The earliest personality test dates back to 1879 AD, based upon the work of physician and
philosopher Hippocrates in Ancient Greece. He hypothesised that the human body consisted of four
humours, blood, phlegm, yellow bile and black bile[1]. In order to achieve harmony with your body,
these fluids have to be balanced. Wilhelm Wundt in the 17th century founded the first psychology
practitioner in Germany, based upon the work of Hippocrates. Wundt determined that this harmony
is not limited to the body, but also the mind. He theorised that personality consists of four
temperaments, sanguine, phlegm, cholera and melancholy[2].
In 1922, Carl Jung was Swiss psychologist who used typology to categorise human character in
four traits, thinking, feeling, sensing and intuition[3]. He proposed that humans can be divided into
different character archetypes through the identification of these four factors. He was also the first
to categorise one's sense of self into two distinct categorical cultural groups; introverts and
extroverts. A third group, the ambiverts were first recognised in 1927 by American scientist Kimball
Young, but still struggles to this day to be recognised[4].
One of the most popular forms of typology in personality testing is the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator
(MBTI), created by mother and daughter, Katherine Briggs and Isabel Myers. Myers and Briggs
were « were among the first to perceive how hungry the masses were for simple, self-affirming
answers to the problems of self-knowledge » They borrowed language of Carl Jung, from a person’s
preferred source of your energy, perception, decision making, as well as preferred lifestyle in order
to designate an individual into one of sixteen types, under the four categories determined by Jung.
The number four is prevalent throughout typology, from the four humours of the body, to four
categories of the MBTI. Jung’s name gave the test validity, to have a recognised precedent to build
upon.
Henry Murray was another pioneer of typology and psycho-social analysis. He was the director of
Harvard Psychological Clinic, for nine years, until 1937, as well as a past patient of Jung, and a
skeptic. He created the term “advertisitis”, which he coined in order to describe the narcissism that
psychoanalysts acquired after departing from the social and cultural world, in favour of
introspection into the self. Within the Psychological Clinic, he developed a form of typology, a
speciality called ‘personology’ (they would call this discipline). He stated “personality is a temporal
hole”(88), and explored the totality of man through character archetypes. By delegating his
personology categories to the Jungian types, he could paint a portrait of the human psyche with
character arcs, alike a narrative. Such types included the risk-taker, the starving artist, the
explorer. He also collaborated on the Thematic Apperception Test (TAT), which much alike the
Rorschach inkblot test, utilises picture interpretation in order to provide insight towards an
individual’s personality.[5]
Both Murray and Briggs utilised Jung’s type theory to affirm their own beliefs, and were
introverted, intuitive types, alike Jung. However the stark difference in education from the test
indicators proved very apparent in the differences in methodology. Whilst Murray had an extensive
academic background, with degrees in history, medicine, biology, as well as a Ph.D in biochemistry,
neither Myers nor Briggs had any scientific background or education in social science. The depth
and breath of the Myers-Briggs research did not come close to that of Henry Murray, and this can
clearly be seen through the education of the three typologists. The MBTI and the majority of
personality tests have no scientific validity. Despite this, testing is becoming exceedingly popular.
Through the history of typology, we can begin to comprehend how and why personality assessment
continues to this day.
As Katherine Briggs believed in Jungian type as a personal religion, “Your books have been my
Bible for more than fifteen years, and life without what I have learned from them would be
unthinkable”. 105, Isabel Myers continued her work, with more practical motivations than her
mother. Myers was focused on career determination for a largely unprecedented section of the
workforce, women - and her studies continued through the duration of both the First and Second
World Wars. Shortly after the attack on Pearl Harbour by Japanese forces in 1941, Myers
prototyped her first Jungian questionnaire based upon her mother’s materials. This was titled “Form
A” of the Briggs-Myers Type Indicator. (page 134) The name began with Briggs’ name preceding
her work, as it was hers that Myers had founded all of her research upon. These names have
evidently been inverted over the years, but neither of these names would rise to prominence without
the essential work of Carl Jung. Shortly before his death in 1961, Jung corresponded with Katherine
Briggs for one final time and wrote “I should say that for future development of Type-Theory, your
Type-Indicator will prove to be of great help.” (as you have given the matter)
What we are able to feel, and the ways in which we make sense of our emotional life, change over
time. From humours and temperaments, instincts and neuro-chemicals, what we recognise about
what we feel affects the way we actually feel, not just the way we acknowledge it. Throughout
history through the development of the categories, human introspection has been redefined for
human expression.
