Functions of Type provides you with activities that you can use to strengthen your mental data-collection and decision-making skills. The specific mental skills that you will be better able to use are related to the eight psychological functions first defined by Carl Jung in his book, Psychological Types. Over the past hundred years, literally hundreds of type practitioners have been refining the definitions of the eight functions. Our own work has been to focus on how to make personal choices about our self-development using these refined definitions.

In Functions of Type, each of the eight functions is defined and the mental skills associated with the function are described. You are given a chance to assess your own comfort in using the mental skills associated with that function using a self-rating assessment. Then there are two pages of mini-exercises—called activities—that you can use to improve your mental skills associated with each function.

“The Hartzlers have done it again! They write about type so clearly, so lovingly, and so helpfully that I can only say that I wish I had had this book when I started learning about type. They wisely guide us to try to inhabit the various function attitudes, experiencing them through a series of sensibly graded steps, until we suddenly find we understand the functions as never before. This is whole type for the whole family.”
—John Beebe, Jungian analyst, author of Integrity in Depth

“Groundbreaking work! This work has the potential to be the greatest contribution to the practical application of Jung’s personality theory since Isabel Myers’s addition of the J-P dimension.”
—Bob McAlpine, coauthor of Introduction to Type® and the Eight Jungian Functions

“For Jungians who have given up on typology or for type practitioners who have given up on Jung, Margaret and Gary Hartzler’s recent work comes as a breath of fresh air. Both theoretically provocative and practically sound, Functions of Type will prove to be a versatile tool for anyone exploring the individuation process and deepening his or her understanding of Jungian typology.”
—Angelo Spoto, author of Jung’s Typology in Perspective

“Functions of Type will make a tremendous contribution to the practical use of type theory. If readers truly do even some of the activities in the book, they will increase their adaptability and be better able to get out of the potential trap of using only their own preferred ways of operating.”
—Linda V. Berens, coauthor of Understanding Yourself and Others: An Introduction to the Personality Type Code

“This is the first true work in the area that not only spans the theoretical-applied gap and crafts multiple paths for the development of each of the functions but also provides metrics for determining where you are in the developmental space. I highly recommend it.”
—Dick Thompson, author of Jung’s Function-Attitudes Explained

“An excellent resource for individuals to use in developing the eight Jungian functions. The book is logically organized and easy to use. The mini activities are very specific and understandable and can be used to increase personal development.”
—Leona Haas, coauthor of Journey to Understanding: MBTI® Interpretation Using the Eight Jungian Functions Leader’s Resource Guide

“The Hartlzers’ incredible wealth of experience is wonderfully practical, insightful, and easy to follow. The many fun activities are doorways to discovering and developing how to skills to better perceive and decide. This is a book you will want to keep with you and keep referencing for the rest of your life.”
—Dario Nardi, author of 8 Keys to Self-Leadership: From Awareness to Action