The Seven Types – Chapter 12

Case studies
– Practical integration of the different types

In this chapter, we will take a closer look at the integration of the dominant types using examples from everyday life and the counselling room. The following case studies are taken from my own counselling practice (client permission has been given, with details anonymised).

The first three case studies concern the awakening of the soul type and its integration – or partial integration – with the personality type.

Mary: A creative personality type awakening to a sensitive soul type

When I first met her, Mary, aged 38, was in the midst of an existential crisis, feeling that many of her values no longer made sense. A creative personality type, she had lived her life dominated by a desperate need for attention and recognition, showing that personality integration was far from concluded.

Mary had been born into a privileged upper class family. Her upper class status opened many doors, as did her attractive looks. However, in pursuing this path, Mary had become attached to a superficial jet set lifestyle. All through her adult life, her primary focus had been on seeking in the world the beauty and harmony she clearly did not feel in her inner life. While growing up, she had received little care or attention from her parents, leaving an inner emptiness that she tried to fill through gaining recognition for her looks and happy-go-lucky attitude.

Mary had gone through many ups and downs – there had been broken relationships, an interrupted education and bouts of depression, mixed in with many amazing cultural and artistic experiences. She had tried to make a name for herself in the entertainment industry but when she failed she was left feeling unhappy, unstable and volatile. In retrospect, her life had been a series of joyful experiences of beauty, comfort or success, followed by feelings of emptiness and depression during which she felt unmotivated and disengaged from life.

Mary had a winning character, with a sense of humour and an openness and energy that made it easy for her to relate to others, so she was very popular. However, anyone who got close to her quickly realised she was only really interested in herself. Mary was self- absorbed and superficial, but a deep longing was growing within her to make a valuable contribution to life. Meanwhile, her sense of pain and emptiness had grown so much she started to avoid the parties and social occasions that had once provided her with so much sustenance and strength.

When Mary came to therapy, it was because her marriage to a rich elderly man had ended. She had not been able to communicate with him and grew tired of being a trophy wife and sexual toy. The divorce prompted a crisis – Mary felt as if all the doors that were once open to her had been slammed shut and she had been left alone to face the empty reality of her life and values for the first time. An inner voice kept telling her that there had to be a deeper meaning.

Mary started with intensive twice-weekly psychotherapy that revealed deep layers of her painful sense of emptiness, which also put her in touch with a deep longing for a profound interconnectedness. She asked herself: Who am I and why am I here? It was as if an inner void was calling out for wisdom, meaning and purpose. She was helped by reading numerous self-help books through which she was helped to find her inner soul nature, not as if it was something new but as if she was meeting a long lost friend. She discovered that meditation could fill the void from within. While acknowledging that transformation would take time, she discovered that the pain she had been trying to flee could become a resource, providing information on the road to greater insight. Most important of all, Mary started to understand how she could contribute to life: she wanted to work with others who were undergoing existential crises so she could help them to find their true vocation in life. During two years of psychotherapy, Mary’s life changed dramatically. She made new friends, found new interests and started a university course in psychology. It was clear that her emerging sensitive soul type was influencing her life and providing her with a new set of values.

Mary still has much work to do to integrate her creative personality with her sensitive soul, but this is happening under the influence of a deep motivation to become a valuable instrument for wisdom in the world.

Mary found working with the Seven Types helped her to accept and understand her need for beauty and harmony, as well as the chaotic and unstructured elements in her life. Her sensitive soul type made deep sense to her: not only did it explain her need to understand life, it was also a source of wisdom, inspiring her to make a difference in life. Her need for beauty and harmony was still there, but now the emphasis was not on a superficial life but on a longing to see beauty and harmony unfolding in the deepest possible sense, both in her own life and in the lives of others.

Mary’s story demonstrates that the personality does not need to be fully integrated before the deeper being and values of the soul are able to emerge. This corresponds with findings of Maslow and Wilber which show that people in real life situations are far more complex than theory will allow for.

Mary continues the journey of personality integration, now motivated by a desire to make a difference in the world. Through her psychological work, she is attempting to become an effective and purposeful creative personality who is able to express soul wisdom. The next phase in her journey, where the soul type starts to take charge, will produce what is termed the “soul-infused personality”, which comes about as the result of transpersonal psychosynthesis.

