Professional Materials Reviewed by Jack Falt,
INFJ
The material begins with some ideas on how to present the basic information on preferences and exercises to help people begin to see differences based on the personality type.
The section on Communication includes basic information on communication theory and then uses the subscales of Step II of the MBTI® instrument to deepen the understanding of the complexity of communication, and how our awareness of these subscales can enhance our chances of communicating effectively. People are encouraged to respond to some situations and then the results are interpreted in terms of the subscales. There is also a more personal example of how the skill might be used and a list of suggestions as to how each preference might improve communication with its opposite. Since each of the dimensions of behaviour has five subscales, that gives 20 subscales to consider. It also makes people aware that just because they have identified a preference in another individual, it does not mean the individual will always react in a consistent way. For example, an Extravert may have a stronger preference for the subscale of Intimate and not really be comfortable with the Gregarious aspect of Extraversion.
In the Stress and Type section, the “writing with the non dominant hand” exercise is used to demonstrate stress. Stress theory is discussed and stress as it relates to the eight preferences is described. The author uses temperaments to look at what happens when stress overload occurs. This tends to activate the games temperaments play as written about by Eve Delunas. Then the author uses Naomi Quenk’s in the grip material by looking at the inferior function and how it appears when each type is under stress. The information is presented in the four function groups and then subdivided into the sixteen types. For each type there is information on the characteristics of each type, what they find difficult and what are their stressors. A chart of positive and negative coping strategies is given for each type as well.
The topic of Loss, Grief and Change is a very personal one for the author. Due to government cutbacks she had to help staff cope with job loss and transition to unemployment or new jobs. Then she moved on herself. One of the silver linings was her writing this material. For this section the author uses the work of Gary Harborough in his book Recovering from Loss. After people go through denial, anger, bargaining and depression, they finally come to acceptance. Harborough discovered that acceptance has five steps, the first four linked to one of the four mental functions. The order in which people tend to go through these steps depends on their own type dynamics hierarchy. For example, a dominant Sensor will focus on the physical aspects of the new reality. This in turn will depend on whether the person is an introverted Sensor or and extraverted Sensor. Then he or she will move on to their auxiliary, tertiary and inferior functions. The final aspects of this topic looks at the personal development of the individual as it relates to the stages he or she goes through.
The final section looks at Type Development and how it helps us to see the long range changes that people go through related to their personality type. The concept of the shadow is introduced. Also, Beebe’s theory of how all eight functions relate to each type is discussed. Unfortunately, this topic is just touched on as Beebe has not written extensively how this plays out in everyday life. Hopefully, this will tease some researchers to look at this important area of Jung/Myers theory.
The slides are in PowerPoint® format and can be integrated into a slide show. There is no cross referencing to the slides with the appropriate section in the book. I printed out small handout copies of the slides so that I knew what was available. The slides on the Step II subscales are particularly helpful.
Overall, Lynda Trommelon has provided the materials for several workshops. Even if you don’t use the book for workshops it is a great reference and shows how you can use advanced Jung/Myers theory in new and creative ways.