Chapter 3

The Problem of the Psychic Functions and Their Semantics

Take care of the sense, and the sounds will take care of themselves. — L. Carroll, Alice

The elaboration of ideas about the semantics of the functions of Model “A” that exists in socionics is rather contradictory. Many researchers working in the field of socionics accept, as self-evident, that the functions have a predetermined meaning — arising, it is not entirely clear from where — and a given numbering. Different authors, each in their own way, sometimes trying to refute Aušra, make attempts to describe the structure of the model intuitively and propose various schemes for the numbering of the functions and the character of their work. Complete agreement on this question among socionists has still not been reached. It is not excluded that various numberings of the functions may coexist, but it is also not excluded that socionists nonetheless ought to have arrived at least at some kind of consensus.

C. G. Jung indicated the following four most important functions the psyche must possess in order to sustain the effective existence of a human being:

the ability to detect an object — the sensory system is responsible for this;
the ability to instantly evaluate and react to a situation — the emotional system is responsible for this;
the ability to penetrate into the essence of the detected object — intuition is responsible for this;
the ability to analyze and elaborate the structure of the object — thinking is responsible for this.

Let us pose the question right away: do these four abilities, these four functions, exhaust the whole multitude of such functions, or are we missing something? There is, moreover, the further possibility that among these functions there are superfluous ones. For example, could one not manage with intuition alone? After all, it could detect an object, evaluate it, grasp its essence, and elaborate its structure. And, in addition, in the light of socionics, the question is also legitimate whether the psyche could function on the basis of some entirely different functions. After all, there are, after all, sixteen Augustinavičiūtė–Reinin traits (ART), not four, and then, a priori, one can suppose that the functioning of the psyche might be based on other subsets of the abilities potentially standing behind the ART.

The four functions indicated have long been known in scientific psychology, although in its very first sketch, in the Rational Psychology of Christian Wolff (1734), only three basic abilities are spoken of — these are knowledge, feeling, and will. In various psychological schools the number of basic functions and the understanding of them changed, and in contemporary psychology textbooks this list includes sensation, perception, attention, memory, representation, imagination, thinking, feelings, will — concepts close in their level of generality to the four functions singled out by C. G. Jung. In any case, in psychology all these concepts are regarded as coordinate. It is precisely at this that one can point as one of the defects of psychological knowledge — in it there was formed no clear notion of functional levels, which became obvious after the discovery of socionics.

However, Jung’s principal discovery — one, incidentally, that he did not fully reflect upon — was the positioning of the four functions he singled out within the psyche. Jung did not use the concept of a model as applied to the psyche, but the scheme of the psyche corresponding to his ideas (fig. 3.00) can, of course, be regarded as a model. The positional semantics in this scheme has an empirical character. This means that Jung, in his clinical practice, came to the conclusion that in the psyche there is a LEADING FUNCTION (primary, basic) — which is entirely natural (surely some function can turn out to be leading!); to it is opposed the SUBORDINATE FUNCTION, and between them are located two AUXILIARY FUNCTIONS. With these names, properly speaking, the positional characterization of Jung’s functions is exhausted. It should be noted, however, that in Jung’s model the LEADING FUNCTION is connected with the SUBORDINATE FUNCTION by a subordination that follows from psychoanalytic observations of the degree of development of a function and its degree of consciousness. So that the LEADING FUNCTION is, according to Jung, the most developed and the most conscious, while the SUBORDINATE FUNCTION turns out to be to a significant degree repressed into the subconscious and bears an infantile character.

In her works Aušra Augustinavičiūtė gave several closely related representations of the semantics of the functions, which reflects the process of the formation of her ideas (see tables 3.01 and 3.02). From Aušra’s works one can understand how the notion of the meaning and character of the work of the functions of Model “A” was formed. First she built model “AJ” (fig. 3.00b) and, naturally, ascribed to the functions a meaning following from Jung’s ideas about order. And this manifested itself in the fact that Aušra simply renumbered the functions in the order of their supposed maturity and consciousness. The LEADING FUNCTION became the first, and the SUBORDINATE FUNCTION the fourth.

Table 3.01. Model “A”, 1980 redaction

Blocks	Functions
Orientational	4th function — adaptive; 3rd function — orientative
Intellectual	1st function — reproductive; 2nd function — productive-manipulative
Suggestive	5th function — instructive; 6th function — regulative
Accumulative	8th function — veritarian; 7th function — caritarian

Table 3.02. Model “A”, 1985 redaction

Blocks	Functions
EGO	1st function — reproductive; 2nd function — productive-manipulative
SUPEREGO	4th function — adaptive; 3rd function — orientative
SUPERID	8th function — veritarian; 7th function — caritarian
ID	5th function — instructive; 6th function — regulative

A remarkable discovery of Aušra’s is that she managed to separate the semantics of the two AUXILIARY FUNCTIONS, ascribing to one of them (the one that became the SECOND) a CREATIVE character, and to the other (which became the THIRD), following A. Kępiński’s idea, the meaning of the PLACE OF LEAST RESISTANCE (PLR). What meaning, then, could be invested in this concept — the place of least resistance? Rapid exhaustibility, easy excitability, hysterical readiness, infantilism, weakened control or even its complete absence — this is the first thing that comes to mind. And one can immediately pose the question of why such a function is needed in the psyche at all. Or, perhaps, it would be more precise to ask where such a function came from, and what benefit or “benefit” it brings to the bearer of the psyche. As a hypothesis, one may propose the following variants.

Psychic functions develop unevenly — one of them, owing to the personal circumstances of the bearer of the psyche, turns out to be the most developed, while another lags behind all the time in its development. This may occur if only simply because energy is distributed unevenly by the subject among the various functions and for various reasons.
In the structure of the psyche there should be a place that reacts acutely to external influences, so as not to miss a moment dangerous for survival. Such a place could play the role of a sentry post.
In the structure of the psyche there should be a place of non-standard reaction, expanding the possibilities of survival.
In the structure of the psyche there may form parasitic complexes as the result of the spontaneous development of some internal processes.

The imperative “there should be a place” used in these descriptions can be understood in the sense that the appearance of such a place — that is, of a function — is conditioned by the peculiarities of the subject’s survival and adaptation.

If the maximally developed and conscious function can be opposed to a maximally infantile, trusting function that accepts without criticism, then to a creative, innovative, exploratory, bold, risk-taking function it would be natural to oppose a dogmatic, conservative, cautious function. It seems that it is precisely this role that the function of least resistance plays. Apparently the terms “function of least resistance” and “place of least resistance” have one and the same meaning. The creative and the dogmatic positions can be regarded as polar, and this polarity can be described in psychoanalytic terms such that to creativity is matched a developed and conscious relationship with the environment, and to dogmatism a cautious position bearing an infantile character. Such a supposition makes Aušra Augustinavičiūtė’s intuitive guess non-contradictory and internally consistent. Thanks to this, the degree of consciousness now changes not between two functions, as with Jung, but among four. Moreover, one can now pose the question of the energetic filling of a function depending on its position in the structure of the psyche.

As we see, Aušra Augustinavičiūtė to a significant degree rethought what Jung had proposed, and as a result obtained her own scheme of Jung’s, which she named model “J”. But of course Jung did not have this — it was a new model built “on motifs” of Jung, and therefore it should properly be called model “AJ” — Aušra-Jung, which is what we shall do henceforth.

Having folded the four functions of model “AJ” (with a corresponding change of the “vertedness” of the fourth function) into a MENTAL RING and complementarily supplemented it with a VITAL RING, Aušra obtained model “A”, in which there now turned out to be eight functions, the semantics of which was approximately understandable from intuitive and “complementary” considerations. From Aušra’s works it is clear how her ideas concerning the meaning and character of the work of the functions evolved. An important stage in the understanding of the character of the work of the functions was the notion of base and program, of accepting and contacting half-strokes, as well as of mental and vital rings. These ideas of hers found continuation in the works of her followers,¹ where these ideas of Aušra’s were presented in a different terminological and semantic guise. Then her ideas were taken up by new generations of researchers, who accepted them as far as possible and interpreted them in their own way. However, unclarities in the question of the semantics of the functions remain to this day.

Jung’s approach to this question can be called empirical — on the grounds that he ascribed to the functions a meaning corresponding to empirically observable facts: LEADING, SUBORDINATE, AUXILIARY FUNCTIONS. He simply detected them in the course of his practical work, which can undoubtedly be considered the experimental basis of his theoretical generalizations. And if for some of his constructs deep experimental investigations are necessary, then for the three concepts mentioned above his practical experience is apparently quite sufficient to serve as an evidentiary basis for the plausibility of his constructions. Here it is appropriate to say that, in indicating the presence of a definite place for the psychic functions — in positioning them — Jung made a most important discovery in psychology, although, apparently, he did not realize this and did not give theoretical form to this result of the greatest importance in psychology, and positivistically inclined psychologists were unable to appreciate it.

Aušra’s approach can be called intuitive-constructive — she constructed her model and, from the construction of the model (taking into account the concepts introduced by Jung), intuitively determined the meaning of the functions entering into the model. At the same time, owing to the natural difficulties connected with the intuitive interpretation of the socionic symbols standing in the positions of the model, there remained a sufficient indeterminacy in the understanding of the meaning of the functions. Aušra repeatedly tried to optimize her model, which was reflected in the change of the names of the functions, their mutual arrangement, numbering, and even the understanding of the meaning of their work. It is precisely the last of these that we identify with the concept of the semantics of a function.

V. D. Ermak’s attempt to superimpose on Model “A” ideas taken from systems theory, despite the logical coherence of this attempt, appears in methodological respects to relate, at best, to the phase of explaining the work of an already-formed structure of the psyche; but for explaining the process of the emergence of this structure it seems unsuited. This attempt, however, touched only on explaining the semantics of the blocks, when the blocks SUPEREGO and SUPERID were presented as CONTROLLING, and the blocks EGO and ID as EXECUTIVE, which sufficiently distorts the original meaning discovered by Aušra with respect to the blocks and rings.

Below is presented a connected exposition of a hypothesis about the evolutionary formation of the structure of the psyche. The hypothesis is based on plausible reasoning, as well as on known facts from biology and psychology. The approach developed in this chapter to clarifying the meaning of the functions of Model “A” is proposed to be called evolutionary-semantic, since evolutionary ideas about the formation of the semantic field of all the psychic functions are used. Any academic (that is, constructive and non-malicious) criticism of the proposed hypothesis will be accepted with gratitude.

Let us begin, however, by refining the concept of function.

It so happened that the scientists who worked in the fields of physiology, medicine, psychology, and the other sciences of the human being accepted the concept of function as self-evident, without going deeply into its specific definition within their own concrete subject domain. This concept is general-scientific, with a perfectly transparent, intuitively understandable meaning. And nevertheless, from general methodological premises it appears not merely desirable but quite necessary to give an explication and definition of this concept within each separately taken sphere of science. In any case, in reference books on psychology this concept is not specially defined, although there are such “same-root” entries as “Functional psychology,” “Functional state,” and “Functional systems, theory of.” The last, of course, should be understood as “The theory of functional systems” (P. K. Anokhin) [1].

A semantic analysis of the basic concepts of these three close directions in adjacent areas of psychology shows that the term function in them has a meaning that, though close, is not identical. Functional psychology arose on the basis of a practical need of social practice, and its points of departure were the ideas of the evolutionary theory of C. Darwin, supplemented by the ideas of H. Spencer, while its subject became the investigation of the processes of consciousness from the point of view of their function in the adaptation of the organism to the environment [5]. Here the concept of function can be clarified (not defined!) as that which a given psychic process does, what it is occupied with, and what product is thereby obtained.

A functional state is (by definition) the background activity of the nervous system, under the conditions of which one or another behavioral act of animals and humans is realized [5]. It is held to be an integral characteristic of the work of the brain, indicating the general state of a multitude of its structures. Here it is appropriate to ask whether a functional state is a function of the structures of the brain — that is, does the nervous system “produce” a functional state? The answer to this question is apparently affirmative. And what, then, is the function of the functional state itself? The answer: thanks to it, definite behavioral acts are realized. Comparing the uses of the term “function” in the two sentences given above, one can discover a homonymic shift in the meaning of this term from the general-scientific to the concretely physiological, which of course differs from the way this term is used, for example, in mathematics.

A functional state is a function. This means that it depends on a whole series of factors. Among these are: the character and significance of the motives connected with a definite activity; the magnitude of the sensory load, varying within wide limits from the level of stress to the level of deprivation; the initial level of activity of the nervous system, depending on the subject’s personal history, on the individual peculiarities of the nervous system, on additional extra-environmental influences such as medicines, narcotics, and the like. On the other hand, a functional state itself has functions, since the peculiarities of the activity performed depend on it — which, of course, is not surprising, but points to the non-simple character of the concept of function. And here again it is appropriate to ask whether a functional state is a function of the nervous system in the very same sense as consciousness, memory, attention, thinking, and so on. Apparently the meaning here can change, since, for example, a functional state does not coincide with the level of wakefulness considered its behavioral manifestation, and there exist its own indicators of a functional state, such as the characteristics of the bioelectrical activity of the brain, reflecting the activity of the brain’s modulating system.

Somewhat differently the concept of function is used in the Theory of Functional Systems, developed by P. K. Anokhin. Here at the foundation is placed the notion of function as “the organism’s attainment of an adaptive result in interaction with the environment” [5]. In this notion the meaning of function is given a concretizing shade, entirely absent, for example, in the mathematical understanding of function.

Even this small survey shows the necessity of refining the meaning of the concept within each subject domain, which, incidentally, fully corresponds to the methodological requirements imposed on science. Proceeding from what has been said above, it appears necessary to refine the concept of psychic function in connection with its wide use in socionics. In the present work we shall proceed from the premise that a psychic function is the PROCESS AND/OR RESULT OF THE WORK OF AN ELEMENT OR SOME AGGREGATE OF ELEMENTS OF THE PSYCHIC STRUCTURE, ON CONDITION THAT THIS WORK IS DIRECTED TOWARD MAINTAINING HOMEOSTASIS IN THE ORGANISM-ENVIRONMENT SYSTEM.

Here the question immediately arises of what a psychic structure is and of what elements it consists. There remains, moreover, the problem of defining the psyche as such (see the chapter “The Problem of the Psychic Substrate”).

Somewhat correcting A. V. Bukalov’s ideas about the psychoinformational field, but preserving the field metaphor in the notion of the psyche, it is proposed to consider a hypothesis according to which psychic phenomenology unfolds upon the substrate of an energoinformational field (V. N. Volchenko). The difference here is that the concept of the psychoinformational field includes within itself the concept of the psyche, and this may entail a circle in the definition in attempts to express the psyche through the psychoinformational field. Whereas the concept of the energoinformational field, presumably, relates to the pre-psychic level² and may turn out to be that substrate upon which, given some additional assumptions, psychic phenomenology could unfold. The hypothetical characteristics and parameters of the energoinformational field are at present being refined, but in a first approximation one can proceed from the premise that it, like other field substrates, is capable of quantization, singling out within itself, to one or another degree, distinguishable units, wholes, systems, and subsystems. As their common designation the term “element” may be used, but this should be understood not as indivisibility into some other units, but only in the sense that they act as integral structural units and are bearers of a quite definite functional quality. In their turn these elements can combine or integrate into structural units of another kind or level, with the appearance of another integral quality corresponding to these levels.

By singling out various units in the psyche and combining them in various ways, one can obtain different structures, which is what we observe in the material of the history of the knowledge obtained in psychology. Since the structure of the psyche can be defined in various ways, and the most diverse objects may turn out to be its elements, a psychic function too, depending on the methodology used by one or another scientific school, may have a different scope, scale, degree of detailing, and similar parameters. As a natural postulate, one can accept that within the framework of a chosen methodology, different functions have different semantics. However, from a consistently methodological point of view, the semantics of the functions cannot be assigned arbitrarily — it must be derived from basic concepts and be adequate to the observable psychic phenomenology. With a deductive approach to the description of the structure of the psyche, as turns out to be possible in the case of socionics, the semantics of the functions must also be derived from basic principles and concepts. It turns out that this can quite well be done if one uses the previously obtained concepts of the MEI-complexes, or information aspects (IA), as well as the ideas of functional psychology.

Let us pose the question: how many psychic functions are there? In the real human psyche one can single out very many of them — this depends on the degree of fragmentation and the level of generalization. By virtue of the analogy between physiological and information metabolism, a good example for comparison here can be physiology. Physiological functions can be fragmented down to the level of cells and intracellular structures, but one can stop at the level of such systems of the organism as the digestive, cardiovascular, nervous, and other systems, as well as the body as a whole. Analogously the matter stands in the psyche. One can single out numerous psychic microfunctions, which in itself is undoubtedly important. One can, for example, consider the psychic functions of individual neurons and their groups. But in the present case it would be natural to choose such a level of generalization as would correspond to the level of abstraction connected with the eight IA. Let us designate this level as macrofunctional. Let us also make use of the principle discovered in psychoanalysis, in the following free formulation of it: generalized psychic functions polarize in pairs in such a way that the degree of their consciousness and, correspondingly, unconsciousness is reciprocal — that is, mutually inverse for complementary functions — the more conscious functions are opposed by the more automatized ones repressed into the subconscious. To the more developed functions are opposed the less developed ones. C. G. Jung pointed to such an aggregate of psychological functions, singling out the leading, subordinate, and auxiliary functions. Between the leading and the subordinate function the reciprocity is obvious. Between the auxiliary functions Jung did not discover this relation. However, presumably, the principle of complementary degree of consciousness ought to hold with respect to them too. Therefore the four Jungian functions ought to be located not in a circle (which would presuppose a definite topology of psychic processes), as with Jung, but in a linear sequence f1, f2, f3, f4, as Aušra did in model “AJ”. This, presumably, reflects the degree of consciousness of these functions or, possibly, the degree of their development and detailing. At the same time, in the norm f1 is the most developed and conscious, f4 the most infantile, while f2 and f3 are located between them in descending order by degree of consciousness and development.

These four Jungian functions are connected with mental processes — that is, processes occurring at the level of thinking. They, as we now understand, produce a generalized psychic product corresponding to the work of four psychic structures. By analogy with physiology and in accordance with the “great” physiological law — no function without an organ (Virchow) — they can be called psychic organs. As such, they are not registered in psychology, and this is one of the themes of possible experimental investigations. In accordance with this there arises a problem: can an experiment be set up that would permit such functions actually to be observed? For now we shall hold to the hypothesis that this is possible and, in what follows, so far as possible, adduce arguments in its favor.

Aušra supposed that to these four mental functions correspond four more, connected with bodily, or vital, processes. The products of these functions are almost not conscious, being automatic responses of the systems of the body to mental processes, although post factum (after the work has been performed) they, presumably, may be reflected upon.

The four mental, or psychic, functions singled out by Jung are: intuitive apprehension, sensory detection, intellectual ordering and structuring, and emotional evaluation. Jung also grounded their necessity and sufficiency. Apparently this must mean that there exist organs (whatever their nature may be), as the result of the work of which are “produced” intuitive apprehension, sensory recognition, logical thinking, and emotional evaluation. And here it is by no means obligatory to suppose that such organs are represented by a concrete physiological structure or a particular aggregate of neurons — they could turn out to be connected with the work of the whole brain, and perhaps of the whole nervous system; but the possibility is not excluded that psychic organs of such a level constitute energetic wholes. Unfortunately, contemporary psychophysiology does not operate with such concepts and does not possess the possibility of experimentally confirming or refuting them. With respect to the mechanisms of perception and emotional reaction, physiology possesses significant, though apparently not final, knowledge. As for thinking and intuition, here there is more indeterminacy, but experimental work continues.

C. G. Jung held that if one of these processes in a concrete person, as the result of some cause, becomes leading,³ then the process complementary⁴ to it turns out to be less developed⁵ and manifests itself as subordinate. This regularity is confirmed by psychoanalytic investigations as well. At the same time the two other processes occupy intermediate levels of consciousness and play an auxiliary role. True, Jung apparently did not suppose that these two processes are also ordered by level of consciousness and constitute just such an interdependent pair as the other two.

What, then, do Aušra’s vital functions represent? Let us turn our attention to the striking similarity between the functions of Jung and Aušra, on the one hand, and the information aspects, on the other. The information aspects are objectively existing components of objective reality, while the mental and vital functions are connected with the work of the human psyche. But in fact there is nothing surprising here. First, the human psyche, in the process of evolution — which, only from the appearance of the human being, continued for no less than three million years — adapted itself to model the surrounding reality and to process the information corresponding to it. Second, the psyche and the world initially have an identical foundation, and if this were not so, then cognition of the world would simply be impossible. In this case the generalized psychic functions can be considered the result of the impact of the MEI-complexes, or IA, on the formation of human abilities and the functions or functional systems corresponding to them.

From the point of view of the deductive approach to the description of the structure of the psyche, one can speak of a doubling of the generalized components of reality, which found its embodiment in the appearance and functioning of the human psyche. Therefore, since the generalized components of reality turned out to be eight in number, the psychic functions corresponding to them must also be eight. Consequently, the number of functions and their semantic characteristics must naturally and exactly correspond to the number and semantic characteristics of the objectively existing MEI-complexes. It is precisely for this reason that, as the result of evolution, there formed in the human psyche structures answering for the processing of elements belonging to the generalized natural MEI-complexes. Part of such processing bears an informational, modeling, mental character, while part is connected with the real activity of the human being in this world — with the real transformation of the objects of nature, the production of goods, the raising of children, the reproduction of the species, painting, dancing, and everything that bears a vitally-materialized character. These last manifestations are parts not simply of an informational, but of a material — or more precisely, a material-energo-informational — metabolism.

