Main Propositions

Here are the main propositions from Personality Type: An Owner's Manual:

1	Within each person, and even within a society, there is an inherently unresolvable tug-of-war between Extraverted and Introverted attitudes: the clash between them creates a healthy ability to adapt and live, bringing out more and more of a person's potential.

2	Extraverted attitudes lead you to do what's recognized in the social world; introverted attitudes lead you to go beyond what's socially recognized.

Extraverted judgement is capable of binding a society, enabling people to know their obligations and where they stand; but its rules are harsh and somewhat crude. Introverted judgement creates a moral sense that goes beyond publicly recognized rules, leading to greater humanity, mercy, intelligence, consideration of all the factors in a situation; but introverted judgement is too subtle and idiosyncratic to serve as the basis for social order.

When the life people have created by making sense of things via their Dominant Function has pushed them too far out of balance in an Extraverted or Introverted way, the opposite or Inferior Function floods them with motives and dissatisfactions that have no place in their accustomed sense of self. At times like this, people feel stuck, like everything is against them and there is nothing they can do--at least nothing honorable.

The callings of the Inferior Function cannot be satisfied directly. They're too far opposed to a person's current investments, and virtually unknowable from their present perspective. Trying to steer through life by your Inferior Function really does lead to a sacrifice of self: dishonorable, out-of-control, even infantile behavior.

When you get stuck in life that way, usually solutions come very quickly if you turn to your Secondary Function. However, your Secondary Function calls upon you to broaden and extend your very sense of who you are and what is important. It leads you into genuinely unknown regions of your potential as a human being--unknown but accessible.

7	When those times come, we experience a Tertiary Temptation: to understand our situation in terms of our Tertiary Function, supporting our present sense of self and explaining our problems in our customarily Extraverted or Introverted terms.

You might find these propositions difficult to understand because the terms are unfamiliar and their meanings are unclear. You are not alone! Those are Our Difficulties, the ones that this wiki exists to address.