Ideational Processes

Project Groups is a small-group classification that divides the 32 types into 4 by the kind of projects (how tasks are set up and pursued) people undertake. The Ideational Processes group consists of synthesizers and integrators who translate scattered observations into one large theory.

The Character of This Group

In the primary source, this group is described as follows.

This group translates concrete observations into whole theories. They are synthesizers and integrators. Inclined toward philosophical and religious conceptions, they often aim to integrate religion and science, rationalism and mysticism. They favor topics such as bioenergy and extrasensory perception. They work at the intersection of the scientific and the humanitarian.

── From V. Gulenko, "Waves of Aging and Renewal ── Directions of Progress Linked to Jungian Aspects" (1996)

The "translation" the primary source refers to is the work of carrying individual facts into a higher-order framework. The thinking of the Ideational Processes group picks up details carefully and stacks them up step by step, arriving at the overall picture in the end ── an inductive approach. Their concern turns toward "what did this arise from (cause)," and they aim for smooth, consistent, goal-directed development.

At the core of their concern lies the construction of the very frameworks that explain the world. That is why they try to bind philosophy, religion, mysticism, and science into one, and find joy in building abstract systems. Their strength is the conceptual power to organize complex reality at a glance; their weakness is that, climbing ever higher in the hierarchy of abstraction, they easily drift away from concrete reality.

Position Among the 4 Groups

The Ideational Processes group is determined by the combination of perception (Intuition) and approach (Process). Process unfolds matters divergently, opening them up; Result narrows down convergently, finishing them.

The 8 Member Types

Model K Sub-classification ── Static / Dynamic (Ni / Ne)

This group is further divided into two by the nature of the perceptive function (static / dynamic). For intuitive groups, this corresponds to whether the leading intuitive element is Ni (intuition that grasps continuously and temporally) or Ne (intuition that grasps discretely and spatially). Ni traces events as a single flow of time and causation, drawing them together toward one point. Ne spreads possibilities as discrete options laid out simultaneously. In the Model K Q/D system, each pole contains 4 types.

※ This static / dynamic division is common to all 4 groups, subdividing Project Groups overall into 8 sub-groups. The above indicates tendencies at the group level and is not a definitive statement about individual types.

Internal Structure ── Average Comfort 42.9

The 8 types of the Ideational Processes group are not a tightly-bound group sharing values like a Quadra. Alongside Compass, Belonging, Kindred, and Resonance relations, the group also includes tense relations such as Quasi-Identity and Codependency. It is a practical gathering of people in different positions bound together by heading toward "the same kind of project."