The Magic Diamond Jung’s 8 Paths for Self-Coaching A How-To Guide to Prime the “Alchemy of Opposites” for the 8 Jungian Types Dario Nardi 1 Copyright Dario Nardi, September 2020. All rights reserved. Please contact the publisher, Radiance House (www.RadianceHouse.com), for questions and permissions. ISBN: 9798682551965 Version 1.01 2 Acknowledgment Linda Berens, Ph.D. for “tandem dynamics” and organismic systems principles, John Beebe, M.D. for “the spine of the personality” and related depth psychology concepts, Steve Myers, Ph.D. for “one-sidedness” and a new look at the Transcendent function, Mina Barimany, PhD. for statistical analysis of the Cognitive Processes Assessment, Victor Gulenko, Ph.D. for his convergent work on subtypes and 64 personality portraits, Sandra Bem, Ph.D. for her multi-dimensional view of gender as the inspiration for the Magic Diamond concept, The Australian Association for Psychological Type, British Association for Psychological Type, and Joel Mark Witt and Antonia Dodge at Personality Hacker for the opportunity to trial the material, Yehuda Ben Jehoshua for the cover design including eight facets of a diamond dissected in a playful way, also the many content reviewers including Beverly Baroff, Yehuda Ben Jehoshua, Angelina Bennet, Sue Blair, Jami Cannon, Nadine Nardi Davidson, Estellaleigh Franenberg, Doris Fullgrabe, Peter Geyer, Wendy Horikoshi, Nels Klint Karsvang, Cash Keahey, Belinda Lange, Steven Louney, Alessandro Nardi, Richard Owen, Marci Segal, David Shaw, Matt Sherman, and Ben Vaserlan, and Dr. Carl Gustav Jung, for his pioneering research and ideas, now almost one hundred years mature. 3 The Magic Diamond 4 Table of Contents A Word from the Author .......................................7 1. Ready for Your Next Level? ...............................9 2. Understanding the Magic Diamond ..............41 3. Magic for Active Adapters (Se) ......................81 4. Magic for Cautious Protectors (Si) ...............113 5. Magic for Excited Brainstormers (Ne) .........145 6. Magic for Keen Foreseers (Ni) .....................177 7. Magic for Timely Builders (Te) .....................209 8. Magic for Skillful Sleuths (Ti) ......................241 9. Magic for Friendly Hosts (Fe) ......................273 10. Magic for Quiet Crusaders (Fi) ..................305 11. Coaching Exercises ......................................337 12. Subtypes: 256 Personality Flavors ..............365 13. Facilitating Change .....................................379 Appendix A: The 16 Myers-Briggs Types ........403 Appendix B: Jung’s Anatomy of the Psyche ....412 Appendix C: Neuroscience Technical Specs .....419 Appendix D: The CPA Questionnaire .............422 About the Author ...............................................426 On the Web .........................................................427 Top Books ...........................................................428 References ...........................................................429 5 6 A Word from the Author If we want to talk about personality, we need to talk about develop- ment. For a century, psychologists have defined personality as a set of stable characteristics. However, recent analysis of longitudinal data and advances in neuroscience suggest otherwise. Change may be limited and incremental over a decade, but change is also often far-reaching over a lifetime. This is what I love about the work of Dr. Carl Gustav Jung. He focused on development. The “super power” of his work is the unlimited ways people can keep improving, no matter their age. Each time I look at his work, it yields something new as if I’ve “leveled up” in life. Today, we have neuroscience and other tools to understand people’s mental processes. We no longer need to rely solely on observed or self- reported traits. Since 2006, I’ve looked at hundreds of people’s brain ac- tivity as well as bringing a pencil-paper assessment to fruition. What’s clear: Each person holds to an essential core, and at the same time, fac- tors such as upbringing, career, and sex make a difference. Nurture and nature both matter. As you read, know that the descriptions here of men- tal functions are based on science. Even the tips for development derive from people’s observed “flow” brain states. This book builds on twenty-two years of passion. In 1998, I coau- thored 16 Personality Types: Descriptions for Self-Discovery with my mentor Dr. Linda Berens. That book offers holistic descriptions based on sixty-four in-depth interviews. Then in 2006, Keys to Self-Leadership gave advice to develop each Jungian function. In 2011, Neuroscience of Personality reported strong statistical support for Jung’s model of “types” based on brain activity. Finally, Jung on Yoga in 2018 looked at yoga, that ancient Eastern body-mind practice to “awaken”. Now, this book returns to Jung’s work with a focus on what he called the Transcendent function. As the title suggests, our focus is a Magic Diamond. It is an energiz- ing symbol for wholeness. A diamond has many facets, and each facet is part of a whole. Each facet reflects the world and those who view it find reflections in it of themselves. A diamond is not a living system in the way we are, but it is both simple and complex, timeless and ephemeral, and a container or conduit for conducting energy. Its elegance is inspiring. 7 The Magic Diamond Ideally, this book is for everyone. In practice, it is well-suited for those who are familiar with Jung’s work or with popularized derivatives like the Myers-Briggs types, though there is only an appendix devoted to the Myers-Briggs codes for those who need that. If you are not familiar with Jung, that’s fine too. Just be sure to read Chapter 2 before delving into the heart of the book. If a brief trip around the Internet is any indicator, a legion of person- ality enthusiasts and some professionals have brought a lot of complex- ity to Jung’s work over the past decade. Of eight psychological “types”, each of us has a dominant and hopefully a well-working auxiliary just as each of us starts with two hands. From this foundation, theorists have arranged the eight in a hierarchy (aka stack), added an archetypal angle, fleshed out subtypes, and much more. Some of these adaptations aim to be descriptive of how people actually are inside and out; others aim to be prescriptive toward the healthiest ways to be. A plethora of ideas can aid or confuse. Here, I return to basics. I focus on a single principle: the tension and resolution of opposites as a developmental process. Each of us has a favorite way of perceiving and a favorite way of judging, and for each of those, one-sidedness and tension surely arise, and out of this conflict, there are paths to wholeness. This book is based on a detailed set of workshop materials as well as science. It was a challenge to convert into book format all of the ideas, bullet-pointed tips, reflective discussion, and exercises. That said, I hope you find the process as easy as possible: After the introduction, you only need to explore two chapters based on your favorite way to judge (using your left prefrontal cortex) and your favorite way to perceive (using your right prefrontal cortex). Don’t worry about understanding neuroscience. I keep it to a minimum, which is still a lot! In each of your two chapters, you will find a lot of advice and worksheets to apply the advice to your own life. Hopefully, you will also find the layout convenient to copy and handout. You have permission to do so for personal use or face-to-face use with individual clients. Dario Nardi, 20th of July 2020 8 Chapter 1 Ready for Your Next Level? Understand one-sidedness and find the two paths that fit for you. 9 The Magic Diamond 10