Chapter 4 Jung: Analytical Psychology 123Extraversion
In contrast to introversion, extraversion is the attitude distinguished by the turning
outward of psychic energy so that a person is oriented toward the objective and
away from the subjective. Extraverts are more influenced by their surroundings than
by their inner world. They tend to focus on the objective attitude while suppressing
the subjective. Like Jung’s childhood No. 1 personality, they are pragmatic and
well rooted in the realities of everyday life. At the same time, they are overly
suspicious of the subjective attitude, whether their own or that of someone else.
In summary, people are neither completely introverted nor completely extra-
verted. Introverted people are like an unbalanced teeter-totter with a heavy weight
on one end and a very light weight on the other (see Figure 4.3 A). Conversely,
extraverted people are unbalanced in the other direction, with a heavy extraverted
attitude and a very light introverted one (see Figure 4.3 B). However, psycho-
logically healthy people attain a balance of the two attitudes, feeling equally com-
fortable with their internal and their external worlds (see Figure 4.3 C).
In Chapter 3, we said that Adler developed a theory of personality that was
quite opposite to that of Freud. Where did Jung place these two theories on the
extraversion/introversion pole? Jung (1921/1971) said that “Freud’s view is essen-
tially extraverted, Adler’s introverted” (p. 62). Our biographical sketches of Freud
Introverted ExtravertedABCFIGURE 4.3 The Balance of Introversion and Extraversion.