Gaming with Carl

I saw this post over at Brand Robins' blog which really got me thinking about typology and gaming. I spent quite a bit of time reading Jung and Jungians in my formative intellectual development--he fills the role that Freud does for a lot of cultural studies types. So reading this brought a whole network of concepts to the surface of my consciousness. It sort of feels like Leviathan just reared its head out of the waters.

Naturally, like any good Jungian dilettante, I spent many an hour reading through the typology discussions and taking tests to figure out what slot I belonged. Fun times, fun times. Which brings me to the MBTI. In taking the test, I was always solidly INF, with the P and the J coming in pretty darn close. Usually, I just called it INFP and moved on--I seemed more like a take it as you go sort, not one of those uptight J types. But I'm really and INFJ--and not because of some repressed urge to be chill when I am not, but because the whole P-J distinction is misconstrued. Probably at the level of the test questions, definitely in the way it gets popularized.

P and J refers to which mode plays the dominant role in your psyche--the 'irrational' (P) or 'rational' (J). Don't get caught up on the whole rational discussion--Jung uses the terms in a quirky way that don't have the connotations we tend to ascribe them. Irrational faculties (Sensation and Intuition) do not have objects per se, they are process centered, taking objects but more interested in the process that brings them up than the actual things. Rational faculties (Thinking and Feeling) center upon objects--namely, ideas and feelings. 'P' people tend to be more 'laid' back because they are not preoccupied with particular things, more by their own experience, the 'vibe' produced by their interaction with things. They are sort of 'oceanic' in temperament. This, however, does not equal laid back, only tends towards it. Just as judges, being preoccupied with particular things, tend to be more categorical, but categorical tendencies do not themselves mean anal-retentive behavior.

So, with an INFJ, you would say that I am an Introverted Feeler. What gives with the N (intuition)? Since we cannot get through life just doing one thing, we develop an auxiliary mode through which we interact with the broader scope of the world. The auxiliary function cannot be the same type as our dominant because they are mutually exclusive. This doesn't necessarily mean that they are opposed, but just that they can't be exercised at the same time. At some point in time, Intuition became that for me. I interact with this passionate interest in the possibilities of ideas, of what things might be.

The cool thing is that we can access the inferior function (the function that can't be exercised simultaneously with the dominant function) through the auxiliary function. In fact, the auxiliary function tends to, in the healthier, well-adjusted person, enter into a compensatory relation with the dominant function. I not only have introverted feeling, but, by way of intuition, developed an extroverted thinking. The healthy introvert can actually look like a different sort of extrovert. Most people meeting me do not pick up on the F, but on the T--because I have developed an extroverted thinking to better shield, and occasionally give voice to, my introverted feeling. And I use that ET to alternately express my intense, sometimes vague feeling, and stab people who try to scratch my soft, F underbelly. Although, in true F fashion, I'm lousy at the stabbing and so it can look a bit clumsy.

What about poor sensation? Well, that may not be terribly important here--but let's just say that the least used is also the access point to the more transcendental experiences. If we make ourselves whole through the auxiliary's mediation of the inferior, we find the hole to the universe through the function we use least. Needless to say, that's a real hard step to take and I won't even pretend to be close to it. We transcend ourselves through the least of our functions--hence it is called the 'transcendent function.'

To Gaming! Jung thought that one of the ways we approach the inferior function is through fantasy and dream. It strikes me that roleplaying might be a particular expression of this process, a guided one which Jung himself might have been able to sanction for therapeutic purposes. So, I'm curious if we can identify a particular type of gamer who seeks just this compensation through roleplaying. While I would not want to universalize this claim in any way, I bet a number of gamers sense this latent therapeutic potential and take on persona (player characters) that they sense (on some level) will help them work those auxiliary-inferior connections.

I also wonder if there is another gamer who seeks something even more profound, who struggles to develop that transcendent function.

If such a gamer exists, I bet that many of them become dissatisfied with mainstream rpg's, get frustrated with the possibilities they sense but cannot realize. Am I one of those gamers? This is long enough, so I'll save that for another day.