Reflections on Complementary Functions

I'm posting here my response to the following question:

I don't know if you're still into socionics, but I have actually become better in applying it, and I think it's pretty accurate. The problem is explaining the theory to other people. Socionics seems like more of a system that is based on observation than anything else. (For example, I can't see any reason why Ti types would necessarily seek out Fe types - you could come up with a reason, but it doesn't necessarily prove it, unfortunately.) That's why I'm wondering about its history, because it will make it easier for me to explain to people why it might work. So, here's the question: do you know how Ausra Augusta and her associates developed the system? Was it based on observing a handful of people she knew, or were, for example, hundreds of people talked to in order to develop Model A? (Or something else?) I don't really want to burden you with finding an answer, but you seem like one of the few people in the English speaking world who might know.

I still think of socionics regularly when meeting people and reflecting on their personalities. The subject, I think, will continue to interest me forever. I think the complementarity of functions that you mention is a great mystery that remains to be uncovered by science. Simply by giving the mystery a name (i.e. Ti and Fe), socionics does a lot towards finding an answer, but "Ti and Fe" itself is not the answer.

The answer is doubtless to be found in neurophysiology. Something about the neurophysiological activity known as "Ti" leads to neurochemical exhaustion if not supplemented by "Fe."

More broadly, any specific type or closely related types of mental activity will lead to exhaustion if engaged in long enough or with enough intensity (mirroring the effects of physical activity). As a result, one feels drained, irritable, or devoid of will.

"Ti" and "Fe" may be seen simply as convenient, though imperfect, ways of categorizing mental activity.

Since the source of "Ti" and "Fe" -- evolution -- acts via our physical survival and successful physical transfer of genes and is only interested in our mental activity inasmuch as it produces external results, the mental activity represented by "Ti" or "Fe" must also represent broad types of approaches towards dealing with one's external environment.

A "Ti person" tends to tackle problems and opportunities in his environment in a certain way that differentiates him from most others. This typically leads to success in some areas and deficiencies in others. Yet, because we are not bees or ants, the differentiation cannot be absolute. A "Ti person" who performs more types of tasks adequately probably stands a higher chance of reproducing than one who cannot.

The "purpose" of this differentiation appears to be to make social cooperation desirable and inevitable. It is distinct from sexual drives which make reproduction desirable or from survival drives which make animals territorial and prone to aggression.

The fact that what we call Ti and Fe tend to attract one another is a conclusion born of observation more than logical deduction. Augusta recognized that such patterns existed, but she had no name or framework for them until she came across Jung's Typology, which she adapted to fit her needs more closely. Model A was developed as a result of studying Jung, observing her acquaintances in everyday life, and discussing her ideas with a group of like-minded friends who took interest in the topic. They would field ideas among each other and see how well they played out among each other and in their personal experience, much like any informal but stable group of friends. In this way they were able to develop the overlapping experience that is so critical to socionics (as well as being its Achilles' heel). Without it, socionics discussions tend to be difficult and relatively unproductive.

Two Important Steps to Make

There are two steps I have made in my thinking about socionics that I consider particularly productive and highly recommend others follow:

1. Think in terms of functions, not dichotomies

It's initially easier for the mind to divide up people into two halves in four different ways and get 16 resulting types than to think about 8 possible positions of 8 different psychic functions. However, I have found the second approach to ultimately bring much more clarity and functionality.

Each of the four basic dichotomies is very "diluted," since it captures 8 types who express the dichotomy in 4 different ways. For example, among sensers we find those with as the first function, as the second function, and as the first or second function. That's four very different manifestations of sensing.

There is much more to be said about types with base than about sensing types in general. If you create adequate dichotomy descriptions and see what they alone can say about any given type, you will get a much fuzzier picture than if you approach the type functionally. A very large part of each type cannot be explained through the four dichotomies.

2. Understand that psychic functions are working mechanisms and not static personality traits

"You can't be an ILI. ILIs don't say that" is something you might occasionally hear among socionists and enthusiasts. There is a very strong tendency to assume that type behavior is more limited than it actually is (this is strictly my opinion). "Such-and-such a type is good at this, such-and-such talks like this," etc. etc. This kind of thinking comes from the unconscious assumption that psychic functions describe unchanging traits rather than being the mental modules I believe they are.