Peter: An analytical personality type awakening to a dedicated soul type

Peter was a classic analytical personality type. He had spent his adult life pursuing an interest in engineering, specialising in bridge construction, and was recognised as an expert in his field with a sharp eye for detail. His manner was low-key and somewhat dry. His movements were measured as if he was controlling his body with mathematical precision.

Peter came to therapy because of the devastating impact of meeting and losing a woman he had felt was the love of his life. He couldn’t focus on his work, he felt empty and his life was in chaos. Susan, the woman in question, had been a very different type to any of Peter’s previous romances. In particular, she was clairvoyant and a healer, something Peter, with his analytical mindset, would have previously dismissed as nonsense. But, through spending time with Susan, Peter started to take a great interest in the paranormal. Susan had an uncanny ability to know and intuit things about Peter that amazed him and awakened a desire to undertake a scientific study of this hitherto ignored area of life.

When Peter arrived for therapy he seemed highly unbalanced. He idealised Susan, whom he attributed with awakening in him a desire to experience an ideal spiritual world in which everything was in perfect order. Indeed, to his surprise, he had discovered he could sense the presence of angels and felt he could communicate with enlightened masters and cosmic beings in the spiritual dimension.

Peter’s passionate desire to connect with the spiritual world had arisen partly due to Susan’s influence and partly due to the deep grief of losing her. As therapy progressed, it became obvious that two things were happening: in part, the crisis in his love life had caused Peter to regress to a primitive emotional stage where magical thinking predominates, but it was also clear that Peter’s dedicated soul type was emerging. Understandably, this brought a great deal of imbalance into his life, but the experience was also an opening into a rich new area of experience that would change his life forever.

There were transpersonal energies visible both in Peter’s sorrow and in his desire to access the spirit world. Clearly, he was not just seeking personal gratification – he wanted to study and engage with psychic and paranormal phenomena so he could write a book and give lectures to help others.

An essential part of the therapy for Peter was to examine what he was projecting onto Susan. In his idealisation of Susan, Peter was projecting onto her his spiritual archetype, which not surprisingly meant that, for him, she had a bedazzling unearthly quality. As we worked together, Peter came to see that Susan was not the saint he had initially thought her to be, for example she had been very unkind at times, especially in the way she ended their relationship. At the same time, Peter started to reality test his paranormal experiences and discovered that not all of the ‘messages’ he had been receiving were expressions of wisdom, but were in fact often quite ordinary thoughts.

Through making analytical and reality-based investigations, Peter started to feel more grounded. However, he didn’t lose his passion or his fire: he realised that many of his psychic experiences were real and he retained a deeply felt call to understand these experiences and to assist others by helping them to build bridges to the spiritual dimension. Through therapy, he accepted that his relationship with Susan was over, but the overwhelming love the relationship had awakened could be transferred to the paranormal realm.

When therapy ended after one year, Peter was still working as an engineer, but he felt his job played a secondary role in his life, with his spare time now consumed with pursuing his spiritual interests. His relationship with Susan had caused pain, but it had also changed his life.

Peter’s story is a good example of a typical soul awakening. At first, the new soul energy overwhelmed the personality and expressed itself in a highly unbalanced manner. Secondly, this crisis was exacerbated when an incident in the external world – in this case a new relationship –became the catalyst for a deeper and lasting awakening to the soul’s vocation. In Peter’s case, Susan carried the soul energy that Peter’s personality was awakening to, which threw him out of his familiar routine and out of his safe conceptual framework. Thirdly, the qualities of the personality type helped to anchor the emerging energy from the soul. In Peter’s case, his analytical abilities helped him to test and validate his psychic experiences.

It is important to note that awakening often comes like a thief in the night, in Peter’s case in the disguise of an ordinary love affair. It took the experience and insight of a transpersonal psychotherapist to discern and disentangle ordinary heartbreak from a spiritual crisis. Though it brought great pain, Susan was in a sense perfect for Peter because her presence enabled him to discover his latent spirituality. Peter didn’t have the love affair he was hoping for, but he received from Susan something far better: an awakening to a new and more meaningful life.

Hanne: A sensitive personality awakening to the practical soul type

Hanne was clearly a sensitive personality type. She was calm, gentle and centred. The years she had spent teaching social and community psychiatry testified to her concern to help others. Hanne thrived on making life comfortable for her husband and two children and those she worked with. However, something had changed. Hanne had lost her concern to be the all-loving mother – she had given so much and felt she had nothing left to give – tending to others needs no longer gave her the satisfaction it once had. She also felt dissatisfied that, despite all the care she continued to give, little seemed to change. She wanted more – in her work life and in her private life. She was in a crisis.

