From a very early age I was being asked by my parents to explain their spouse’s behavior. Why does she do that? Why won’t he behave the way he should? The interesting part was that I would try to give them some answers for why they were acting that way. Of course, I wasn’t listened to but still the questions were asked. My friends told me their problems and I helped them see what was happening and what the psychodynamics were. Where all that came from, I hadn’t a clue but that seemed to be just what I did.
In college I studied Organic Chemistry because I wanted to find a cure for cancer… I rejected psychology because I couldn’t find any theories that fit my experience of people. It wasn’t until I found Isabel Briggs Myer’s descriptions of type preferences that provided a way of understanding people that I found a language and the descriptors that fit what I knew to be true about people’s behavior and why they did what they did.
In the early 1990s, Dr. John Beebe added to my understanding by connecting Jung’s theories of the unconscious with his 8 Function Theory. It opened up that whole missing piece of why we do some things well and other conscious processes are hard to develop. I began to see people in terms of the 8 function-attitudes. (I missed seeing Dick Thompson’s book on that concept.) Not only did I see people’s “gifts,” but I could detect what wasn’t working for them. Thus began my work with conscious type development and the change process.
“Type Interventions” is what I call my business now. My bio says that I “help people get unstuck from self-sabotaging patterns and make sustainable changes in their lives.” People don’t realize that they are stuck until some very painful event happens that represents a major turning point. Often that occurs as a “mid-life crisis.” My part in the “intervention” that is needed is to help people become aware of what isn’t working and what needs changing to make their life work better.
Beebe’s “8 Function Model” helps me ascertain what function-attitudes need development or are being overused or affected by stress. I call it “repressed, distressed or stressed.” The problems are usually caused by habituated patterns of reacting to situations rather than effective use of type preferences. I then define the issues in terms of one’s 8 function-attitude type preferences and discuss possible options for change.
What I am offering in this blog is a way of looking at type preferences that makes a discernment of when they are working effectively and when they are not (see Handy Handout labeled “Preferences Under Stress”). The handout was designed to show the difference between functioning well and functioning in a reactionary mode.
The following case study is an example of how I analyze functional and dysfunctional use of type preferences. (See “Type Development” Case Study on ARCHIVES’ page)