A feeling judgment of this kind is not by any means a pretense or a lie, it is simply an act of adjustment. – C. G. Jung
In the last four articles, we have covered the four receptive types. Now we turn to what Jung called the “rational” types–rational for they are doing more than simply receiving a conscious experience; they are applying directed energy toward some kind of order. Thinking is what we normally regard as rational, for it applies logic and analysis; but feeling in Jung’s model is just as rational. It’s governing principle is not logic however; it is oriented to value rather than logic. We can see its rationality more clearly in the extraverted mode of feeling. On the Gifts Compass, we refer to extraverted feeling as the Social Gifts.
Extraverted Feeling: The Social Gifts
Extraverted feeling is oriented to the feeling values of others. The quality of feeling is determined not be internal values, but by external ones.
“The extravert’s feeling is always in harmony with objective values . . . it has detached itself as much as possible from the subjective factor and subordinated itself entirely to the influence of the object” (CW 6, par. 595).
Whether the “object” is a person, culture, organization, tradition, style, norm or thing, extraverted feeling is ready to adapt to the sentiments and values already acknowledged. What is important is what is already liked or disliked by others.
“I may feel moved, for instance, to say that something is ‘beautiful’ or ‘good,’ not because I find it ‘beautiful’ or ‘good’ from my own subjective feeling about it, but because it is fitting and politic to call it so, since a contrary judgment would upset the general feeling situation” (CW 6, par. 595).
Extraverted feeling seeks to live in harmony with the values in the world. Harmony is to feeling what order is to thinking. It achieves harmony by attending to the tastes, norms, and views of others. In doing so it becomes a host for the accepted values of the day.
By extending its outward empathy, extraverted feeling weaves the cohesive fabric of social harmony. Constantly adjusting to the sentiments of others, extraverted feeling affirms and sustains the status quo of norms and traditions.
“This kind of feeling is very largely responsible for the fact that so many people flock to the theatre or to concerts, or go to church, and do so moreover with their feelings correctly adjusted . . . Without it, a harmonious social life would be impossible” (CW 6, par. 596).
J G Johnston
Author of Jung’s Indispensable Compass
2/1/2013