The 3rd Function as the Semi-inferior

[Sir Eus Lee]

In Jung's theory, he didn't much touch on the auxiliary and third, but he did say that they act as backup for the dominant. He drew a +, put the dom at the top, and the auxiliary and third on the sides to show that the dom rules, and the other are on a different axis that aids the first.

Although the third is an aiding function, it is semi-unconscious. When combined with the inferior, it creates problems.

For example, In the INTP, Fe notices when things go wrong, and feeds that information to Si. Later, when the INTP wonders if he/she should do something, the answer becomes no. Because it is partially unconscious, it can get our of hand because it is unmonitored.

So, could it be called a semi inferior? I don't really know, but I want to get some other opinions.

Thoughts?

 

[reckful]

In Jung's theory, he didn't much touch on the auxiliary and third, but he did say that they act as backup for the dominant. He drew a +, put the dom at the top, and the auxiliary and third on the sides to show that the dom rules, and the other are on a different axis that aids the first.

Actually, it's incorrect to say that Jung viewed the tertiary — in its typical manifestation — as "aiding" (or being a "backup" to) the dominant.

Jung called the dominant and auxiliary the "conscious functions" and the tertiary and inferior the "unconscious functions," and he said that the typical role for the tertiary was to act as the "auxiliary" to the inferior function.

This is from Chapter 10 of Psychological Types:

Closer investigation shows with great regularity that, besides the most differentiated function, another, less differentiated function of secondary importance is invariably present in consciousness and exerts a co-determining influence.
...
For all the types met with in practice, the rule holds good that besides the conscious, primary function there is a relatively unconscious, auxiliary function which is in every respect different from the nature of the primary function. The resulting combinations present the familiar picture of, for instance, practical thinking allied with sensation, speculative thinking forging ahead with intuition, artistic intuition selecting and presenting its images with the help of feeling-values, philosophical intuition systematizing its vision into comprehensible thought by means of a powerful intellect, and so on.

The unconscious functions likewise group themselves in patterns correlated with the conscious ones. Thus, the correlative of conscious, practical thinking may be an unconscious, intuitive-feeling attitude, with feeling under a stronger inhibition than intuition.

Thirty years later, in Individual Dream Symbolism in Relation to Alchemy (1952), Jung's model hadn't changed. As he explained:

If we think of the psychological function [sic] as arranged in a circle, then the most differentiated function is usually the carrier of the ego and, equally regularly, has an auxiliary function attached to it. The "inferior" function, on the other hand, is unconscious and for that reason is projected into a non-ego. It too has an auxiliary function. ...

In the psychology of the functions there are two conscious and therefore masculine functions, the differentiated function and its auxiliary, which are represented in dreams by, say, father and son, whereas the unconscious functions appear as mother and daughter. Since the conflict between the two auxiliary functions is not nearly as great as that between the differentiated and the inferior function, it is possible for the third function — that is, the unconscious auxiliary one — to be raised to consciousness and thus made masculine. It will, however, bring with it traces of its contamination with the inferior function, thus acting as a kind of link with the darkness of the unconscious.

So... Jung allowed for the possibility of the tertiary function being "raised to consciousness" and serving the dominant, but emphatically didn't view that as the typical case.

 

[Sir Eus Lee]

Ah. Thanks for correcting me. I guess that pretty much sums it up.