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Here I am in 2021, a full century after C.G. Jung's book on psychological types was first published, in German, as Psychologische Typen (1921). I am watching a sensationalized docudrama that in part aims a sinister narrative at the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator or MBTI®, the ubiquitous personality assessment and theory inspired by that very book. The slick introductory montage of video and graphics includes images of C.G. Jung with a text quote attributed to him, ‘The world will ask you who you are, and if you don't know, the world will tell you’. Investigation suggests this is an internet meme that badly paraphrases an excerpt from Memories, Dreams, Reflections (Jung 1961, p. 318). This opener does not bode well for the level of research behind the production of the film.
Amongst a swirl of cyber graphics and MBTI® nomenclature, an actor is interrogated with personality related questions by a talking computer with an intrusive webcam. This initial image seems to insinuate that the MBTI® is part of a data surveillance conspiracy, one of the points that the Myers-Briggs Company refute in their response to the film (Viviano 2021). Later we find that this scene refers to personality research on patterns in words, voice and facial actions, by a company called HireVue, completely unrelated to the MBTI®.
Following scenes show young typology enthusiasts from YouTube, and a free online copycat Type assessment. This highlights some important cultural phenomena; firstly, that this proprietary system of personality assessment, which is restricted to trained users, has in effect become public domain. Later in the film Richard Thompson from the Myers-Briggs Company laments that the Type preference names and letters were never copyrighted, ‘a terrible