To me it is the cognitive functions, which are the fundamental and key part of it. Even without getting into the different personalities and function stacks and shadow functions etc., to me the cognitive functions allow great insight into how our minds work.
They allow insight into why people see things differently; why there are so many misunderstandings. The fact most people have no interest in this subject feels to me like a tragedy, as it’s power is massive. I have been wondering if greater awareness could be achieved through combining the subject with others, rather than just looking at it in isolation. Even with my knowledge of the subject, the exact nature of the functions is not completely clear although my intuition does get the gist of what they are about. Greater explanation of the functions (probably with real world examples) could help a lot I feel. So much of this subject seems to get fragmented in discussions. We need more clarity. I am getting ideas for my own writing, specifically in relation to political thinking.
Hopefully Ren’s next book will help a lot.
Good comments David. Something that I found very interesting before I retired was the application of type concepts within a large organisation.
A very obvious one is how to communicate effectively in presenting a case for something. Different types need to be approached in a way that is congruent with their preferences, and a good written or verbal case will be structured so that it is consistent with these. The skills needed are quite complex, interesting and fruitful. Obviously the presenter needs to be familiar with mbti, but it goes beyond book knowledge and you need to have a feel of, and a sympathy with, what the world is like from the point of view of each type. Even further beyond that, you need to be able to synthesise each of the more important type perspectives into a presentation that is unified rather than a pastiche of different presentational tools and styles. There is an art to it which is rewarding if done well - to the extent that doing it is very satisfying to introverted intuitive feeling types, even when they are dealing with a significant number of extraverts, thinkers and sensors, because there is a thrill of the chase in order to influence them effectively and appropriately. The development of these skills goes beyond the immediate task in hand, because it gives us a very powerful way of developing knowledge and proficiency in functions and behaviours that lie outside those we prefer, and this is a way we develop ourselves and become a more rounded person.
Another application is the building of effective teams. My experience is with information systems project and services teams, and these need a broad range of type preferences within them if they are to be effective. Recruiting, choosing and developing the right staff in the right roles is a fascinating activity, and is very much enhanced by a knowledge and practical application of type theory.
The great thing about these sorts of applications of mbti is that they are effective and valid regardless of any debate about the scientific validity of the tools. That's because the functions do clearly map out a broad range of human psychical behaviour into discrete components, and give them readily accessible names. This gives us a powerful cognitive tool which provides a language of structure and discrimination for the sort of tasks I just described and puts a powerful insight-gathering, analytical and decision-making aid into our hands. Mbti also gives each of us a ready means of seeing the world through the eyes of those who lead with our non-preferred functions, and that is also a very powerful way of being successful in these sort of activities.
I feel that these two applications are rather like the point you are making. The core skills here are making a complex case, or building an effective team, and mbti would be only one of many angles on these if we were looking to develop ourselves or others to be effective at them.
