Jung, Myers-Briggs and personality types

In 1921, Carl Jung published Personality Types in which he sought to reconcile differing theories of Siggy Freud and Alfred Adler. As Jung said, "I came across the problem of types; for it is one's psychological type which from the outset determines and limits a person's judgment."  How people perceive the world and make decisions is determined largely by their psychological makeup. During World War II, in an effort to help women find work most suited to their personalities, Katharine Briggs and her daughter Isabel Myers created the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI).  They used Jung's theory to create 16 distinct types from 4 key variables: 


Introversion vs. Extroversion
Sensing vs. Intuition
Feeling vs. Thinking
Perceiving vs. Judging


Each person is not absolutely one or the other in these 4 categories, but rather lies somewhere along a continuum. You can find your type here: http://similarminds.com/jung.html.  Here are my results.


Introverted (I) 55.56% Extroverted (E) 44.44%
Intuitive (N) 82.14% Sensing (S) 17.86%
Thinking (T) 79.41% Feeling (F) 20.59%
Perceiving (P) 78.13% Judging (J) 21.88%


I was blown away by how accurate the various profiles of INTPs are. So much for being unique! For those that know me, INTP characteristics are spot on:

loner, more interested in intellectual pursuits than relationships or family, wrestles with the meaninglessness of existence, likes esoteric things, disorganized, messy, likes science fiction, can be lonely, observer, private, can't describe feelings easily, detached, likes solitude, not revealing, unemotional, rule breaker, avoidant, familiar with the darkside, skeptical, acts without consulting others, does not think they are weird but others do, socially uncomfortable, abrupt, fantasy prone, does not like happy people, appreciates strangeness, frequently loses things, acts without planning, guarded, more likely to support marijuana legalization, not prone to compromise, hard to persuade, relies on mind more than on others, calm

As Phil Connors says in Groundhog Day, "me, me, me...me."  


INTP is probably the rarest type, represented by only 1-2% of people.  I have always had trouble meeting people with interests similar to my own, but apparently there are at least 68 million of them out there.  Well, 68 million assuming that these personality classifications work in all cultures.  I suspect they would, but cannot be sure.  Genghis Khan sure sounds like an ENTJ to me. I hope that someday soon someones writes a doctoral dissertation on the brain scans (via fMRI) of various different types. Try the test and enjoy reading about your profile.