The Therapist's Inferior Function

As Therapists, we have to be familiar with our own limitations and with the areas of our personalities that might be weak, damaged, or undeveloped. I think that the inferior function qualifies as one of these areas, a place where we are less developed, perhaps touchy, and probably less competent than in other areas of our functioning. This was brought home to me recently by a minor incident in my practice, and it led me to do some thinking about the ways the inferior function can alter professional competence.

What I plan to do in this paper is to sketch out some of the major and minor ways the therapist's inferior function can cause disruptions in handling a clinical practice. I will also review studies of therapists' dreams, with an eye for how dreams may play a compensatory role during times of such disruptions. After laying this groundwork, I will return to the episode in my own practice and tell you that story, as it exemplifies this problem and the role of the objective psyche in restoring the therapist's equilibrium after a disruption or eruption of the inferior function.

But before proceeding, I believe a confession is in order. If typology is to be the topic, then you have a right to know at the outset my own bias: intuition is my primary function, and although I learned to use it extravertedly, its natural inclination is introverted. Because of my family's dislike of intuition (although it was also a natural function for each of my parents), I initially developed my second and third functions, extraverted thinking and introverted feeling. Sensation is definitely the inferior function and seems to be inferior in both directions.

I would like to say a word about determining one's own type. This can be a complicated process, for our typology is enormously affected if not obscured or skewed by family dynamics and personal complexes. Apparently neither self-typing nor any one of the type tests alone can be considered wholly reliable and valid. Each of the tests av