Each of us has all eight modules and uses all of them. This, I believe, should be understood concretely rather than abstractly. When you're interacting with people in a certain situation, you're using one or more of those modules. In different situations you tend to use different modules. In the course of the day you may switch back and forth between many or most of your psychic functions. Within a conversation, you may touch on many different kinds of information and briefly activate the many different kinds of thinking that are accessible to nearly all humans. In most situations, after you are used to people, you can identify which psychic function (or "IM element") they are using and which information aspect they are focused on. The aspects may change minute by minute and second by second. One almost never has a conversation where one presents information only through one's strongest functions, which is what the static view of personality type would suggest.

When people "get into" an information aspect, they adopt the mannerisms of that function. This means that people can pretty much say or do anything given the right circumstances. However, their subjective experience of each of these functional states differs (and their skill and confidence level - which are visible from without), and they will tend to avoid heavy use of certain psychic modules and be eager to use others.

Thinking about things this way helps to preserve a flexible view of human behavior, concreticize socionic knowledge, and understand what is going on at any given moment.

The Psyche and Reality: Augusta's Understanding

In an earlier post I mentioned the confusion surrounding the terms "function" and "information aspect." In actuality there are three different things that each have their own proper name, and people often mix them up or use them interchangeably for convenience. To clear up the confusion, I have created the following visual (the underlined words are not links):

*Note that in Jungian typology both IM elements and functions of the psyche are called "functions" ("thinking," "feeling," etc. are called functions, but so are the "leading function," "vulnerable function," etc.), while there is no concept that corresponds to information aspects in socionics.

Augusta saw objective reality as consisting of "bodies and fields" - objects and their interrelations. Individuals' perception is able to register all aspects of reality (or at least those accessible to our species) to some degree, but focuses on certain aspects more than others. Hence, the categories used to "divide up" reality can also be used to describe the corresponding "modules" of perception that register them. These modules Augusta called IM elements, or elements of information metabolism. The aspects of reality Augusta called information aspects. She viewed reality as sending living beings a constant stream of information about itself. This stream breaks down into different information aspects much as light breaks down into the colors of the rainbow.

To describe the differences in perception of information between individuals, Augusta used Jung's concept of functions of the psyche. By assigning a number to each IM element in her model of a specific type, she was able to describe the priority of perception, or - in her preferred wording - "the degree of clarity and differentiation of perception" of the given information aspect. The first two IM elements determine the ordering of the other six according to the rules outlined by Jung. At first Augusta referred to only 4 functions, following Jung's example. She called this "Model J." However, there was a logical inconsistency. Reality consisted of 8 information aspects, but only four of these were represented in the model of the psyche, suggesting that the psyche was unable to register the other four. Eventually Augusta and her associates introduced the 8-function model, called "Model A," and found the proper places for perception of all 8 aspects of reality in the socionic model of the psyche.

Simplifying Reality Through the Weak Functions

This topic came to me while working on a translation of Augusta's The Dual Nature of Man. Augusta's type was ILE. She had a definite tendency to simplify factors affecting relationships and interaction between people. Today her theoretical understanding of socionics and intertype interaction still lies at the foundation of socionics, but they have been fleshed out and are widely recognized to be not as clear-cut as she originally described them. In comparison, my blog and website show a more diverse approach to the topic of human interaction that includes other sources of insight (psychology, evolution, personal observations) in addition to socionics.

The difference? Augusta was an ILE with weak (simplistic) , whereas for me is an area of creativity and multi-dimensional perception. Augusta in effect describes a sphere with the aid of . Since her explanations of relationships are secondary to her discovery of new patterns and structure in personality and information interchange, her oversimplifications are permissable, but in the long run they lose out in memetic competition to more fleshed-out and sensitive approaches to understanding relationships. Her understanding of relationships is rough and simplistic and doesn't pick up on the nuances of people's subjective feelings and the diversity of factors that influence these feelings from day to day.

Each of us simplifies certain aspects of reality as well. Have you ever met people who say and believe that all you have to do to maintain good health is eat less than 2000 calories a day, or visit the doctor every six months, or jog three times a week for 40 minutes? Have you ever met people who say and believe that all you have to do to develop your intellectual powers is read one book a week? Or that the key to maintaining a good relationship with your spouse is to frame statements about the relationships in the first person rather than the third (e.g. "I feel distressed when... " instead of "You never... !")? Or that the key to professional success is to perform one's duties and assignments diligently? Or that the way to ensure their physical safety is to take a self-defense course?

