Where the theory begins
Carl Gustav Jung
1875 — 1961
Swiss psychiatrist · Founder of analytical psychology
Before the four letters, a way of looking at difference.
Why do people experience the same world so differently? Jung’s work on psychological types is part of OpenJung’s intellectual background. Looking back at that history also helps clarify where his theory ends and later questionnaires begin.
Explore the ideasA life in context
Carl Gustav Jung (1875–1961) was a Swiss psychiatrist and the founder of analytical psychology. He worked at the Burghölzli hospital in Zürich and collaborated with Sigmund Freud before their break in 1913.
His work reached well beyond personality types to include dreams, symbols, religion, and the relationship between conscious and unconscious experience. In his framework, “individuation” concerns becoming more fully oneself; it is not a test score or a four-letter destination.
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Born in Switzerland
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Break with Freud
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Psychological Types published in German
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Dies in Küsnacht, Switzerland
Two attitudes, four functions
In Psychological Types, Jung distinguished a person’s general attitude from the psychological functions through which experience is perceived or judged. These are terms within his theory, not measurements of brain activity. [2]
Two directions of orientation
- Extraversion
- An orientation that gives greater weight to the external object and objective circumstances.
- Introversion
- An orientation that gives greater weight to the subjective factor: how experience is taken in and interpreted within the person.
Four psychological functions
- Sensation
- Perception through the senses: attending to what is concretely present.
- Intuition
- Perception of possibilities and connections not immediately given to the senses.
- Thinking
- Judging by linking ideas conceptually and following logical conclusions.
- Feeling
- Judging by weighing value: accepting or rejecting something according to its worth, rather than simply having an emotion.
Jung described each function in both attitudes, yielding eight principal type descriptions rather than the later 16 four-letter combinations. In Chapter X, “The Principal and Auxiliary Functions,” he also noted that the pure types he described do not occur frequently in practice. [2]
From Jung to OpenJung
These four names share a family of terms, but they are separate projects—a history of influence and adaptation rather than a chain of endorsements.
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Jung · A theory
The 1921 book uses attitudes and functions as a framework for interpreting psychological differences. It is not an online test. [2]
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Open Psychometrics · OEJTS
The Open Extended Jungian Type Scales were developed as an alternative questionnaire, with items selected to distinguish self-identified types. That development history does not validate every later adaptation. [4]
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OpenJung · An independent adaptation
Our full test adapts the 32-item OEJTS 1.2. OpenJung is not the official MBTI assessment and is not affiliated with or endorsed by a Jung institute or the Myers & Briggs Foundation.
Read with perspective
Historical influence is not measurement evidence
Tracing where an idea came from does not prove that a questionnaire measures it reliably. OpenJung does not directly measure Jung’s unconscious processes or cognitive functions.
Read a historical author critically
The original text includes gender generalizations and clinical interpretations that we do not adopt as conclusions about today’s readers. Introducing Jung does not mean endorsing every part of his work. [2]
Keep the person larger than the label
Use type language as a starting point for reflection, not a verdict on ability, relationships or mental health. A result should not decide a career, a partner or a diagnosis.
See the questionnaire’s evidence and license
Evidence and validation status
Traceable source: the full test adapts the 32-item OEJTS 1.2 by Open Psychometrics. The questionnaire PDF documents that version’s items, scoring rules and license. The development page provides item-selection background, not validation of this adaptation.
Not yet published: internal consistency, test–retest reliability and factor validation for this OpenJung version, its 8-question quick test, or its translations. We do not present unsupported reliability coefficients for this implementation.
Some wording and item directions have been adapted. The quick test uses only 2 questions per dimension; scaling it to 8–40 for display does not give it the precision of the full test. Percentages describe a position on a scale, not accuracy or diagnostic probability.
Use results for reflection and communication. Near-midpoint results do not establish a fixed type. Do not use them for hiring, clinical or other high-stakes decisions.
OEJTS questionnaire items and adaptations are licensed under CC BY-NC-SA 4.0, not public domain. The MIT license covers original OpenJung code, not the questionnaire.
Current assessment version: openjung-oejts-1
Sources & further reading
These sources support the specific historical and theoretical points noted below. They are not validation studies of OpenJung.
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[1] The Society of Analytical Psychology · About Carl Jung
Biography, the 1913 break with Freud, and the wider scope of analytical psychology and individuation.
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[2] C. G. Jung · Psychological Types (1921), Chapter X
Primary text in H. Godwyn Baynes’s 1923 English translation, hosted by York University. See the introduction, the extraverted and introverted function sections, and “The Principal and Auxiliary Functions.”
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[3] Myers & Briggs Foundation · The Preferences: E–I, S–N, T–F, J–P
Definitions used in the later Myers–Briggs framework, especially the fourth pair, Judging–Perceiving. Used for terminology, not as evidence of this site’s validity.
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[4] Open Psychometrics · Development of the Open Extended Jungian Type Scales
The introduction describes the MBTI extension and J–P; the development sections explain item selection. The linked OEJTS 1.2 PDF records the questionnaire and license.