Socionics Demystified: A New Social Psychology for Understanding Relationships
Socionics Demystified: A New Social Psychology for Understanding Relationships is a new book on Socionics published in June, 2007 by Spencer Stern.
Introduction to book
(Provided by author)
Socionics, a comparatively new social psychology from the 1970’s returns to the roots of Carl Jung’s theory on psychological types, Sigmund Freud’s work on the conscious and subconscious and incorporates Antoni Kepinski’s information metabolism theory.
Socionics Demystified aims to introduce us to the sixteen inter-type relations after firstly describing the structural differences within the Socion.
Each of the sixteen types is broken down into individual contexts within a theoretical and real-world discussion of their rudimentary Jungian functions or attitudes.
Jung defined several introspective and extrospective functions (or attitudes) within the psyche.
What exactly did he mean by introverted/extroverted thinking, introverted/extroverted feeling, introverted/extroverted sensing, introverted/extroverted intuition?
By investigating how each make up components of the sixteen psychological types we can see at a glance how types vary and provides the basis behind the rationalisation of inter-type relations.
Why do some people arouse us? Why do others irritate us? What ways can specific types of relationship be useful to us, or not? How can I do something about it through understanding how one is different and/or similar to me?
A closer look at the conscious and subconscious mind with an idea behind how information is being metabolised i.e. transmitted and received between individuals will attempt to answer the above questions.
Book contents
(Provided by author)
Introduction
The book begins with a brief overview of Socionics and its potential applications. The message is clearly presented – this is not simply another book with personality profiling – it is a book about the relations between personality types.
We then proceed with a methodical look at the psyche illustrated with the standard Model A which links together Freud’s theory of the conscious and subconscious.
Jung’s eight functions or attitudes are defined which will fit inside the model at specific positions.
Lastly, Kepinski’s work on information metabolism is elaborated upon giving us an idea of how the Jungian functions or attitudes will affect each other in the grand scheme of things in the Socion (the sixteen types).
The following chapters are organised by Quadra, which is a structural unit of the Socion.
The Quadra gives a feeling of cosiness, comfort, security, confidence and understanding. It gives one the feeling of psychotherapeutic and physical comfort, full understanding and emotional satisfaction.
PART ONE: The Socion
Chapter 1: The Alpha Quadra
In this first chapter we take a look at the Alpha Quadra members: the perceptive analyst, the caring enthusiast, the harmonious mediator, the exploring searcher.
The general theme of the members in this chapter is reflecting and delighting in.
For each member, as in all chapters are split into their eight component functions or attitudes that are individually discussed within the context of how it likely affects a person’s character that can identify with a personality type.
Chapter 2: The Beta Quadra
In the second chapter we take a look at the Beta Quadra members: the serious inspector, the diligent actor, the peaceful romantic, the intrepid marshal.
The general theme of the members in this chapter is suffering and conquering.
By now the reader should have an idea of several functions as discussed previously.
What changes now is that we begin to see how key functional differences create variations in manifested characters as new personality types become apparent.
Chapter 3: The Gamma Quadra
In the third chapter we take a look at the Gamma Quadra members: the supportive guardian, the enterprising pioneer, the laidback critic, the tactful ambassador.
The general theme of the members in this chapter is collaboration and acquisition.
As get through over half way discussing the different personality types, the reader should begin to piece together how say one person’s strong ethics or weak logic in respect to functional ordering is creating different attitudes towards each other’s characters.
The idea is, the more the reader reads, the more they understand the Socion. It wasn’t meant to be dived into at random although that will certainly be the case after a first read or two for reference sake.
Chapter 4: The Delta Quadra
In the fourth chapter we take a look at the Delta Quadra members: the insightful humanist, the decisive director, the mysterious craftsman, the vigilant psychologist.
The general theme of the members in this chapter is help and protection.
Now that we’ve discussed all the personality types with a detailed analysis of the 128 possible positions in total for all functions we have a complete picture to summarise the relations between the types, coming up next.
PART TWO: Intertype Relations
Chapter 5: Inner-Quadra Relations
In the fifth chapter I present a concise analysis of the four relations that exist between types within a Quadra, that is, relations of identity, mirror, activity and duality.
Chapter 6: Outer-Quadra Relations
In the sixth chapter I present a concise analysis of the eight relations that exist between types outside of a Quadra, that is, relations of partial-duality, extinguishment, super-ego, business, mirage, quasi-identity and conflicting.
Chapter 7: Asymmetrical Relations
In the seventh chapter I present a concise analysis of the two asymmetrical relations that exist. These include the relations of supervision and benefit.
From reading the last three chapters, the reader should have a good understanding of the different inter-type relations.
Similarly to the psychological types themselves, there is no downright good or bad relation per se although with the information presented; democratic opinions should be motivated perhaps with plenty of awe moments of realisation.
Book audience
(Provided by author)
This book on Socionics would probably appeal to the following groups:
- Psychology students/teachers
- Psychiatric professionals
- Teenagers and young adults
- Relationship counsellors
Socionics Demystified serves as an introductory guide to the subject of intertype relations and also as a reference book for future lookup.
The level would be beginner-intermediate and is generally accessible to anyone with an interest in Social Psychology or Sociology.
The readership therefore is those with a new or previous interest in personality typing who would like a better understanding of how types relate.
It would also be aimed at those who’ve previously looked at the MBTI or have read personality profiles that don’t really provide a complete understanding of underlying Jungian psychology i.e. how the various functions or attitudes described by Jung come together.
About the author
Spencer Stern is an individual from England who has studied socionics. You can reach him through Facebook or by e-mail.
Book availability and pricing
It is available in print and download form directly from lulu.com (the publisher) and also from many on-line retailers (print only). You can run a book price comparison at BookButler.com.
Retail pricing starts at £14.95 (plus delivery) while the e-book download (from lulu.com only) costs £7.50.