When Hanne started therapy it quickly emerged that she didn’t feel she was utilising all of her resources and potential. It was as if she had become trapped in the role of a carer. She longed for freedom and to let go of her emotional caretaking. In her own words, she was a “problem- magnet”, but far from solving problems she felt she was only fire- fighting; she sensed she wasn’t tackling the core issues.

When Hanne meditated on the needs of her heart, she felt a deep wish to leave her job and find a new role that was less hands-on. She had acquired a great deal of experience in community and social psychiatry and now she wanted to help implement better practice in a wider general sense, perhaps by working for a relevant organisation or getting involved in legislative work. It became clear in our sessions that Hanne was done by being the mother, whether professionally or in her personal life. However, this insight challenged her self-identity and prompted a crisis – she feared that if she changed her life she might find herself unemployed or might be abandoned by her family. But despite these fears, she knew it was a case of sink or swim: if she didn’t change her life she knew she would become ill.

The more Hanne sat with the crisis, the more the thought of becoming the conductor of her own life started to make sense. Also, as we worked together, there was a distinct sense of transpersonal energy in the room whenever we focused on her life purpose and will. Indeed, in time, Hanne got in touch with a powerful field of strong will and a desire to take control over her life – this was the awakening of her practical soul type. Hanne started to experience an influx of ideas around how she could make use of her work experience to create a new holistic vision for what social psychiatry could be; Hanne sensed she could change the future if she was to apply her energy and dedication. Rather than working hard to simply sustain a system that was barely working, Hanne wanted to build a more effective system. This emerging desire demonstrated how the dynamic and inspirational nature of the soul can become a creative fountainhead for a better future.

Hanne also realised she needed to reform her personal life. Rather than focusing solely on her family’s well-being, she wanted to spend time developing relationships at home so that instead of being the mother hen with a brood of chicks, she could be one of a collection of individuals who were able to cooperate and share different views.

Hanne was surprised at the strength she found in herself. She realised she had to develop the skills she had been using to organise her family and her work, and start using them in a new way. Rather than being the “fixer”, working hard on the frontline, she took a step back so she could take an overview, see the big picture, and start working in a more general and detached manner.

Of course, this transition to a new way of being is not easy – it can take a long time for a new idea to fully manifest. And, as part of the process, Hanne knew she would have to face her fear of hurting or disappointing those around her, at home and in the workplace. She was afraid of being unpopular and afraid that people might think she was failing – the two biggest fears of the sensitive personality type. However, at the same time, Hanne knew her new path better reflected her true identity. She had awakened to the call of her soul, not in a “spiritual” sense of seeking oneness with the divine, but in the sense of discovering an inner will to do good that would not compromise on her vision. There was also a longing for freedom. In the workplace, for example, Hanne wanted to be free to work at a director level so she could devise new working practices and frameworks – the result of which was that clients with mental health problems were also set free, being liberated from the imprisonment of a failing system and, ultimately, liberated from their own mental disorders.

It is hard to tell whether it was the practical or the dynamic soul type that had been awakened in Hanne – Hanne felt it was the practical soul type, but an argument could be made for the dynamic soul type, especially because of the power displayed at the beginning of her transformation.

When Hanne ended therapy, she was reforming her life with a set of clearly formulated goals and felt she no longer had time for “rumination” in therapy. Clearly, she wanted to take care of things herself and get on with her life, which are features that characterise both the dynamic and the practical soul types.

In therapy work, the transpersonal dimension often reveals itself through the type of motivation that starts to emerge and dominate. In Hanne’s case, it was a strong motivation to create freedom through creative activity. This vocation, or inner call, impacted Hanne at all levels of Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs, including her relationship to her family.

In the next case study, we will explore a different sort of integration, namely the integration of the dominant types at the levels of thought and feeling.

Hans: Integrating a sensitive emotional life

Hans was an influential figure in the field of marketing, but he had never managed to reach the top in his profession. As he said: “I am way too soft to make unpleasant decisions.” This softness and vulnerability was causing him great pain.

When I met Hans, I could see he had the direct tough radiance of a leader, but I could also sense an underlying sensitivity, especially in his eyes. The dynamic personality type was clear – he was someone who got the job done – but, according to his own understanding, his emotions repeatedly obstructed his impact.