Each of these beliefs bears the mark of a weak function (usually the Super-ego). People take a one-dimensional approach toward a multi-dimensional issue. The purpose of this approach is to avoid thinking about this particular aspect of life in order to direct a larger proportion of attention and energy to our "favorite" tasks and activities. People with a multi-dimensional intuitive understanding of the area in question display a willingness to examine the nuances of each problem as it comes up instead of applying a blanket solution (one might say, a "final solution," to use Hitler's revealing choice of words). In certain areas of life each of us is prone to concoct "final solutions" that - naturally - must ultimately fail, since we assume that the problems that arise in this area will always be of the same narrow type that we have been able to foresee. But not all health problems arise from obesity, reading does not involve the entire intellect, relationships cannot be saved through careful wording, diligent employees are often laid off, and robbers do not always attack from the front and warn that they are assaulting you.

In the absence of close relationships with duals (and, to a degree, activators and partial duals), this one-dimensional approach often turns into a rigid false conviction; the individual believes he has found the single correct way of doing things and does not recognize his own incompetency. Dual relations in particular tend to keep the psyche flexible and constantly remind the individual of his own subjectivity in many areas of reality.

Information Aspects as Building Blocks of Interaction

A lot is happening behind the scenes when two people communicate. Not only are they exchanging verbal information on or around a certain topic, but they are jumping from information aspect to information aspect and sending each other signals from different functions that affect the other person in certain ways. These subtle interactions can be easily observed and studied if you focus your attention on them; otherwise they go unnoticed.

In brief, businesslike conversations of a few minutes or so, people may speak using the "voice" of just a single function. In longer, informal conversations between people with a low level of compatilibility, people generally get stuck in a certain voice and can't get out of it, which causes mental fatigue if the interaction lasts for more than five or ten minutes (probably as a result of certain groups of neurons temporarily depleting their resources). But in conversations between people who are highly compatible, partners usually cover a wide range of information aspects within a relatively short period, typically speaking from each function for no more than a few minutes at a time - and often for as little as 10 or 20 seconds. This creates a sensation of mental pliability and emotional flexibility (different groups of neurons are given time to renew their resources before reactivating).

Every person continually experiences various sentiments, feelings, thoughts, sensations, insights, questions, problems, etc. that build up and cause distress if they are not shared and resolved (or put in their proper perspective). Some of these are associated with feelings of confidence and personal achievement, while others evoke feelings of self-pity, guilt and self-doubt, or anger. These sentiments and realizations relate to different information aspect.

When a person has no outlet for expression of his sentiments and realizations, he begins to insert them - often ineffectively - in communication at work and elsewhere with random people. Unless these people respond in a certain "correct" way, the person is unable to develop his thought adequately and resolve the sentiment or realization. So they continue to build up. If they reach a critical level, chronic distress, accentuations, perversions, and neuroses form.

In communication between psychologically compatible partners, people are able to share their sentiments and realizations more or less freely and hop from information aspect to information aspect, expressing the most pressing or interesting sentiment of the moment. Conversations take the form of complete, multi-faceted interaction, and not merely an exchange of words on a given topic. As people touch on their current sentiments or experience across many different areas of life, partners have the chance to conveniently share more long-term sentiments and realizations on the same topic and resolve them with the other's help. When people communicate rigidly around one or two information aspects, there are rarely convenient opportunities to bring up sentiments and realizations relating to other aspects.

Functions or Aspects?

COMMENT (1/23/2007): I HAVE NOW RESOLVED THIS TOPIC AND HAVE DESCRIBED IT FULLY IN ANOTHER POST.

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In socionics we have an interesting situation where it is perfectly logical to say, for example:

" perceives "

The first is referring to as a function of the psyche - introverted logic. The second is referring to the information aspect "". The difference between the "two s" is that the first is a characteristic of the psyche, whereas the second is a characteristic of external reality.

The world around us can be seen as "emitting" signals of different natures that are picked up by our psyche. In this way, we can say, "he was sending strong signals." Of course, it is also the function that picks up signals, and the function that sends them (if it's a living thing)!