Perhaps, in the person of socionics, humanity for the first time acquired the possibility of building a deductive theory of reality, of which it, in the person of its numerous representatives, had dreamt since the most ancient times.

Since there exist eight IA, one can suppose the existence of eight generalized semantic fields. Without laying claim to the finality of the formulations and to unambiguity in the interpretation of the archetypal symbols, we give a preliminary list of such fields and their possible correspondence to the IA in table 3.03.

Table 3.03. A variant of the correspondence of IA and semantic fields

	IA	Semantic field
1.	I	field of primary meanings, or of archetypes
2.	i	field of inner meanings
3.	S	field of reality, or ontological field — describes the meanings and elements relating to the objective world
4.	s	field of psychic functions (functional field) — describes the semantics of the psychic functions
5.	e	field of intertype relations — describes the semantics of relations
6.	E	field of emotional states
7.	l	field of differentiating traits — describes the semantics of the traits permitting the structuring of an object
8.	L	technological field, describing the semantics of the generalized means of transforming material

However, we shall not here insist on the obligatory existence of all eight fields, since for the solution of the problem posed in this chapter one can confine oneself to only four fields, corresponding to the IA S, s, e, l.

Let us now consider the hypothetical “primary” situation, when the psyche, as a certain active entity, finds itself in the environment of its further existence. Of course, one should take into account that such an assumption is an abstraction, for from the point of view of evolutionary theory, the appearance of highly developed living creatures possessing a psyche is a very slow and gradual process, many details of which still remain unclear. Nevertheless, let us carry out this work at the level of a thought experiment.

In fig. 3.01 such a generalized situation is expressed by the fact that the input influence of the surrounding environment upon the living creature, and through it upon the psyche, thanks to the functioning of the latter, is transformed into a result at the output, which is survival. The reaction that the psyche puts out must be adequate to the influence of the environment. Adequacy here is easy to interpret as the coefficient of survival of the bearer of the psyche. It is obvious that obtaining such a result by chance is unlikely, and this adequacy must be ensured by the internal structure of the psyche.

Since the psyche is connected with the physical body and ensures its adequate functioning in the habitat, it is natural to hold that the ultimate function of the psyche is to ensure the survival of the living creature. Thus the psyche can be regarded as a specific organ that performs one generalized function, the final product of which is precisely survival.

As a basic premise in constructing the structure of the psyche, it will be quite natural to proceed from the notion of a generalized thermodynamic equilibrium, which the psyche must maintain with the surrounding environment in order that the living creature be able at least to remain alive. The concept of generalized thermodynamic equilibrium undoubtedly stands in need of definition, since here a transfer of a general-physical concept and term into the conceptual medium of evolutionary biology is presupposed. Thermodynamics studies the most general laws of energetic exchange in nature, and any energetic process, natural or artificial, can be considered within the framework of this science. It is also natural to suppose that thermodynamics, by virtue of the ultimate generality of its laws, describes the objective world at that very general level at which one can abstract not only from the individualizing peculiarities of concrete objects but also from the relatively general structural characteristics of objects and processes that can be correlated with the concepts of systems theory. Despite the high level of generality of the laws of systems theory, the sphere of realization of these laws follows after the sphere of realization of the laws of thermodynamics, which apparently precedes any form-generating processes in the Universe. Such reasoning can be grounded by the fact that the being of objects apparently precedes their qualitative and quantitative differences. Undoubtedly, the hypothetical reasoning adduced stands in need of special theoretical elaboration, but for now, at the level of a hypothesis, we shall proceed from the premise stated. Let us add only that the supposition of a hierarchy of natural laws has its own particular meaning, but which laws in this hierarchy — the thermodynamic or the systemic — occupy which place in the diachrony of the becoming of the cosmos, is a matter for special investigation.

Of course, living creatures cannot be excluded from energetic processes. However, within the framework of socionics one can suppose the existence of a more general process, which can be designated as material-energo-informational metabolism (MEIM). The generalized phenomenology of this process comes down to the transfer and transformation of substance, energy, and information. Therefore, in speaking of a generalized thermodynamic equilibrium, one has to keep in mind a three-component equilibrium, an equilibrium bearing a material-energo-informational character. It is quite plausible that any process in the universe and its result are based on the dynamic equilibrium of these three ultimate entities of our world.

In biology there are known species whose life is close to the “ideal of maximal equilibriumness” and which, over the course of not merely thousands but millions of years, almost do not change, maintaining maximal equilibrium with the environment. Among such species are, for example, certain species of mosses and lichens, deep-sea mollusks, and even ants. These species live in very stable conditions. In such cases the structure of the creatures’ psyche may be maximally simple, which is expressed by the presence in their psyche of rigid programs of behavior fixed in instincts. However, a more complex notion of thermodynamic equilibrium — an anticipatory equilibrium, that is, the readiness of a creature to adapt to sharp changes of the habitat, and further, the development of the ability to live in a wide range of conditions — requires, apparently, a more complex arrangement of the psyche than that which is necessary merely to maintain equilibrium within narrow limits. Still, this “complexity” may be minimally necessary, provided only that in the corresponding structure there are links ensuring the formation of new survival programs.

As initial suppositions concerning a psyche capable of forming programs of anticipatory equilibrium,⁶ let us accept that the psyche must possess the ability: 1) to perceive the influence of the environment; 2) to evaluate this influence; 3) to work out a program of adaptation to this influence; 4) on the basis of the constructed program, to form the behavior of the living creature in the habitat; 5) to check the formed programs for their adequacy to the parameters of the environment. These abilities must be ensured by corresponding functions. It is precisely to these requirements that the four psychic functions singled out by Jung correspond: perception, feeling, intuition, thinking. These psychic functions can be called primary. Of course, it is necessary to investigate the fundamental status of these functions, and it is not excluded that there may exist other, no less fundamental, functions; but for the task of our investigation the four mentioned are for now sufficient.

The influence of the environment on the living creature can be perceived by a system of receptors. This condition is necessary, but it is not sufficient, since the influence may be so strong that it can destroy the receptors, and therefore the living creature must possess a system of defense and resistance capable of withstanding the influence and, in some informational sense, “filtering” it. Both these systems can be regarded as a single whole in the sense that they must be located at the input of the psyche. Behavior must be carried out by functions located at the output of the psyche. So this group of functions, forming the input and output of the psyche, can be designated as external.

Since the input influence must be evaluated, directly after the input functions there must be located the evaluative functions. At the vital level such a function is the ability to form an emotional reaction (E), and at the mental level the ability to form a relation (e) to the influence. However, it is by no means obligatory to hold that a relation is something more conscious and more realized in comparison with an emotional reaction. Both these functions are closely connected with each other, and the product of one of them can easily induce the switching-on of the other. The difference between them is that the emotional reaction is predominantly directed outward, and thereby can be characterized as extraverted, while a relation predominantly bears the character of an internal signal and therefore can be regarded as an introverted product.

After the subjective evaluation of the influence of the environment has been formed, an internal, subjective model of the environment can be built. The subjectivity of this model is determined by the fact that it rests on subjective reactions and evaluations of the environment’s influence, and to one and the same influence of the environment not only individuals of different species of living creatures react differently, but so do representatives of one and the same species. For example, different people react differently to cold, heat, or rainy weather, prefer different food, and perceive differently one and the same words addressed to them.

The model of the environment represents the generalized experience of the creature, expressed in internal codes. Besides the individual model, there can apparently also exist a more general, “frame” model, which is the generalized experience of the species, genus, family, up to the level common to all that is living. The internal model of the environment gives the living creature the possibility of orienting itself in the environment and points to the potential possibilities of the environment, and together with this to the optimal forms of behavior in the habitat. Thus here one can speak of a combination of an internal model of the external environment and programs of behavior in this environment. The blocks of functions, on whose work depends the formation of reactions to the environment’s influence and the construction of the internal model of the external environment, can be regarded as internal.

Taking into account what has been said, one can give a more expanded representation of the internal structure of the psyche (fig. 3.02) than that in fig. 3.01. The four blocks of the psyche (fig. 3.02) are: the block of perception; the block of reaction and evaluation; the block of representation, or modeling, of the environment; the block of production, or of productive behavior.

Since the influence on the part of the environment upon the living creature can be split into two flows: 1) the negative pressure of the environment, the threatening influence, S (painful, dangerous, incompatible with life) and 2) the positive influence of the environment, resource support, s (pleasant, useful), the input block, or the block of perception, and after it all the remaining blocks as well, can be divided into two parts, which will represent generalized psychic functions that are subfunctions of the generalized function of survival in the surrounding environment. This next level of detailing of the structure of the psyche is presented in fig. 3.03. It is precisely at this level of detailing of the structure of the psyche that socionics stops.

Fig. 3.03. Further detailing of the structure of the psyche. The level of the eight generalized psychic functions.

Block	Negative-pressure branch (S)	Resource branch (s)
Input block / block of perception	Perception of the negative pressure of the environment, the threatening influence, S (painful)	Perception of the positive influence of the environment, resource support, s (pleasant)
Block of reaction formation	Negative reaction, formation of a critical relation to the negative external influence, e (bad)	Positive reaction, pleasure, formation of positive emotions in response to the offer of a resource, E (good)
Block of modeling the environment	Formation of an internal model of the external environment, orientation in the potential possibilities of the surroundings, I (understanding and knowing what to do)	Formation of a stable intention and expectation with respect to the resource supplied by the environment, i (a set toward what to spend time on)
Block of behavior	Program of relations with the environment, informational probing of the environment, checking the environment’s reaction to one’s presence in it and one’s influence on it, “the exit from within outward,” checking thermodynamic equilibrium, which here coincides with obtaining feedback, l (probing communication)	Programs of structuring and expending energy, programs of performing useful work for the sake of obtaining a resource, since the environment provides me such a possibility, L (I do)

Another approach to the construction and interpretation of the eight-functional structure of the psyche is presented in the works of V. D. Ermak [2]. At the foundation of his constructions he places systems theory and, without appeal to thermodynamics, proceeding only from the systems-theoretic concept of feedback, of controlling and executive blocks, first obtains a two-block structure, and then establishes four functions in each of these blocks, obtaining an eight-block structure of the psyche. Without denying the legitimacy of such an approach, let us note only that it acceptably explains an already-ready structure of the psyche, but the very becoming of this structure lies beyond its bounds. Systems-theoretic laws operate within the framework of existing systems, but the primary formation of systems occurs under the action of the more general thermodynamic laws, which, in some sense, exist prior to the appearance of complexly organized structures. The key concept of systems theory, “feedback,” is apparently a form-generating expression of the principle of thermodynamic equilibrium. Therefore Aušra Augustinavičiūtė’s thermodynamic reasoning, applied by her to the description of the functioning of the model of the psyche and of the process of dualization, where she uses the image of a four-stroke internal combustion engine, appears not merely appropriate but quite adequate. This image quite well expresses the character of the manifestation of the laws of thermodynamics with respect to a productive energetic process. Let us recall this reasoning [4].

Aušra Augustinavičiūtė proceeds from the premise that any productive⁷ process — considered, let us add on our own part, from the thermodynamic point of view — is an energetic process, and, in this sense, passes through four stages, or four energetic strokes.

Aušra regarded the psychic functions forming the structure of the model as half-strokes of a single psychic process. She held that the process of processing a concrete portion of information passes successively through four thermodynamic stages. This is a very bold and, by physical notions, quite plausible supposition. Here one can naturally ask: what relation does thermodynamics have to psychology? It certainly does have one, if the substrate of psychic processes is a certain, so far hypothetical, energoinformational field, and if the psyche is in one way or another connected with energetic processes. This is a good task for experimenters — to detect this field and to assess the applicability of thermodynamic concepts to the work of the psyche. And sooner or later both the hypothetical field and the applicability of the laws of thermodynamics to it will be detected. Too much converges on this, but a direct scientific confirmation of this idea does not yet exist. However, even the very idea of information metabolism lying at the foundation of socionics, being energoinformational, presupposes the subordination of psychic processes to the most general laws of nature, which are precisely the laws of thermodynamics.

Aušra Augustinavičiūtė adapted the thermodynamic cycle of the internal combustion engine to the description and explanation of the maximally generalized process of the processing of information by the structures of the psyche. Despite the apparent simplicity, mechanicity, or even primitiveness of such an explanation, there is a deep meaning in it, since such an explanation reflects the manifestation of the most fundamental laws of the transformation of energy studied in thermodynamics. These are laws whose action precedes not only any forms of the manifestation of the psyche, but any forms of physical phenomenology whatsoever. The full thermodynamic cycle can be understood as a primary energetic machine, a primary energetic automaton, an energetic engine, onto which a secondary informational process may be superimposed, capable in this case of acquiring the characteristics of a subject. If the concept of the subject can be reduced to the concept of spontaneous activity, then the concept of a thermodynamic engine is a worthy candidate for the physical basis of subjectivity. If to such an engine one adds informational diversity, ensuring the non-uniqueness of choice, then one will be able to speak of a prototype⁸ of a subject. One can also suppose that there exists not one but at least several varieties of such engines, which would provide a greater choice for the emergence of subjectivity; but here the physicists must have their say.

Energetic engines are part of physical reality and can be embodied in various and diverse forms. The reduction of the living to energetic engines is not formal but substantive, since it points to the possibility of the existence of a perfectly comprehensible physical structure, capable, under some additional conditions, of becoming an intermediary between the physical aspect of the world and its psychic components. Of course, it is not excluded that there exist energetic fields not yet discovered by science,⁹ which are equivalent to the primary state of life and on the basis of which energetic engines too can be formed. Possibly such engines are, properly speaking, the simplest living objects, whose complexification in the process of evolution is merely a matter of the habitat.

The full thermodynamic cycle consists of four steps, which Aušra calls half-strokes. From the point of view of socionics, it is important that these half-strokes are energetically provided for, and hence can be understood as the rudiments, the embryos, of functional activity. Each thermodynamic step, thus, can be represented as a generalized function, having not only its own particular product but also its own material-energetic organ, however virtual and primitive it may be. At some stage of becoming these thermodynamic organs may not have a rigid material form, but the functional capacity itself to generate a product turns out to be the criterion of the existence of such an organ, and as the product is concretized in the process of evolutionary adaptation, the organs themselves, the material-energetic bearers of the functions, acquire concrete material forms.

The first step in the thermodynamic cycle under consideration is the formation of an initial energoinformational potential, which represents an energoinformational complex — that is, a combination of a material-energetic carrier with informational modulations. The first stroke is the accumulation of an energoinformational reserve, the formation of a potential energoinformational base. This is the information selected by the subject which, in the process of its processing in the psyche, will be transformed into a personal model of the habitat.

The notion of energoinformational complexes does not contradict the contemporary scientific concepts according to which information does not exist separately from a material carrier; and in psychic processes such carriers may be neurohumoral or other energetic flows in the living organism. The formation of the initial energoinformational potential is directly connected with the work of the organism’s sensory system, which at this level is understood in the most generalized form — it is the primary ability of the living to perceive information. Science knows a great diversity of modalities of sensory perception by living organisms, which is not limited to the five sense organs, and, all the more, not to the three representative systems considered in NLP. Astonishing is the very ability of the living to perceive information coming from the habitat. The simplest manifestation of such perception is irritability, which represents not perception itself but already a reaction to it. In studying this peculiarity of the living, the impression is created that the living is capable of using any modality adequate to the conditions of existence in order to form a suitable organ of perception. Apparently, the simplest form and the simplest condition of perception is the direct contact of the living with a foreign body, field, or medium, when factors of any nature — chemical or physical — may be brought into play. But, it seems, at the socionic level of generalization this difference is not essential. It is important, however, that the living could use any chemical or physical parameters, including any combinations of them, for the formation of organs of sensory detection, which is what we observe in living nature. The most generalized forms of the parameters of the influence of the habitat upon the living should apparently be considered harm and benefit — or, what is the same, but expressed in other terms, destruction bringing death, and a resource that can be used for survival. Thus, at the level of socionic generalization, what is at issue here is a generalized organ of perception, a system of detection giving the possibility of distinguishing the dangerous from the useful, the destructive and deadly from the resource capable of ensuring the continuation of life.

Naturally, before some information begins to be processed by the psyche, it must be perceived, which gives grounds for singling out this step into an independent functional unit. It is precisely perception, or the reception of information, that is what occurs simultaneously on the first maximally generalized functions of the mental and vital ring. The energoinformational complexes accumulated on these functions, in their aggregate, become the primary potential, the primary equivalent of the habitat. This is the primary equivalent of objective reality — that is, of something that turns out to be a source of danger and of resource, which cannot be created or reproduced within the living organism without recourse to that which is located beyond its bounds. The generalized peculiarities of this informational potential are determined by the IA of these functions. And here one can speak of the specificity of the socionic approach to the study of the psyche, when, at a high level of abstraction, quite definite informational sides of various manifestations of the psyche are detected and investigated. This stroke of IM is carried out by two functions: the loading influence of the environment is processed by the adaptive-loading function (ALF), and the resource influence by the expectational-resource function (ERF).

At the second step of the thermodynamic process under consideration, the informational potential that has formed is prepared for its transition into kinetic form, is prepared for a transformation that will conclude with the creation of a subjective dynamized reflection of the external environment. For this the potential form of the existence of the energoinformational complex must be requested, or mobilized. This mobilization also constitutes the content of the second step, carried out by the conservative-critical (CCF) and motivational-mobilizational (MMF) functions in accordance with the thematics of their IA. Here by mobilization is understood the vectorization of the potential, its direction toward the supposed result, which, from the psychological point of view, is assessed as motivation. In order to be transformed into a product that will be offered to the environment as a response to its influence, the potential base must undergo further processing. For this it must, first of all, be mobilized. This means that it must not simply be requested, but must “hook” such mechanisms of the psyche as transform the further processing of information into an imperative process. This process can be understood as a generalized motivation for the further continuation of the information-metabolic transformation of the material present in the potential base. If at the first step this material bore a relatively neutral character, since it had been introduced into the structure of the psyche by the sensory system in the process of contact with the environment as objective reality, then at the second stage this material is subjected to captious subjective criticism and selection.

The third stroke is the transition of the energoinformational complex from potential into kinetic form. At this stage the mobilized material is brought to the level of an informational model of the habitat and is the internal response of the psyche to the influence of this environment. In the philosophical plane this is the level of world-perception, world-sensation, worldview, world-understanding, which of course is not one and the same, but at the level of socionic generalization can be reduced to an internal model of the environment. However, now this model must prove its adequacy. Prove that the psyche has taken into account the peculiarities of the environment, has learned, and is now capable of interacting with it effectively. Of course, this may be only one of the stages of adaptation, but for the solution of a concrete task it may turn out to be sufficient. At the third step the mobilized energoinformational complex acquires, as Aušra holds, a kinetic form, or the form of active movement. As far as I can understand, this active movement is nothing other than the creative process of transforming the mobilized informational potential into an internal model of the external environment. This phase corresponds to the joint work of the program-potential (PPF) and imperative-temporal (ITF) functions. It is precisely in this phase that the characteristic peculiarities of the human personality manifest themselves.

And finally, at the fourth step, the step of realization, as the result of the creative transformation the final product of the information-metabolic cycle is formed. This phase is carried out by the work of the communicative-probing (CPF) and realizational-technological (RTF) functions. The fourth stroke is realization, which in the most general sense can be understood as the obtaining of a product confirming and ensuring further survival. At the fourth stroke the internal model of the environment is checked for adequacy to the conditions of survival in the environment. For this a probing signal and productive behavior are formed. The probing signal is formed in the mental ring, and productive behavior in the vital ring. The signal has a predominantly orientational, and behavior a predominantly material-energetic, character.

This is a maximally generalized description, carried out on a thermodynamic basis, of the semantics of the work of the psyche as an energoinformational complex. Thus the psyche, as a thermodynamic machine, is provided with the automatism of cyclical processes. These cyclical processes possess their own informational component, upon which are superimposed the informational components of the psychic functions and the IA corresponding to them.

The obtained final product, again in the most general sense, can be regarded as an increment (Δ) of the initial potential, and the whole process will (as a tendency) repeat. At the same time three cases are possible: 1) Δ > 0, 2) Δ = 0, 3) Δ < 0. In the first case the psyche and the physical object connected with it will begin to develop in the direction of the complexification of their structure and of an ever greater adaptation to an ever wider range of conditions of existence. In the second case the psyche and the physical body will preserve the initial level of adaptation, and in the third case both the psyche and the body will begin to degrade until they can establish a new level of equilibrium with the environment.

Such a conceptual basis, resting on the fundamental propositions of thermodynamics, being minimal, is at the same time sufficient for explaining the process of the hypothetical formation of the psyche as an organ of the adaptation of the living creature to the peculiarities of the habitat. Most likely many details will be far more complex, but at the level of ultimate generalization the proposed conceptual scheme allows one to represent, in general outline, the functioning of the psyche in the surrounding environment and its role in the adaptation of the living organism.

From the point of view considered, the environment provides the “psyche-body” system both with positive reinforcement, or the primary resource, and creates a negative pressure compelling the system to adapt.

