Mary Loomis’ book, “Dancing the wheel of psychological types” (1991), is a synthesis project of types and archetypes of Carl Gustav Jung’s psychology, with some techniques of Native American medicine. “The path I am proposing draws upon ancient Native American teachings: the medicine wheel, the Powers of the Four Directions, and the Star Maiden Circle. These were taught to me by Harley Swiftdeer, a Cherokee medicine man (…) I will use these teachings intermingled with Jungian psychology, particularly Jung’s theory of psychological types, to compose a blueprint for a path toward wholeness, a path Jung referred to as the process of individuation and which the Native Americans refer to as the Red Road” (Loomis, 1991: x).

These are the elements of the two domains whose synthesis is attempted:

• The Native Americans medicine
  • Medicine Wheel – ch. 1
  • Powers of the Four Directions – ch. 1
  • Star Maiden Circle – ch. 6
  • Mistakes Wheel – ch. 8
• The Carl Gustav Jung psychology
  • Collective Unconscious (ex. archetypes) – ch. 2
  • Consciousness (ex. types) – chs. 3, 4, 5, 7 and 8

***

Mary Loomis, like June Singer, takes a new look at “Jung’s bipolarity assumption”. As time passed by, four instruments have been built based on this assumption of bipolarity: 1) Gray-Wheelwright Type Survey, 2) Myers-Briggs Type Indicator, 3) Singer-Loomis Inventory and 4) Keirsey Temperament Sorter. Some instruments, such as the Singer-Loomis Inventory, rejected this assumption. All the other instruments, however, embraced it. Most likely, nevertheless, they are suitable for the two stages of life: the first, from birth to adulthood (the period targeted by the instruments that embrace the assumption of bipolarity); and the second, from maturity to death (the stage targeted by the instruments that reject the above assumption). Their differences could be summarized like below.

table:

Here is what June Singer says about the assumption of bipolarity: “[Jung’s bipolar assumption] is based upon the idea, so frequently alluded to by Jung, that the psyche is composed of pairs of opposites. This notion finds expression in the dualities which fill Jung’s writings, such as consciousness/ the unconscious, good/ evil, light/ dark, masculine/ feminine, anima/ animus, persona/ shadow, ego/ self, Christ/ Antichrist, eternal/ temporal, and others. The two elements in the dualities are always posed against each other as opposites and are considered basically to be mutually exclusive. It is not surprising, therefore, that this tendency inherited by Jung from nineteenth-century philosophy would have been applied to his theory of typology.” (Singer, 1994: 345)

And here is what Mary Loomis says about the same assumption: “[The bipolarity assumption is based on forced choice], and the forced choice was always between the oppositional pair Jung depicted in his cross image. This means that person taking the inventory could choose between a thinking or a feeling response, for example, or between a sensation or an intuitive response. There were no other options; when the subject selects one alternative, the other is rejected” (Loomis, 1991: 44)

Therefore, the assumption of bipolarity grounds the relationship between the following pairs:

• Introversion & extraversion (in the ontological realm)
• Thinking & feeling – on the one side; and sensation & intuition – on the other side (in the gnoseological realm)
• Judging & perceiving (in the axiological realm – this being a distinction used especially by Myers, Briggs and Keirsey)

These pairs can be imagined like four horses running down from the mountain top to the plains.

First, the sun stands to everything that is external, while everything on earth belongs to what is internal. And these symbolize the introversion/ extraversion distinction that can be found in the ontological realm. Then, we can imagine four running horses. One is the representation of thinking, air and spring. Next to it is the one who stands for sensation, fire and summer. The third horse is the symbol of feeling, water and autumn. Finally, the fourth horse points to winter, the earth and intuition. Of course, these four horses could stand also for the cardinal points: N-E-S-W. Along with the ontological and gnoseological realm, the axiological realm is also present, even if less obvious. Everything that is given – like the shape of the horses – belongs to perception. And everything that is derived – for instance the contents of the seasons, of the elements and cardinal points – belongs to apperception, which is a judging element.

