In the video above, I discuss some of the limitations of Thinking, when it is helpful, and when it is not. People often think they’re being logical when they’re clouded by emotions. Often, we say “I was thinking...” when we were feeling, and “I was feeling…” when we were thinking.
Other times, you’re sticking to your logic when your emotions are clearly telling you something important, and sometimes, you’re ignoring your feelings because of some logical fears that really aren’t that important.
Very often, we think we need to “think” more about a topic when, really, we need practical action, creative brainstorming, or time to sit down and reflect on how we feel. Why are we so lost on how to think and how or when to feel?
In this article, I want to increase your cognitive flexibility by showing you how you can overcome limiting beliefs and judgments about yourself and others. But first, some terminology:
Jung used the term “Thinking” to describe when we are engaged with rationally explaining our behavior or finding objective evidence to support our actions and decisions.
Feeling is used to explain when you use your emotions and emotional state to motivate yourself to take a certain action or make a certain decision.
Intuition was used to explain when you used your imagination to explore a topic or to understand something.
Sensing was used to explain when you used your five senses, such as visual evidence (what you could see) and auditory evidence (what you could hear). You do this to observe and gain information.
You might say, “I’m a Thinking type” or “I’m a Feeling type,” and you might think that you have nothing in common with the other. The Jungian view is that the two exist on a spectrum. Instead of thinking of them as opposites, we must learn to think of them as complementary forces, like two sides of the same coin. But how?
First of all, we must shake the idea that the idea of a “pure type” doesn’t exist.
“A pure type in the sense that it possesses only one mechanism with the complete atrophy of the other... never occurs. A typical attitude always means merely the relative predominance of one mechanism.” — C.G. Jung, Psychological Types (Collected Works, Vol. 6, paragraph 14)
So if you’ve got a result on a test that says you’ve got 100% Intuition and 0% Sensing, what is really going on?
It’s not that you actually have 100% intuition, but it can mean that:
You are unaware of how your Sensing function (specifically, your five senses) influences you daily and impacts your actions. You may express these traits on autopilot.
But most commonly, it means that the test thinks it’s 100% likely that you have an Intuitive preference.
What happens if you become overly conscious of one function and lose consciousness of another? According to Carl Jung:
“Old Heraclitus, who was indeed a very great sage, discovered the most marvelous of all psychological laws: the regulative function of opposites. He called it enantiodromia, a running contrariwise, by which he meant that sooner or later everything runs into its opposite.” — C.G. Jung, Two Essays on Analytical Psychology (Collected Works, Vol. 7, paragraph 111)
Let’s think about that for a second.
If you develop an obsessive preference for a specific function, like your Thinking, you may think that you’ve successfully been able to “repress” your Feeling side, and that you’ve somehow been able to effectively manage or rid yourself of all emotion. Wohoo! What an achievement! Or is it?
What really happens is that if you push too hard into one function, you eventually tip over to the other side.
Your Feeling side is subconsciously feeding you irrational beliefs that you inaccurately perceive as logical or intelligent. You think that you’re not, and you actively try to convince yourself that you’re being objective and impartial in your judgment, when really, to everyone else around you, it’s obvious that you’re suffering emotionally and that you’re not dealing with it well.
Similarly, if you take your Feeling side to an extreme, you will eventually swing over into Thinking. How does that show up? For example, you may logically develop a ton of rational excuses or creative explanations for why you feel a certain way. These rational excuses exist to support your emotional state. Jung:
“When the life of an individual is mainly ruled by thinking, the feeling function is pushed into the background... It does not cease to exist, but is merely pushed out of the light of consciousness... In this state it is highly susceptible to contamination by the unconscious. It then takes on archaic traits and operates in a hidden, unpredictable way.” — C.G. Jung, Psychological Types (Collected Works, Vol. 6)
Intuition, Sensing, Feeling, and Thinking exist on a spectrum.
It’s not just that Intuition can swing over to Sensing or that Sensing can swing over into Feeling, it’s also that Intuition can swing over to Feeling, and that it can also swing over to Thinking, and that everything you experience exists on a spectrum. The more your imagination is colored by your emotions, by feelings, by personal attachments and judgment, the more it moves over to Feeling.
The more you seek objective evidence or to rationalize or explain a symbol, idea, or imaginary construct, for example, to predict or explain what could happen in the future, the more it is colored by your Thinking. So your intuition can eventually tip over into thinking, and vice versa. Thinking can also tip over into Sensing; the more explanations and decisions are grounded in sensory data, observation, or practical action. And the more your Sensing is affected by your personal emotions, the more it becomes Feeling.
It’s not that Thinking, Sensing, Feeling or Intuition are objective, scientific concepts, it’s that they are tools that explain what is happening in your mind, and because things that happen in your mind can be emotional to different degrees, they can be in part rationalizations, in part ideas, in part sensory stimulation, in part logical analysis or deduction.
These terms are only interesting to the degree that they can accurately describe what is happening inside of you and what you are experiencing. They are not neat because 50% of your experiences occur at the boundary between two or more of these processes. You can observe an event that provokes a strong, intense emotion inside of you, and you can observe another event where you can apply cool, rational logic, and where you experience no emotion. Understanding what triggers these reactions and why is key. But what is the goal of this? To Jung:
“The transcendent function does not proceed without aim and purpose... The meaning and purpose of the process is the realization, in all its aspects, of the personality originally hidden away in the embryonic germ-plasm; the production and unfolding of the original, potential wholeness.” — C.G. Jung, Two Essays on Analytical Psychology (Collected Works, Vol. 7)
You have the capacity for great cognitive flexibility and freedom of movement and thought. You do not have to enslave your mind to the single, misguided aim of one process, and you do not have to hold on to the belief that one function is superior to all others. You don’t have to make decisions based on just one preference simply because it’s your present-day preference.
You are allowed to let your preferences evolve and become rounded, whole, and complete. When you see information not just in its sensory shape and texture, but also in its intuitive potential, its emotional pull, and your rational analysis, you have a more detailed, vivid, broad perception. That’s what it means to come closer to the truth.