When he came to me for coaching, he had already thoroughly analysed his situation. He was clear and precise, factual and objective, and it was clear that his mentality was characterised by the analytical thought type. He was also extremely critical, almost merciless, in his condemnation of his inner “weakling”, which was the name he had given to his sensitivity. This weakling stood in the way of his ambitions for personal and professional success. There was a clear and strong division between his sensitive emotional life and his critical thought life.

As coaching progressed, it became clear that it was not Hans’ sensitivity that was his biggest obstacle, but his relationship to his sensitivity (Hans was a sensitive type at the level of feeling).

Hans was trying to block out his feelings by focusing on his thought life – but coaching revealed that his prejudice against his feelings had its roots in the way his father had handled emotions. In his father’s world there was no room for emotions – and this had deeply impacted Hans’ self-understanding, with Hans learning to despise his vulnerability because he felt it was unmanly. This discovery sparked in him an understanding that he needed to accept his sensitivity as an integral part of his personality. Hans realised his feelings were something he had to live with and get the best out of. Far from making him a bad leader, he realised that sensitivity would help him to cooperate, to empathise and to develop his skills in networking.

Hans also realised that his ability to predict market trends was not only due to his goal-oriented drive and analytical skills, but also due to his intuitive sense of public opinion, which was a quality of the sensitive feeling type.

Ironically, it was clear from Hans’ relentless self-criticism that, far from blocking out his sensitivity, he had in fact become more timid and over-sensitive than he needed to be – which is a distortion of the sensitive feeling type which will manifest when the type is being blocked. However, as Hans gradually came to accept his feelings, his hypersensitivity lessened because he had less to hide or defend against. By the time Hans ended coaching, it was as if something had fallen into place inside. He still had a long way to go to fully include his feeling nature, but he had made an excellent start.

Hans’ story demonstrates the value of vertical integration between personality, thought and feeling and shows how understanding the qualities of the types can lead to a more rounded and harmonious personality.

Horizontal integration between types

So far, we have been looking at examples of vertical integration between different psychological levels. Now we will look at what could be called horizontal integration.

This type of integration emphasises that each of our dominant types – at each of the five levels – needs to integrate qualities from the other types in order to become fully balanced and manifest. For example, a dynamic thinking type will tend to be one-dimensional in their approach to life, so they should strive to develop the qualities of the creative thought type – such as spontaneity and the desire for open dialogue, which would challenge the tendency of the dynamic thinking type to act in isolation.

Horizontal integrations often take place when there are interactions between people of different types which necessitate that we must evolve different ways of functioning to make cooperation possible.

George: A dynamic thinking type meeting an analytical thinking type

With great enthusiasm, George started to gather everything his spiritual role model had ever written on a particular subject. George’s idea was to publish a book so he could share all of these writings with the world, and he had a publishing company lined up. George loved to work like this – gaining an overview, trying to see the big picture, having an impact in people’s lives. And, as with all of his ideas, George had a tendency to rush into action. The project suited him perfectly: as well as sharing the big picture described by his favorite author, he could also put a dynamic plan into action by sharing his guru’s message with a large audience.

George’s dynamic mind was obvious to everyone – he always spoke with great authority and confidence. Another essential quality of the dynamic thinking type is the ability to delegate, letting others do the hard graft while you direct and take an overview. Accordingly, George organised a group of like-minded enthusiasts to gather up all the relevant material, while he set about making the final editorial decisions. The texts were collected swiftly – the dynamic mind loves rapidity – and George organised them into a single document to hand to the publisher. By this stage, George anticipated that the final result – the printing of the book – would be merely a formality and he looked forward to receiving the finished publication. However, George got a surprise.

The publisher was a meticulous man whose passion was to create books that were works of art, where every small detail had been considered. He was an example of the analytical thinking type – so the inevitable clash happened because George hated attending to the nitty-gritty, which he considered to be mere triviality. George’s concern was only with the message of the book and the riches it contained, offering meaning, essence and core purpose to the world. So when the publisher returned George’s manuscript along with many painstakingly-made notes describing all the points that needed attention, George was furious!

George’s first reaction was to ignore the publisher and have the book printed himself. But then he realised that if he did that the book would reach fewer people and therefore have less impact. So, following a brief analysis of power dynamics – something the dynamic mind does very well – George realised he needed to get on with the detailed work. He could not wait for others to do it – time is precious for the dynamic mind – so he took it upon himself to accomplish the task.

