The Intuitive Function and Religious Orientation*

In recent years there has been a great deal of interest in the use of Jung's theory of psychological types by those concerned to assist individuals in developing spiritual practices that are suited to their personal needs. By the same token, at the heart of the practice of analytical psychology there is an appreciation of the healing role that the development of a religious attitude may play in the process of individuation. Little detailed attention, however, has been paid by analytical psychologists to the different religious forms that this religious attitude may take depending on an individual's personality type. There has been a renewed interest in Jungian typology associated with the popularity of the Myers Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI), the second most frequently used personality measure in the United States in 1989 (Myhr 1990). Eight books and several articles have been recently written by pastoral counsellors and spiritual directors on psychological type and spirituality using information derived from the MBTI (Bryant 1983; Clark 1988; Faucett and Faucett 1987; Grant, Thompson, and Clarke 1983; Harbaugh 1984, 1988; Keating 1987; Michael and Norrisey 1984; Oswald and Kroeger 1988; Ross 1986). Most of these recommend particular spiritual paths for individuals of specific type, or temperament, and particular attention has been given to forms of prayer. There has been a tendency, however, towards overspecification where a particular type of spirituality or spiritual writer is recommended for an individual of a specific psychological type. Such a cook-book orientation to spiritual discernment with assignment of individuals to pre-ordained spiritualities is more evident in some works (Keating 1987; Michael and Norrisey 1984) than others (Bryant 1983; Grant et al. 1983; Ross 1986).

The assumption of this paper is that while there is indeed much