Course Section 13
Jung's Four Functions

Draft (Please do not distribute)

 

Consider the circle in the illustration to represent the Self in Jung's psychology. This Self has four psychological functions: Thinking (T), feeling (F), sensation (S) and intuition (I).

 

There are two decision making functions: thinking and feeling; and two perception functions: sensation and intuition.

 

In the above figure the decision functions are on a vertical axis. Thinking is on top; feeling is on the bottom. This is what I would call a "dominator" arrangement. Thinking is considered as dominant over feeling in terms of making decisions. This is the general attitude in our society, would you not agree. If the rational process is lionized and considered this way, then making decisions by feeling is not valued. 

 

So this vertical axis is the decision-making axis. 

 

In order to make decisions, one must have information.  That information comes from perceiving things and there are two perception functions. The most obvious one that we all work with and value the most, especially engineers and lawyers and thinkers, is sensation: the five senses  Unless I can see it, hear it, feel it, taste it or touch it, it is of little value in how one makes decisions in this materialistic society.. 

 

But, sensation is not the only way to perceive reality and gain useful information.  There is a non-sensory function that people who are primarily thinkers and sensation types do not value. That non sensory function is intuition.

 

Duke University psychologist J.B. Rhine called this function "extra-sensory perception" or ESP.  In terms of brain structure and functioning, feeling and intuition are located in the right brain hemisphere, whereas the thinking and sensation functions are located in the left brain hemisphere.

 

It isn't hard to locate which professions would use which psychological functions. Referring again to the figure, the professions of engineer, lawyer, and accountant would easily locate in the upper right quadrant, while nurses, and social workers would more likely be located in the lower right quadrant. Upper left quadrant types are typical research scientists, entrepreneurs and even healers.

 

Consider now shifting the paradigm from dominator to partnering. Turn the figure above in your mind 90 degrees clockwise. What do you find? Notice the thinking and feeling are now horizontal and on an equal status. Neither is dominating the other. Both decision making functions are now working in partnership. This is how the CREEI process works. The dream comes from feelings, analysis comes from thinking. By working together both decision-making functions value and support each other. Such a partnership prepares the individual to receive "aha" insights.

 

This workshop was conducted in December 2007 in Los Alamos, New Mexico.  The video has been edited for sake of brevity and confidentiality.  However, enough content has been retained to form the basis of an excellent introduction to the CREEI dream analysis process.  

Let's begin by introducing Eugene N. Kovalenko Ph.D. the director of the CREEI Institute and creater of the CREEI dream analysis process.  In the 1950's Eugene worked as a military intelligence agent, then a nuclear scientist in the 1960's.  However in the mid 1970's, Eugene (pictured left) turned his creative abilities to the question of dreaming as an avenue to solve personal and community problems. The result of this transformation led to the process of creative dreaming, the CREEI process.

 

Ceative dreaming has been Eugene's passion ever since.

But to really get to know Eugene, lets start earlier.  Eugene says that his conscious life began in early 1953 at age 19 when he was involved in a motorcycle accident in the desert just north of Phoenix, Arizona. It was the height of the Korean War and he had impulsively quit college after a year at BYU to marry his high school sweetheart. Because of physical injuries suffered in the accident he thought he was now safe from the draft, since he hadn't realized before that he had unwittingly given up his college deferment.  

One day in April 1953, Eugene went to the Phoenix draft board to verify his draft status in order to proceed with marriage plans, only to discover to his horror that not only was he not 4F (medically deferred), but 1A (fully acceptable) and that his draft papers were to be sent out that same day. “Oh, my god!, he thought to himself, I don't want to go to Korea and get my (you know what) shot off”.   He thought to himself “Maybe there's something I can learn. If I had my wildest dream come true what would I study?” Well, Eugene had always wanted to learn his dad's mother tongue. Without another thought he found himself blurting out "Is there any way I could learn Russian in the Army?" (Knowing perfectly well that this was impossible).  The recruiting sergeant looked at him with a startled expression and exclaimed, "We have just today received a letter from Washington, D.C. for a quota of one for the month of April for the state of Arizona for the Army Language School in Russian. If you can qualify, you're it!"  Having had one quarter of Russian at BYU was enough for the recruiter.  Eugene immediately accepted the assignment with a relieved, "Where do I sign?"  

For Eugene, that was the new beginning of becoming: soldier, interpreter, singer, spook, student, engineer, scientist, seeker, poet, crazy person, writer, reader, inventor, manager, entrepreneur, teacher, sinner, fool, missionary, revolutionary, critic, husband, father, grandfather, great-grandfather, conversationalist, lover, liar, traveler, actor, visionary, pretender, hero, villain, friend, wanderer, wonderer, believer, skeptic, dreamer and dream worker. In becoming a more conscious human being, Eugene has discovered:  acting, contemplating, introspecting, retrospecting, resolving, concluding, deciding, suffering, rejoicing, declaiming, questioning, asserting, negating, affirming, and living. 

 

Jung's Four Functions of the Core Self
	T = Thinking F = Feeling I = Intuition S = Sensation
Jung's circle shown above, the core "Self", represents the most inner circle of W. Clark Rex's six aspects of behavior as noted in chapter seven.	Click to see larger view.