Articles attempting to link Jungian typology to aesthetic preferences have always been popular, but unfortunately many of them are of poor quality, along the lines of “ISTPs like Bloodhound Gang and ESFJs like roses and rainbows.” With the help of a prior study by Joan Evans, D.Litt., we will nevertheless attempt to give an outline of the aesthetic preferences that usually follow a given function.
In doing so, however, we should not forget that Jung said in Psychological Types §895 that type portraits can never apply to all members of a given type. Likewise, Jung’s theory primarily says something about the cognitive functions and not so much about the specific psychic material handled by those functions. Aesthetic preferences are psychic material, not psychic functions. In other words, the relation of functions to aesthetic preferences is correlative at best.
The Psychological Aesthetics of Te
Written by the CT Admin Team, with inspiration from the work of Joan Evans.
In his everyday life, the Te type exhibits a yearning to standardize and routinize his environment. Things should conform to rational laws with irrational emotions being suppressed as far as possible. As Isabel Myers says of the Te types, they tend to have a social life that is incidental and (because of their repressed Fi) an emotional life that is accidental.
The other side of this coin, however, is that the Te types are authoritative and strong in reasoning power. The Te types frequently show great courage in rushing ahead to take responsibility and a marked proclivity to assert their doing in the world. Yet as we also know from the works of Sigmund Freud and Wilhelm Reich, courageous and aggressive drives to assert oneself are also accompanied by a secret counter-movement in the form of a fear of collapse and yielding.
As such, in examining the aesthetic of the Te type, we tend to find three main themes:
- A lawful ordering of the aesthetic.
- A responsiveness to force, form, and function.
- A secret fear of collapse and yielding.
We will now go over these themes in turn.
1. A Lawful Ordering of the Aesthetic
As Jung says of the Te type, he is dominated by logical thought and he bases his life on a system of logical conclusions that spring directly from the facts – interpreted, if need be, through the generally accepted principles of his time.
With the Te type, his forte are the facts. He is methodical in his ordering and absorption of the facts. He does not interpret facts introspectively, such as the Intuitive types do, but has no problem retaining a strict adherence to the facts, unless extraordinarily stressed.
It is not easy for others to understand the aesthetic of the Te type, because only rarely does he feel actual aesthetic delight. His mental life is far too organized for that, and so his aesthetic appreciation is expressed through other channels. For example, the Te type’s drive to standardize his environment also extends to his appreciation of art and he is apt to apply standardized laws to his philosophy of beauty: Order, symmetry, clear delineation and a clear limitation of the work of art itself. He would find himself in agreement with this anonymous art historian, writing in 1793:
“It remains to make a new application of mathematics to the arts to prove … what forms are the most gracious, what scheme is the most agreeable. … For it is possible to reduce the unknown laws of beauty to a few fundamental principles, and once these principles are established, their application to particular instances will come into the sphere of geometry.”
The Te type’s love of formula and organization is carried over into the work of art. He would not outlaw aesthetic variety, and certainly not variety with regards to motive or style. But certain principles and a certain uniformity in methods, such as the idea that the Golden Ratio can be calculated to be the most pleasing portion of any painting, is bound to sit well with the Te type.
Moreover, to the Te type, a work of art should be a homogenous object in the world. It should not – like the work of art preferred by the Ne type – attempt to be several things at once. Instead it should be clearly delineated in terms of expression as well as in terms of the spatial extensions of the piece – it should have clear borders and a clear beginning and end.
In the Te type’s aesthetic, the subject matter should not be stylized, such as with the Ti type, or playful, such as with the Ne type; rather it should endeavor to depict its motive accurately. The composition in the work of art may be elaborate, but it should not be allowed to compromise the object of its depiction. Like Goya, the Te type places a premium on the importance of being truthful to his object, even when others may find such a depiction gruesome or coarse.
The Te type seeks the absolute in his aesthetic, just as other types do. But rather than aiming for some quick escape, like the Ne type, or to save oneself through some shutting out and denial of the world, like the Ni type, the Te type aims to transform this world with all its chaos and disorder into something that is compatible with their conception of the sublime. Unlike the aesthetics of other types, the aesthetic of the Te type is not a dream, but a reality; not an escape, but a confrontation.
2. Responsiveness to Force, Form, and Function
The Te type tends to place form and function over the intricacies of embellishment and interplay in the work of art. His aesthetic is an Aristotelian aesthetic: Men in action, creating distinct objects for a purpose. This, to him, is the root of the aesthetic – it is the leitmotif that all art should endeavor to reproduce. An art that reflects the Te type’s striving for deliberate perseverance and organization of his world.
Colors are not a preoccupation for the Te type, and when they set out to master color, they will often lose themselves in either bland and earthen colors, which are quite unengaging, or they will go childishly overboard in unnatural and extreme colors, thereby losing any connection to a genuine aesthetic. Rather, their forte lies in the appreciation of sculpture and architecture where they will not be troubled overmuch by the mysteries of color, but can find beauty in shape, line, and proportion. The architecture of ancient Egypt, with its booming temples and immovable statues, will allow the Te type to delight in the regularity and fixity that is the pivot of his aesthetic.
With regards to art, the Te type belongs to what art historians call the ‘motor type’. The Te type tends to find a genuine aesthetic pleasure in muscular stress (a proclivity that may well be physiological in origin as much as it is psychological). For this reason, the Te type tends to enjoy difficult artworks that require the competent application of force, such as carvings in hard stone and castings in steel – productions that signal man’s domination over the elements and his ability to order the natural world to fit with his own ends.
3. A Secret Fear of Collapse and Yielding
Though the Te type may seem assertive and forceful in ordinary life, there is in them
a secret fear of falling short, stemming chiefly from their repressed Fi. In other words, the Te type is secretly haunted by fear, and for this reason the Te type may unexpectedly find himself drawn to works of art that depict moods of anxiety and a looming insecurity. Yet because of his repressed Feeling, the Te type is not likely to be attracted to works that highlight fear as an interested or personal quality – instead they respond to art that features insecurity as an impersonal and pervasive theme – one that is simply there and not directly bound to any person. As such, the works of Rembrandt featuring a characteristic mixture of tragedy and grandeur may be said to embody this duality of the Te type’s aesthetic.
It is in the Te type, furthermore, that we find an attraction to that work of art which tends to bolster their self-image and raise their impression of themselves as creatures that, through struggle, reach the heights of triumph and competence. As such, it stands to reason that such a triumph cannot be reached without adversity and danger. Without danger and anxiety there is no triumph and dignity and thus, in the aesthetic of the Te type, triumph and danger are each others’ preconditions – they are two sides of the same coin.
The clash of opposing forces and the struggle for existence thus holds a special fascination for the Te type, for it is by way of this drama that he is able to interact with his unconscious fear that he, too, may one day be proved a failure and will end up a loser in the struggle for power and domination. His taste in music, therefore, will often bear witness to his need for drama in art, and for this reason the grandeur of Wagnerian opera may be said to have been created especially for him.