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Resources & Translations for Classical Socionics

ILE Characteristic


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by Aušra Augustinavičiūtė | Source (Mirror) | Symbols for IMEs
Machine Translation Revised by Augusta Project with fully translated segments by Sophia from Classic Socionics


I. Introduction

This characteristic of the ILE or Don Quixote is given with all the hypotheses that we have accumulated, which are already somewhat different from the hypotheses we proposed in The Socion, which served as the basis for working on the characteristics of the IEE (archetype Thomas Henry Huxley) and IEI (pseudonym Tutankhamun or Jean Jacques-Rousseau) in early 1982. The reason for this is a deeper understanding of the role of individual elements and blocks of Model A of information metabolism (IM).

Model A Information Metabolism
Figure 1 shows the Model A ILE as we conceive of it today.
– The ABCD ring represents the Mental Ring.
– The abcd ring represents the Vital Ring.
– The first elements of each block, that is, elements A, a, C, and c, are Accepting elements, indicated by arrows on the side. Elements B, b, D, and D are Producing.

Figure 1

Usually, and in other sections of this work, we use a variant of the Model A of Information Metabolism (hereinafter: IM), in which all the Accepting elements are located on the left side and the Producing ones are on the right side of the block (see Fig. 2). This is a model with broken interblock connections.

Figure 2

As we currently understand it, the basis of the functioning of Model A is in the following. Each block is attached to objective reality, i.e. reflects a specific aspect of this reality, through one of its ends – the accepting element. The other end, the producing element, creates a product, i.e. a subjective reaction to an aspect of the objective reality reflected by the accepting element. The nature of what exactly happens on each block of model A is determined by the elements this block consists of (the aspect it reflects), and by the position the block itself occupies in the mechanism of IM. The position of the block determines both the way its accepting element reflects the specific aspect of the objective reality, and the way its producing element reacts to this reflection. The reason for this is in the fact all four blocks of IM differ in their reflective abilities, or, in other words, the ways in which they reflect and respond are different from each other.

In this paper we will try to show the main regularities of the functioning of both the individual blocks and the whole A-Model by examining the functioning of the Intuitive-Logical Extravert, which from now on will be called the ILE for the sake of brevity.

To begin with, let’s familiarize ourselves with the most general regularities of the functioning of the A-Model:

1) The homogeneous* parallel elements A and a, B and b, C and c, are located in the Mental and Vital Rings and function simultaneously.

*Translator’s note: These are elements with the same domain of information, such as Te and , and , etc.

2) Accepting elements are mainly used to collect information, and Producing elements are used to process that information and “produce” conclusions, which are the individual’s attitude to the information received by the Accepting element. Each Accepting element provides one Producing element with information.

3) From the point of view of Information and Energy Metabolism (hereinafter EM), the Mental and Vital rings are equivalent. But when it comes to the individual’s conscious life, what is reflected by elements of the Vital Ring is like a shadow of what is reflected by the homogeneous elements of the Mental Ring. That is, what is reflected by the Mental Ring is much more fully realized.

4) The internal requirement of the model is the same “Information-Energy tension” on every single link. All blocks should be provided with such a number of stimulus signals and such conditions for activity, which ensure equal realization of all constituents of the IM mechanism, and at the same time equal energetic realization of the organism – energy metabolism (EM). In the opposite case in the individual’s IM and EM there are disturbances that lead to psychosomatic disorders.

Functioning of Model A.
In order to have an idea of how this A-Model* functions, let’s look at a concrete example. What happens on this model when observing another living creature, say, a dog?

*Translator’s note: This is referring to the type model of the ILE under Model A.

It all starts with stimulus signals that go to Element C (). Element C() receives information about the observer’s sensations, which they receive from the senses and is formed into a general perception of the dog as an object with certain properties, let’s say the person sees a yellow, curly-haired mongrel dog. At the same time a sensory-ethical feeling for this object, that is, the dog, emerges on the element from the Vital Ring. This feeling is a reflection: a person’s sensory-aesthetic attitude toward the dog as an object that plays a certain role in the environment.