Leaving in fig. 3.03 only the symbols of the IA, we obtain fig. 3.04. In this model of the psyche, as applied to the human being, the PPF and CPF turn out to be the most conscious. This can be explained by the fact that their semantics is determined by the “most intellectual” IA — extraverted intuition and introverted thinking. However, to the question of what consciousness is, psychophysiology for now gives no essential answer.¹⁰ The program and communicative functions in Model “A” become the calling card of the personality, and in order to pass from the thermodynamic model to Model “A,” one must fold each of the parallel columns into a ring, as Aušra Augustinavičiūtė did. And then we obtain the model presented in fig. 3.05. This is the Model “A” of the intuitive-logical extravert (ILE), in which the semantics of the functions, determined earlier, turns out to be in unambiguous correspondence with the semantics of the IA. Here it is appropriate to add one more hypothesis to the effect that the semantics of the functions remains the same for all TIMs, namely such as it is for the ILE. Thus one can formulate the final conclusion concerning the semantics of the functions of Model “A”: THE SEMANTICS OF THE FUNCTIONS OF MODEL “A” CORRESPONDS TO THE SEMANTICS OF THE INFORMATION ASPECTS CONNECTED WITH THE CORRESPONDING FUNCTIONS IN THE MODEL OF THE ILE.

Now one can formulate a hypothesis about the origin of the various TIMs and their whole diversity from the primary TIM ILE.

ALL TIMs ARE OBTAINED FROM THE TIM ILE ON THE BASIS OF, AND WITH THE PRESERVATION OF, ITS SEMANTIC STRUCTURE, UNDER THE REGULAR SUBSTITUTION OF ITS IA SUCCESSIVELY BY ALL THE REMAINING ONES AS THE RESULT OF TOTAL SOCIALIZATION.

Here total socialization can be understood as the filling of all social-informational niches. This process can be represented in the form of a model that can be called the “Bottle of the socion” (3.06). This name has its own history, connected with the fact that I first showed this configuration in the form of a model made of two plastic bottles with their bottoms cut off. The bottles were inserted one into the other and mounted on a single axis in the form of a wooden rod passing through the necks.

This configuration represents two cylindrical surfaces inserted one into the other. The inner cylinder represents the semantic foundation of the functions, and the outer corresponds to the informational filling of the functions. In the state shown, the configuration corresponds to the TIM ILE, in which the semantic designations of the functions and the designations of the IA coincide. If now the informational (outer) cylinder is turned by one step clockwise, then with the function of potential possibilities I there will be aligned the IA l, and, taking into account the coordinated displacement of all the remaining functions, the model of the ILE will turn into the model of the logical-sensory introvert (LSI). By setting the displacement of the informational cylinder relative to the semantic cylinder in various ways, and also by changing the orientation of the informational cylinder relative to the semantic one, one can obtain the models of all TIMs. One can suppose that to all these mechanically describable processes correspond processes of the quantization of the informational field relative to the semantic one. The question of how these processes are substantively realized as the result of social evolution requires special study.

If this is so, then from this one can draw the conclusion that the structure of the model of the psyche of the ILE was the base one for the human psyche, and only at some stages of the becoming of the human personality did the remaining modifications of the psychic model appear, with the full preservation of its structure and the positional semantics of the functions. In this case one can assert that all people primarily represent one type, namely, the type of Don Quixote, upon which other typological “overtones” may be superimposed, creating noticeable differences in the behavior of individual personalities. In favor of this reasoning may testify the fact that the human being differs from all the other animals, alongside all its other species adaptations, by the specialized cognition of the laws of nature, which is precisely the characterological distinction of the TIM Don Quixote. It is interesting to note also that dual to cognition is consumption, which can be considered the characterological distinction of the TIM Dumas, the dual of Don Quixote. This hypothesis stands in need of additional investigations.

Let us note an important formal moment, connected with the fact that in the model irrational and rational, as well as extraverted and introverted, functions alternate, and this alternation is deductively grounded.

Returning to the theme of the energetic substrate,¹¹ let us turn our attention to the fact that the sequence of the transfer of control in the system of zodiacal meridians also points to the alternation of irrational and rational functions, which can be seen in the base scheme of their sequence, established in Chinese medicine and directly observed in practice: the meridians of the Lungs (Lu), Large Intestine (Li), Stomach (Mg), Pancreas and Spleen (Mp), Heart (He), Small Intestine (Si), Bladder (Bl), Kidneys (Ni), Pericardium (Pe), Triple Heater (Tw), Gallbladder (Go), Liver (Le). Combining the corresponding yin and yang meridians in pairs, and also furnishing them with a socionic marker, we obtain the following scheme: l(Lu+Li)₁ – s(Mg+Mp)₂ – e(He+Si)₃ – S(Bl+Ni)₄ – E(Pe+Tw)₅ – L(Go+Le)₆. In this scheme, first come all the introverted, and then all the extraverted aspects, and in the first part one can also see the alternation of rational and irrational aspects. A violation of this regularity we see between the two last aspects. But then, we did not include in this series the extraverted and introverted intuition, to which correspond the anterior (Du) and posterior (Je) median channels. In the scheme they too, in accordance with Aušra’s idea, are represented by their two parts — the trunk part (1) and the head part (2). Let us do this purely formally, inserting the corresponding meridians so as to preserve the alternation of the “-nalities.”

I(Du1+Du2) – L(Go+Le) – i(Je1+Je2) – l(Lu+Li) – s(Mg+Mp) – e(He+Si) – S(Bl+Ni) – E(Pe+Tw)

Such a “corrected” scheme could suggest the places of the junction of the zodiacal meridians with the anterior and posterior median meridians. To what degree such a scheme corresponds to reality — information at present is lacking, but this is a good theme for empirical verification.

Inserting the meridional complexes into Model “A,” we obtain its interpretation, presented in fig. 3.07.

Fig. 3.07. Model “A” in combination with the meridional complexes.


S(Bl+Ni) — ALF	s(Mg+Mp) — ERF
e(He+Si) — CCF	E(Pe+Tw) — MMF
I(Du1+Du2) — PPF	i(Je1+Je) — ITF
l(Lu+Li) — CPF	L(Go+Le) — RTF

One should also take into account that although the semantic archetypes for the semantic field of the environment (the ontological field) and the semantic field of the functions remain the same, in each of the semantic fields they acquire particular shades of meaning, determined by the peculiarities of the semantics of these fields. And therefore the same primary symbols in the semantic field of the psychic functions must be comprehended in the key of this field. The results of such a semantization are presented in table 3.04.

In table 3.04, column 1 presents the functions, and column 2 the semantic symbol exactly corresponding to the IA in the model of Don Quixote. Here the names of some of the functions coincide with or are close to those introduced by various socionists, beginning with Aušra Augustinavičiūtė, but some differ, which is connected with the refinement carried out of their semantics. Let us emphasize that, in any case, what is at issue is only a refinement of the semantics established by Aušra Augustinavičiūtė, a confirmation of it by other methodological means, and not any kind of total redefinition of it.

Table 3.04

		Semantics and name of the function
1/1	S	Perception of the forceful pressure of the environment and adaptation to it. Adaptive-loading function. Function of the structuring of efforts.
1/2	s	Readiness to accept a resource. Expectational-resource function. Function of the structuring of consumption.
2/1	e	Formation of a critical relation to informational pressure. Conservative-critical function. Function of the structuring of relations.
2/2	E	Emotional reaction to the received resource. Motivational-mobilizational function. Function of the structuring of evaluation.
3/1	I	Model of the environment, potential possibilities, program. Program-potential function. Function of the modeling of the habitat. Function of the structuring of knowledge.
3/2	i	Imperative of concentration on the realization of programs. Imperative-temporal function. Function of the structuring of time.
4/1	l	Communication, probing of the environment. Communicative-probing function. Obtaining feedback at the level of introverted thinking. Function of the structuring of information about the environment.
4/2	L	Physical realization, obtaining a product. Realizational-technological function. Obtaining feedback at the level of extraverted thinking — physical labor. Function of the structuring of the environment.

The name of function 1/1 differs from the name that has become established in the Kyiv school of socionics, since its semantics is defined on a different theoretical basis. In accordance with the proposed hypothesis, it is supposed that this function switches on when it becomes necessary to withstand the pressure of the environment, but this withstanding is carried out within the framework of the norms current in the local environment of the bearer of the TIM, by which, properly, the name “normative” can be justified. However, this name reflects the external semantic layer of this function. Of course, the bearer of a TIM somehow takes into account the normative side of the withstanding, but this does not constitute the basis of his manifestations along this function. As an example here may serve the resolute forceful resistance that ILE (Il) and IEE (Ie) can offer when the necessity arises to withstand aggression, although on average aggressiveness is not characteristic of them. SLE (Sl) and SEE (Se), being potentially aggressive, in the case of the necessity to withstand a pressure exceeding their physical capacities, resort to technical means and methods possessing heightened potential possibilities. EII, being in the highest degree humane beings, in the case of the necessity to withstand the pressure of the environment resort to refined argumentation (in the broad sense of the word) and devote much time to increasing their own erudition. At the foundation of the semantics of this function lies the archetype of extraverted sensing S, one of the projections of which is the concept of defense and aggression, recourse to which, in the case of an extreme influence of the environment, becomes a means of adaptation.

At the foundation of the semantics of function 1/2 lies the archetype of introverted sensing s, one of the projections of which is the concept of resource, of a positive reserve necessary to the living creature for survival. One of the peculiarities of a resource is its expendable character and the necessity of replenishment, which is expected as not covered by internal capacities. This is what is reflected in the choice of terms for the name. The name of function 1/2 can be only partially justified by the term “suggestive,” since along this function the bearer of the type expects information of a definite sort and is ready to accept it as a resource important for himself. But suggestion, in its manipulative meaning, distorts the generalized sense of this socionic function. Therefore one ought to expand the name “suggestive” to “suggestive-resource,” since this function is tuned to the search for and obtaining of a resource and is in a state of expecting it (expectation). It is precisely for this reason that, for manipulative purposes, it may be used as suggestive; however, its constructive use, presumably, is nonetheless connected with the expectation and consumption of a resource. Therefore I nonetheless incline to call this function “expectational-resource,” and to correlate suggestion with the whole SUPERID block. One must also take into account the special significance of expectation in the life of the individual, which is far from reducible to the simple situations when one has to wait for something, for example, to wait one’s turn. It is curious to note that even in this case what is at issue is the expectation of some resource, even if in a maximally generalized form. However, expectation in the structure of the psyche, as becomes clear from the analysis of Model “A,” is just as important and generalized a function as, for example, the formation of internal models of the habitat. Expectation is one of the elements that makes the human being a social creature. Expectation, like the other functions, has its positive and negative side. The positive side consists precisely in the fact that the individual is compelled in one way or another to expect resource support from society or its individual representatives. The negative side of this function manifests itself in the manipulative resource of expectation, when one person expects from another the fulfillment of programs not advantageous to that other.

The name conservative-critical function for function 2/1 is proposed instead of the name “place of least resistance.” This is done, above all, in connection with the semantic compatibility of the terms. The name “place of least resistance” for this function is quite suitable, but it expresses a certain comparison of this function with the others, and not its own peculiarities. It proved itself well in describing model “AJ,” but in the significantly more developed Model “A,” this name looks, rather, like an additional characteristic, a certain metaphorical image, and therefore may quite justifiably be replaced by an essential name. In the new name a taking-into-account of both meanings of the concept “critical” is presupposed: both as connected with the negative evaluation of the impulses arriving at it, and in the sense of a place of dangerous tension, quite corresponding to the place of least tension. At the foundation of the semantics of this function lies the archetype of introverted emotioning e, one of the projections of which is the concept of relation, including critical relation. This function expresses the relation of the living creature to the negative influence of the environment. The semantics of the negative influence presupposes a critical relation to it too.

In the name of function 2/2 one ought to reflect the fact that it is key in the formation of physiological tonus and in switching the bearer of the type into a working state, and this it is natural to understand as mobilization [4], which is preceded by a definite motivation. One must take into account also that this function is an indicator of the degree of satisfaction of needs and, from the very earliest childhood, preserves its infantile character. This determines the fact that along it a person is distinguished by timidity, and that it acutely needs support from outside, and is therefore maximally subject to manipulation. However, since manipulation is a negative and perverted form of relations, to introduce its features into the name of the function would apparently be, at the least, unethical. Taking into account what has been said, one can propose for it the double name “motivational-mobilizational.” Along this function the bearer of a TIM responds with an involuntary emotional discharge if he finds himself in the flow of the corresponding IA. Thus EII (eI) is delighted by beauty (recall the famous “beauty will save the world”), while EIE (Ei) become emotionally excited at a demonstration of force. This part of the phenomenology of the function is quite well reflected by the name “activational,” adopted in the Kyiv school, but the name “mobilizational” more sharply expresses its specialization of switching a person into imperative concentration on the working process. The difference between the concepts “activational” and “mobilizational” can be understood as the difference between a simple increase of energy and a directed change of the energetic level. At the foundation of the semantics of this function lies the archetype of extraverted emotioning E, one of the projections of which is a positively colored emotional state, since with this is connected the semantics of positive resource reinforcement. It is easy to understand that in the case of not receiving the expected resource, the emotional reaction will be negative, and the supposed immersion in concentration on the working process will not occur. It is obvious that there exists the possibility of manipulative control along this function.

The name of function 3/1 partially coincides with the name proposed by Aušra Augustinavičiūtė. It appears appropriate to designate this function not only as program but also as potential, since to this function falls the main characteristic of the potential possibilities (PP) of the bearer of the type. At the foundation of the semantics of this function lies the archetype of extraverted intuition I, one of the projections of which is the concept of potential possibilities. The optimal variant of the self-realization of the type is connected with this function.

The name of function 3/2 as imperative-temporal function expresses the semantics established by Aušra Augustinavičiūtė. At least, this is how she uses this function in her descriptions of the socionic types. This function is connected with the imperative structuring of time, and this is reflected in the proposed name. Thus, for example, EII (eI) imperatively spends his time on that which absorbs the negative emotional flow coming from other people, while for EIE (Ei) the main object of concentration is the establishment of relations. At the foundation of the semantics of this function lies the archetype of introverted intuition i, one of the projections of which is the concept of the sense of time. In psychology this sense is not singled out into a separate category, however to it, as the perception of the duration of temporal intervals, numerous experimental investigations are devoted. And this is understandable, since it is a most important parameter of many kinds of professional activity.

The name of function 4/1 partially coincides with the name that Aušra Augustinavičiūtė had at one of the stages of her searches. The name “creative” for this function is justified by the fact that the subject, along this function, tries to show his possibilities in the best light, which mobilizes his creative activity. However, this name reflects, so to say, the external layer of the semantics of this function, the role side of its manifestation. At a deeper level this is the function by means of which a communicative channel with the habitat is established and the degree of adequacy of the model of the environment to the habitat is checked. By means of this function a probing of the environment is carried out with the aim of obtaining operative information about its state, which corresponds to the orienting reflex. On this basis its full functional name is proposed: communicative-probing function (CPF). At the foundation of the semantics of this function lies the archetype of introverted logic l, one of the projections of which is the concept of speech, of language, and of the very process of verbal communication. Another essential projection of this archetype is the concept of space, of space as the introverted image of the environment. Therefore it can also be understood as the exit into space, above all into communicative space. Here the psyche establishes an introverted contact with the surrounding environment, which is precisely the space of the individual’s existence.

The name of function 4/2 expresses the semantics established by Aušra Augustinavičiūtė, but differs from the one presupposed in the Kyiv school, where this function is considered demonstrative. Undoubtedly, it may be used as demonstrative, but this is a secondary possibility. As an example here may serve the behavior of the ILE (Il), distinguished by high working capacity and, at the vital level, considering it his duty to perform physical work with quality when the necessity for this arises, above all as a variety of service. And the main product of the EIE (Ei) is the formation of new potential possibilities, and this may indeed look demonstrative, but the demonstrativeness here corresponds to the quality of the product they put out, and is not something manipulative. Is the ideal¹² product — the creation of a new potential by such representatives of this TIM as Chaliapin, Charlie Chaplin, Arkady Raikin, and others — merely demonstrativeness? Demonstrativeness as a variety of boasting or showing off does not correspond to the meaning of this function. This is an honest and difficult result, which can be attained only by intense work. Without such work, the claims and advances made along function 4/1 will remain merely at the level of talk. At the foundation of the semantics of this function lies the archetype of extraverted thinking L, one of the projections of which is productive manufacturing activity, the ideal or material product of which is put out into the surrounding environment, becoming a source of resource for others, and through those others for oneself as well. This is one of the reasons why this function is motivated by other people. If such motivation does not occur, then the person does not know what to occupy himself with.

The eight functions of Model “A,” depending on their position in the model, can be divided into seven regular subsets. Three of them are singled out explicitly in the works of Aušra Augustinavičiūtė — these are the functions active and passive, depending on their position in the mental or vital ring; contacting or inert, depending on the degree of interaction with the environment; and productive or accepting, depending on whether the function is one that puts out or one that receives. Indications of three more subsets can be found in [4] — these are the program-potential, the evaluative-situational, and the verbal-laborious. However, at least purely combinatorially, there must also exist a seventh group of functions. From the general assessment of the semantics of the functions entering into this blocking, it can be called the object-relative.

One can speak of the primary semantics of such blockings. This means that the functional semantics of such blockings is identical for all types (and people), and differences exist only in the aspectual part of the functions. This primary semantics is what is expressed in the name of the blocking. In order to visualize the combinatorics under consideration, let us present seven schemes of Model “A,” where by identical letters are designated the functions relating to one pole of the corresponding blocking (see table 3.05). Of course, one must take into account that only regular blockings are considered. Purely formally this means that between the mental and vital ring there must, first, be some kind of symmetry, and, second, the number of identical letters in each ring must be equal to four or two. Of course, these two formal requirements can be interpreted substantively as well. Let us note at once that the sides of each of the seven blockings stand in the relation of core and shell, so that one and the same function in some blockings may have a “core,” and in others a “shell” semantics, and only one PPF in any blockings belongs to the core. This regularity can be understood in the sense that the true core of the personality is precisely the PPF. Moreover, here one can see the image of the seven shells with which the core of the personality is covered.

Let us consider the semantics of the blockings in more detail.

1. Mental–vital. Into this blocking enter the following two semantic¹³ groups of functions: IlSe – sEiL. The first group sets the goals and the means of their evaluation, and the second the ways of attaining the goals and the sets of consciousness in doing so. The goals are determined by extraverted intuition and sensing. Why? Because these aspects set the image of generalized values. What precisely is a value for a TIM is determined by the corresponding typological IA. The aspects of introverted logic and of relation serve for the rational processing and correction of the goal. On the contrary, the aspects of extraverted logic and emotioning set the generalized means of attaining the goals. The first sets the technological, and the second the energetic provisioning of this process. Introverted intuition and sensing determine the temporal and consumer parameters of the process of attaining the goal. The names of the rings are justified by the composition of the semantic groups of functions.

From a purely formal point of view, the mental–vital functions are singled out by their belonging to the mental or vital ring. Aušra sought other definitions as well of the functions entering into these rings. One of such definitions is connected with the opposition of the concepts “active–passive.” Active Aušra called the mental functions because here, as she held, the image of action is formed and, as it were, the first step is taken in the direction of the goal. Moreover, the formed image of action is to a significant degree conscious or, if necessary, can be relatively easily made conscious. The functions of the vital ring are assigned to the category of passive. This is because they only work off the programs formed on the corresponding functions of the mental ring, and represent sequences of bodily impulses leading to a purposeful physical action. Thus the programs of the PPF are transformed into the state of concentration on their fulfillment in the ITF. Analogously, the verbally presented descriptions of the final product on the CPF are transformed into the final product itself on the RTF.

However, the concepts “activity–passivity” as applied to the functions bear a relative character. Aušra says: “As for the mental activity of that same mental ring, it is productive and follows the automatic activity of the dual’s vital ring.” Aušra holds that what occurs in the external world simultaneously gives birth to a thought in the mental ring and to motor reactions in the vital. And further she adds: “The motor activity of the vital ring is just as automatic as the mental activity of the mental” [4]. That is, in this statement both rings are, in a certain sense, acknowledged as active, but this activity is automatic. Such activity, in view of what has been said, has to be understood simply as a kind of excitedness, as the presence of some work in these rings, and not at all as a manifestation of initiative. Therefore, it seems, there are no grounds to call these rings active or passive; instead let us fix for them the concepts mental and vital, which most adequately express the semantics of these rings. Moreover, there are no semantic grounds for ascribing to one of these rings a predominant activity or passivity.

The notion that material objects can enter into the structure of a psychic function significantly expands its semantics, since from a purely internal activity it acquires a relation not merely to external manifestations but also to the relatively independent existence of the products of these external manifestations. Such an expansive understanding of a function, with the inclusion in its field of materialized fragments of reality, may seem not to correspond to its introverted psychic status, but this is precisely the case when a theoretical prejudice, rigidly opposing the ideal and the material, the introverted and the extraverted, becomes a barrier on the path to the comprehension of reality. In the case of materialized products — concrete things: a cooked dinner, a sewn dress, a built house, or an assembled automobile — although their functional character is obvious, it nonetheless looks like a miracle that they are the product of psychic activity. Here the function, as its own production, continues to preserve its immanent meaning even in the form of a quite separate and separated thing. But this meaning was included in the definition of the function, when we said that a function is both the process of the work of an element of the structure of the psyche, and its product.¹⁴ But if for the ideal product such an understanding of the function is perceived as natural, then in the case of a materialized product a protest may arise against the assignment of concrete things to the sphere of the psychic function. And in vain! Such a protest is no more than the realization of some semi-theoretical¹⁵ prejudice, retaining control over the comprehension of theoretical constructs and located somewhere in the thickets of the scientist’s subconscious. One must also not forget that in socionics we are dealing with one of the forms of ultimate theoretical generalization.

