What are Jungian Cognitive Functions and How Do They Work? | CS Joseph

Summary

C.S. Joseph presents Jungian cognitive functions as the underlying framework of personality type. He argues that type should be understood not as a box, but as a person’s characteristic way of approaching life and relationships.

The basic model

• The mind uses eight cognitive functions, which Joseph groups into two broad tasks:
  • Perceiving functions gather information.
  • Judging functions evaluate information and support decisions.
• He describes the functions as different “frequencies” or channels through which the mind takes in and responds to the world. His references to different “frames per second” are an analogy for differing levels of awareness, not a measurement he defines.
• In his model, each person’s functions are arranged hierarchically:
  • Four make up the ego.
  • The other four make up the unconscious, which he also calls the shadow.
• Each position has a characteristic role:
  1. Hero — the person’s strongest, most natural function.
  2. Parent — supports or guides the Hero and is comparatively critical.
  3. Child — a more vulnerable, childlike part of the person.
  4. Inferior — associated with insecurity.
  5. Nemesis — associated with worry.
  6. Critic — associated with self-criticism or criticism of others.
  7. Trickster — an area of limited awareness.
  8. Demon — the final and most problematic position in his terminology.
• Joseph emphasizes that no type is superior or able to do everything. He sees relationships as a way for people to complement one another’s strengths and limitations.

How to work out the function order

Joseph says that identifying a type’s first two functions is enough to infer the rest, because the functions follow a consistent pattern. His procedure is:

1. Determine whether the type is a perceiver or a judger.
   • For a perceiver, a perceiving function occupies the Hero position.
   • For a judger, a judging function occupies the Hero position.
2. Use the type’s letters to identify which functions are involved.
   • For example, he identifies an ENTP’s Hero as extraverted intuition and its Parent as introverted thinking.
3. Apply the function opposites to fill out the ego.
   • The Hero is paired with its opposite in the Inferior position.
   • The Parent is paired with its opposite in the Child position.
4. Reverse the attitudes of the ego functions to derive the shadow functions.
   • Joseph illustrates this with an ESFJ: he gives it an ego of extraverted feeling, introverted sensing, extraverted intuition, and introverted thinking, then describes its shadow as the corresponding functions with their attitudes reversed.

What function positions are said to reveal

Once someone’s type and function order are identified, Joseph says the pattern can indicate where that person is relatively aware, capable, or vulnerable. For example:

• The Hero is the person’s default strength.
• The Inferior is an area of insecurity.
• The Nemesis is linked to worry.
• The Critic can shape persistent self-criticism or critical judgments.
• The Trickster is a function the person is relatively unaware of.

Joseph also briefly contrasts extraverted feeling, which he associates with awareness of and responsiveness to other people’s feelings, with introverted feeling, which he describes as more inwardly focused. He says he plans to define individual functions in more detail in later videos.

Practical takeaway

Joseph’s proposed application is to identify both your own and other people’s functions, then use that understanding to recognize differences in strengths and sensitivities and to adapt how you communicate and relate to them.

Speakers and sources featured

• C.S. Joseph — the sole speaker and source of the explanations and examples in the subtitles.