Gyroscopic Investing

The work is inscribed by Jung with the title Liber Novus (The New Book). The folio size manuscript, 11.57 inches (29.4 cm) by 15.35 inches (39.0 cm), was bound in red leather, and was commonly referred to as the "Red Book" by Jung. Inside are 205 pages of text and illustrations, all from his hand: 53 are full images, 71 contain both text and artwork and 81 are pure calligraphic text.  He began work on it in 1913, first in small black journals, during a difficult period of "creative illness", or confrontation with the unconscious, and it is said to contain some of his most personal material.  During the sixteen years he worked on the book, Jung developed his theories of archetypes, collective unconscious, and individuation.

The Red Book was a product of a technique developed by Jung which he termed active imagination. As Jung described it, he was visited by two figures, an old man and a young woman, who identified themselves as Elijah and Salome. They were accompanied by a large black snake. In time, the Elijah figure developed into a guiding spirit that Jung called Philemon. Salome was identified by Jung as an anima figure. The figures, according to Jung, "brought home to me the crucial insight that there are things in the psyche which I do not produce, but which produce themselves and have their own life."

The Philemon figure represented superior insight and communicated through mythic imagery. The images did not appear to come from Jung's own experience and Jung interpreted them as products of the collective unconscious.

Lone Wolf wrote: I came out evenly split between INTJ and ISTJ.  The "ITJ" component was very strong and the N/S was exactly down the middle.

KevinW wrote: INTJ, although I usually like to consider many alternatives in parallel and delay committing to any one, which is more of an INTP approach to decision-making.

MediumTex wrote: I don't know my type, but every time someone mentions Carl Jung I think about his "Red Book" that was published a couple of years ago for the first time.

[...]

Sorry to digress, but I thought some of you might enjoy this stuff.

Tortoise wrote:

MediumTex wrote: I don't know my type, but every time someone mentions Carl Jung I think about his "Red Book" that was published a couple of years ago for the first time.

[...]

Sorry to digress, but I thought some of you might enjoy this stuff.

Very interesting stuff! I've always been fascinated by Carl Jung.

If I had to guess, MT, I'd peg you as evenly split between INTJ and INFJ.

Gosso wrote: Really should we not be striving to balance all these personality types?

MediumTex wrote:

Gosso wrote: Really should we not be striving to balance all these personality types?

I would be inclined to rebalance them if one hit either 15% or 35% of the total. 

HB Reader wrote: ISTJ

It has been a few years since I've given much thought to this kind of stuff, but the personalty types described by Eli Jaxon-Bear in "The Enneagram of Liberation -- Freedom from Fixation" always seemed remarkably accurate to me.  

MediumTex wrote:

Tortoise wrote:

MediumTex wrote: I don't know my type, but every time someone mentions Carl Jung I think about his "Red Book" that was published a couple of years ago for the first time.

[...]

Sorry to digress, but I thought some of you might enjoy this stuff.

Very interesting stuff! I've always been fascinated by Carl Jung.

If I had to guess, MT, I'd peg you as evenly split between INTJ and INFJ.

I'm a Scorpio...and left-handed.  I wonder how that fits into the Meyers-Brigg methodology.

I wish there was a machine in the grocery store like those blood pressure monitors that could spit out your Meyers-Brigg type.  That would be cool, as long as it made everyone sound special and unique in some way.

What a bummer it would be to put your arm in the cuff of the personality type reader and have the machine spit out the message "unremarkable in every way."   :(

lazyboy wrote:

HB Reader wrote: ISTJ

It has been a few years since I've given much thought to this kind of stuff, but the personalty types described by Eli Jaxon-Bear in "The Enneagram of Liberation -- Freedom from Fixation" always seemed remarkably accurate to me.  

I'm interested in the Enneagram types myself and have read some books on the subject, taken a few classes and discussed it a lot with friends. The main problem is in "standardized" testing and not making into a parlor game. Like any system, it has limitation but can be very useful. The best test I found was here: http://www.enneagraminstitute.com/tests_battery.asp. I recommend the long test. Riso and Hudson have also written several books and have explored levels of integration/disintegration within each type which is quite in depth and can be a bit scary, especially when looking at personality disintegration. I also recommend reading:
The Spiritual Dimension of the Enneagram: Nine Faces of the Soul by Sandra Maitri for a really deep look at the subject. Oh, I test and observe myself to be a type 9. That's where my tag, Lazyboy, comes from.

Gosso wrote: Really should we not be striving to balance all these personality types?

HB Reader wrote:

lazyboy wrote:

HB Reader wrote: ISTJ

It has been a few years since I've given much thought to this kind of stuff, but the personalty types described by Eli Jaxon-Bear in "The Enneagram of Liberation -- Freedom from Fixation" always seemed remarkably accurate to me. 

I'm interested in the Enneagram types myself and have read some books on the subject, taken a few classes and discussed it a lot with friends. The main problem is in "standardized" testing and not making into a parlor game. Like any system, it has limitation but can be very useful. The best test I found was here: http://www.enneagraminstitute.com/tests_battery.asp. I recommend the long test. Riso and Hudson have also written several books and have explored levels of integration/disintegration within each type which is quite in depth and can be a bit scary, especially when looking at personality disintegration. I also recommend reading:
The Spiritual Dimension of the Enneagram: Nine Faces of the Soul by Sandra Maitri for a really deep look at the subject. Oh, I test and observe myself to be a type 9. That's where my tag, Lazyboy, comes from.

Yeah, I'm a type 9 too.

It certainly isn't perfect, but I think the Enneagram types can often be useful in understanding why some people typically react to events in certain ways.     

Tortoise wrote:

Gosso wrote: Really should we not be striving to balance all these personality types?

Not necessarily. There are two schools of thought: One says it's best to identify our weaknesses and work on them to bring our strengths and weaknesses more into balance (what you are suggesting). The other says it's best to identify our strengths and then place ourselves in environments that play to our strengths so that we can be most effective and successful.

In my opinion, those two schools of thought kind of mirror the perennial "Nature vs. Nurture" debate. The "improve your weaknesses" school is like the "Nurture" argument, positing that with the appropriate level of nurturing, anyone can be good at just about anything they put their mind to. The "focus on your strengths" school is like the "Nature" argument, asserting that Mother Nature (or God) made each of us the way we are--likely for good reason--and that refusing to accept and embrace your innate strengths and weaknesses is likely to be counterproductive, akin to banging your head against a wall.