A systems approach to studies of creativity and consciousness

Carl Gustav Jung envisioned the human personality as a system with vertical and horizontal dimensions. The former had to do with depth, while the latter can be understood as a coordinate system with four quadrants, or functions, each representing both a psychological process and a personality type in which it is dominant. These functions are termed sensation, thinking, feeling and intuition. Several investigators have found that pairs of these functions are useful to describe four typical types of social scientists. These are termed the sensing-thinking or Analytical Scientist, the intuition-thinking or Conceptual Theorist, the intuition-feeling or Conceptual Humanist, and the sensing-feeling or the Particular Humanist. Each is described using examples of scientists from the fields of creativity and consciousness studies, and suggestions are offered for the implementation of this model. [C] 1998 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. Keywords Jung; personality; typology; systems; creativity; scientists
INTRODUCTION A system tan be characterized as a pattern of elements in mutual interaction, where the boundaries that delimit it are dependent on the activity under consideration. There are many [...]