The feeling usually comes with a sign: pleasant (+) or unpleasant (-). If the dog evokes a feeling that is fairly strong, the ILE starts to want to express positive or negative emotions towards it (this is element d getting involved). At the same time on the active ring element C () is joined by element D(), which reflects a person’s ethical attitude towards the dog: for example, pity because it looks tired or hungry, a desire to establish a good relationship with it. Element D() is an element of doubts, reflections and uncertainty about which attitudes and feelings would be actually honest and ethical. What takes place is an agonizing rumination about the problem of the ILE’s own attitudes and feelings, as well as the feelings of the dog and its owners.

While the transition from element C () to element D () is deliberated by the individual, causing the individual to makes a conscious decision about their attitude toward the dog, the transition from element c () to element d () occurs unconsciously and automatically. If the emotion automatically appearing on element d () is positive, then the ILE smiles, and they emotionally accept the dog. If at the sight of the dog the ILE’s emotions are diminished and a sour grimace appears on their face, it means they emotional rejected the dog. The ILE’s A-Model implies that they “accepts” only those objects which, because of their sensory and ethical pleasantness, arouse, rather than quench, their emotions. The former increase and the latter decrease their vitality. A dog, as well as all animals that can be petted, increases this tone, as it provides the individual with pleasant sensory-ethical sensations.

Note. In the ILE’s relationships with people, it often happens that their Super-Ego block accepts the other person positively as a valuable object (the Super-Ego block, as we have noticed, does not feel the right to independently reject), but the Super-Id block, if that individual spoiled the ILE’s mood, accepts them negatively. This leads to an agonizing experience and not knowing how to ward off these unpleasant feelings while trying not to tear down the relationship by the ILE’s own initiative. In ethical relationships, the ILE is extremely indecisive; they feel no right to deny another living being.

Note. What information about the dog do the elements A () and a () bring? It is still quite difficult to separate the signals perceived by these two elements. It is known that element A () perceives those stimulating signals that bring information about the dog’s potential capabilities. It is this element that determines whether the dog is strong or weak, young or old, smart or stupid. But we think that obtaining this information would be impossible without a simultaneous reflection of different “manifestations” of this dog in time, its dynamic stereotype and tempo-rhythm, which element a () informs us of.

* Translator’s note: “Dynamic stereotype” here is called динамического стереотипа (lit. “dynamic stereotype”), which is a reference to Pavlovian conditioning. See Wikipedia article (not available in English)

We cannot say that the ILE sees the “dynamic archetype” of the dog – the Vital Elements do not see, but feel. We feel the dynamic archetype by observing the greater or lesser fluidity and speed of movements, and the quickness of its reactions. All these are relations in time of successive movements.

Further, on the basis of what information element A () has supplied, the ILE determines their logical attitude toward the dog on element B (). The logical feeling that leads to the individual knowing, say, what this animal’s potential is, what can be expected of it, and what kind of service it is fit for.

The feeling that emerged at element a () contributes to the dynamic movements with which the ILE will express their attitude toward the dog. If it is a restless, agile young dog, the ILE will have a desire to pet it and play with its fur. If it is a sedate adult dog, the ILE’s movements – element b (Te) – will be much more restrained.

The role of blocks in the life of the individual.
The blocks of the socionic Mental Ring* bring us information about the possibilities of intervening with the outside world, of influencing it. The blocks of the Vital Ring bring information about the situation and functioning of the subject of reflection, themselves. At the same time, all blocks serve as a way for an individual to enter the body of society. But the individual themselves perceives the results of the functioning of each block as separate stages of self-actualization, which give an idea of what position the individual occupies in society, how society evaluates them, how pleasant and successful their life is, and how much society needs them. For the ILE, it would sound something like this:

*Translator’s note: The Mental and Vital rings are called the “Active” and “Passive” rings in Russian.

Ego Block – I am who I am because of my thinking and because my thoughts are generative since they are needed and recognized by society. I know this because I get sent to solve challenging problems due to how I manage to notice new laws in the development of potential forces of the surrounding world and because these laws, discovered by both me and others, are taken into account in the practical activity of society. As long as society takes advantage of my services, I can use my intellect to solve its problems and establish newer, more logical relationships to the potential forces of the surrounding objective world.