However, such a protest may not arise in the case of an ideal — that is, a non-materialized — product. Into this category fall such “objects” as the performance of an aria by Chaliapin or of a comic role by Charlie Chaplin. Here too belongs the educational activity of Makarenko, transforming homeless thieves and hooligans into decent people. To this same class of objects belongs even such an abstract thing as, for example, the philosophy of Kant, launching a chain of mental processes in many generations of philosophers and being realized as an often almost unconscious component of the convictions of large groups of people. Incidentally, the convictions of large groups of people are, in the end, materialized in the processes and results of scientific, industrial, and social revolutions. In the case of an ideal product there easily arises the delusion that the product, as it was internal, so it has remained. But this is merely an illusion. First, such a product was materialized, if only in the form of acoustic vibrations and physical actions of concrete people,¹⁶ and for some time existed quite independently in physical space. And second, this product, having been assimilated by the consumer, although it passes into an ideal — read: introverted — form, nonetheless continues to exist, in its further manifestations in the form of deep and saturated emotional experiences, inspiration, or the productive activity of other people, both as separate from the subject that generated them and as a necessary modality of the corresponding function.

Presumably, between the mental and vital ring there goes a continuous exchange of flows of information. So that not only does the vital ring receive controlling impulses from the mental, but the mental too receives from the vital signals helping continuously to correct the internal model of the environment. If one uses such an opposition as accepting–productive, then, as Aušra writes, “the mental ring can be called accepting, but this is correct only with respect to the perceived information, on the basis of which the dual’s vital ring acts.” Thus we see that polar concepts as applied to the structures of the psyche bear a relative character and are actualized only in a concrete process. From this point of view, both the mental and the vital ring can be assessed now as accepting, now as productive. Of course, the socionic meaning of these terms is intended.

One more side of the comparison of the mental and vital ring can be seen in Aušra’s statement that “all are quick with advice, correction, amendments, control from their mental ring. This is its function. The function of the vital ring is to act oneself.” But, of course, vital activity too can become a model for imitation — “do as I do” — while mental activity can become independent activity. Within the framework of the “core-shell” metaphor, in this blocking the role of the core is played by the mental ring.

2. Program–potential. Into this blocking enter the following two semantic groups of functions: IliL – SesE. The first group sets the objective parameters of activity, and the second the subjective ones. Of course, the concepts used here are extremely blurred, and may be understood with a precision “up to the reverse.” The point is that the first group of parameters represents the result of the internal and external activity of the subject himself, but these are results that are checked by the external environment, and consequently satisfy the criteria of existence in this environment. It is precisely this that gives them an objective status. The second group of parameters, however, is perceived by the subject as something absolute, since it is acknowledged as really existing and not subject to any correction whatsoever. As a result, the imperatives forming on this basis are transformed into standards of the subjective reaction to the influence of the external environment. The program–potential opposition of functions separates the functions that accumulate an informational-energetic potential from the functions that, on the basis of the potential accumulated on other functions, form programs or use them. Nevertheless, the work of any functions, with a suitable choice of terms, can always be interpreted as the realization of definite programs. It is only that the production of some programs is programs, and of others materialized objects. Within the framework of the “core-shell” metaphor, in this blocking the role of the core is played by the program ring.

3. Inert–contacting. Into this blocking enter the following two semantic groups of functions: IeEi – lSsL. The first group sets the inert programs and values, that which yields only with great difficulty to correction and changes, and the second the contacting products and instruments, relatively easily changed and adjusted depending on the changing situation. It is easy to understand why Aušra called the functions directly connected with the external environment contacting. It is more difficult to explain why the functions not directly connected with the external environment can be called inert. Here one already has to appeal to the fact that such functions gradually accumulate a potential and resist changes of what is located in them. As Aušra says, “the inert blocks form a defensive ring, along it goes the accumulation of information.” If in the inert blocks there are S\s, then there occurs the accumulation of material values, including space. If I\i — then ideal values are accumulated, to which, above all, belongs knowledge; but Aušra also speaks of the accumulation of time, which, for me personally, is not at all simple to interpret. What could the accumulation of time mean? Does it relate, for example, to such situations as when some people have much free time and others have none at all? Or, perhaps, these are creative processes leading to the creation of conditions conducive to the freeing-up of time. Still, since in these reasonings we are dealing with a high level of generalization, one should avoid too literal an understanding of the symbols used. For example, the fact that S\s is present in the inert blocks of Zhukov, Napoleon, Dumas, and Gabin is easy to understand as the presence in the bearers of these types of a set toward the accumulation of riches. But how is one to understand the presence of these aspects in that same ring in such types as Dostoevsky, Robespierre, Hamlet, and London? Incidentally, in the case of the two last, this too can be understood — people of these types know how to create comfort, but it does not seem that such a peculiarity is to a sufficient degree inherent in Dostoevskys and Robespierres.

On the other hand, the aspects I\i are present in the inert blocks of Don Quixote, Huxley, Balzac, Yesenin, Stirlitz, Hugo, Gorky, and Dreiser. From the preceding reasonings it ought to follow that in all the enumerated types the common trait is the striving to accumulate ideal values. And if with respect to the intuitives represented in the list this is plausible, it seems unlikely that Stirlitz or Hugo ought to prefer ideal values to material ones. But surely the commonality of aspects in the inert functions must mean something! And indeed, such a property ought to be common to all the suitable types. As such a common property, in the case of the aspects S\s, one can name not the striving to accumulate, but a fixation on materialized values.¹⁷ Depending on the function, such a fixation may have a different modality, but this fixation exists. Then for Robespierres and Dostoevskys such a fixation, since it is connected with the CCF, will bear a shade of a certain negativism with respect to material values. Possibly it is precisely by this negativism that one can explain the heightened inclination of these types toward asceticism and the appearance of such aphorisms as “not by bread alone.” In London and Hamlet the modality of the fixation on material values is different, since it is connected with the MMF. Their material values impel to active activity, “rev them up.” With such an assessment of the inert blocks it is understandable that Gorkys and Dreisers will be fixated on ideal values, but this fixation will have a certain negative shade, while Stirlitzes and Hugos will be “revved up” by them.

On the contrary, the position of the aspects I\i in the contacting blocks will mean a relation to the corresponding objects with an accent on instrumentality, but here too the modality will depend on the function. For the CPF this is the creative processing of the aspect’s thematics, a creative modality. For the ALF this is an extreme modality. For the ERF this is a readiness to accept and use the aspect’s thematics, an expectational modality. For the RTF this is a productive-materializational modality. One can also speak of the generalized modality of the inert and contacting ring. The inert ring has the general modality of value, and the contacting the modality of instrument. The latter, for example, could mean that those who have S\s in the contacting blocks are capable of relatively easily giving partners money: as a loan, on credit, as a gift, transferring it in the order of charity, becoming sponsors, and so on. On this basis Aušra held that such people are easily suited to the role of patrons (of the arts), and that therefore they can be called just that. “A patron is a patron precisely because he does not delve into others’ problems and does not give far-reaching advice, but only takes under his wing and helps. Things and money for him are not an end in themselves, but only a means of contact” [4]. Incidentally, she proposed other names too: patrons, philanthropists, and even tacticians. The last, on the grounds that “they are capable of giving tactical advice and short-term material help.” As for short-term material help, this quite justifies the names philanthropists and patrons, but as for giving superficial¹⁸ tactical advice, one can probably do that without being a tactician. Incidentally, in this same text [4] there is also this reasoning: “Tacticians have I\i in the inert blocks. Therefore their strategic plans are large-scale, while in their strategic goals and means they are inert. Their strategy manifests itself as the general line of behavior of the individual, from which they by no means deviate.” If this is not the definition of a strategist, then what should the characterization of a person be in order to consider him a strategist? Here we are in Aušra’s creative laboratory, when one can see how she seeks suitable terms to designate the concepts she has intuitively grasped, but does not always find them.

On the example of the typological opposition of strategists and tacticians one can see how much depends on the definitions. So, Aušra proceeds from the definition that a tactician is one who gives tactical advice. With such a definition one could agree, if such advice is given out of tactical considerations. Significantly closer to the truth seems the definition of the tactician as one who effectively solves situational tasks. A strategist is one who sets global, large-scale, and long-range tasks, while strategy is the global, large-scale, and long-range planning of one’s own or a group’s activity with the setting of fundamental goals. In military affairs, whence, properly, these terms came, the concept of strategy is connected, above all, with the setting of the main goals, with the direction of the main strike, while tactics is occupied with the solution of concrete tasks leading to the solution of the main task. Whether such an ability is determined by the position of some IA in Model “A” must be investigated specially. Probably, tactical tasks in life have to be solved by everyone. It is another matter how effective such solutions are and how readily the personality takes up such tasks. If one takes into account both these parameters, then one will have to redefine the concept of the “socionic” tactician as one who not only effectively solves situational tasks, but also readily displays initiative in taking up the solution of such tasks. It appears plausible that strategic abilities are determined by the position in Model “A” of the aspect I, because they are connected with the determination of some essential potential possibility. On the other hand, tactical abilities depend on the aspect S, since in this case, above all, will is necessary. The position of the aspect S in the model provides variations in the ability to solve tactical tasks.

Quite adequate is the comparison of the inert ring with a core that accumulates values, and of the contacting with a defensive shell that takes upon itself the pressure of the environment. The core answers for the stability of the human individuality, while the shell ensures adaptation to the changing parameters of the environment. Aušra says that “the contacting half-strokes form the defensive ring of the dyad, which protects from unexpected stresses and frustrations.” Apparently, here one must add that what is at issue is the dual pair. In this case, in the contacting rings of the duals there turn out to be all eight IA, which permits a many-sided perception and evaluation of the influence of the environment. However, this question stands in need of deep study. The means that the contacting ring uses are everything by means of which one can contact the environment. Here one can include narration, command, questions, answers, advice, discussions, bickering, forceful pressure, emotioning, services, joint actions such as dancing, fighting, or digging a ditch, gifts, robbery, theft. In general, here is used everything by means of which one person can transmit a significant signal to another. To that which is located on the inert blocks, one is admitted only given sufficient trust, while that which is located on the contacting functions is set in motion at every convenient opportunity. The tendency of the contacting functions can be designated by the expression “everything is for sale.”

All that has been said above means that one must seek a more precise interpretation of the placement of one or another IA in the inert and productive blocks. One of the paths to refining the semantics of the inert and productive ring is the establishment of what is common to the groups of functions corresponding to them. Can the group IeEi be understood as indicating inertness, and the group lSsL as indicating contactingness? For this, further semantic investigations are necessary.

4. Accepting–productive. Into this blocking enter the following two semantic groups of functions: ISsi – leEL. The first group determines the goals and evaluations, and the second the generalized form of the product and the peculiarities of the relation to the product and among the producers in the productive process. The accepting blocks accumulate goal-related and evaluative information, while the productive ones work with technological and manufacturing programs. The accepting ring is represented by irrational aspects, and the productive by rational ones. This can be understood in the sense that goals and evaluations are formed, above all, under the influence of external circumstances, while the peculiarities of the product depend on the basic abilities of the subject. Using other terms, one can say that the rational shell defends the irrational core. The semantics of these concepts presupposes that the irrational side of the personality is a fundamental value, something that must be accumulated and protected. Of course, one must take into account that here what is at issue is the primary semantics of the rings, while in the model of a concrete TIM, in the position of the primarily irrational functions there may stand rational IA. This, undoubtedly, represents a deep semantic problem.

Aušra writes that the accepting blocks perceive the arriving signal either “as a challenge, which requires mobilization for resistance and the defense of one’s point of view or one’s interests, or as an order, which requires the same mobilization for the sake of adaptation.” Along the accepting blocks the result of interaction depends on the correlation of the forces of the partners, and any means used in doing so are understood by each of the partners as permissible. Probably, it is for this reason that not only individual people but, for example, political parties too readily go for the use of “dirty technologies” when they defend their interests. The productive blocks do not presuppose struggle — along them nothing is won by conquest, but recognition is expected, or, at a higher level of generalization, “stroking.”¹⁹ If your proposals are rejected — that is, according to Berne,²⁰ you receive a “prick,” and moreover from people with whom on the given question no competition whatsoever is presupposed — then this is perceived as an injustice. Interaction along the productive blocks presupposes mutual adaptation, the presence of an ethical culture, and mutual understanding. Within the framework of the “core-shell” metaphor, in this blocking the role of the core is played by the accepting ring, because it is capable of bearing relatively greater loads compared to the productive one. The accepting ring may accept or not accept the signal arriving at it, which depends on the peculiarities of this signal, but in both cases this is a standard working regime, not presupposing turbulent emotional reactions. The functions of the productive ring expect positive support, praise. If a blow is struck at the productive ring, it is perceived extremely painfully. If you recall some case when you were humiliated, this will be one of the possible examples on this theme. The accepting ring collects and puts out information, but this information is not subject to discussion. In the attempt to discuss information of such a kind, a person experiences a feeling of awkwardness, as if he were letting something slip or giving away some secret. On the other hand, the thematics of the aspects of the productive blocks easily becomes an object of discussion, but this can be done only with “suitable” types, otherwise what you say will be perceived as something inferior, empty, or inappropriate. In connection with what has been said, it is interesting to note that there exist themes that are easily discussed with some partners and extremely difficult to discuss with others.

5. Verbal–laborious. Into this blocking enter the following two semantic groups of functions: IlsE – SeiL. The first group sets the themes admissible for discussion, that about which one can and should speak and discuss in the process of working out a group opinion, and the second the forms of practical activity, that which must be done with full concentration, without wasting mobilized energy on extraneous conversations. Of course, in a concrete TIM the thematics will be refined by the corresponding IA. All the aspects entering into the first group have the common sense of “conversationality.” The aspect I — what is spoken about. The aspect l — this is, properly, the process of conversation. The aspect s — this is the aesthetic component of the conversation, connected with its captivatingness, entertainingness, or degree of interest. The aspect E indicates the emotional component of the conversation. All the aspects entering into the second group have the common sense of “performing work.” S — the volitional component of the work performed. The aspect e — the relations arising in the process of work. The aspect i — indicates the duration of the work and the necessary degree of concentration with which the work must be performed. The aspect L — this is, properly, the technological process itself, which lies at the foundation of the work performed.

The semantics of this blocking somewhat differs from the semantics of the preceding one, despite the fact that both there and here the thematics of admissible discussions is spoken of. There, spoken and unspoken information were opposed, while here the thematics of collective discussions as a mechanism of the formation of public opinion is opposed to the thematics of that which should become the object of activity. The speaking-out of the aspectual thematics along the verbal blocks is a peculiar debugging of the algorithms of possible activity, so that the activity itself be free of errors. The verbal modeling of possible errors, absurdities, and misunderstandings is here accomplished with the use of various forms of irony, which looks sharp, interesting, amusing, and forestalls the repetition of the ridiculed situation in practice. Such discussion bears a detailed character — that is, everything is discussed, down to individual acts. “Disputes, discussions, attacks, claims. All this at the level of an intellectual game or of help to those who do not understand” [4].

The thematics of the EGO block does not fear a jesting and ironic tone, because along it a person is confident of his competence and thinks along it actively, consciously, and independently. At the same time a person easily takes upon himself responsibility along this thematics, and his conscience is calm, because this thematics does not touch it. On the other hand, the thematics of the SUPERID is to a significant degree closed for a person, and he avidly catches any information along the aspects of the SUPERID, subconsciously hoping that this will help him solve his problems, and therefore it is all the same to him in what form this information comes. Even if he is scolded and lectured along this thematics, he will perceive this as a form of useful informing and as a variety of care for him.

Aušra writes: “In a group of people whose verbal and laborious blocks coincide, there is not even a shadow of suspicion that someone does not trust someone, thinks otherwise than he speaks, is angry, offended, and so on. But there is so much merriment, jokes, unconstraint in them.” This is because they rely on one and the same meaning (I), use a style of speech perceived identically by all participants (l), receive one and the same aesthetic pleasure (s) — hence, much humor, jokes, “gags,” and their emotions (E) have a similar coloring. The subsequent steps in the interpretation of the base semantics of these blocks lead to the understanding that the laborious blocks form collectivity, when the members of the group at the level of the subconscious feel a cohesion, easily manifesting itself in joint actions. Here conversations are already out of place — they could only destroy the charm of unity. Of course, this does not mean that people, working together, do not utter a single word — it means that the verbal component of communication here is maximally limited, and to a significant degree is determined by such a parameter as caution. “Only objective information is transmitted, that which one managed to see or hear, without one’s own commentary… They act without discussing, exchanging opinions only in the course of the affair” [4]. The collectivity induced by the laborious ring becomes the reason why situations do not arise in which one of one’s own could be blamed for something. This is simply because everything is done together, in a single “laborious field,” where “there are no right and wrong.” But if someone begins to speak on a theme that is “non-verbal” for the concrete people, this immediately evokes wariness, suspicion, and rejection. Such a reaction manifests itself, above all, in bodily tension and is not always conscious.

6. Evaluative–situational. Into this blocking enter the following two semantic groups of functions: IesL – lSEi. The first group sets the invariant, unconditional, absolute values, that toward which one strives, that in which one takes pride, and the second the virtual, exchangeable, relative, situational values. The evaluative–situational blockings give the difference between the carefree and the provident. The evaluative ring Ie\sL — meaning, relations \ well-being, productivity. A person is evaluated from the point of view of his potential possibilities (I) and the relations (e) that can be established with him. And at the vital level, as follows from the meaning of the corresponding semantic group of aspects, for a person the invariant values are well-being (s) — in the ultimate case, this is health — and working capacity, or productivity (L). Analogously the matter stands with the situational, instrumental values, whose primary semantics is determined by the group lS\Ei of the situational ring. At the mental level, to such instrumental values relate — speech (l), social position (l),²¹ the parameters of will (S). And at the vital level, as follows from the meaning of the corresponding semantic group of aspects, for a person the situational, instrumental values are emotioning (E) and identification with the flow of time, concentration (i). In each type, upon this primary semantics of the blocks and rings is superimposed the semantics of the corresponding IA.

As is evident from the model, two evaluative functions are in the mental ring, and two in the vital. Aušra holds that “the mental evaluative functions evaluate others, while the vital ones are tuned to receiving an evaluation from outside” [4]. This remark requires investigation, since it is unclear how this follows from the model and the primary functional semantics. True, in grounding this point of view, Aušra says that “along the mental ring one has a better understanding and therefore evaluates others, along the vital ring one oneself expects evaluation.” However, as it seems to me, here what is at issue is only a functional sequence. This means that along the mental block of the evaluative ring one first of all evaluates others, and only secondarily expects evaluation of oneself. And along the vital block, on the contrary — first of all one expects evaluation of oneself, and only secondarily evaluates others. Can it really be that the evaluation by other people of the potential possibilities and quality of relations that the personality can offer is a matter of indifference to it? Therefore, as a hypothesis, let us accept that the mental evaluative functions evaluate others, but the personality is far from indifferent as to how these same parameters of it are evaluated by others. Here on sufficient grounds one can suppose that, in evaluating others — that is, in projecting onto others its evaluative function — the personality, in one way or another, presupposes also the possibility of an evaluation of itself by others. Analogous reasonings are applicable also to the vital part of the evaluative ring. Proceeding from the semantics of the RTF, it is not difficult to understand that it needs a positive evaluation of its production and is tuned to such an evaluation, since it is precisely this that is an indicator of the successful adaptation of the individual to the surrounding environment. Therefore, within the framework of the evaluative ring too, since the RTF belongs to it, it apparently remains sensitive to external evaluation, but now it too can act as a sensitive organ, capable of evaluating an analogous element of another psyche. It is quite plausible that hypotheses of this kind require a deeper understanding of Model “A,” which is equivalent to the supposition of a more complex structuring of it. This question we shall consider in more detail in the following chapter.

The evaluative functions are tuned to a thorough understanding of the thematics corresponding to their aspects. By the personality the thematics of these aspects is perceived as something fundamental. For example, if Don Quixote has in the evaluative functions the aspects I, s, L, e, then such parameters of the personality as abilities, well-being, the technological side of work, and relations among people are for Don Quixotes not merely in the foreground, but are perceived as the most essential thing in life. At the same time, such sides of human life as forceful pressure, emotional reactions, free time-spending, or official position, to which correspond the aspects i, S, l, E, are for them situational — that is, their realization is of little significance for the self-evaluation and self-realization of the personality. This, in particular, may mean that when a concrete bearer of the type Don Quixote has to choose, for example, between a career (l) and relations (e) with people close to him, then he, most likely, will neglect the career in favor of the relations. This, of course, does not mean that for such people a career is a matter of complete indifference, but its value strongly depends on the situation. If, again, one uses the example with Don Quixote, then one can say that he tries to obtain a high evaluation for his quite definite qualities and acts, but these same qualities are for him the primary object of evaluation in others. He will always and above all be interested in the psychic, intellectual, and physical abilities and potential possibilities of other people (I), the relations maintained among them (e), their health and well-being (s) with respect to a concrete moment of time and place, as well as their productivity (L). And he tries to develop in himself the corresponding abilities, and their evaluation by other people is not a matter of indifference to him.

