Originally Posted by
chemical
I thought more on this topic, and I think the biggest problem with the "Man as a System of Types" article to me is that, as I've stated before but perhaps not emphasized enough, the ego and persona, which are Gulenko's terms for the regular sociotype and energy type, as derived from the Jung terminology, are not in reality separate psychological entites. The ego is sort of nested inside the persona, rather than the persona's function-ordering being quite entirely distinct from that of the ego. In short, Jung's ideas here say that the ego represents the natural disposition in terms of information of the individual, and the persona is an outgrowth as to how they function, based on adaptation to the environment. This can be somewhat fluid, meaning this is why you don't talk to your parents the same as you do to your friends (if indeed that's true of you).
The persona isn't a forgery or a total fake, unless it is unsuccessful at its means. It is meant to provide a protective coating that both suits you and controls the way your natural dispositions actually come to play. In other words, the practicalities of how you function as opposed to your theoretical function-type, depend on circumstances, but generally should take the ego into account greatly, merely flexing to ensure the ego and the environment aren't getting in each others' way. An armor isn't great if it doesn't fit your body, because however strong, it will not then cover you.
Just to ensure that all I'm saying is not only true to Jung but also to Gulenko, let's note what Gulenko says:
Now, why does he call persona type the energy type? Here we can only speculate, but based on Jung the main thing which comes to mind is Gulenko's statement that the information type is one corresponding to a state of homeostasis, the persona one of disturbance of it. This I read to correspond to the idea that the ego's function-type is more a question of natural disposition, hence the theoretical path of least resistance, than the persona is, since the persona forms around the ego to regulate the ego's interaction with the present environment. Thus, it would seem, is the link to energy, in that expenditure of energy is needed to mediate between the path-of-least-resistance and the existing conditions.
This is still a sort of "intelligent" system/pattern of energy distribution. Except it's likely that, much as DCNH is dependent on outer circumstances, this version of persona is, too. It also means that it's somewhat more difficult to imagine a persona type which is of the opposite sort to the ego. This may need to involve certain extenuating circumstances.
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