Super-Ego Block – My worth is determined by how much society values me and my qualities and the feelings and relationships I’m required to have for people — what society allows for and how much society regulates these. The better one’s social evaluation or the better one adapts to society, the less one feels this regulation.

Super-Id Block – The pleasantness of my life, and my happiness are determined by whether other people arouse, respect and protect my pleasant sensory-aesthetic feelings, that is, how well others around me protect my sensory-aesthetic comfort. Insofar as someone cares about my aesthetic feelings, and insofar as that care enhances my inner emotional arousal. The greatest compliment is to hear is “this ILE doesn’t get down”* (i.e. they don’t feel a lack of emotional arousal) under difficult conditions where anyone else would completely crumble.

*Translator’s note: Adapted from «не вешает носа» – lit. “to hang one’s nose”, which means to be upset because of something unpleasant happening.

Id Block – Society needs me as much as it awakens a feeling of a strong sense of the rhythm of the times. The greater society demands my services, the more my time is valued, the faster the pace of my life, and the more I can do and get done. The greater this demand, the more I feel like a necessary part of society, as a full-fledged, integral component of it.

The “Expansive-Business” and “Middle” Blocks.
Let’s imagine the A-Model’s blocks according to their function in the model. We can say that in two of these blocks, society “consumes” the individual, and in the other two blocks, there is a “trade agreement” – society works with the individual’s accounts and pays for their services. Let’s call the first two the “Expansive-Business” blocks, which means that on these blocks, the individual has freedom in their activity, serving society and their individual interests. And we will call the other two, where the individual waits and displays their indecision and doubts, the “Middle Blocks.”

We can probably say that the value of a person for society – their “labor value” – is determined by activity of an individual’s Expansive-Business blocks, whereas the evaluation and payment for this activity takes place on the Middle Blocks. In other words, when it comes to the relationship between the individual and society, the function of the Expansive-Business blocks can be expressed as follows: a person acts on society, and as for the functioning of the Middle blocks: society acts on a person. The Ego block acts for the sake of evaluating the respect that should be paid to the individual’s Super-Ego, while the Id block acts for the sake of the real payment for the Super-Id Block itself (see Figure 3).

Figure 3

RingsBlocksElementsAttitude to the WorldRole of the Block
Mental RingEgoExpansiveSubordinating the world
Mental RingSuper-EgoMedianSelf-image through the lens of society
Vital RingSuper-IdMedianConceptualizing society through the lens of oneself
Vital RingIdTeExpansiveExpansive subordination of oneself to the world

The ILE’s Expansive-Business blocks reflect the logical-intuitive aspects of reality, and they are therefore bold and resolute with the external, objective world, but unspecific due to the lack of sensory components. In other words, they are visionary strategists, but by no means practical tacticians.

The ILE’s Middle Blocks reflect the ethical-sensory aspects of reality, so they are constantly doubtful in their relationships with people, are dependent on those relationships, and rely on their own strength more than cooperation with others. This can reach a point where a student of this type of IM is often unable to use a cheat sheet or take a hint. This is not a show of unusual ethics, but rather a complete distrust of what they did not invent or make themselves. Even more, this cheat sheet or hint always demobilizes them to some extent, and these make the ILE’s answers worse, not better.

Note. This is not to say that an ethical type of IM simply relies on the kind sentiments of others. But an ethical type has no difficulty turning to people to verify what they will do for them. They first turn to others and only afterwards rely on their own strength.

Why is the archetype Don Quixote?
Because indeed, the type of personality described by Miguel Cervantes in the novel Don Quixote has the distinct features of an ILE. It is true that this character is quite strong of a caricature, but there was no other way. The author – an SLI – is in an incomplete complementary [semi-dual] relationship with the hero, who is fraught with a certain misunderstanding, an imaginary strangeness of the latter’s actions. Cervantes, first of all, notices the more ridiculous traits of Quixote.

Note. In the same intertype relationship Fyodor Dostoevsky () is in with the protagonist of the novel The Idiot, Nastasya Philippovna (Te), the author emphasizes the hard-to-explain inconsistency of her actions.