On the other hand, the varieties of behavior or characterological peculiarities of people that in the model of Don Quixote correspond to the situational ring have for people of this type a relative significance. Here belong such sides of human life as a career and position in society (l), the ability to exert forceful pressure on those around (S), the ability to manipulate one’s emotional states (E), and the diversity of forms of time-spending, relating above all to rest (i). The situationality, the relativity of such sides of human life for Don Quixote is expressed in the fact that a person may have more or less of this. It may vary in quality and in the degree of its manifestation within a wide range, but always represents merely a means for self-realization, and often turns out to be simply the background of human life.

In connection with the psychological evaluation of the blocks under consideration, Aušra comes to an important conclusion to the effect that along the evaluative blocks a person does not expect gratitude, which, in the case of his performing some actions, will be perceived as something inappropriate, but he needs evaluation and recognition. And, on the contrary, along the situational blocks it is precisely gratitude and encouragement that are necessary. Here are opposed the mode of life that is a projection of the archetype of the evaluative ring, and the superficial social activity connected with the functioning of the situational ring. With the evaluative ring Aušra connects “world-perception, world-understanding, and world-sensation.” To the situational ring one can match public morality, in which, not infrequently, there is present a large share of hypocrisy. Aušra points to such a parameter of the evaluative ring as continuity, or continuality. In opposition to this, to the situational ring is matched discontinuity, or discreteness. This is one more psychological dimension of the personality within the framework of socionic typology. And this means that the bearers of various TIMs along some IA live continually, and along others discretely. Continually here means always, constantly, without interruption, while discretely means only sometimes, only as necessary, only as a response to the pressure of the surrounding environment. An important conclusion here is that at the foundation of the world-perception of duals lie identical archetypes, and under suitable conditions it ought to be uncomplicated for duals to work out a unified relation to life. However, the same set of IA is present in the evaluative ring of the quasi-identical pair, but the placement of these aspects is different. Hence ought to follow conclusions about the similarity and difference in the behavior of the homologous members of these dyads. It is important also that in the members of a quadra the evaluative rings are not identical, and this means that the two dyads perceive the world on a different basis. However, here additional investigations are necessary, at the foundation of which must lie strict definitions of the corresponding scientific concepts.

One can single out four varieties of evaluative–situational rings with a different set and a different sequence of IA.

IesL – lSEi; 2) EilS – sLIe; 3) EslI – iLSe; 4) SeiL – lIEs.

The first ring in each group represents a maximally compressed formula of the archetype of the world-perception of all bearers of the corresponding TIM. This set of rings is one of the 35 archetypes of the regular socionic quadruples. Taking into account what has been said above, we are dealing here with four quadruples, differing by the basis on which their world-perception and social morality are formed. These quadruples too can be obtained by means of two dichotomies. However, the grounds for such dichotomies can be chosen in three different ways, which in itself represents a problem. This problem can be formulated thus: WHY CAN ONE AND THE SAME PARTITION OF THE SOCIONIC TYPES INTO FOUR QUADRUPLES BE CARRIED OUT IN THREE DIFFERENT WAYS? The answer could sound thus: the three dichotomous traits used in this partition are semantically dependent. However, in order for this answer to become evidentiary, further investigations are necessary.

7. Object–relative. Into this blocking enter the following two semantic groups of functions: ISEL – lesi. The first group sets the forms of objects, and the second the forms of relations. As objects here may figure both goals connected with potential possibilities or material values, and concrete products appearing as the result of the individual activity of the bearers of one or another type. Here it is important to note that such products may be ideal values, for example, newly discovered laws of nature or elaborated theories; emotional values — works of art, creative inspiration; but, of course, these may also be material things. Within the framework of the “core-shell” metaphor, the core here is the object ring, and the shell the relative one. Using other terms, one can say that the relative shell defends the object core. The semantics of these concepts presupposes that the object side of the personality is a fundamental value, while the relative one is more mobile and more easily changed.

For greater visualizability and surveyability, the parametric information about each function of Model “A” is presented in compact form in table 3.06.

Table 3.06

Function	Parameters
1/1	mental, contacting, accepting, situational, laborious, criterial, potential, reproductive
1/2	passive, contacting, accepting, evaluative, verbal, criterial, potential
2/1	mental, inert, productive, evaluative, laborious, impulsive, potential
2/2	passive, inert, productive, situational, verbal, impulsive, potential
3/1	mental, inert, accepting, evaluative, verbal, criterial, program, volitional, leading, expansive, inductive
3/2	passive, inert, accepting, situational, laborious, criterial, program
4/1	mental, contacting, productive, situational, verbal, impulsive, program
4/2	passive, contacting, productive, evaluative, laborious, impulsive, program

Function 3/1

Function 3/1: mental, inert, accepting, evaluative, verbal, program, object. Its additional parameters can be expressed by the categories volitional, leading, expansive, inductive, reproductive. At the foundation of its functional semantics lies the aspect I.

It actively reacts to everything relating to the thematics of its IA. Being accepting, this function accumulates highly structured information along the IA, forms, contains, and stores programs, worldview schemes, and models of the environment. All this constitutes the potential of the personality. Along the aspect of this function people “get stuck,” avoid changing the thematics (inertness), and strive continuously to reproduce and enrich its content (reproductivity). When the bearer of the type finds himself in a situation complex from the point of view of the IA, he does not become lost but becomes active, because in such a situation he feels himself competent, strong, and confident. One can also say that a person easily and naturally accepts the challenge of the environment along this function. A tangled situation is still more interesting, because it gives the subject the possibility of displaying his best abilities and making a greater contribution to the process of self-realization. He easily perceives the structure and any peculiarities of such a situation and promptly adapts to it. If, to obtain the maximal effect, manipulation is necessary — for example, one has to lie — he lies with a calm conscience. Aušra says on this account: “Can this be called fantasizing or diplomatic tactical games or tricks? For the bearer of the type such behavior is only a form of everyday art, adorning life. People are told not what actually is, but what at the given moment the bearer of the type considers most suitable, that which they deserve from his point of view. But bearers of the type behave so only with those whom they do not respect and do not love, about whom they do not care.”

This function expresses the primary set of the personality, and in carrying it out into life, a person is categorical, demanding, importunate, and therefore it can be designated also as volitional. To his own concepts, which are a projection of the archetype of the IA of this function, the individual tries to subordinate all those around (expansiveness). Along this function a person speaks, advises, actively enters into conversation, disputes, creatively develops and processes the information arriving to him. Here are located the values that set the meaning of life and are the foundation on which are formed the ultimate goals of the personality’s self-realization. Along this function a person himself selects the signals he needs, carrying information from the external world. Moreover, he easily creates within the framework of the semantics of the aspect of this function, creates new ideas, images, and concepts. It is precisely along this function that the individual’s contribution to the adaptation of society to objective reality occurs. Here is born and occurs the creation of new norms, new standards, oriented toward an ever more rational adaptation of society to the habitat. To dissuade a person along this function is possible only given weighty proofs and concrete examples. But simply to confuse him, tangle him up, force him to renounce his opinion — is impossible, because here a person not merely deeply understands the thematics — that is, what is at issue is not merely erudition — but sees the corresponding problematics in volume, many-sidedly and systemically. This function is the accepting²² half-stroke of the EGO and is capable of reproducing the world standards accessible to the personality — that is, corresponding to the IA. This function is capable of perceiving an object in the whole diversity of its manifestations. In a broad sense, by an object is understood everything that the subject is capable of observing, evaluating, and studying — that is, not only physical objects and phenomena, but also informational wholes, to which one can assign relations among people too. This function expresses the will of the person himself, the will that he is capable of opposing to the will of other people. If this function turns out to be afflicted, then a person loses the meaning of life. “To break a person” is precisely to suppress, “crush,” discredit, destroy this function. The anomalies arising in the process of the development of this function manifest themselves, at the level of the phenomenology of the personality, as psychological disorders of various degrees of severity.

This is the function answering for the generalized image of programs and potential possibilities, and therefore it can be called the program-potential function (PPF). At the level of ultimate generalization, within the framework of psychophysiological parallelism, this function corresponds to the head, to thinking, to the cortex of the brain. In order to determine the typological content of this function, one must find out into which questions the personality actively intervenes, on which themes it disputes most easily, with which concepts it is easy for it to operate, about what it constantly or most of all thinks, and which information aspect corresponds to all this.

Aušra Augustinavičiūtė says that under no circumstances can a person be “praised along the IA of this function; one can provoke and slightly support.” That is, support along this function must not be importunate. Here praise is perceived as something inappropriate, artificial, as outright flattery, for along this function a person himself knows his own worth, and, chiefly, holds under intellectual control any thematics accessible to him, corresponding to the IA.

Function 4/1

Function 4/1: mental, contacting, productive, situational, verbal, program, relative. Its additional²³ parameters can be expressed by the categories creative, manipulative, informing, orientational, and even advertising.

This function is productive and contacting — that is, it puts out into the surrounding environment the product possible for the given personality and the given function, answers for interaction with the environment, probing and checking by its reactions the result of the preceding step of the personality’s adaptation to the habitat. The production of this function bears an informing character. Along this function the personality tries to do everything so that its informational product be benevolently received by the environment. Here the personality imperatively strives to earn praise, which for it is one of the indicators of the confirmation of the high quality of the product it creates and of the recognition of its value for the immediate surroundings. Therefore it uses its creative abilities for the best, most winning presentation of its product, but this creativity bears an “advertising-packaging” character, since the essential creative process of the primary creation of the product, of its invention, occurs on the program-potential function. Along this function the personality is capable of consciously manipulating the environment and its agents. This function offers the environment its mental product, as a peculiar trial balloon, launched into the surroundings with the almost unconscious aim of obtaining feedback. Moreover, this intrusion into the environment is carried out with the hope that the reaction of the environment will be positive, and therefore the function tries to form its product as acceptably for the environment as possible, and this activates in it the creative potential. Along this function the personality displays initiative, and this initiative bears a positive character.

Although it is correct to ascribe to this function a creative character, this is only one of its parameters, while its semantic core is the mental verification of the programs of the personality, the means of which is communication, the probing of the environment with the aim of checking the quality of one’s own mental product. Along this same function manipulation too is possible. Therefore the name communicative-probing function (CPF) suits it. At the level of ultimate generalization it corresponds to the lungs and the speech apparatus.

One of the names for this function that Aušra proposed is the orientational function; however, the concepts of communication and probing quite well cover the concept of orientation, but, in addition, contain meanings that are not present there. To emphasize in the name of the function its manipulative possibilities would be incorrect, since manipulation is a form of negative intervention in the environment and should be mentioned here only as a negative possibility, which, incidentally, very easily becomes dominant in a vicious social environment. It would also be superfluous to introduce into the name of this function the term “productive,” since productivity is a common parameter of the four functions in Model “A.” The same can be said of the concept “contacting function.” Along this function is spoken everything that can be said with respect to the IA. Along it a person informs, proves, convinces, jokes, creates, renders services, gives gifts, acknowledges the right of another to equality, gives out “strokings,” to the point that along it something is imposed on others. And along it too the individual is inclined to criticize others for an unreasonable, inappropriate, ill-considered expenditure of energy, since, in connection with his typological peculiarities, he understands the sphere of action of this function better than bearers of other types.

Concerning this function Aušra writes: “Many reactions along 4/1 are only reactions by which those around are, as it were, tested, felt out. This is the reason for the multitude of jokes, which, if they are off the mark, are quickly abandoned.” Along this function people boast of themselves, and therefore for successful contact with them it is sufficient to support them gently, and, at a suitable opportunity, to express with the help of compliments one’s admiration. Such admiration, if it is not manipulative, is precisely one of the possible forms of feedback. This same peculiarity of the function, in the case of reverse manipulation, permits one to “spin up” a person, achieving the result that he will tell more than he intended.

In order to determine the typological content of this function, one must find out for what a person would want to receive praise, what compliment would be pleasant to him, what he manages to do such that he is satisfied, by what means he tries to convince others.

Concerning this function Aušra writes: “On the EGO along element 4/1 goes the comparison of the potential possibilities of individual objects and subjects, as the result of which there appears a logical feeling of knowing how these objects correlate among themselves. The logical feeling that is born on the EGO, if only the individual takes into account all the necessary objects, is unerring.” This remark relates not only to logical types. This function itself, in all types, bears a primarily-generalized logical character, since it is oriented toward verbal production, and at the foundation of its semantics lies the aspect l. And if a person along this function acquires confidence, then this confidence can easily be transformed into knowledge, which can be effectively structured in accordance with its specificity. For this it is sufficient to collect the necessary quantity of arguments. Especially rapidly does such a transformation occur in a group of like-minded people, who support the bearer of such knowledge, provide him with benevolent criticism, contribute useful additions. It is important that a person prepares information along this function not so much for himself, as an intermediate summing-up, as for others, whose recognition is for him a most important element of self-realization. He tries to share such information even when no one asks him about it. Such information, being valuable in itself, is a good means of interesting and attracting to one’s side people who may become a support in the further development of the ideas found. This function continuously and unconsciously probes the environment with the set of detecting in it signals important for the personality, permitting the correction of its own behavior, the acceptance or rejection of challenges, and the conscious or unconscious influence on the internal model of the environment. In the case of the affliction of this function, a person loses the capacity for creativity, becomes inadequate in communication, and loses interest in it, which often manifests itself as cynicism, alienation, autism.

Block EGO

Block EGO: active, verbal, expansive. The block of maximal activity. The main thing. The meaning of life. The zone of optimal self-realization. Self-affirmation. Creativity, as the highest expression of competence along the individual semantics of the block. Virtuoso command of information along the thematics of the aspect. The form and character of that which the subject perceives as truth and freedom.

The EGO is the energoinformational zone of the personality, connected with maximal positive self-identification — that is, the identification of one’s own volitional acts with the results of the individual acts and systemic activity corresponding to them. A mature EGO is characterized by the capacity of the personality to take upon itself responsibility for its own behavior. This zone is to a significantly greater degree accessible to consciousness than any other. To this zone is also accessible a higher level of consciousness, compared to the other functions — reflection and self-reflection. Reflection is the capacity to think over one’s acts with one or another degree of detail. Self-reflection is the capacity to see and objectively evaluate oneself from outside. These capacities are connected with the intrapsychic energoinformational modeling of the habitat and of one’s own position in it. In accordance with socionic notions, such energoinformational models, formed in the psyche of the personality, have a sharply expressed accent connected with the information aspects of the first and second functions.

In the development and maturation of the EGO there comes a special moment, when a person attains a high degree of confidence in his behavior along the aspects of the corresponding functions. This confidence has no relation whatsoever to self-assurance or arrogance, which, of course, may be present in a concrete person. This confidence is based on the fact that the subject of interest, as it were, reveals itself before the inner gaze of the individual. He sees the subject in volume, with all its internal and external connections, he quickly and easily penetrates into any problems connected with this subject, is ready to answer any questions concerning it. This determines the maturity of the EGO, which does not always correspond to age. The greater part of the time a mature person thinks about the subject of his interest, and with attentive observation this can become a good basis for the diagnostics of his type. Of course, the bearer of the type by no means necessarily must be a scientist. This can be anyone: a businessman, an artist, a housewife, a farmer, a coach, a ballerina — in a word, any person with all his concrete interests. Such a person by no means necessarily becomes an expert in the subject of his interest, although this too is not excluded. Here only the following is important: that a person can attain the internal merging, the identification with the object, not exactly without effort, but very naturally. When a person attains this level, then, as Aušra writes, “he knows better what the world expects of him, what the world hopes for. This is precisely the notion of oneself through the prism of the world…”

The EGO is the area of conscious influence upon the world, although very often people do not give themselves an account of this. On this block is carried out the maximal self-identification and identification with objects of the external world corresponding to the archetype of the block. This is the block of adequate self-evaluation. Various varieties of the affliction of this block are expressed, among other things, in the distortion of self-evaluation. This is the block of the deep study of a definite parameter of the external world. The block in the realization of which a person demands recognition adequate to his abilities. The zone in which a person is capable of acting fully independently. The area of the creative realization of the personality. It is precisely here that a person can be maximally useful to society. With the EGO is connected a special state, which can be called the experience of selfhood, when a person feels that he holds under control all his abilities, himself forms his own notion of the world, advances goals adequate to his position in the world, confidently makes decisions and achieves their realization. The EGO, within the limits of its possibilities, realizes precisely that which is necessary to society, that which “is in the air,” that which is a social commission. But the personality does not always give itself an account of this, however it senses well the imperative pressure coming from within, as a passionate striving to occupy oneself precisely with this affair as one’s calling. A realized EGO ensures the sensation of the productivity, groundedness, and long-range prospects of one’s affair, since it is needed by other people, is justly evaluated by society, and brings a person deep satisfaction, and all this together is experienced as freedom. With the affliction of this block a person loses the capacity for creativity and passes over to a parasitic or semi-parasitic mode of life.

Aušra writes: “The EGO block is a kinetic block, and in its realization the individual is bold and fearless. He always knows, is confident, that he will find a way out, and even loves complex situations. Along this block much is achieved, because it is precisely here that the conscious will of the individual is realized.” The suppression of the EGO, the inferiority of its work, is not only the absence of self-realization — it is the loss of life’s long-range prospect, deep dissatisfaction with oneself, a constant feeling of guilt, the complex of the “unfulfilled,” the “unrealized.” If this state acquires a severe and chronic character, a person begins to sink and may easily become an alcoholic or drug addict. If a person makes an error along the EGO block, then he adduces all the necessary arguments in his own justification, shows how this could have happened, finds variants under which he could have turned out to be right, and in any case awaits full-fledged proofs of his error. Having received such proofs, he experiences a feeling of gratitude, experiences the incident as an important life experience connected with the acquisition of new knowledge, and the error itself he no longer repeats.

Function 1/1

Function 1/1: mental, contacting, accepting, situational, laborious, potential, object. Its additional parameters can be expressed by the categories reproductive, normative, role, defensive. At the foundation of its functional semantics lies the aspect S.

This function is accepting, contacting, and reproductive — that is, along it information is collected and accumulated as the result of contact with the environment, while the whole content of the function continuously reproduces itself. The character of the information accumulated here strongly depends on the function 2/1 adjacent in the block. This, incidentally, relates to all the remaining blocks too. Function 1/1 is tuned to the perception of the loading aspect of the environment, of extreme conditions, of forceful pressure. Extreme conditions at the socionic level of generalization are not only such grandiose events as natural disasters, the necessity to live in severe climatic conditions, war, or prolonged expeditions. At the socionic level of generalization, these are also less large-scale circumstances, which from outside may seem insignificant, but which are distinguished by the fact that at their onset the personality is distracted from the main object of its interest and is compelled wholly to occupy itself with the defense of its psychic and physical integrity. And then it is in no mood for the “lofty matters” with which the EGO ought to occupy itself. These are situations in which it is difficult or impossible to realize one’s EGO. To them, in particular, may relate also the social circumstances of a person’s life, often compelling him to live at the level of survival. The pressure of the habitat along this function is a most important factor of individual and evolutionary-species adaptation. This function evaluates the environment from the point of view of threat, danger, pressure, aggression, and works out, mobilizes the means of withstanding the negative influence of the environment.

Taking into account what has been said, this function can be called the adaptive-loading function (ALF). At the level of ultimate generalization this function corresponds to the immune system and the musculoskeletal apparatus. In order to determine the typological content of this function, one must find out about what a person willingly speaks but does not do, and about what he speaks as of that which cannot be done.

Along the aspect of this function it is undesirable to exert pressure on a person, since this may act as a provocation and lead to an inadequate reaction. The response may turn out to be unexpectedly sharp. The assessment, encountered in some authors, of this function as normative can be partially justified by its semantics, in the sense that in non-loading situations it, in its manifestations, gravitates toward taking into account the norms accepted in the environment of the personality’s existence. The very necessity of taking into account norms and moral requirements can be regarded and perceived as a variety of external pressure, and sometimes as an extreme load. Of course, here the character of the norms is directly connected with the IA. However, at the appearance of a load, the personality along this function rapidly accumulates such a potential that, at the minimum, equalizes or significantly overrides the applied external effort. Therefore one has to acknowledge that the name of this function as normative reflects a particular case of its functioning. There is also encountered the name of this function as role. However, such a name strongly lowers the adaptational meaning of this function, all the more since a role formulation of its activity the personality is capable of organizing, depending on the situation, along any function. An additional argument against this name is that the concept of role has a social, and not a psychophysiological, meaning realized at the socionic level of generalization. In the pathological variant of the development of this function, a person may become, along the IA of the function, heightenedly irritable and unmotivatedly aggressive, or else loses the capacity to withstand the environment.

Function 2/1

Function 2/1: mental, inert, productive, evaluative, laborious, potential, relative. Its additional parameters can be expressed by the categories place of least resistance, pain, problem. At the foundation of its functional semantics lies the aspect e.

