Introduction: Typology at a Crossroad

Abstract

The Myers–Briggs type indicator (MBTI), a famous questionnaire for measuring the variables of psychiatrist C. G. Jung’s well-established personality theory, has been a cornerstone, at times controversial, of what has come to be known as “typology”, a paradigm for studying and understanding human personality. Numbering in the hundreds of millions, its users may be shocked to learn that in 2009 existing methods for interpreting MBTI results in Jungian terms were challenged on both logical and statistical grounds. The validity of the MBTI itself was not questioned; it was rather the traditional “type dynamics” (TD) method for mapping the MBTI on to Jung’s theory that was criticized. As this is written, passionate controversy over the matter threatens the unity of the community of not only the certified MBTI administrators and consultants, but also the millions employing it for career guidance, corporate job assignment, and psychological counseling.

I took the (road) less travelled by,

And that has made all the difference.

--Robert Frost (1920)