We also chose the name of this great wanderer because in life the ILE often reminds many of the real Don Quixote, both to others and to themselves. All ILEs understand Don Quixote, both sympathize and have compassion for him. They all see familiar features in their own personalities and destinies.

II. Expansive-Business Blocks

Ego and Id. These two blocks are the two types of expansion into the external world. The Ego is expansion during which society gets subjugated to the individual’s intellect, while the Id is expansion during which the individual gets subjugated to society’s intellect.

Figure 4

This means that on element A (), the individual selects the stimulating signals that they need from the objective environment. What they learn about from the potential energy and latent possibilities of objects, they learn through their own volition, selecting for themselves which objects the ILE delves for their inner possibilities. This volition does not truly belong to the ILE, to some extent, because it is conditioned by the needs of their social reality. In any case, however, the surrounding reality acts on the individual in an unmediated way, that is, not through other people.

Element a () receives the strongest stimulating signals from other people. Therefore, in their work activity, the ILE is inclined to almost completely submit to the sense of the rhythm of others’ time. If there are no signals dictating the rhythm of time to them, or in other words, if no one dictates to ILE what they should do and when, and how to plan their time, they feel extremely uncomfortable. Undoubtedly, these commands must correspond to the real needs of the body and the individual themselves. But these personal needs are sort of in the background. Just as in the Ego, a person hardly notices that they are interested in exactly what society needs, in the Id, the person needs activities that should not only please others, but also contribute to the satisfaction of their own needs and requirements.

Which mechanisms allow other people to program the ILE’s time? This happens due to the fact that there is a kind of alarm clock inside the ILE, one that only other people can “set” and that the ILE obeys completely. This is why the ILE follows orders related to where they need to be and what they need to do, if they are also told when they need to do it. The ILE simply cannot permit themselves to be late for anything, they are unable to even if they want to. They cannot oversleep or arrive late for anything, even if people were not too serious about the time they had given. The ILE is often able to navigate time entirely without a clock, as if hypnotized. However, all this only applies if they were “programmed” by someone else, and the ILE will not arrive before the appointed time, either. After all, a program is something that is meant to be executed precisely, on the dot. If the ILE did not obey a specific time-related command, this means that the person who gave the command does not exist for them, that the ILE does not recognize them as an equal. They only obey their equals.

The ILE’s time must be filled with work. They only idle around when ill or when they do not know what to do. But this does not last long, because idleness grips them with intense anxiety, and they take on as much as they can if it seems that at least one person may need it and the ILE might make someone happy. They work with great pleasure if they can do something for others and make them happy. Because without constant approval from one’s surroundings, the Id block works poorly, and the ILE works sluggishly, without energy or resolve.

Interestingly, ILEs are prone to make rationalizations that reduce the time needed to perform various tasks. The need to improve someone’s mood, earn praise, and gain approval also manifests through this.

On the element B of their Ego () the ILE compares potential capabilities of individual objects and subjects, which results in a logical feeling of knowing how they measure up to one another*. The logical feeling borne on the Ego is infallible if the individual takes all the needed objects into account. However, a lot of time passess between the emergence of such a feeling and the moment when it is implemented in society, allowing said society to change its attitude to these objects to a more logical one. This is because the feeling needs to be proven.

* Translator’s note: From соотносятся, which translates to both “relations” and “ratios”, but neither definition quite encapsulates what she means.

What society needs is evidence, not feelings, even if they come from the most intelligent individual. Therefore, the smaller and more homogenous the group one needs to prove something to, and the more trusted the individual is, the faster the corrections, i.e. progress, are made.

In element b (Te) comes the realization of the individual’s potential energy in their work activity. By their actions, the individual demonstrates their attitude to the social program established in the previous element, a (). This attitude is always positive, but this “positivity” isn’t worth anything if other people don’t notice it. Therefore, in this element, the individual tends to exhaust themselves with hard work until their work is recognized and appreciated by those around them, who would welcome and appreciate these efforts. The closer the individual is to people they can “prove” or “demonstrate” themselves to, the better and more prosperous the individual’s well-being.

This can be summarized in Figure 5.