This function is productive, but, unlike the also productive function 4/1, it is inert — that is, the informational filling of this function has a tendency to resist changes. At the same time, it is productive, since on it is formed the reaction to the loading, traumatizing information arriving along the ALF. It is precisely it that determines the object of the relation and gets stuck on it. On this function is formed the main generalized moral problem of every person. This is the vulnerable place in the psychic structure of the personality. To any signal along the aspect of this function a person reacts very acutely, often touchily, is easily wounded and sensitive to any criticism. This function Aušra, using Kępiński’s term, called the place of least resistance. And this is correct, in the sense that along this function a person is easy to offend, embarrass, insult. But at the same time a person along this function does not tolerate interference and unceremoniousness, and along its thematics easily passes over to a counterattack, makes a scandal, sharply criticizes the aggressor and, defending himself, is ready to develop the maximal resistance of which he is only capable. Along this function negative experience is accumulated, which subsequently becomes the basis for a better adaptation to the habitat in its objective or subjective aspect. But the subject along this function is critical of himself too. He avoids demonstrating his possibilities, displays a tendency to conceal, to leave in the shadow his position and that which is connected with its informational filling, be it work, talent, will, or something else. And this is because a person always senses here a dissatisfaction with himself, is always displeased with the results of the work along the IA, considers it inadmissible and immodest to show them to others, never boasts along the corresponding thematics. Along the thematics of this function a person constantly experiences a vague unconscious anxiety, which compels him to make attempts to occupy himself with some affair, but it is difficult for him to realize and formulate the corresponding goal, as a result of which such attempts easily die out at the very beginning. Everything that goes along the aspect of this function requires of a person heightened expenditures of energy, while many affairs drag on endlessly and, as a rule, are not brought to completion. Along this function pangs of conscience easily arise, if it even merely seems to a person that he is hindering someone from demonstrating his abilities along the IA, and along this same function a person is afraid of becoming the object even of quite harmless jokes, to say nothing of irony and open mockery. But at the same time he suffers and torments himself if no one is interested in this side of his life. A person acutely needs support and cover along this function; it is difficult for him to discuss everything relating to this function, and his own opinion along the corresponding thematics is very unstable and easily changes depending on circumstances. If along the thematics of the function there is indeterminacy, this is experienced heavily, and all attempts are made to eliminate such indeterminacy. Here very much, if not everything, depends on what others demonstrate to a person. The range of experiences along this function is very wide: from embarrassment, a readiness modestly to hide behind the backs of others, to furious indignation and outrage. Communication along the thematics of this function is extremely difficult. If a person along the IA of this function does not receive adequate support, then this may lead him to a deep disappointment in people and in life. But if the cover of the function is ensured, the individual can not only calmly look at his abilities connected with this function, but also instruct one who turns out to be in a still weaker position.

“The individual along this function collects any information about everything that ‘feeds’ the corresponding feeling” [6]. In some this is the sense of time, in others the desire to maintain good relations with people, and in someone else an aversion to any manifestations of aggression. This function, being inert, is distinguished by a high degree of conservativeness, but, being productive and defending the notions of the personality corresponding to the informational filling of this function, it manifests itself in a critical relation to any encroachments on the sets present here. This is the primary taboo. Here conservative values are stored. Along this function a person tries to be correct, does not display sympathies, experiences deep doubts, worries about whether he relates correctly, honestly to the object, is afraid of a breakdown and simply gets nervous if he is compelled somehow to manifest himself along the IA. Here primary ethical imperatives are formed.

Taking into account the semantic components of this function presented above, it can be designated as the conservative-critical function — CCF. This function characterizes the sensitivity of the subject to contacts with the social environment. At the level of ultimate generalization to it corresponds the cardiovascular system. Here, as in the heart, is located the base, the fundamental. The main thing is located in the head, which corresponds to function 3/1. And the fundamental is located in the heart, which corresponds to function 2/1. The loss of this value means the loss of orientation in this world. If this function for some reasons turns out to be destroyed or deformed, a person becomes forlorn, merely technically performing his work, but deprived of illusions and of the charm of an ideal, while life for him loses one of the most important components of its meaning, and he may easily go for suicide.

In order to determine the typological content of this function, one must observe a person and find out about what he doubts, displays indecision, is heightenedly cautious, but is painfully sensitive and considers that everyone has along this aspect his own position, into which no one has the right to interfere. In response to an attempt to interfere you may hear in reply, depending on the IA: “You have your own logic, and I have mine. You have your own morality, and I have mine. You have your own notions of how one ought to dress, and I have mine,” and so on.

Along the CCF a person is incapable of controlling the situation connected with the IA, and his behavior in this case can conditionally be called “counter-aspectual.” Someone does not know or does not notice where and how time goes, but it is for him the universal equivalent with which everything is compared; someone does not reckon with what it is accepted to wear and may easily in this respect turn out to be an original; someone does not acknowledge preset rules of behavior, but at the same time does not impose his own either; while to someone it is incomprehensible why thinking must obligatorily be driven into the narrow framework of logical syllogisms, which makes such thinking exceptionally tedious, whereas there exists an infinite number of ways in which one can, in communicating with others, brightly and unexpectedly formulate one’s thought. If the informational filling of this function is the aspect of extraverted ethics, then the individual may look dispassionate, but, when he is driven out of himself, his emotions turn out to be unbridled, like those of an enraged bull. But if the informational aspect of this function is extraverted sensing, then the possessor of such a function may seem weak-willed, in the sense that he is incapable of exerting forceful pressure on others, but then he does not consider this admissible either.

Along this function there may arise a situation of “provocational despair,” or of “quiet hysterics,” which in general form can be expressed by the words “ah, you consider me such-and-such, well then you will see me even more incapable than I actually am.” At what precisely the bearer of a concrete socionic type takes offense depends on the thematics of the informational aspect. “Ah, you consider me stupid and incapable of learning, then you will see me even more stupid and even more incapable of anything.” “Ah, you consider me ugly, then I will dress so, and I will have such makeup and such a hairstyle, that your eyes will all pop out of your heads.” “Ah, you consider me a lazybones and incapable of working, then I will work for you such that you won’t find it a trifle.” “Ah, you consider me weak-willed and incapable of withstanding pressure, then you will see this on an even greater scale.”

Block SUPEREGO

The SUPEREGO makes the human being a social creature. This psychological instance imperatively impels the personality to perform acts taking into account group interests. The programs of the SUPEREGO are almost not conscious to the personality, although some of them can be brought to consciousness with the use of special psychotechniques. An unexpected awareness of such programs may also occur under special circumstances. The imperative pressure of these programs is felt as a certain duty, as an unremitting desire to act in a definite way, to act as if behind this stands a certain very important value. However, an explicit, verbal formulation of this value usually causes difficulties. Moreover, some explicitly formulated values concerning interaction with society may have no direct relation to what stands behind the SUPEREGO, since these may be uncritically assimilated slogans, aphorisms, mottoes, sayings, toasts. In a certain rather narrow sense, the SUPEREGO can be understood as the structural equivalent of conscience, but in conscience there is obligatorily present a spiritual component, which is not present in the SUPEREGO. The SUPEREGO all people have, but conscience — not.

Socionics, developing the psychological theories of the personality, discovered the structure and informational-typological coloring of the SUPEREGO, and together with this justifiedly expanded its semantic field; therefore here what is at issue is not an uncritical or arbitrary use of the term borrowed from another psychological direction. This is an example of creative development, of the supplementation of that which was done by other scientists in the search for psychological truth. The SUPEREGO, above all, as this is understood in socionics, contains within itself a program of prohibition, which, in the most general form, is formulated as what cannot be done (CCF), using such-and-such means (ALF). But at the same time it represents a positive program, which for the bearer of the type looks like a certain obligation and is felt as a duty, the fulfillment of which brings deep satisfaction. Between the negative and the positive side of the SUPEREGO there is no contradiction, since in the given case they can be regarded as equivalent projections of one and the same archetype, and with the help of correct transformations each of them can be transformed into the other. By the programs of the SUPEREGO the personality is, as it were, placed within the rigid framework of prohibitions and duty. Depending on how successfully the personality works off these programs, there appears in it a sensation of its own value. The sensation of its own value is perceived by the personality as an evaluation on the part of society and as a sensation of its own neededness. Nevertheless, it is important to take into account that although for the full self-realization of the personality this is necessary, it is not sufficient. The SUPEREGO sets only the form of the ideal toward which the personality imperatively strives, but its content is worked off by the programs of the EGO.

The SUPEREGO represents a subtle psychic organ of the regulation of the well-being of the personality, and this organ, for its effective functioning, requires full trust on the part of the surroundings. Irony, teasing, mockery along the SUPEREGO are experienced painfully, while praise or a compliment are perceived adequately only in the case where special conditions are observed: this must be done as if in passing, in private, using indirect comparisons. The best confirmation of one’s correctness along the SUPEREGO is the direct and non-demonstrative use of its values, the acceptance or support of the personality by the dual from his ID block. Manipulative imitation here is possible, but it requires large expenditures of energy and subtle tact. The subconscious energetic pressure that the personality feels along the SUPEREGO is perceived as an impulse impelling to the fulfillment of its positive programs. But if the quality of the working-off of these programs does not correspond to a certain subconscious standard, then a person feels this as a frustration of one or another degree of intensity, which is subjectively experienced as pangs of conscience.

If along the SUPEREGO the personality receives positive feedback on the part of society, then it experiences a feeling of self-worth and imperatively tries to do everything that depends on it. Somewhere on the verge of consciousness a person senses his connection with society, and imperatively strives for it to value him, for him to be needed by it. And the more he is needed by it, the more free and strong a person feels and becomes. On the SUPEREGO is formed the personality’s notion of its own self. This is a remarkable discovery of Aušra Augustinavičiūtė, since in ego-psychology — the most advanced direction in the psychology of personality, developed on the basis of Freud’s ideas — there still prevails the idea that a person’s notion of his own personality is formed on the EGO, as the most conscious part of the personality. Although, of course, here what may be at issue is different projections of the EGO and its different functional realizations.

The better I understand that which interests me most of all in the world, the better I will feel. The more information important for me I collect, the more precisely I will understand the meaning of my life. That is, that which others expect of me. If the realization of the SUPEREGO block occurs successfully, then the personality feels itself confident, since it knows what that generalized environment which a person perceives as the world — but which in the majority of cases is realized as the immediate human surroundings — expects of it. As Aušra says, such a sensation “is precisely the notion of oneself through the prism of the world.” Although that which corresponds to the thematics of the SUPEREGO a person considers his duty and tries to fulfill it, the abilities and energy for a full-fledged accomplishment of the “good intentions” here are not sufficient.

One of the manifestations of the SUPEREGO consists in the fact that a person strives to act like the type that stands with him in the socionic relation of SUPEREGO. However, the bearer of one type cannot in full measure reproduce the behavior of the bearer of another type, and therefore this is always only some weakened imitation, having, nonetheless, its own quite independent meaning. Thus the SUPEREGO of Don Quixote is tuned to “make suffering humanity happy,” which in the literal, “energetic,” sense ought to mean a powerful energetic feeding of each person. However, such a feeding, on their own scale and with a different intention, is successfully carried out by Napoleons, who stand with Don Quixote in the relation of SUPEREGO. Don Quixote has only a subconscious set along the SUPEREGO to open to people the source of such a feeding, and his efforts in this direction remain in the area of “good intentions” and often bear a utopian — that is, torn from real life — character. In such cases the bearer of the type in fact exceeds the measure of his typal competence, thereby demonstrating the inevitable limitedness of a single unit of the socion, incapable of encompassing the whole range of human possibilities. On the other hand, Napoleon along his SUPEREGO subconsciously strives to point people to the possibilities of a full-fledged existence, but the most that he manages to do is only to entertain and inspire them for some limited time. True, in doing so he uses such a situation for self-affirmation.

The SUPEREGO is the instance of social commission. Here is formed the maximally possible for the bearer of the type objective picture of the habitat, and, in this sense, the SUPEREGO is an instrument of the reproduction of the reality that is constituted by what people call the world, and thanks to this the SUPEREGO gives a person the possibility of a primary orientation in what he perceives as objective reality. Here it is appropriate to introduce the distinction of the object and subject parts of the habitat. The habitat of the personality can be regarded as something single. Nevertheless, it can be represented as consisting of an object and a subject part. This distinction appears in connection with the different object orientation of logical and ethical types. Although both the one and the other live in both environments, they relate differently to them. Logicians are inclined to regard as an object everything, including the bearers of subjectivity, while ethicals are ready to ascribe subjectivity to “non-living” nature as well, since they even feel the real existence of such subjectivity, animate and personify the phenomena of nature. The bearer of a type perceives one part of the environment as objective reality, as a certain absolute, upon which one cannot influence, which one cannot change, and about which one cannot even have one’s own opinion, but with which one must reckon and upon which one can lean. This is the part of the environment with respect to which the bearer of the type displays maximal conformism and extreme caution. From this part of the environment a person receives a kind of commission, which imperatively must be fulfilled. This commission can be described as an “expectation,” a silent expectation on the part of a certain absolute. A person cannot refuse to fulfill this commission — otherwise he feels an inferiority, experiences dissatisfaction with himself. Ethicals understand and operate in the subject environment, but receive a commission from the object environment; logicians, on the contrary, understand and operate in the object environment, but receive a commission from the subject. This commission is perceived as the necessity to do something important, something that would ensure the personality a high level of self-respect. With the SUPEREGO is connected also that which can be called the proclaimed, illusory meaning of life, in contradistinction to the real meaning of life, forming on the EGO.

If a person makes an error along the SUPEREGO block, then he experiences this as a personal tragedy, feels pangs of conscience. Moreover, he does not even need special proofs — it is sufficient to point to the obvious consequences of his act. In the case of unsuccessful activity, in a person there forms a conscious or unconscious feeling of guilt, which is shaped by the elements of the SUPEREGO and is perceived in the terms that the SUPEREGO uses in accordance with the IA of its functions.

Function 1/2

Function 1/2: vital, contacting, accepting, evaluative, verbal, potential, relative. Its additional parameters can be expressed by the categories passive, regulative, suggestive. At the foundation of its functional semantics lies the aspect s.

Being vital, this function reflects the state of the psychophysiological complex of the personality, and, above all, the peculiarities and level of needs. This function can be characterized as passive, and this means that along this function the individual does not himself display activity, but passively awaits the receipt of a signal significant for him along the thematics of the IA. This function is in direct contact with the environment and receives a signal directly from the surrounding world, sensitively reacting to any changes of the material-informational conjuncture, selecting information valuable for the personality and the individual, accumulating the necessary potential, reproducing it and preparing it for further use. Function 1/2, together with function 1/1, is the first, or input link in the process of the four-stroke metabolic process of the transformation of the informational flows perceived by the passive ring of the psychic structure of the personality.

This function is sensitive to the informational flow that the personality identifies with what can be called a generalized resource. The semantics of this resource is determined by the IA. Along this function the personality subconsciously awaits massive support along the IA. It is difficult for the person himself to create such a resource, although he is sensitive to it and acutely needs it. In an acute deficit the bearer of the type himself tries to create this resource, but this comes out for him poorly, primitively, and “homegrownly.” The search for the needed signal along this function may express itself in a vague languor and, as it were, aimless movement from one place, where one may encounter a suitable source of resource, to another. This is a kind of flight from oneself. Nevertheless, this is not an active search, when a person knows exactly what he is seeking, but a passive wandering with an unconscious set. And at the same time, as soon as the awaited signal appears, a person instantly perceives it as that which he was seeking. When we in this context say “signal,” then, of course, the subject of the psyche receives a signal. However, the source of this signal may be anything whatsoever: a person, a thing, an event, an important message. Along this function a person feels the importance of the IA for his well-being, welfare, and comfort, but this feeling is vague and in the norm is located in the background. If the necessity of satisfying needs along the IA becomes acute, then, so far as possible, a person sets about “patching the holes” independently, but, since natural abilities along the IA are absent, high professionalism and perfect execution here are far off. Still, with systematic effort the demanded ability can be trained, but, it seems, this process develops by the type of compensation.

This function part of the socionists assesses as suggestive, but it seems to me that this is the result of a mechanical transfer of the semantics of the corresponding function from model “AJ” into Model “A.” The point is that model “AJ,” in comparison with Model “A,” is truncated, and the corresponding function there, as it were, combined in itself the semantics of two functions, while in Model “A” there is the possibility of dividing the functional phenomenology, matching to function 1\2 an expectational, and to function 2\2 a mobilizational role. Suggestion in doing so, as a manipulative form, is correlated with the whole SUPERID block.

It is known that the motivating factors are divided into three groups: 1) those determining the cause of the organism’s activity — needs and instincts; 2) those determining the directedness of the activity, for the sake of which the choice of precisely such forms of activity is made — motives; 3) those determining the mechanisms of the regulation of behavior — emotions, desires, strivings, and sets. If one matches this structure of motivating factors to the whole structure of the SUPERID, then it is quite plausible that to function 2\2 correspond emotions, desires, and strivings, and to function 1\2 needs and sets. This function accumulates the programs that energetically ensure the motivation of the behavioral acts of the personality.

Taking into account the semantic components of this function presented above, it can be designated as the expectational-resource function (ERF). This function characterizes the generalized form of the resource that the subject needs and which, by virtue of the typological division of labor, is easier for him to receive from others than to reproduce himself. At the level of ultimate generalization the ERF corresponds to the system of the organs of perception. In order to determine the typological content of this function, one must find out what it is difficult for a person to do himself, but to what he easily and willingly responds, what he awaits from others. One of the signs of this function is an indirect complaint along the thematics of the IA.

The ERF, being accepting, is capable of perceiving even very acute criticism along the thematics of its aspect as care. When the bearer of the type hears along the thematics of the aspect criticism in his direction, then he does not perceive it as something offensive, as a manifestation of aggression or an attempt to humiliate him, but, on the contrary, hears in such criticism a prompt, a guide to action, and immediately uses the information obtained in this way to increase the effectiveness of his life. Whatever a person is reproached with, if it goes along the thematics of the ERF, he does not perceive this as a reproach, but accepts it as support. This means that even outwardly negative forms of communication are not rejected, do not become the object of negativism, but are perceived with gratitude. If you, along this function, criticize a person, for example, for callousness, lack of initiative, or frivolity displayed by him, he instantly realizes that he was wrong and so adequately perceives the received message that one can be confident in his future relation to the corresponding situations. This circumstance expands the communicative repertoire of interaction with the personality, when alongside the positive forms of communication, the negative ones too can be effectively used. In thoughts and in words, the bearer of the type may reproach both concrete people and society as a whole for the fact that he does not find the possibility of realizing himself, of revealing his abilities, for the fact that his life is not filled with meaning, that it is unclear on what his resource and potential possibilities are being spent. This is a signal for help, which the bearer of the type sends into the surrounding space. This signal may take other forms too, for example, may look like an indirect, and sometimes a direct complaint, or like demonstratively senseless behavior, when a person seeks a way to “kill time.” The content of such signals depends on the IA of the function and may look like the expectation of a prompt concerning what specifically to occupy himself with, what to do and what not to do, on what values to orient himself, how to relate to one or another event or phenomenon.

To help a person along this function is possible if one offers him a suitable resource. However, here one must display caution, so as not to become the victim of an importunate attachment. Most easily such help comes out for the dual. The individual tries to optimize the use of means along the thematics of the IA, but for him himself this is difficult to do, and therefore there forms in him a subconscious expectation of help from outside. If such help does not arrive, the bearer of the type remains in ignorance of how to approach the problem of self-realization, since the psychosomatic system of the person remains “de-energized.” The affliction of this function makes a person undiscriminating. Along this function, as along function 1/1, a person feels a subconscious desire to learn and to raise his qualification, and the learning itself in this case not only does not weigh on him but is perceived as a very natural and necessary process, turning into a source of inspiration and hope.

Aušra, trying to convey as precisely as possible the perception of a person along this function, says that a person’s feelings here are “as if crumpled up,” and in this crumpled ball it is almost impossible to make sense without outside help. Every person here needs support in the structuring of the aspect corresponding to his type. Someone needs to be helped to make sense of relations, and someone else with emotions; someone with his abilities, someone with his consumption, and so on. Support and advice in this case are accepted with gratitude and immediately set into work. Toward people who are capable of helping along the “needed” aspect there is sympathy. Along this function a person subconsciously awaits from the partner an interestedness in communication, and is surprised and disappointed when he does not meet the supposed response. The knowledge acquired along the IA, the bearer of the type, sometimes with the naivety of a child, strives to spread among other people and to introduce, at the level of rationalization proposals, into his everyday life and at work.

Function 2/2

Function 2/2: vital, inert, productive, situational, verbal, potential, object. Its additional parameters can be expressed by the categories passive, activational, suggestive.

Being inert, it accumulates information along the thematics of its aspect and constantly preserves the tendency that has formed or is being formed. This function collects information specific to it, displaying no activity whatsoever, and needs a source that awakens enthusiasm and a high energetic tonus. The imperative of this function can be approximately expressed by the words: “Acutely needs…,” where one must substitute the correspondingly formulated thematics of the IA. If the bearer of the type finds himself in a situation requiring of him at least some initiative along the aspect of this function, then he feels himself “out of his element,” is shy and looks embarrassed. In the case of the absence of the needed information along this function, a person may aimlessly or as if in a stupor walk to and fro or sit motionless in one pose, more often an open one. In the case where the psychological climate in the reference group, in the family, or at work along the aspect of the function turns out to be unfavorable or where support on the part of some “needed” person is simply absent, then, as Aušra writes, “he without the least pang of conscience demonstrates his bad mood.” In fact, this is a signal sent into the surrounding space with an appeal for help. But in this case “correct” help can come only from the dual or the activator.