Restated, Jung presents only two realms in his classification: the ontological and the gnoseological. Later, however, Myers, Briggs & Keirsey add the distinctions of the third realm: the axiological distinctions.

image1:

***

Starting from the assumption of bipolarity, I found it much easier to represent the Singer-Loomis Inventory of Personality (SLIP) tool. It can be represented by four images: in the first one, June Singer presents the three pairs according to Carl Gustav Jung’s description. In the second, Mary Loomis shows how Jung’s perspective can be seen through the lenses of the Native Americans. In the third image, Michael Bruwer shows how Buckminster Fuller would represent Jung’s description. While in the fourth image I bring a new representation of this instrument, a representation that borrows from the logic of Charles L. Dodgson, also known as Lewis Carroll. Finally, I’ll end these ideas with some quotes from the works of the three authors – Singer, Loomis and Bruwer – that provide more information for the images. Although I could quote myself for the fourth image, I prefer to remain silent for now.

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June Singer

“Indeed, Jung tended to set extraversion against introversion; you favored either one or the other. Thinking and feeling, although both judging functions, were regarded as mutually exclusive. If, as a thinking type, you dealt with issues slowly, methodically and deliberately, you clearly could not be a feeling type, coming to quick spontaneous decisions based upon your feeling values. Similarly with intuition and sensation. If, as an intuitive type, you tended to see things whole and to favor making generalizations, you could not pay great attention to particulars and talk in specific terms rather than in generalities, as a sensation type would.” (Singer, 1994: 346)

Mary Loomis

“The cross itself is an incomplete image. The way it was used by Jung forces a static interpretation of typology and does not provide a picture of how the individuation process proceeds. But let’s look at the image of the cross more closely and compare it to the image of the medicine wheel (…) The medicine wheel offers an image of wholeness with the symbol of the circle, encompassing a cross. The cross alone is incomplete because it lacks the circle. Jung was aware that the image of a cross within a circle was a universal symbol of wholeness but he did not use it when he first explained his theory. The cross may be representative of where Jung, the scientist, was in the development of his theory of psychological types” (Loomis, 1991: x, 38)

Michael Bruwer

“Dear Dr. Singer, (…) my strong inkling that you are correct with the increased number of types for which the SLIP provides comes from my background in the synergetic geometry and design science of Buckminster Fuller (…) For Fuller, as for Jung, there is a unique and fundamental wholeness about the number four. Fuller demonstrates that any arrangement of four things is a tetrahedron (…) Tetrahedron is a Greek word meaning four (tetra) faces (hedra). It is the Platonic solid symbolizing fire (…) The four faces are defined by the four corners or vertices (or events or things or functions)” (Bruwer, 1987: 2)

I’ll end this presentation with the following warning: no matter how logical, mathematical or spiritual this tool, or any Jungian personality tool, could be, it is an instrument that can shed lights on the studied phenomena, as well as it can hide much in its shadows. Even if it is dear to me or some other fellows, it has its limits – among them there is the question raised by the literature and scientists concerning its predictive power.

Resources:

• Bruwer, Michael (1987): “Buckminster Fuller’s synergetic geometry in support of the Singer-Loomis Inventory of Personality”, The San Francisco Jung Institute Library Journal, 7 (1), pp. 1-11
• Loomis, Mary (1991): “Dancing the wheel of psychological types”, Chiron Publications
• Loomis, Mary (1980): “Testing the bipolar assumption in Jung’s typology”, The Journal of Analytical Psychology, 25 (4), pp. 351-356
• Singer, June (1994): “Boundaries of the soul. The practice of Jung’s psychology”, Anchor Books, Doubleday
• Singer, June & Mary Loomis (1986): “The Singer-Loomis Inventory of Personality. An update on the measurement of Jung’s typology (workshop)”, in Mary Ann Mattoon (ed.): “The archetype of shadow in a split world. Proceedings of The Tenth International Congress for Analytical Psychology, Berlin, 1986”, Daimon Verlag, pp. 431-442
• Singer, June & Mary Loomis (1984): “The Singer-Loomis Inventory of Personality (SLIP). The manual. Experimental edition”, Consulting Psychologists Press, Inc