LEVELS OF PSYCHOLOGICAL HARMONY IN JUNGIAN TYPOLOGY

Depending on the level of inner harmony, a person can perceive the external world differently:
The world is beautiful;
The world is good;
The world is ordinary;
The world is hostile; 
The world is scary.

At a high level of harmony, a person perceives the world as good or beautiful, he is optimistic, inclined to mutually beneficial cooperation, he has developed empathy, accepts himself and others, has a high level of energy and recovers quickly from stress.

With internal disharmony, a person spends his energy on inner conflicts. He is constantly tense, takes a defensive position, is not ready to cooperate and does not trust others. 

In general, only people of the same level or neighboring levels can communicate with each other normally. A person who perceives the world as hostile cannot understand a person for whom the world is beautiful. 

Different types of people have different types of inner conflicts and different reactions to stressors. Some types are prone to anger, others to self-pity, some are prone to stupor and detachment, and others to feeling guilt and shame.

Carlos Castaneda writes: “Don Juan asked me to tell him what had been the most natural reaction I had had in moments of stress, frustration and disappointment before I became an apprentice. He said that his own reaction had been wrath. I told him that mine had been self-pity.” (1)

Jungian typology describes eight psychological types of people. The type of person is determined by the main psychic function. (More on this here >>>)

Carl Jung wrote: “The conscious attitude (main psychical function) is always in the nature of a Weltanschauung, if it is not explicitly a religion. It is this that makes the type problem so important. The opposition between the types is not merely an external conflict between men, it is the source of endless inner conflicts; the cause not only of external disputes and dislikes, but of nervous ills and psychic suffering.” (2)

For each of the eight types Carl Jung identified several levels of psychological harmony and indicated, what neurosis* is inherent to this or that type, as well as described destructive behavior of a type in the lower levels.

Behavior of a person of a certain type at different levels of harmony is so different that it may seem that we are talking about different types of people. Familiarization with levels of psychological harmony-disharmony helps to understand how development or degradation occurs within each type.

Here is a brief example of how Carl Jung described the levels of psychological harmony- disharmony for Se type:

“No other human type can equal the extraverted sensation-type in realism. … His life is an accumulation of actual experience with concrete objects.
His aim is concrete enjoyment, and his morality is similarly orientated. … It by no means follows that he is just sensual or gross, for he may differentiate his sensation to the finest pitch of aesthetic purity. 
Upon the lower levels this is the man of tangible reality, with little tendency either for reflection or commanding purpose. To sense the object, to have and if possible to enjoy sensations, is his constant motive. … He has no ideals related to ideas — he has, therefore, no sort of ground for maintaining a hostile attitude towards the reality of things and facts.
But the more sensation predominates, so that the sensing subject disappears behind the sensation, the more unsatisfactory does this type become. Either he develops into a crude pleasure-seeker or he becomes an unscrupulous, designing sybarite. Although the object is entirely indispensable to him, yet, as something existing in and through itself, it is none the less depreciated. It is ruthlessly violated and essentially ignored, since now its sole use is to stimulate sensation. 
When his attitude (main psychical function) reaches an abnormal one-sidedness, he is in danger of falling just as deeply into the arms of the unconscious as he consciously clings to the object.” (3)

Knowing the levels of harmony of each of the eight types helps to predict a person’s behavior and the nature of interaction with him.

The degree of psychological harmony of a person can be divided into different number of levels.

The Enneagram typology describes 9 levels of development for each type:
* HEALTHY levels: Liberation; Psychological capacity; Social value;
* AVERAGE levels: Fixation; Interpersonal control; Overcompensation;
* UNHEALTHY levels: Violation; Obsession and compulsion; Pathological destructiveness. (Sourse www.enneagraminstitute.com)

“It is almost impossible to make generalizations about the types without taking the Levels into consideration, because as each type deteriorates down the Levels, many of its characteristics become their opposite.
While our basic type does not change, the Level at which we are operating changes all the time. We may move up and down several Levels of our type in a single day within a certain “bandwidth” or range of habitual behaviors. We may wake up in a balanced, healthy state, but have a bad argument with a colleague and fall two or three Levels. Even though our state can radically change in a short time, we are not a different personality type—we are simply manifesting different behaviors at different Levels of our type.” (4)

American philosopher and writer on transpersonal psychology Ken Wilber praised the levels of development described in the book “The Wisdom of the Enneagram”:

“By combining the horizontal types of the Enneagram with a system of vertical levels of awareness, Riso and Hudson have produced one of the first truly integrated models of the human psyche. In addition to the importance of this pioneering work itself, it goes to point up the utter inadequacy of anything less than a full-spectrum model of human growth and development.” (5)

Few people are familiar with Jung's typology and the levels of harmony of Jungian types, because the book “Psychological Types” is written in a complex language, which is difficult to understand even for specialists. In addition, at the time of writing the book, many psychological terms did not exist yet, and Carl Jung had to create and introduce new terms himself. Most people learned about Jungian typology through MBTI and socionics. However these modern typological models describe only average behavior of types, the levels of psychological harmony-disharmony of a person are not taken into account in these models. In addition, MBTI describes not 8, but 16 types.

We suggest you familiarize yourself with modern descriptions of Jungian eight types, written in simple, easy-to-understand language. These descriptions include six levels of psychological harmony of a type (from total harmony to strong disharmony, from balance to imbalance):
• PUEST MANIFESTATION OF FUNCTION - manifestation of the type integrally and without distortions due to the process of individuation.
• SOCIAL ROLE - a person's strengths resonate with the corresponding demand from society.
• NEUROTIC ROLE - a person wants to be useful to society with its strengths, and in return expects support for one’s self-esteem.
• MANIPULATION - Through manipulation, a person tries to shake out desirable behavior from people in order to support one’s self-esteem.
• AGGRESSIVE IMPOSITION - forcibly dragging others into one's destructive scenario.
• SELF-DESTRUCTIVE DISAPPOINTMENT - the loss of hope that someone will support his or her self-esteem. Disappearance of any goals and motivations.

Se --- Si --- Fe --- Fi --- Te --- Ti --- Ne --- Ni

These levels make crucial distinctions within each type, adding a “vertical” dimension to an otherwise “horizontal” system.

*       *       *       *       *

*While diagnosis “Neurosis” was removed from the "Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders" in 1980, the term is still often used informally to describe behaviors related to stress and anxiety.

1 - Carlos Castaneda: Tales of Power. Part three. The Sorcerers explanation. The strategy of a Sorcerer. 1974

2 - Psychological Types. A lecture delivered by Carl Jung, Territet, Switzerland, 1923.

3 - Carl Jung “Psychological Types”, 1921. General description of the types. The extraverted sensation type.

4 - Don Richard Riso, Russ Hudson. The Wisdom of the Enneagram, 1999. Chapter 6: Dynamics and variations. The levels of development

5 - Don Richard Riso, Russ Hudson. The Wisdom of the Enneagram, 1999.

Last updating 02.06.2024

Original text in Ukrainian here >>>