Figure 5

Ego Block [] – The Ego Block is the individual’s contribution towards adapting society to objective reality. It is the creation of new standards of adaptation to the surrounding objects and phenomena, with this adaptation getting increasingly more rational.

Id Block [Te] – The Id Block is the individual’s own adaptation to social reality.

Let us try to give an even more vivid picture of how these blocks perceive the world. As mentioned above, these blocks work in parallel and the homogeneous parallel elements are realized simultaneously.

When gathering information, the Ego delves into the structure of the object against the background of a certain “flickering.” This background is the perception of movement occurring in the external world, i.e. what is reflected by the Id Block. That is, when the Ego delves into the structure of the object it is studying, the individual also perceives changes in this structure over time with its “peripheral vision,” in other words, very indefinitely. The Ego perceives this as a peculiar “flickering background,” without which, perception, let alone comprehension of the structure of objects would be impossible. When making sense of this information, it is not so much the structure of the object that is reconstructed in memory but rather the “flickering”, without which it would be impossible to make sense of this structure at all. Therefore, the ILE cannot penetrate into the structure of an object that they did not observe in real life, which is necessarily in motion. So, it is yet again confirmed that the primary information is received simultaneously through the accepting elements of the Ego and Id.

Cooperation of Blocks
In the individual’s A-Model, the Expansive-Business blocks cooperate with the Middle blocks. The functioning of the Super-Ego block reflects the evaluation of the Ego block’s activity, and the Super-Id block is used to “pay” for the energy expenditures of the Id block.

At the same time, the Expansive-Business blocks cooperate with the Middle blocks of the dual. The dual’s Super-Ego provides the individual’s Id with programming information, and, in this way, connects the Id with society. And the dual’s Super-Id rewards the Ego with complete obedience and thus enables the individual to experience their social significance.

On the Ego, the individual intrudes upon society and claims their rights; on the Id society intrudes upon the individual’s affairs and activity, dictating its own rules of behavior.

On the Ego, the individual proclaims their rights to society; on the Id, the individual acknowledges society’s rights to themselves, feeling bad if said society does not use its rights often.

On the Ego the individual evaluates society and what happens in it, makes categorical corrections, instills new norms of relations; on the Id it is established how much society needs the individual and their services, what their “use value” is, whether the individual and their activity get included into Socio-Energy Metabolism, and to what extent.

On the Ego, the individual creates new values; the Id dutifully and vigilantly serves the already accepted social values.

On the Ego, the individual brags; on the Id, they wait for praise instead.

Ego Block.

The ILE’s Categorical Nature.
For the ILE the most interesting thing in every object, phenomenon, and situation is the structure and potential hidden in them. With particular ease and without difficulties or mistakes, the ILE delves into everything within the field of their professional interests (provided the ILE has an opportunity to consider the studied phenomenon and to perceive it in a way known only to them). The ILE sees the potentialities, abilities, and hidden power of each object like an X-ray. People think that what they see so obviously to themselves should be seen by others too, i.e. as common sense. Therefore, they correct others categorically and even with some surprise: “How can someone miss something so obvious?” For example, the Allies had objective data on the strength and capabilities of the USSR during World War II. However, only Winston Churchill – an ILE – was able to objectively assess the postwar expansion of the Soviet sphere of influence in Eastern Europe and stubbornly held onto the idea that it was in the interests of Western countries to open up a second front in the Balkans. This confidence emerged after he visited the USSR, where he was able to convince himself of the internal strength of the state, although he certainly could not see with his own eyes anything hidden from other politicians. Seeing and arguing is not the same thing as showing to others. Of the greats of this world who belonged to this type and did not argue, but command, we can only name Peter the Great. It should be noted that Peter I in his reforms tried to affect not something else, but the potential forces of the state, the structural changes in the traditional forms of its economy. While the greats of this world, belonging to, say, the type SEE (for example, Julius Caesar or Napoleon Bonaparte), were mainly engaged in manipulation of the traditional “kinetic” forces of the state – the army.

The “Discovery” of People”
The ILE avoids superficial people. They are drawn to people with great unrealized possibilities, to personalities who are waiting for their discoverers, to whom they can open themselves, to direct them to the path where they could most fully realize their abilities.

