socionics and drew away people who were in the searching mode. Or, socionics might reach a dead-end of sorts, which would cause and other extraverted types to leave earlier than others. Those who are most attached to and identify most with specifically socionic concepts would stay and form the new core of the movement. Among these, types would probably dominate.