Geology Reference
In-Depth Information
Figure 1: The Jungian 'Mandala'
In what I call the Jungian 'Mandala', sensation, or sensory experience, yields a direct ap-
prehension of the things around us through the medium of our physical bodies. Thinking
interprets what is there in a somewhat logical, rational manner; feeling grants a negative
or positive valence to each encounter, and so helps to ascribe value to the phenomenon,
and intuition yields a sense of its deeper meaning, as Jung says, “by way of unconscious
contents and connections”. Thinking interprets, feeling evaluates, whilst sensation and
intuition are perceptive in that they make us aware of what is happening without inter-
pretation or evaluation. Having treated hundreds of patients, Jung observed that each
person has an innate conscious orientation towards one of the four functions, whilst the
opposite function remains largely unconscious and undeveloped. The other two func-
tions are only partially conscious, generally serving the dominant function as auxiliar-
ies. Of course, this typology suffers from the limitations of all models, but Jung found it
useful enough to say of it that it “produces compass points in the wilderness of human
personality”.
Mental and physical health in Jung's therapeutic approach required the conscious de-
velopment of the neglected function, together with an awareness of the four functions
in oneself, so as to achieve a well-rounded personality. Jung based his classification on
ancient psychological systems that also recognised the existence of four psychological
types. Doctors in the Middle Ages spoke of the four elements, air, fire, earth and water,
whilst ancient Greek medicine thought in terms of phlegmatic, sanguine, choleric and
melancholic personalities. Correspondences with the systems of other cultures, such as
that of the native North Americans or with the mandala systems of India and the Him-