It was tedious, dragging work. Following his initial burst of energy, George now had to sit down and pay attention to aspects of his manuscript that he hadn’t previously considered. But, as he made progress, he started to realise how perfecting the details brought a clarify that would make the book more effective, with both content and presentation greatly improved. For example, George came to see how the design of the book was as important as the content because, unless the book looked good and was easy to read, no-one was likely to buy it.

For the first time, George realised the detail was as important as the bigger picture, and that sometimes it was important to slow down and deal with small painstaking tasks. It was not the aesthetics of the book that inspired him, but by the fact that paying attention to detail had helped to reinforce the message he wanted to convey. This is exactly what motivates the dynamic mind: to make strong messages that will have an impact in ways that influence people and change perspectives. Thanks to an officious publisher, the next time George writes a book he will put more effort into preparing it. The dynamic thinking type had learned from the analytical thinking type.

Stine: A dedicated feeling type lives with a creative personality type

Stine was elegant in her appearance, with stylish clothes in discrete colors. She was known for being a skilled organiser and facilitator who had worked for many years in the shipping industry. There was no doubt she had a practical personality type, but behind her effective and slightly cold personality lay a dedicated emotional life that gave her a passion for her work and family life. She loved her husband and children and would go to great lengths to make their lives peaceful and tranquil. She had a clear image of the perfect family that was able to blend quality family time with social gatherings.

But her life was not always peaceful. Her husband, Torben, was an unpredictable person, an actor, which is a profession marked by uncertainty. While Stine strived for stability, her husband thrived on upheaval, drama and spontaneous emotion, all qualities of the creative personality type. It was never boring being around Torben because the unexpected usually occurred, whether in the situation or in his moods which fluctuated between exhilaration and depression.

Torben’s lifestyle challenged Stine’s image of the perfect life of order and balance. Yet, she loved him for the fun he brought to the family – at least, when he wasn’t away working. Stine hated it when they quarrelled about finance and household chores. When they argued, Stine told Torben he was like a child because he refused to take responsibility in practical matters. What she hated most was when Torben would storm out of the house in the middle of an argument, leaving the whole matter unresolved – this tore Stine apart, leaving her feeling as if her world had collapsed. Whenever he did this, Stine believed her husband had walked out on the family for good. By contrast, Torben was fine with drama and felt their quarrelling was a good thing because it helped to bring issues out into the open and clear the atmosphere. Torben also liked quarrelling because it broke up the monotony of the family idyll which, while appreciating its stability, Torben felt spoiled his ideal image of himself as an untraditional bohemian. For Torben, normality was a graveyard populated by the living dead.

When Stine started therapy, she was upset because she had just had an argument with her husband. I encouraged her to consider the opposites inside her: on one side was her ideal image of the perfect family, with its values and needs, while on the other side was her strong attraction to Torben’s unpredictable and spontaneous nature. She had both sides, but she only saw creativity in Torben while ignoring her own creative side: it was as if there wasn’t room for two adult children in the family.

Through analysing her ideal world of peace and her tendency to devote herself to only a few people, Stine realised it was important that she had more space in her life for play, spontaneity and joy. It also became clear that she had taken on her parents’ norms for the perfect family life and still felt a need to be “correct” in her parents’ eyes.

When we explored the Seven Types, Stine realised she could learn a lot from Torben’s creative approach to life, while also understanding she had a great deal to contribute to his life, such as order, efficiency and devotion. Stine understood that she would always be a deeply dedicated and organised type, but that life needn’t to be so serious. If she opened up to a more playful element, through her husband, she could start to build a wider network of friends and associates outside the home – something she realised she craved. It is a common imbalance with the dedicated type to become too focused and thereby isolate themselves within a few areas of interest – to put all their eggs in one basket – which leaves them vulnerable when emotional conflicts arise since there is so much at stake; ideal situations – in Stine’s case the family nest – are simply too uncomfortable to lose. However, through integrating the creative type, Stine was able to learn that emotional conflicts are not necessarily a disaster but can bring new life when you steer the drama in positive directions.

It was obvious that Torben had much to learn, but Stine could at least change herself and, by embracing Torben’s creative nature, develop emotionally. As a result, she could more easily accept Torben’s differences and even see the value in these differences.

I hope these case studies have given the reader a sense of how the types can play out in real life situations, and how they can be worked with to resolve conflicts and crises. Let us now investigate how to work with the types.