Meyers Briggs (MBTI) is based on Jungian archetypes. Those were explicitly designed by Jung as a framework for discussing emotions and the unconscious like you are saying, and were never intended to offer any new information on their own.
People misunderstand the MBTI because all it does is locate what you tell it about how you see yourself onto a coordinate system.
From a Jungian perspective, the result of the MBTI is not interesting directly- people already know how they see their own personality!
The point of these archetypes from Jung’s perspective is to figure out which types you don’t identify with- what would be the opposite of your MBTI type, or your “shadow.” This gives you some perspective on exploring the aspects of yourself you have rejected, allowing you to be a more well rounded (integrated) person. This is a painful and difficult process, and the very idea of it is usually upsetting to people when they first hear of it.
It is very simple and straightforward tool, but is mostly misunderstood and misused, which also leads people to expecting it to have some “magical powers” or dismissing it as “pseudoscience.” It was never intended to be “magic” or “science” but to be a system to help people explore themselves in ways they otherwise would not. It is intended to be a set of arbitrary axes- however they are aspects that Jung personally felt were important for people to explore, according to his own values and philosophy.
People misunderstand the MBTI because all it does is locate what you tell it about how you see yourself onto a coordinate system.
From a Jungian perspective, the result of the MBTI is not interesting directly- people already know how they see their own personality!
The point of these archetypes from Jung’s perspective is to figure out which types you don’t identify with- what would be the opposite of your MBTI type, or your “shadow.” This gives you some perspective on exploring the aspects of yourself you have rejected, allowing you to be a more well rounded (integrated) person. This is a painful and difficult process, and the very idea of it is usually upsetting to people when they first hear of it.
It is very simple and straightforward tool, but is mostly misunderstood and misused, which also leads people to expecting it to have some “magical powers” or dismissing it as “pseudoscience.” It was never intended to be “magic” or “science” but to be a system to help people explore themselves in ways they otherwise would not. It is intended to be a set of arbitrary axes- however they are aspects that Jung personally felt were important for people to explore, according to his own values and philosophy.