To see the power within every capable person and to show the ways to realize this power is their vocation. What is someone worth if their inner abilities cannot be counted because they are almost non-existent? They’d be uninteresting, and the multiplier of effort needed to realize their capabilities is already greater than that of others.

The ILE only becomes attached to individuals who share a common cause with them. If nothing else, the ILE must at least must see a revelation of these individuals’ abilities. One could say that they communicate with people who endure identification with their Ego block.

According to Carl Jung’s apt description, this type can “make men”*. Because of this, when we read about the zeal with which Edith Piaf was “making” Yves Montand, we immediately recognize her as an ILE who simply cannot let go of their “victim” until they fully “open” said victim up.**

* Translator’s note: From Chapter X of Psychological Types on the Extraverted Intuitive Type: “Because of his capacity, when orientated more towards men than things, to make an intuitive diagnosis of their abilities and range of usefulness, he can also ‘make’ men.”

** This is saying that the ILE recognizes the potential of an “apprentice” and wants to make it their mission to fully realize it.

But the ILE does not always manage to do it easily, and sometimes, because of their passion for opening these potential capabilities, they end up in strange ambiguous situations. For example, how can the ILE reveal the greatness of some SEI’s mind to the world if this SEI is in controlled by an EII, one who is short-sighted, who measures the rationality of any undertaking by how materially beneficial it is, and who treats this SEI in public like how an animal trainer would treat an animal? And it should be remembered that the ILE is exceptionally sensitive to people’s dignity being disrespected, especially if those people are inherently strong in spirit, if their extraordinary abilities could even make them go down in history of science or art. Imagine how the ILE must feel when, before their very eyes, someone is humiliating a person who should instead be raised, uplifted, so that they could finally understand what they are.

Note. Only extraverts are truly sensitive to the humiliation of human dignity. Without their help no introvert can understand their own value, which is why they often uncomplainingly submit to what the extravert considers psychological abuse. The ILE reacts to the aforementioned situation as to something terrible and painful, the open sadism from the EII and the masochistic demonstration of self-humiliation by the SEI, which are frightening and shameful to watch and which the ILE has to flee, simultaneously feeling ashamed of their flight as well. The ILE is lost, they do not know how to break their relationships with people, especially with those who clearly need help. But logic demands avoiding uselessly frustrating, mentally and physically exhausting scenes of other people’s lives. The ILE has to hide behind something completely artificial, some kind of aggression of their own, which will once again make people think the ILE is “obnoxious,” but will at least improve their psychological situation to some extent.

The ILE has a good eye for not only the potential of people but for all objects and phenomena. For this reason, they are a champion of all newly emerging progressive trends, ideas, and scientific theories. They see their true potential and can therefore not remain silent, often zealously and fervently defending what others have failed to notice. For example, Carl Jung (LII) created a model of the human personality structure that an ILE, such as the author of this paper, would never have been able to do. I do not understand how it is possible to see with such a level of mental clarity what Jung saw. Because before one can write, one has to “see” it, to feel it. My job is to “see” the potential of Jung’s discovery. Now it’s time for the other types of IM (first and foremost, the EIE*). Each of them must do their part until the theory becomes in the global domain of science and culture.

* Translator’s note: This is a reference to the fact that the EIE is the ILE’s social requestee, and the next type in the ILE’s “chain” of social progress.

Structural Thinking. 
The ILE is distinguished by the ability to see the potential of any phenomena and objects. Their thinking is structural, that is, when they think about objects, they think in structures. Therefore, there is no need for visual thinking. For example, if they say to themselves “I see the blue sky”, they will not see this sky without special training, unlike what easily happens with sensing types.

Along with objective reality, there is a reflection of this that exists a “mental concreteness ” in the ILE, which corresponds to the inner, deepest part of objective reality. Because of this, the ILE likes schemes that are a generalized, simplified component of this mental concreteness or one of its dimensions.