For Jung - an introtim - functions were a characteristic of the psyche alone. For Augusta - an extratim - the signals picked up by Jung's psychic functions were actually objective characteristics of external reality. Now we have both approaches! :)

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Actually, it's even more complicated. There are 8 information aspects which describe characteristics of external reality. Next, there are 8 functions numbered 1 to 8. Each function has its own characteristics regardless of which information aspect the function perceives in each type structure (i.e. the base function or any other function can be described independently of the information aspect it corresponds to).

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EDIT 1/22/2007:

In the process of translating more of The Dual Nature of Man, I found that Augusta addressed this ambiguity herself. Partway into point 5, she states, "Thus, in the process of information metabolism one uses eight IM elements, each of which reflects one of the objective aspects of reality." Next, in the chart she has the headings "Aspect of reality reflected," "Name of characteristic of psyche or IM element by which one obtains information about given aspect of reality," and "Symbol of aspect of reality and corresponding element."

In other words, we can avoid ambiguity by following Augusta's approach:
1. Aspects (of reality) are "objective characteristics of [external] reality"
2. IM (information metabolism) elements are psychological characteristics (modules, receptors, etc.) that perceive different aspects of reality
3. Functions are numbered 1-8 and are characteristics of the socionic model of the psyche ("Model A"). In each type model each function has its own IM element.

No. 1 and 2 can be denoted by a symbol (e.g. ), while functions are denoted by a number or a name (e.g. "leading function").

Characteristics of the Creative Function

The creative (or 2nd) function is comparatively less important to the individual than the base function. It is also something that comes naturally to the individual and is an area of strength and confidence like the base function, but it is not the individual's first priority or the "main point" of his statements of personal conviction.

The individual displays ease and competency in the area described by the 2nd function, but tends to apply this strength and perception within the context of the base function, which is perceived as having absolute importance. People use their creative function with ease as a situational tool, but can be easily distracted by signals that trigger their more sensitive base function. Compared to the base function, which is usually "on," the creative function turns on and off depending on the demands of the situation.

To illustrate the above, I'll describe as a creative function:

The individual is sensitive to issues of health, well-being, rest and relaxation, physical comfort, and aesthetic tastes and has an arsenal of tools to influence these areas of life in positive ways when there is a need for his help. At the same time, the individual does not focus specifically on these areas in his personal life, but usually focuses on his active external activities. He generally applies his assistance in the areas listed on an individual basis after recognizing someone's need.

Characteristics of the Base Function

There are 8 possible "varieties" of the base function that correspond to the 8 information aspects discussed earlier. Jung and socionics maintain that the base function forms the core of personality. Here are some of its outstanding characteristics (in red are examples for base types to better illustrate the concept):

The base function describes the individual's most stable, consistent state of mind (especially in his or her adult years).
: A physically relaxed, resting state of mind where the individual is focused on his internal sensations of comfort and harmony.

It describes the individual's most central interests - the kinds of interests the person is most likely to keep up over the years.
: A concern with health and inner balance, correctly and harmoniously organizing one's everyday activities (eating, sleeping, living at home), and making sure one's everyday physical environment produces sensations of comfort and pleasure and is not harmful to one's health.

When the individual's life is not centered around the base function, he feels lost. At the same time, there is a tendency to overdo the activities and state of mind of the base function and then look for forms of compensation.
: Feels lost when circumstances do not allow him to carry out his favorite relaxing activities (taking walks, listen to relaxing music, painting or doing other relaxing things) or organize his immediate home environment according to his own tastes. When given the chance, there is a tendency to overdo somewhat these activities and then look for some external activities that will make him strain a bit.

It describes the areas the individual is most sure of and generally most vocal about.
: Questions of health - improving health, diagnosing health issues, treating health and diet problems; questions of proper living, including sleep and eating, activities around the home, sex, and other therapeutic activities that bring joy, pleasure, and balance.

In these areas the individual is extremely resistant to suggestion and insists on his own interpretation of things.
: See above.

In these areas the individual is constantly gathering new information and adding it on to his existing views.
: Tends to study and analyze carefully how people live their everyday lives, the sensations they experience from day to day, their diets, sleep, and exercise habits, their aesthetic tastes and styles, their immediate physical environment, their general state of health and vitality. Constantly uses these new impressions to modify his views on proper living and maintaining a balanced, harmonious inner world.

The individual's memory is generally sharpest (near absolute memory, actually) in areas where the base function has processed information (impressions) and structured them in its characteristic way.
: Sensations one experienced in different locations and situations, the cause of these sensations and how to reproduce them.