The productivity of this function is expressed in the fact that it forms an emotional response along the IA. Being inertial, it “gets stuck” on the formed response, preserving it until the receipt of a new portion of energoinformational feeding. At the foundation of its functional semantics lies the aspect E. Aušra in the process of work on her model called this function variously — activational, caritarian (awaits mercy), regulative, but always emphasized that along this function a person displays extreme unconfidence, is afraid of reproach, reacts painfully to critical remarks, is incapable of expressing its needs in words, awaits concrete help. Aušra says that function 2/2 represents “a window through which one can enter into every person, and buy his soul…” Along this function a person, under no circumstances, displays independence, strictly fulfills that which “is expected of him, which conditions others create with their feelings toward him,” and “can be only such as he is programmed” by others. If along this function a person receives adequate support, his subjective (that is, characterized by function 4/2) productivity sharply rises, and his mood becomes optimistic and militant, when he feels in himself the strength to cope with any task relating to his competence. The behavior of a person along this function resembles the behavior in acute infatuation, when the one in love idealizes the object of love and is ready to go for it to almost unlimited sacrifices, identifying it with himself, and himself with it.

Taking into account what has been said, this function can be called the motivational-mobilizational function (MMF). This function characterizes the generalized form of the subject’s need for energetic provisioning. At the level of ultimate generalization this function corresponds to the endocrine system. In order to determine the typological content of this function, one must find out what kind of situations, what information, and under what circumstances evoke in the observed person an emotional uplift; observe a person when he grabs now at one thing, now at another, rushes about in attempts to make sense of something that yields with difficulty to verbal formulation. Sometimes you will be able to notice that a person strives to do something, without giving himself an account of whether he needs this or not, but this working impulse quickly dies out. At the same time, the inertness of this function does not permit a person to renounce the thematics of the corresponding IA. In particular, if some thing is in one way or another connected with the IA of the function, then it is difficult for a person to throw it out, despite the fact that its direct use is impossible or non-actual.

Along this function there is, as it were, presupposed, but not brought to verbal formulation, a reproach that the bearer of the type could address to his surroundings. The meaning of this reproach is that the bearer of the type is not valued, his merits are not seen, and also that he is not loved as he ought to be. The affliction of this function tells on a person’s capacity to love.

Block SUPERID

The SUPERID represents the source of vital activity, is the energetic basis of any productive activity, and in this sense can be called the “psychomotor block” (Aušra). The successfulness of the work of the SUPERID block itself depends practically entirely on the habitat in its object or subject manifestation, which is determined by the informational filling of this block. By this block is determined a person’s well-being, depending on the satisfaction of needs, his readiness for active activity, and inspiration, which represents the result of the sublimation of surplus energy. Along the SUPERID, as if under hypnosis, there may occur a full psychic identification of one person with another. A leader who has caught the wave of the SUPERID of a crowd is capable of controlling it as a continuation of his own body. To tune oneself consciously to one’s own SUPERID is difficult, but if this can be done, then the organism turns out to be accessible to conscious control, when, for example, the overcoming of harmful habits becomes a solvable working task.

Although a person does not realize his SUPERID, the subconscious set requires not showing weakness along this block. Theoretically this can be explained by the fact that the strength or weakness of this block depends on external support, and if it is weak, then that means a person deserves no more. And since he does not deserve this objectively, then there is nothing to complain about, because help not only will not come, but the incomprehension may only intensify and will be openly designated. An indirect complaint, however, as a signal of trouble, must find a suitable addressee, otherwise there will be no reaction to it or it will be inadequate to the request.

The SUPERID as a psychic organ can be used for the evaluation of the immediate environment. “The SUPERID tries to make sense of what value the world has for it, how it pays for the individual’s participation in SEM (social-energetic metabolism)” [6]. If the state of the SUPERID is bad, then this must be understood in the sense that the immediate environment too is, to a corresponding degree, objectively harmful to a person. However, he may not realize this and, by inertia, will not go for its change, more and more getting bogged down in it, and thereby diminishing his already not high chances. Aušra quite justifiedly called this block the block of anti-conscience, and this too is one of her remarkable discoveries. In any case, this concept was not considered in psychology. Apparently because there was no corresponding structural unit. It appears very important that in the psyche such a unit is present. If it were not, then people would too easily become victims of their own altruism. It seems that between the concept of reasonable egoism and the concept of anti-conscience there is a sufficiently strong correlation. A person must take care of himself and count on support from others, if only in order to be a useful member of society. “…if the individual, thanks to dualization, realizes his needs, he is able really to take care of the needs of others too, and moreover without violating his own interests. One can say that the individual relates to the world as the world has related and relates to him” [6]. Aušra says that “To betray is to mock along the SUPERID.” A very constructive and substantive definition.

The primary social imprinting is carried out through the SUPERID, and this too can be regarded as a variant of suggestion. The known cases of the “mowgli-ization” of infants, when they, by a confluence of circumstances, grew up among wolves, sheep, or dogs, can, from the socionic point of view, be understood as the “loading” of the SUPERID of these children with social-biological programs alien to their human nature. If a person’s SUPERID does not contain the programs of some concrete activity, then at the necessity of occupying himself with such activity, a person turns out to be disoriented and will feel himself like Robinson on a desert island, when one has to begin from zero. Unfortunately, in the given case this means that one will have to pass through the whole evolutionary path, and this for a single individual is impossible. When a person, in reply to the reproaches or remarks of those around, has to answer that he acts as it comes out for him, then this means that we are dealing with a projection of the archetype of the SUPERID. The difference between optimal and real behavior that is present in such cases is explained by the fact that a person was not trained along the SUPERID, did not receive adequate information along this block in time. One can say with confidence that, without making sense of his SUPERID, a person cannot lay claim to emotional and cultural maturity. Not having received the corresponding information along the SUPERID, a person turns out to be incapable of objectively evaluating his place in the world and his relations with it. In the given case objectivity means acceptability from the social point of view. An adequately programmed SUPERID transforms a person into a full-fledged citizen, capable not only harmoniously to be present in it but also to take part in its creative transformation. In this case the requirements of a person to the world become adequate to the requirements that the world presents to a person.

Various deviations in the development of the SUPERID manifest themselves in inferior socialization, altered sexual orientation, belated emotional and cultural maturity. If a child in childhood does not receive sufficient parental love, above all maternal, then this should be regarded as a sufficiently severe affliction of his personal sphere, and this will express itself in various anomalies in family and civic life. Understanding the cause of anomalies of this kind, one will be able to undertake a purposeful personal correction. In particular, a full-fledged sense of humor cannot be formed without the full-fledged participation of the SUPERID. One can also suppose that a congenital affliction of the SUPERID manifests itself in severe forms of dementia, up to feeble-mindedness. If a person makes an error along the SUPERID block, then he preserves the confidence that he was “set up,” and with a pure heart reproaches others and shifts responsibility onto them. This error he is capable of repeating again and again, if he is not provided with emotional-informational cover on the part of the surroundings.

Taking into account the readiness of the SUPERID for the reception of informational flows adequate to its filling, it can be assessed as the suggestive entrance into the psyche of a person. With the SUPERID block one can connect also the concept of expectation, by which is understood the subconscious expectation of definite actions on the part of the surroundings. It is expected that these actions will bear a resource-providing character. In the absence of support on the part of people capable of providing the necessary resource, the bearer of the type passes over to a regime of “minimal existence,” which is characterized by a lowered well-being, minimal productivity, creative passivity, and the loss of vital tonus. Thus one can say that along this function a person awaits the provision to him of a resource, and he awaits this as if he had a certain sovereign right to it. This situation not merely resembles, but in fact, by its deep meaning, is not merely analogous to, but identical with, the situation when a suckling infant demandingly awaits that he be fed at the breast, and this right of his no one disputes. The SUPERID represents the social entrance into the psyche of a person, and this means also the possibility of manipulation of it. However, let us emphasize that manipulation is a socially pathological form of relation, to which are opposed collaboration and actualization — that is, an interested and benevolent support of the personality, directed at the development of its best abilities.

Function 3/2

Function 3/2: vital, inert, accepting, situational, laborious, program, relative. At the foundation of its functional semantics lies the aspect i.

Passive it was called by Aušra simply because it is located in the vital, or psychosomatic, ring. Here passivity must be understood as the automatic reflection of the generalized processes occurring in the mental, or intellectual-operative, ring, where the habitat is modeled, goals adequate to it are worked out, decisions are made, and volitional impulses are formed, which are transmitted into the vital ring. Function 3/2 can be called passive, because it automatically reflects the informational state of function 3/1 together with the programs of behavior formed on it. In addition, along this function a person chooses nothing independently — here he depends fully on the environment and receives all impulses from others. Having received such an impulse, a person feels himself obliged to work it off, but he does this only when the source of the impulse is assessed by him as worthy, deserving of respect. However, this function in itself, irrespective of its position in the vital ring, is distinguished by maximal activity, since it is precisely it that is responsible for the carrying-out of the programs of the personality into life. Literally expressing it, one can say that this function passively — that is, automatically — immerses the personality in activity. Despite the apparent paradoxicality, this definition expresses the very essence of this function.

This is the function of the forced fulfillment of programs and the unfolding of potential possibilities. Because of its imperative-forced character and the immersion of a person in the flow of time, the name imperative-temporal function (ITF) suits it quite well. At the level of ultimate generalization it corresponds in all types to intuitive contact with the world, immersing the bearer of the type in the flow of time, colored by the corresponding IA. This function characterizes the generalized working state of the subject of activity. In order to determine the typological content of this function, one must track in what states the personality predominantly finds itself, establish the modality of its volitional tonus. Answer the question of what represents for you the highest value, what you do not consider it possible to overstep, to what you are sensitive to the greatest degree, and you will obtain a notion of the meaning of this function for you.

At the foundation of the semantics of this function lies the concept of time, contact with which for all bears an imperative character, while the personal programs and their fulfillment determine the internal scale and reckoning of time. The IA of this function reflects the thematics along which a person predominantly spends his time. In order to realize his programs, the personality must spend some time, but it has no choice here, since the formed program automatically immerses the personality in the process of its fulfillment, also automatically allotting to the performance of the corresponding work the necessary temporal resource. The inertness of this function is expressed in the fact that the thematics of its IA is distinguished by stability and constancy. A person along this function is not inclined to change the object of its application. It is precisely by this property of it that one can explain the fact that, for example, extraverted ethicals are constantly immersed in relations, while introverted ones — in emotions, and so on. The combination of such properties as inertness and acceptingness manifests itself in the fact that this function accumulates information along the IA and is fixated on it, and this is expressed in an ultimate concentration on the projections of the archetype of its IA. This is expressed also in the fact that, independently of his will, a person maximally economically uses its resource, subconsciously strives for the optimization of its manifestations, which not infrequently reaches the level of virtuosity.

Along this function a person imperatively adapts and subconsciously adjusts himself to the corresponding values of the partner and the social group, feels himself not entitled to impose on others his notions along the thematics of the aspect. The thematics of the aspect of this function a person uses as a subconscious criterion for the evaluation of the degree of reasonableness with which other people build their behavior. And when a person sees deviations from this criterion, he acutely experiences this as his own imperfection and immediately tries to create conditions, to offer his help and his abilities, in order that the partner be able to improve his indicators. His own resource along this function a person uses for the backing-up of the partner, the compensation of the deficit of another’s resource, and does this even when he is not asked about it (inertness). In the case of compatibility such behavior is accepted with various degrees of gratitude and gives its positive results. But if the degree of compatibility with the partner leaves much to be desired, then the attempt to “help” does not attain success and ends in mutual dissatisfaction, up to conflict and rupture. Once again it will be appropriate to emphasize that the components of behavior along this function usually are located beyond the verge of awareness, while a person acts automatically. At the same time, the thematics of the partner’s behavior along this aspect a person senses quite concretely, in volume and distinctly, while that which a suitable partner does seems important, essential, and of first priority. In such a case one wants to support the partner, to meet him halfway, which in some cases (given compatibility) may look like heightened pliability, agreeableness, and understanding, and in others (incompatibility) like importunity, inappropriateness, and simply immodesty. In the case of pathological deviations, a person here turns out to be incapable of concentrating on the thematics of the aspect, or, on the contrary, it becomes for him an obsessive idea. Because of the automatism of the aspectual adjustment along this function, the manifestations of another person along this function are perceived by the bearer of the type more really than his own. Moreover, he as it were goes to meet the aspectual manifestations along this function of another person, displaying understanding and readiness to support him along this aspect. From outside this may look like heightened yieldingness, even like weakness, but, by nature, this is a manifestation of the natural capacity disinterestedly to participate in the manifestations of those around along this aspect.

Function 4/2

Function 4/2: vital, contacting, productive, evaluative, laborious, program, object.

Its primary semantics is connected with the direct performance of physical work (L). This is the passive, automatic obtaining of a product with qualities corresponding to the IA. Here the apparent paradoxicality manifests itself in the fact that the concept of passivity is combined with the obvious necessity to act. But here activity is separated from initiative — this is the automatic activity of a programmed robot. However, in the case of a human being this looks somewhat more complex. Of course, a person on the whole is not a robot. This is a spiritualized being, endowed with freedom of will, but these qualities of his manifest themselves in full measure along the PPF and CPF. Here, however, what may be at issue is only the maximally precise execution of programs formed in another place. Thus the impulse directed at obtaining a concrete result is formed (presumably) in the brain, but the movements of the executive organs, for example the hands, are apparently strictly adequate to such an impulse. Although here too a reservation is necessary, since adequacy is only an ideal to which the coordinated work of the organ forming the image of the result and the executive organ materializing this image may approximate. First, a high level of coordination here, if it is not congenital, as, for example, in the case of the sucking of the mother’s breast by an infant, is attained as the result of the practical use of the executive organ, and in this case, as they say, there is no limit to perfection. Excellent examples here can be the numerous specimens of mastery and virtuosity demonstrated by people in various spheres of labor activity, science, art, and social life. However, in many cases one can see how imperfect is the work of the executive organ, despite the fact that, apparently, the image is quite formed. How, for example, clumsy can be the movements of the fingers of a person trying to thread a needle.

Aušra writes that “Along element 4/2 goes the realization of the potential energy of the individual in some kind of labor activity.” Along this function a person acts as an instrument of the technological transformation of a definite component of the habitat, and his very work can be regarded as a concrete technology.

On the basis of the semantic components inherent in this function, the name realizational-technological function (RTF) suits it quite well. This function at the level of ultimate generalization characterizes the materialized product of the subject’s activity. At the level of ultimate generalization to it corresponds the system of the neutralization of toxic substances entering the organism with food or forming in the organism as the result of vital activity. Concretely this work in the organism is done by the liver. Such a comparison, at first glance, may seem, at the least, strange, but it is justified by the special character of the direct and even intimate contact of the liver with the organic and inorganic components of the environment, and by that enormous specific work that the liver conducts on the neutralization and elimination of such components.²⁴

It is significant that in the Chinese system of five elements (wu-xing) the liver is singled out into a separate subsystem of the organism and is opposed to — or rather, not mixed with — such subsystems as the gastrointestinal tract and the kidneys. The full-fledgedness of this system ensures the high working capacity and productivity of the individual. By the principle of through-action, the peculiarities of each of the subsystems of the organism, their health or inferiority, dominance or oppression, manifest themselves at the phenomenological macrolevel too: in behavior, character, and external appearance — in all that which is connected with the concept of constitutionality.

The definition of this function, encountered in the socionic literature, as demonstrative or demonstrational is justified only partially — in the sense of what a person is capable of, but not in the sense that, out of ambitious or advertising considerations, he shows himself off before other people. Nevertheless, if in the immediate surroundings there are people capable of appreciating, supporting, and relating justly to the work performed, this turns out to be an additional stimulus for its continuation. Aušra writes that “By his actions the individual demonstrates the relation to the program of the socium laid down on the preceding element 3/2.” However, here the concept of demonstration obviously does not contain a shade of “showing off,” but is synonymous with the concept “to express, to demonstrate a relation” and, thereby, to give the surroundings feedback, moreover, as Aušra writes, “This relation is always positive.” The presence of interested witnesses sharply raises the working tonus and the productiveness of the bearer of the type. But, of course, the supposed interestedness must correspond to the IA of this function. In order to determine the typological content of this function, one must track what a person can do for others, if he is very much asked, and if this will be needed not only for himself personally but, above all, for others; what comes to you easily as help to another; in what area you feel the necessity to intervene in order to support.

If a person performs work along the aspect of the RTF, he never tires — that is, he works along this IA until he collapses, but in doing so feels not tiredness, but only that he cannot work further — move his arms and legs. The concentration on the thematics of the IA of this function is capable of attaining such a level that a person looks like one possessed, while to those who are not possessed by this thematics, or at least are not interested in it, the bearer of the type simply pays no attention, and they, as it were, cease to exist for him. Along this function the individual never competes — he simply does everything he is capable of. The work of this function ensures the materialization of that ultimate socially demanded result which, by his typological characteristics, the bearer of the socionic type is capable of ensuring. Along this function a person is capable of putting out a socially valuable and typologically colored product, but for this he must receive adequate stimulation along the motivational-mobilizational function. As a result of this, there ought to arise in him the conviction that his work is needed by other people and is done for them. The RTF, like the CPF, needs positive reinforcement, which may be expressed in a just reward, tactfully expressed praise or a compliment, and also in the interested and inspiring gaze of the partner.

Depending on the IA that is in the position of this function, the individual demonstrates the ultimate creative abilities accessible to him, which is briefly reflected in the following list.

I — potention-creating technologies
i — time creating and saving technologies
S — power creating technologies
s — comfort creating technologies
L — technology creating technologies
l — order creating technologies
E — emotion charging creating technologies
e — relation creating technologies

If these reasonings are confirmed by the further development of socionics and its empirical verification, then from them one will be able to draw the conclusion that the optimal sphere of activity for a person is determined by the aspectual filling of his RTF, and not at all by the PPF. The PPF is the instrument by means of which a person “works with the world,” but his maximal product he puts out with the RTF. Huxley and Napoleons have different PPFs, but their optimal product is the filling of the surroundings with a powerful emotional charge. Good examples here are Khazanov (Huxley) and Pugacheva (Napoleon). Don Quixotes discover the laws of nature, which become the basis of new technologies. Zhukovs too create technologies, but these are the technologies of military victories. However, one can adduce a large number of examples when people of any types produce any products, and this, it would seem, ought to refute the preceding reasonings, but, I think, this is precisely one of the problems that can be clarified by the means of socionics. Socionics gives the possibility of a more subtle qualification of the observable phenomenology of behavior.

Pathological deviations in the development of the RTF manifest themselves in a lowering of productivity and in the incapacity to bring a begun affair to completion, and as a result — in social unadaptedness or inadequacy. If at a concrete moment the EGO turns out for some reasons to be unloaded, passive, demoralized, or pathologically changed, then the RTF is activated, which may manifest itself in senseless actions too.

Block Id

It seems that the ID in socionics is understood somewhat more narrowly, or perhaps even significantly more narrowly, than in the psychoanalysis of Freud. With Freud this is an infinite ocean of uncontrolled impulses. But possibly this is merely a poetic image, for as yet there exists no verification of this Freudian concept in a strictly controlled experiment. In socionics the ID is, above all, the psychosomatic reflection of the EGO, the bodily materialization of programs formed with the direct participation of the intellect. The participation of the intellect here by no means signifies that the formation of the programs is a fully conscious process. Moreover, the work of the intellect itself, apparently, in significant part is not controlled by consciousness and is not realized, although here much depends on the definitions of intellect. The socionic interpretation of the ID gives the possibility of supposing that the ID is not realized, above all because the information connected with it is presented in the psyche in quite different codes than those that consciousness uses. This is because the socionic ID has as its carrier the psychosomatics, while the corresponding mechanisms of transformation into codes accessible to waking consciousness are not represented there. How extensive the informational fields of the psychosomatics are, science for now, apparently, does not know.

Within the framework of socionics the ID can be understood as a substructure of the psyche answering for the materialization of the programs of the EGO. In computer terminology, it can be compared with a driver, which makes programs “visible” for peripheral devices. From the point of view of the computer metaphor, the existence of such a driver is quite justified, although variants of its program realization are possible. There exist signs of the functioning of the ID that an external observer can see. Above all, these are all behavioral acts with their psychological evaluation, and, in addition, these are emotional states and reactions. Whatever a person does, this is always the transformation of programs of behavior into behavior itself.

The socionic model of the psyche permitted Aušra to detect the intentional and motivational aspects of the ID. The ID is capable of working full-fledgedly only in the presence of external motivation — that is, it “switches on” only when the habitat stimulates it. In the structure of the psyche the habitat is represented by the SUPERID. The EGO creates new values, the need for which has ripened in the socium, while the ID rigidly depends on the values existing in the habitat. Along this block a person imperatively acknowledges the rights of society, the group, or even the partner over himself, and experiences a negative tension if these instances insufficiently use the rights granted to them. Such a peculiarity of the ID makes the connections between the individual and his habitat very strong. This block acts as a psychic organ by means of which a person learns — or rather, senses — his value, which is an inalienable condition of the fullness of life. This organ gives a person the possibility of catching his place in social processes. All this Aušra expressed in a capacious, though perhaps also tautological, formula, which sounds like “I am needed by society all the more, the more it needs my services.” Thus the individual can occupy himself with what he occupies himself, since the socium needs this, since there exists an explicit or implicit social commission. Realizing his ID, a person guarantees himself support on the part of society, the group, or the partner, and thereby also the satisfaction of his needs. All this, in the case of the normal development and functioning of the ID, makes practically impossible the dropping-out of the individual from the socium and opposition to it. In this sense, even cases of extreme asceticism and hermitism can be understood not at all as a departure from the socium, but as an attempt to solve a problem very important for the socium, which the individual perceives as his own. This block makes a person accessible to upbringing.

