Projection and Personality Development via the Eight-Function Model

by Carol Shumate

Jung considered personality development critical for the survival of the human race, not just for personal fulfillment, but how can personality be developed? Carol Shumate shows how John Beebe’s revolutionary eight-function/eight-archetype model of personality type can be applied to guide development for each of the sixteen Myers-Briggs types, making explicit the implications of Jung’s eight-function model. Based on reports from participants at Beebe’s workshops and using examples of historic figures like Abraham Lincoln, this is the first book to detail how the unconscious aspects of the functions tend to manifest for each type. Projection and Personality Development via the Eight-Function Model can assist readers in realizing the transformation that Jung himself experienced. It will be key reading for Jungian analysts and psychotherapists, academics and scholars of Jungian and post-Jungian studies, and practitioners of psychological type.

Genres: Psychology

260 pages, Paperback

Published February 19, 2021

Reviews

[Anita Ashland · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is now my favorite book about personality types as it clearly explained John Beebe’s 8 function model. The detailed description of Abraham Lincoln’s INTP type was very helpful.

The appendixes in the back of the book with tables showing how each function displays itself in each of the 8 function roles, and the 16 type profiles, were worth the price of the book.

Throughout the book the author emphasized what typology is really for: “Jung had to create an entire model of personality…Such a model needed to show what these individuals had in common, as well as which aspects of their personalities differed. In other words, Jung had to create a personality-agnostic system, one in which no personality type was better or worse than any other. The result of his effort, Psychological Types, succeeded to the extent that it has been called "the world's greatest treatise on tolerance" by Jungian analyst Rafael López-Pedraza.”

[Alex Arcos · Rating 5 out of 5]

Possibly the best book about the topic. It is particularly useful for INTPs because it contains a thorough personality analysis of Abraham Lincoln, but any type can enjoy it. I have never seen a so clear exposition of John Beebe's 8-function model (not even by the author himself). It is full of tables and bullet points that show in an orderly manner how each function operates in each position. If I had read it 10 months ago, I would have saved so much time trying to understand the model by submerging myself in the inscrutable writings of some Ni-doms.

[Jeff · Rating 4 out of 5]

First, two caveats:

1. It is a shame, as another reviewer noted, that Routledge allowed the book's title to be what it is because it won't attract many readers.

2. Routledge cuts corners and makes this book difficult to read because of the font size of the text: it is probably 7 point for the text and 6 point for the citations. I have 20/20 corrected vision but I had to scan the book so that I could enlarge the text enough to make sure that I didn't have to quit due to eye-strain after reading 5 pages. It's that bad.

O.K. That's out of the way! On to the book. I've been exploring depth psychology for a year or more now and have run into a brick wall with Jung's psychological type model. I just couldn't grasp what he was writing about. In my exploration of the subject, I encountered John Beebe's work, which just added to the confusion. Now, with Carol Shumate's book, it is starting to make sense. However, Shumate is not the clearest writer and it has taken me a long time to plod through the book, taking copious notes as I go. She brings up a lot of important points in her exploration of Beebe's model but it isn't easy to understand what she wrote.

There might be a better book out there that provides a clearer explanation of Beebe's model, which is really quite good, but I don't know of it. I'll continue to plod through Shumate's book in the hopes that I will suddenly experience satori.

I do think that for anyone serious about doing Jungian work, this is a must-have book. I would suggest putting the subjects of archetypes, shadow work and dream work to one side and read this book first. Read it three times so that you have a good grasp on the fundamentals. Then tackle archetypes, shadow work and dreams. Ego development comes first, then we need to look at archetypes, shadow work and dreams.

Part II of the book, the tables, is a resource that will be visited many times. I'm quite sure it will take repeated visits to grasp the significance of Beebe's work but once grasped, a whole lot of events in our lives, both inside and outside our selves, suddenly become much easier to understand.

[Hunted Snark · Rating 4 out of 5]

Essential reading for type nerds

This is the best, clearest and most practical book I've so far read that deals with the eight factor model.

Don't be fooled by the title that makes it sound as though it's going to obscurantism on a stick.
(Why? Carol? Why? Why did Routledge let you call it this? You're doomed to obscurity unless you have good title! I only found it because I was watching some BAPT* videos on youtube! I mean, perhaps it's enough that the type nerds will find it eventually, but clear good quality material is desperately needed in the radioactive swamp that is 'type' online ... but I digress ...)

My point is that it's not obscurantist.** Even if you don't want to read the chapters, it's worth it for the hundred pages of wonderfully useful tables and comparisons in part 2.

The chapter on science and type is particularly good, considering how much flack gets thrown at typology by people who don't understand what it's for, and/or people who believe that statistics provide the only valid insights into the human psyche.

And, as others here have already pointed out, it's a wonderful treat for INTPs to have Shumate use an INTP as a case study for her argument and method. She's an ENFP and has said (again, during a BAPT session) that Ti is the function that she understands the least. Well, she's done sterling work putting it down. Ti is rarely described well – or at least to the Ti-dom's satisfaction (cough) – but this is one of the best pictures I've seen.

Highly recommended.


*British Association for Psychological Type

**unlike, I'm sorry to say, a fair bit of the material on this topic. Another reviewer has pointed out that most of these are by Ni-Doms (Beebe and Hunziker are the ones I've tried on this subject). And I concur. High Ni just has this way of … I mean … you can absolutely tell they’re aiming for utter precision and yet … and yet …