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Steve Myers' 2019 book Myers-Briggs Typology vs Jungian Individuation: Overcoming One-Sidedness in Self and Society is one of two recent books on the subject of Jung's theory of types that has wafted me with a breath of fresh air! The second book is Energies and Patterns in Psychological Type (2017) by John Beebe.
We owe a debt of gratitude to Steve Myers for having written a masterpiece of Jungian scholarship such as this. Only now, after the centennial of Jung's publication of the Swiss edition of Psychological Types , is our field moving rapidly towards a better understanding of Jung's hypothesis, implied in the subtitle of the English translation of Psychological Types, that paying attention to our relation to the different types of consciousness will help us to individuate.
Jungian analysts and users of the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI®) will want to mine the nuggets of wisdom that are scattered throughout the book's pages. Writes Myers: ‘From the perspective of users of Myers-Briggs theory, Jungian individuation has largely receded into the background. The challenge that faces us is how to bring it back into the foreground, for the benefit of individuals and society as a whole’ (p. 11). I would add to this that the challenge facing us today in academia and analytic practice is how to do this in such a way that makes Jung's writings on types clear to the lay public; this is something Myers does exceptionally well. He gives Jung's types a chance to appeal to a popular audience, who are searching for pragmatic answers to the problem of motivation. I wish I had had this book on the reading list when I taught my courses at the Career Development Program at John F. Kennedy University in Orinda, California, between 1989-1994.
Here is the main problem Myers succinctly outlines for us: ‘At the centre of Jung's theory is the transcendent function, which is omitted from Myers-Briggs typology’ (p. 31). Myers knows that life is beset with countless difficulties that make