A person without an ID, if such happens, can be compared with a paralytic, who is incapable not only of doing anything, but even of emitting at least somewhat meaningful sounds. Therefore one can say that thanks to this subsystem of the psyche a person is capable of mastering and transforming the surrounding world. Of course, one can also imagine such a situation, when a person uses his executive organs only for the checking and demonstration of his possibilities to others or to himself, but this does not contradict the instrumental character of the ID, and such situations themselves can be regarded as preparatory or calibrational. Analogously the matter stands with training situations, in which the product is a new level of abilities. In the realization of this block a person not only shows his maximal possibilities, and thereby, in this respect, can serve as an example for imitation. But he has an acute, though not realized, need to confirm, as feedback to the socium, his usefulness for the latter, and, consequently, also his right to receive the corresponding vital resource. These expectations could be described by the words “Look how good I am!” In the execution of the RTF such a statement is a sincere ascertainment of the fact of the high quality of the work and has no relation whatsoever to boasting. It is precisely thus that one could understand the words “Ah, what a Pushkin, ah, what a fine fellow!”, which the great poet could say about the results, unexpected even for himself, of his astonishing gift. But usually such experiences are not translated into verbal form. If a person makes an error along the ID block, then he reacts acutely to the incident, openly expresses dissatisfaction not only with himself but also with his surroundings, which did not preserve him from the error, did not warn, did not intervene. Subsequently he tries to take into account the acquired experience, but this occurs at the unconscious level and is expressed as the action of an acquired automatism.

The semantics of the blocks as a derivative

Summing up the problematics connected with the semantics of the functions, one must say that the primary semantics of the socionic functions is more or less clear to socionists. Nevertheless, further work on refining it is necessary. The semantics of the functions must undoubtedly be deductively derived from fundamental premises connected with scientific notions about the evolution of the human being and the human psyche. However, further work on refining the semantics of the functions must be conducted with a taking-into-account of the semantics of the structural elements of Model “A” — the rings and blocks. The semantics of the functions and the semantics of their structural parameters must be coordinated among themselves. From the point of view of the structural approach, one can hold that the semantics of a function must be fully expressed by the set of its basic parameters. The reverse too is apparently true, that the semantics of the structural parameters of a function must be derived from the primary semantics of the function. However, since the semantics of each function is closely connected with the semantics of the whole model, and can hardly be regarded separately from it, it is understandable that the semantics of the structural parameters of a function has a direct relation to the function itself. Moreover, that which we above called additional parameters also cannot be assigned arbitrarily or remain the result of chance intuitive insights, but must be presented as the result of the superposition of the semantics of the basic parameters. However, the semantics of the enumerated basic parameters is insufficiently clarified. To a significant degree this is connected with the blurredness of the concepts standing behind the more or less chance terms chosen for designation from the very beginning of insufficiently clear concepts.

It seems, in V. Stratievskaya, and, I think, with a reference to someone else, I encountered an idea that seemed to me very promising. I do not remember how it was formulated in the primary source, but in my consciousness it remained as an attempt to express the semantics of the EGO block through the semantics of the functions entering into it in approximately the way that in mathematics a derivative is constructed. I began to apply this idea to all types and to all blocks, and, despite the sharply expressed mathematical formalism, the result seemed to me encouraging. If one could methodologically justify the legitimacy of such an approach, then we would obtain one more approach to clarifying the semantic problems in socionics.

Let us try to consider this idea a little more attentively. We shall proceed from the supposition that the semantics of a block can be presented as the derivative of the first function of the block (1fb) with respect to the second function of the block (2fb).²⁵ In the most general form, the derivative function represents the limit toward which the ratio of two variable quantities tends, when the divisor tends to zero. In mathematics this theme is well elaborated, but with respect to some of its details critical remarks from time to time appeared. One of such remarks casts doubt on the very possibility of working with infinitely small quantities. From the formal-logical point of view, here there exists a quite definite incorrectness, since in the limit we obtain division by zero. However, in mathematics and physics there exists a quite correct way of obtaining derivative concepts by means of the direct division of some named quantities by others. A vivid and widely known example here can be the concept of velocity as the result of the division of the magnitude of distance by the magnitude of time in which this distance is traversed. One can say that in doing so we obtain a normalized quantity, when to a unit of one quantity there falls some quantity of another quantity. Thus, in the case of velocity, we speak, for example, of the number of meters per second. I want to draw attention here to the fact that the chosen unit, relating to the second concept, can, within convenient limits, be as small as one likes. But what is important for us here is that it is a unit. As applied to socionics, one can speak of the semantics of a block as the derivative function of the first and second functions of the block. In symbolic form this may look like sb = df1/df2, where sb is the semantics of the block, df1 the infinitely small increment of the first function in the block, df2 the infinitely small increment of the second function given the chosen order of their succession. Of course, such a literal use of mathematical symbolics may seem unjustified, but what is at issue here is a conditional and maximally generalized use of symbolic concepts.

Taking into account what has been said, the generalized semantics of the EGO block can be understood as “the quantity of potential possibilities (I) per one communicative unit (l), or per one unit of the orderedness of the environment (l).” Translated from abstract language into concrete, this means that the personality understands the PP of the maximum of objects accessible to it with a set toward improving the parameters of the environment. Here, proceeding from the proposed apparatus of the formation of concepts, one can even specify that what may be at issue is not the improvement of the parameters of the environment in general, but the improvement of the parameters of each unit that enters into the structure of the environment. But this is precisely the generalized meaning of that toward which the personality is oriented. Such a set can be characterized as cognition with self-affirmation.

The generalized semantics of the SUPEREGO block can be understood as “the quantity of units of forceful pressure (S) per one unit of critical relation (e).” Translated from abstract language into concrete, this can be understood in the sense that in tense situations the personality resolutely overcomes or discards (S) formal ethical norms (e) and creates new ones. Such a set can be characterized as opposition, resistance, or alienation.

The generalized semantics of the SUPERID block can be understood as “the quantity of units of resource (s) per one unit of emotional reaction (E).” Translated from abstract language into concrete, this can be understood in the sense that the personality awaits from the environment the receipt of the maximal quantity of vital resource. The results of such expectation are here fixed by emotional reactions. This same thing, but in a passive variant, can be understood in the sense that to some quantity of units of resource the individual responds with one unit of emotional activity. Such a set can be characterized as expectation or identification.

The generalized semantics of the ID block can be understood as “the quantity of time or concentration (i) per one unit of physical load (L).” Translated from abstract language into concrete, this can be understood in the sense that the personality is imperatively concentrated on the performance of work. Time has an imperative character — it does not wait, is not reversible, is an absolute value, and if someone does nothing, then he simply loses time and the resource corresponding to it. Work is the main means by which the vital resource is created. Thus the ID represents a psychic function directly corresponding to physiological tonus and determining its level necessary for ensuring vital activity. Such a set can be characterized as concentration or readiness.

In the model of each TIM these generalized definitions of the functions are concretized by the informational filling of the corresponding functions. For example, for the type Dumas the generalized semantics of the main structural blocks must be corrected in the following way.

EGO (sE) (self-affirmation): the quantity of units of resource, of well-being, per one unit of emotional reacting. This can be understood in the sense that here comfort is maximized — that is, a personality with such a program strives to receive more vital resource per each emotional reaction. This program leads to the result that consumption acquires a dominant character.

SUPEREGO (iL) (resistance): the quantity of time per one unit of productivity. Here the time is maximized in which one unit of physical labor can be performed. At the level of everyday life, this ought to mean that the personality performs physical work slowly, expending much time on each unit of physical work, whence it follows that its physical productivity will be low. This program leads to the result that the individual tries to minimize the expenditures of energy on the performance of physical work, does this only in acute necessity, but on the other hand, in communication with people, the maximum of time is devoted to them.

SUPERID (Il) (expectation): the quantity of potential possibilities per one communicative unit. This can be understood in the sense that the personality displays a heightened interest in everything connected with the meaning of life, and in each act of communication tries to receive as many units of such meaning as possible. This program leads to the result that the individual strives for contact with partners capable of satisfying his needs in the filling of his life with meaning.

ID (Se) (concentration): the quantity of units of volitional effort per one unit of intertype relation. This can be understood in the sense that the personality directs all its will at the creation and maintenance of relations with other people. This program leads to the result that the individual turns out to be capable of relatively easily establishing contacts.

It is interesting to look at how the corresponding blocks may be interpreted in the mirror type. In the given case this will be Hugo.

EGO (Es) (self-affirmation): the quantity of units of emotional reacting per one unit of vital resource. This can be understood in the sense that in the given case emotional reacting is maximized, as the result of which, per one unit of well-being, a maximally large quantity of units of emotionality is put out, and moreover this is ensured by the construction of the type — he can permit himself this. Of course, this has an evolutionary-adaptive meaning. For example, in the given case this can be understood in the sense that in response to minimal resource support on the part of the partner, the individual responds with such a powerful emotional reaction of joy or gratitude that this not only compensates the resource expenditures of the partner but also significantly overrides them. This creates a precedent for further resource support. Here the emotional component of life is maximized. Per any unit of consumption or vital resource, the possible maximum of emotional energy is allotted. If the partner lacks such energy, then he has reason to try, since in such contact he receives evidence of his neededness, which is one of the projections of self-affirmation. This program leads to the result that emotional reacting acquires a dominant character.

SUPEREGO (Li) (resistance): the quantity of units of productivity per one unit of time. Here the individual maximizes his productiveness under conditions of heightened pressure of the environment. And this too has an evolutionary-adaptive meaning. It is understandable that an individual capable of mobilizing himself in extreme conditions, having increased the production of vital resource, thereby raises his chances of surviving. This program leads to the result that the individual overcomes the period of extreme load at the expense of raising productivity, and he possesses for this the necessary abilities. It is understandable also that such a base psychic set contributes to the training of the corresponding physiological systems.

SUPERID (lI) (expectation): the quantity of communicative units per one unit of potential possibilities. This can be understood in the sense that the personality, in the search for a source of the meaning of life, tries to establish as many contacts as possible. This program leads to the result that the individual displays heightened social activity, thereby filling his life with the meaning lacking to it.

ID (eS) (concentration): the quantity of intertype relations per one unit of forceful pressure. This can be understood in the sense that the individual is concentrated on interhuman relations with an accent on volitional dominance. This program leads to the result that the individual strives for self-affirmation at the expense of the concentration in his hands of power, which, in particular, may be expressed in material wealth. In connection with such an interpretation of the ID of Hugo, it is interesting to recall that in the court deck²⁶ Hugo corresponds to the staff of staves, or the king of kings. Can it really be that the potentials of Hugo are such that he ought to be the best of kings? It is somehow difficult to recall such examples from history. But there ought to exist a positive interpretation of this archetype. In any case, king Hugo ought to have cared more than other kings about the welfare and well-being of his subjects.

Table 3.07 and the socionic explanation of psychopathology

In conclusion let us note one more application, connected with the concept of the semantics of the main blocks of Model “A.” One can suppose that, in the case of each concrete personality, the main blocks of its psychic structure are realized unevenly, in connection with which there manifests itself a more or less definite integral effect, which characterizes the personality as a whole. Without laying claim to precision and completeness, one can propose the following variant of such an interpretation in table 3.07, in which the code of the realizedness of the blocks is presented by a sequence of ones and zeros.

Here we approach the problem of a possible socionic explanation of some variants of psychic pathology and, in particular, of social psychopathy. Let us give only a brief hint at such a possibility. A lowering of the functional full-fledgedness of each of the socionic functions, presumably, ought to manifest itself in the following way: a defect of the PPF — the incapacity for self-realization, up to the breaking of the personality; the CPF — the loss of communicative abilities, the loss of the sense of humor, the destruction of the mechanisms of creativity; the ALF — defenselessness, capitulation before the pressure of the environment; the CCF — cynicism, shamelessness, exhibitionism; the ERF — the sensation of uselessness, autism; the MMF — depression; the ITF — the incapacity for concentration, defects of attention; the RTF — the incapacity to perform work, a lowering of productivity up to its complete loss.

Table 3.07

Code	Interpretation
1111	A fully realized personality
1110	An armchair scholar — introduces nothing
1101	A talented failure — tries for society, but no one understands him
1100	A creator of utopias — no one understands him, nothing can be introduced, but he affirms himself, developing his notions of the world and society that are “of no use to anyone”
1011	An active enemy of society, a terrorist, a disseminator of black ideas; the SUPEREGO is destroyed
1010	A well-settled fantasist-misanthrope — he needs no one, he lives in the world of his fantasies, but is provided with all that is necessary for life, although he himself does nothing useful. A parasite. The SUPEREGO and ID are destroyed
1001	An eccentric inventor, whom no one needs and whom no one understands. The SUPEREGO and SUPERID are not realized
1000	A maniac, with his overvalued ideas, who needs no one, whom no one understands, and everything he does is senseless
0111	A well-fed philistine, a consumer-conformist, a bourgeois — lives as it comes out, does not pluck stars from the sky, but his mode of life does not contradict the generally accepted, and he, so far as possible, contributes his mite to social life
0110	An immature member of society, a child — socially dependent, is an object of care, but there are as yet no results, and, perhaps, there will not be
0101	A careerist — accepts social norms as a given, is active, but his activity and self-realization are needed by no one
0100	A waif, a homeless person — socially dependent, cannot realize himself, is needed by no one, and his activity too is needed by no one
0011	A dictator — the EGO and SUPEREGO are perverted, he acknowledges only his own requirements to the socium
0010	A paralytic, for whom there is someone to care
0001	A slave — works under compulsion, cannot realize himself, lives in a socium alien to him, and is an object of contempt
0000	A prisoner in solitary confinement — self-realization is impossible, contact with society is absent, is needed by no one, has nothing to occupy himself with

In the morphological peculiarities of the human (but, I think, not only the human) psyche, the systemic conditionedness, the logic of the development of psychic forms, manifest themselves quite obviously. But, having arisen once, one or another psychic formation itself already serves as the foundation for further development, further structural changes and evolutionary complexifications (and complications). Therefore in the psyche there must arise, on its systemic primary foundation, secondary phenomena, the direct explanation of which must be sought no longer in the most general systemic signs of the psyche, but in more concrete changes of psychic structures. Here we stand at the sources of the formation of individual peculiarities, including character.

To approach more concretely these “secondary” manifestations of the systemic character of the psyche, let us turn our attention to the fact that any object, obeying the laws of nature, and, among them, the laws of thermodynamics, in a certain sense is “pushed out” onto a quite definite evolutionary trajectory, which, in the thermodynamic understanding of the term, can be characterized as minimal, since movement along it will require the least expenditures of energy, in comparison with any other minimally close trajectory. One can suppose that the evolutionary trajectories do not form a continuum, but represent a discrete set, the parameters of which are determined by the peculiarities of the quantization of the corresponding substrate. One of the manifestations of the thermodynamic minimum is morphological economy, which, nevertheless, without a taking-into-account of the peculiarities of the functioning of the substrate, may be perceived as wastefulness.

Conclusions to Chapter Three

A psychic function is the PROCESS AND/OR RESULT OF THE WORK OF AN ELEMENT OR AGGREGATE OF ELEMENTS OF THE PSYCHIC STRUCTURE, ON CONDITION THAT THIS WORK IS DIRECTED TOWARD MAINTAINING HOMEOSTASIS IN THE ORGANISM-ENVIRONMENT SYSTEM.
Socionics, for the modeling of the psyche, uses generalized and positioned functions.
As psychic functions there may figure psychic processes of various levels of generalization, down to functions performed by individual neurons, and still further, down to the intracellular level. In socionics an aggregate of eight highly generalized functions is considered, distinguished by the fact that as an aggregate it is complete, in the sense that other functions of the same level of generalization do not exist.
The functional structure of the psyche is the result of the manifestation of the thermodynamic laws of nature in the process of the evolutionary adaptation of living creatures to the habitat.
The psyche formed those functions that are necessary for the reflection and processing of the information connected with the generalized information aspects. Since the set of such aspects consists of eight units, the generalized psychic functions too must be eight.
THE SEMANTICS OF THE FUNCTIONS OF MODEL “A” CORRESPONDS TO THE SEMANTICS OF THE SYMBOLS OF THE INFORMATION ASPECTS CONNECTED WITH THE CORRESPONDING FUNCTIONS IN THE MODEL OF THE INTUITIVE-LOGICAL EXTRAVERT.
Model “A” permits the detection of maximally generalized invariants of behavior, or archetypes of subtle behavioral differences. The general formulation: if in the models of some types, in one and the same functions, blocks, or rings, there are located identical IA, then to the corresponding types will be inherent a definite, perhaps maximally generalized, sign of behavior. Thus a variety of temperaments can be determined.
The semantics of the blocks of Model “A” can be presented as a concept derived from the semantics of the putting-out and receiving functions of the block.

References

Anokhin, P. K., Essays on the Physiology of Functional Systems, Moscow, Meditsina, 1975.
Ermak, V. D., report on the semantics of IA, 12th International Conference on Socionics, Kyiv, 1997.
Medvedev, N. N., On the Possibilities of Constructing a Psychological Model of the Personality for the Modeling of Interpersonal Relations, SMiPL 1, 1998.
Aušra Augustinavičiūtė, The Theory of Reinin’s Traits, Socionics, St. Petersburg, 1998.
Psychology, a dictionary, Moscow, 1995.
Aušra Augustinavičiūtė, Characterization of the Intuitive-Logical Introtim, Socionics, St. Petersburg, 1998.

Notes

N. N. Medvedev, I. D. Vaisband-Onufrienko, V. V. Gulenko, A. V. Bukalov, and others.
Which is by no means obligatory.
For example, in connection with heredity or as the result of upbringing.
For intuition this is sensing, for thinking — feeling.
This is one of the manifestations of reciprocity — the inverse dependence of complementary functions.
Anokhin synthesized the concept of anticipatory reflection, which presents the problem under consideration from another side.
Let us note that the productivity of a process determines its informational component and is determined by it.
But not archetype!
Incidentally, possibly, in one or another form known to the integral experience of humanity.
Well, one cannot acknowledge the refusal to define consciousness in behaviorism, or the inarticulate scholastic reasonings about consciousness in materialist schools, as a result on which one can stop! A deep contemporary analysis of the problematics of consciousness is contained in the monograph of H. Hunt, On the Nature of Consciousness, but here too the problems are only posed, not solved.
See Chapter 1.
Here the concept “ideal” is used in the sense “non-material,” and not “high-quality,” although, undoubtedly, the second meaning too can be applied to the product of brilliant artists.
We call them semantic because by them is determined the character of the work of the functions. The aspect filling the function can be called typological.
As physiologists would say, the secretion — that is, that which is secreted by some gland as the result of its functioning.
Into this term is invested the meaning of an insufficient thinking-through of the theme.
Let us recall K. Marx’s thought that theory becomes a material force when it takes possession of the masses. Here the transformation of the ideal into the material becomes obvious.
But, of course, not only this. These aspects include also such thematics as various manifestations of will, forceful pressure, the aesthetic evaluation of works of art, and others.
This depends on the function with which they are given.
A term from the transactional analysis of E. Berne.
E. Berne, Transactional Analysis.
It is useful to draw attention to the fact that, from the socionic point of view, on the archetypal plane, speech and social position turn out to be indistinguishable. Into this same archetypal group falls also the “exit into space,” as well as all operative thinking, which reduces to the determination of spatial and quasi-spatial correlations among objects of arbitrary nature.
Thus Aušra designated the capacity to collect and accumulate information.
The additional parameters, being secondary, here appear as derivatives of the primary ones.
Here one might object that, properly, all functional systems produce definite work in the organism and, correspondingly, experience one or another load, so why must one somehow especially single out the detoxification system? Do the heart, the stomach, or the kidneys really work little, and, all the more, the musculoskeletal apparatus (MSA)? Yes, undoubtedly, all functional systems participate in ensuring the viability of the organism, but the contribution of each of the systems present has a specific character, which also determines the semantics of the corresponding function. The digestive system represents a high-technology conveyor, on whose work depends, at the least, the energetic and plastic provisioning of the organism, and the liver in this conveyor occupies the special position of the department of technical control of all the work done by the links preceding it.
Of course, when the block is read in the reverse order, the functions change places.
What is meant is the work of S. Savchenko on the adaptation to socionics of the psychological developments present in the Tarot system.

Socion Archive

Explorer

Chapter 3

Chapter 3

The Problem of the Psychic Functions and Their Semantics

Function 3/1

Function 4/1

Block EGO

Function 1/1

Function 2/1

Block SUPEREGO

Function 1/2

Function 2/2

Block SUPERID

Function 3/2

Function 4/2

Block Id

The semantics of the blocks as a derivative

Table 3.07 and the socionic explanation of psychopathology

Conclusions to Chapter Three

References

Notes

Graph View

Table of Contents