Everything is typed
Carl Jung’s theory of personality generates sixteen ‘types’ into which each one of us fits. Jung’s theory isn’t exclusive – having a preference for particular attitudes and functions doesn’t preclude participation in others. The subtleties and nuances are infinite yet recognisable making it possible to be the same type as another while remaining distinct individuals. Identifying type doesn’t prohibit uniqueness of personality.
If Jung’s theory accurately describes the many ways it is possible to be a human individual, there must be certain essential qualities common to our species. This is not a dominantly popular idea today; all too often being dismissed out of hand. Before doing so, however, ask how the F.B.I. is able to construct ‘profiles’ of ‘unsubs’ if there were no connecting factors between human personality and behaviour? We have seen, over the years, both Mulder and Scully construct such profiles. For this tool to be as effective as the F.B.I. obviously believes it to be there must be common traits spread across the whole of humanity which manifest through our personalities and our behaviours.
To my mind, there is little doubt that there are distinct types of people. While no two individuals are exactly alike, being familiar with the types can make some individuals more understandable and, even, predictable in their ‘kinds’ of responses and reactions.
Typing individuals is as old as medicine itself. Hippocrates (c.450-c.380 BC) famously described four humours: choleric, sanguine, melancholic and phlegmatic. Typing, in various forms, is now big business. The Enneagram Institute takes a system born amidst uncertain parentage – though largely credited to one G.I. Gurdjieff - and employs it worldwide. And, of course, Isabel Briggs Myers did something similar for Jung’s typology with the MBTI (Myers-Briggs Type Indicator). To an extent, even Astrology is little more than a form of typology, especially as presented in a lovely book by Gary Goldschneider and Joost Elffers, ‘The Secret Language of Birthdays’.
I have personally employed both Jung and the Enneagram with the prison inmates who sat my Personal Psychology course. But then I wrote a B.A. Dissertation which posited human beings as just another type of text to be read – like a good novel! An approach not without precedent if one considers Narrative Psychology a legitimate stance within the broader science. It is, clearly, the viewpoint which undergirds my viewing of the X Files.
We humans, it seems have a penchant for categorising and typing. In Biology, what is a taxonomic hierarchy but a grand scheme of typing? Christopher Booker typed the whole history of literature in his monumental (and brilliant!) ‘The Seven Basic Plots’. Even actors are typed according to whether they are A, B, C or D Listers. Everybody and everything is typed.
What all these various types of typing reveal is that being the same type doesn’t mean being the same. According to usnews.com, the Audi Q5, the Porsche Macan and the Jaguar F-Pace are all the same type of car – luxury compact SUVs. Just by looking at these cars, it is possible to see their similarities and differences.
Even identical twins develop different personalities.
In nature, then - and in car production, it seems - there is nothing which is precisely identical in every way to something else. Maybe, at heart, Chris Carter is aware of this fundamental fact. It would certainly explain how his subconscious sabotaged his producing an even half-way decent script for the inanity that is ‘Fight Club’.
If Jung’s theory accurately describes the many ways it is possible to be a human individual, there must be certain essential qualities common to our species. This is not a dominantly popular idea today; all too often being dismissed out of hand. Before doing so, however, ask how the F.B.I. is able to construct ‘profiles’ of ‘unsubs’ if there were no connecting factors between human personality and behaviour? We have seen, over the years, both Mulder and Scully construct such profiles. For this tool to be as effective as the F.B.I. obviously believes it to be there must be common traits spread across the whole of humanity which manifest through our personalities and our behaviours.
To my mind, there is little doubt that there are distinct types of people. While no two individuals are exactly alike, being familiar with the types can make some individuals more understandable and, even, predictable in their ‘kinds’ of responses and reactions.
Typing individuals is as old as medicine itself. Hippocrates (c.450-c.380 BC) famously described four humours: choleric, sanguine, melancholic and phlegmatic. Typing, in various forms, is now big business. The Enneagram Institute takes a system born amidst uncertain parentage – though largely credited to one G.I. Gurdjieff - and employs it worldwide. And, of course, Isabel Briggs Myers did something similar for Jung’s typology with the MBTI (Myers-Briggs Type Indicator). To an extent, even Astrology is little more than a form of typology, especially as presented in a lovely book by Gary Goldschneider and Joost Elffers, ‘The Secret Language of Birthdays’.
I have personally employed both Jung and the Enneagram with the prison inmates who sat my Personal Psychology course. But then I wrote a B.A. Dissertation which posited human beings as just another type of text to be read – like a good novel! An approach not without precedent if one considers Narrative Psychology a legitimate stance within the broader science. It is, clearly, the viewpoint which undergirds my viewing of the X Files.
We humans, it seems have a penchant for categorising and typing. In Biology, what is a taxonomic hierarchy but a grand scheme of typing? Christopher Booker typed the whole history of literature in his monumental (and brilliant!) ‘The Seven Basic Plots’. Even actors are typed according to whether they are A, B, C or D Listers. Everybody and everything is typed.
What all these various types of typing reveal is that being the same type doesn’t mean being the same. According to usnews.com, the Audi Q5, the Porsche Macan and the Jaguar F-Pace are all the same type of car – luxury compact SUVs. Just by looking at these cars, it is possible to see their similarities and differences.
Even identical twins develop different personalities.
In nature, then - and in car production, it seems - there is nothing which is precisely identical in every way to something else. Maybe, at heart, Chris Carter is aware of this fundamental fact. It would certainly explain how his subconscious sabotaged his producing an even half-way decent script for the inanity that is ‘Fight Club’.
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