No One Is “Obviously” a Type

By Sigurd Arild and Ryan Smith “…it is often very difficult to find out whether a person belongs to one type or the other…” – Jung: Psychological Types §3 A popular means of assertion to back up one’s own type assessments in an argument is to state that someone is “obviously” a certain type instead of producing[…] Continue Reading

INTJs, Ni, and Se, Part 2

“Gradually it has become clear to me what every great philosophy so far has been … the confession of its author and a kind of involuntary and unconscious memoir…” – Nietzsche: Beyond Good and Evil §6 By Jesse Gerroir The inferior function remains, even when integrated, largely unconscious. We never become fully aware of its[…] Continue Reading

Nagarjuna’s Dialectics of Emptiness

“Appellation ceases with the absence of the objects of thought: The absolute as the essence of all things is not born, nor does it cease to be.” – Nagarjuna: Fundamental Verses on the Middle Way, XVIII.7 By Ryan Smith The Buddhist philosopher Nagarjuna (ca. 150-250 CE) is commonly held to be the most important philosopher in[…] Continue Reading

How Jung Saw E/I, Part 1

Michael Pierce is a contributing guest writer for CelebrityTypes. In this article, Pierce reaches back to Jung to explain the Jungian conception of extroversion and introversion. As with other guest writers on the site (such as Jesse Gerroir) we do not necessarily agree with Pierce on every point, but the general tenor of Pierce’s exposition[…] Continue Reading

17 Reasons That Joseph Stromberg’s Critique of the MBTI Is Uninformed

By Sigurd Arild, Ryan Smith, and Eva Gregersen Regular readers know the drill by now: We have no affiliation with the MBTI; we just don’t like seeing lazy and uninformed critiques misguiding the public. The latest example of such a critique is the journalist Joseph Stromberg’s article: Why the Myers-Briggs test is totally meaningless, as featured in[…] Continue Reading

Discussion of Nassim Nicholas Taleb’s Type

By Guilherme Varela and Ryan Smith Disclaimer: This article relies on a methodology that we usually caution our readers against, namely confounding mental processes (functions) with mental contents (specific positions and beliefs). Therefore, if someone were to protest the method employed here, we would immediately have to grant them the point. Nevertheless, in the absence[…] Continue Reading

Freud & Empedocles, Part 2

In Part 1 of this essay, we looked into some of the philosophical reasons why Freud might have found himself attracted to Empedocles. Here in Part 2, we will focus on the psychological reasons instead. 3: Personal Attraction Freud felt a sense of personal admiration for Empedocles. In my opinion, Freud’s admiration for Empedocles was not just a[…] Continue Reading

8 Things That Are Wrong with Online Typology

List written by David Austin, edited and used with permission. Commentary by Ryan Smith. The scores and scores of fake Ni types. (“I sometimes know things. Therefore INTJ.”) Armchair “experts” who peddle wild home-grown definitions about their type and functions while having no real knowledge. (“Ni is very objective.”) The extreme pushback from aforementioned “experts” when[…] Continue Reading

An Aristotelian View of Personality Types

By Ryan Smith I once knew an INTJ. He was amongst the five best people I’ve ever known when it comes to determining other people’s types. For the most part, we were in complete agreement as to people’s types, but once in a while, in complex or atypical cases, we disagreed on how to operationalize or[…] Continue Reading

Drake Baer’s Lazy Critique of the MBTI

By Ryan Smith and Eva Gregersen Business Insider seems to be developing a penchant for publishing poorly researched articles about the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI). Last September it was Professor Adam Grant’s critique of the MBTI which quoted unfaithfully from one of the scientific studies that it used as the basis of its argument. Now it is reporter Drake Baer who[…] Continue Reading