The myth of Mars and Venus:

Buckley, G. (1999). The myth of Mars and Venus: Jungian typology as hermeneutics of human being (Doctoral dissertation, Pacifica Graduate Institute, 1999). UMI no.3013583

Contrary to a recent popular book by John Gray (1992), all men are not from Mars, nor are all women from Venus. The popularity of the book reveals a prevalent myth in this country that people fit into types and categories. The myth surfaces in everyday conversation in terms such as “conservative,” “liberal,” “yuppie,” “intellectual,” “chauvinist,” “blue-collar,” “co-dependent,” “hacker,” and so forth.

Unfortunately, even disciples of Jungian typology, like myself, are susceptible to the myth. It is easy to lapse into using terms such as “thinking type,” “intuitive,” or “extrovert” as if, by themselves, those terms said anything useful about an individual. Too often typology falls victim to yet another Mars/Venus project. In an effort to help people recognize and affirm differences in personality styles, typology is often presented in a reductionistic way that minimizes the complexity and versatility of human nature.

Applying the tools of hermeneutics to Jung's text itself, one finds that Jung developed typology in order to facilitate the process of individuation, the effort to become conscious of, and to integrate, the diverse aspects of one's nature. Jung also wanted to show how people of good will could fall into misunderstandings and conflicts because of differences in outlook and judgment. He did not intend his work on typology to be a facile tool for the purpose of classifying people in type boxes. Rather, Jung's typology provides a language for listening to soul. Following Gadamer's dialectical hermeneutics, the text is heard through subject-object dialogue when the text is subject encountered in the open space of shared understanding created by language.

It is in this sense that typology provides a hermeneutical language that is able to create a space in which the complexity of human being may be more dynamically expressed and experienced. There are many applications for typology, but this work will focus on the use of typology as a tool to better understand the complexities of human perception and judgment, especially as it relates to interpersonal communication. Typology, in this context, serves to facilitate understanding and acceptance of the diverse values and communication styles of people. A number of illustrations will serve to “flesh out” the theory of type as hermeneutic. These illustrations will be taken from literature as well as from historical personalities. In this thematic hermeneutic study, my hope is to show that Jung's work on typology is a superbly creative form of “hermeneutical language” uniquely suited to interpret the “sacred text” of human being.