3.2 Psychological types

In Carl Jung's book, "Psychological Types" he talked about intuition in an extroverted attitude:

• In the extraverted attitude, intuition as the function of unconscious perception is wholly directed to external objects. Because intuition is in the main an unconscious process, its nature is very difficult to grasp. The intuitive function is represented in consciousness by an attitude of expectancy, by vision penetration; but only from the subsequent result can it be established how much of what was "seen" was actually in the object, and how much was "read into" it. Just as sensation, when it is the dominant function, is not a mere reactive process of no further significance for the object, but an activity that seizes and shapes its object, so intuition is not mere perception, or vision, but an active, creative process that puts into the object just as much as it takes out. since it does this unconsciously, it also has an unconscious effect on the object.

Jung said that a person in whom intuition was dominant, an "intuitive type", acted not on the basis of rational judgment but on sheer intensity of perception. In the extraverted attitude, this function (intuition) is "wholly directed to external objects". That means that an extrovert aims his ability of insight outward, instead of a type of inner reflection, the extrovert probably thinks more about other people and the significant aspects of them (such as their archetypes) and how these aspects relate to themselves. It is difficult to grasp the nature of how this process works, because it is unconscious.

This intuitive ability is "represented in consciousness by an attitude of of expectancy, by vision penetration". I think this means that you get excited from your analysis of other people. Only this type of analysis occurs all the time and is unconscious, so it is going to have a continuous effect on your emotions. For the extrovert, this means someone being "expectant". If you think about it, if you had a great insight about someone by realizing they were like an archetype, then that would make an extrovert wanting to be with that person. If I was an extrovert and realized someone was like a magician, I might find that very intriguing and want to hang out with them or something. Since I an introvert, however, I wouldn't really care. These archetypes are aspects of people that are significant, when this significance is triggered it causes a reaction in people, especially extroverts.

The unconscious intuition is "not a mere reactive process of of no further significance for the object, but an activity that seizes and shapes its object". That statement is much more complicated than it seems. How could it be that your analysis of other people "shape" the people you are analyzing? Since this analyzing is automatic, it is really a part of how you interact with the person. That seems rather obvious, clearly when you interact with someone it is complicated. There are going to be things you can analyze about an interaction, and these things are going to influence the interaction. If you couldn't describe descriptive qualities of a person, then the interaction wouldn't be very dynamic.