To bring to society what the Ego block sees is a big, painstaking, time-consuming work of thought. It’s very difficult to communicate this because this mental structure, as the ILE sees it, is figurative above all else, something akin to Picasso’s paintings, and translating this structure into concrete human language requires a lot of work, many test runs and conditional arrangements to delineate individual nodes of this structure and to name individual points of it. Only after that does it become possible to describe the structure itself.

So, the ILE “sees structures,” but to make sense of them is sometimes quite difficult. It is one thing if we are talking about the structure of a particular object. That is easy. It is more difficult if the object of study is some abstraction. However, in the study of all phenomena, which cannot, say, be photographed, it is first of all necessary to refer to structural thinking. That is, it is first necessary to understand what exactly belongs to the structure of this phenomenon, and only then it is possible to understand the external manifestations of these structures. A person’s character, for example, has, according to the A-Model, both its structure and its external manifestations. In developing the characteristics of Introverted Sensation types we could proceed from descriptions of known manifestations of each Introverted Sensation type, i.e. we could proceed in the way that all psychiatrists, psychologists, and partially even Jung himself, have been forced to proceed up to now. However, it is possible to go from the development of an internal scheme of the A-Model to the revelation of the mechanism of its action. The second way makes it possible to distinguish the incidental from the recurring, as well as an opportunity to explain each manifestation of type. We have chosen the second way, which, however, is less imaginative for the non-specialist. Therefore, at the end of the paper, we give the characteristics of the same type of IM written by Pyotr Gannushkin, Antoni Kępiński, Andrey Lichko, and Carl Jung.

* Translator’s note: The end of this chapter contains shortened descriptions by these authors. For complete descriptions of this type, see the ILE Psychiatric Descriptions for the descriptions by Kępiński, Lichko, and Jung.

“Don Quixote.” 
The ILE’s theoretical, lifeless, “Don-Quixotic” nature lies, perhaps, in the fact that they see potential, but do not feel they have the right to bend anyone to their will. Their will – – is on the Super-Ego block. This is why, as a rule, they are inclined to open these potentialities only to others, i.e. to be only a researcher of potential forces of their environment, not the one who mobilizes these forces and transforms them into an effective force. By nature, they are a researcher, not an organizer. They can “overthrow,” revealing the outdated, and “raise up,” pointing to the progressive and the future, urging for the progressive and against the outdated, but they cannot oppose their own will to the will of others nor manipulate the will of others. And all this is until the ILE themselves are mature. They do not even know how to persuade. Does not know how to check, persuade, or otherwise. They know what people objectively need, and what is useful, but they cannot check whether they understand it until they declare it themselves. This is why the ILE acts successfully only in cooperation with “those who know what they need,” practical sensory people, or if a chain of social order is formed. In other words, the ILE either helps those who are capable and striving for the activity or, if they do not find such people, remains a “Don Quixote”.

The ILE’s dual – the SEI (Alexandre Dumas) – on the contrary, sees people’s needs, and their system of motivation, and gladly agitates and persuades everyone. The only thing they do not see is something else – potential. Therefore, acting alone, they “light up” everyone indiscriminately and doesn’t achieve good results. More often than not, they make a lot of fuss in an empty or non-empty space.

The most interesting thing for the ILE is to dig into any structures to learn their contents and regularities, and to change and improve the structure, and thereby, the potential of the object. The main condition for whether or not the ILE is interested in any structure is the extent to which they see the solutions of the problems of those close to them.

Choice of Problem. 
If it is possible to choose what problem to solve with their intellect, they choose the area that seems to them the most neglected, that is, they look for the “main link” in the chain. Thus, Peter the Great chose a window on Europe, Charles Darwin chose the theory of evolution, and Selma Lagerlöf chose literature.

The ILE deals with matters as long as they see unresolved problems in them. They aren’t interested if there are no problems to solve, and they even abandon work with material benefits. Their assessment is accurate, and nothing, neither benefits nor rewards, will convince them to treat the unpromising as promising. They take on the most difficult tasks because they excite them, and it turns out that by itself the ILE has strength for difficult tasks, but not the easy ones.

The ILE uses their Ego Block for an expansion into the outside world, which requires an independent exploration of reality. It is a form of adaptation to society, meeting one’s own creative needs and the needs of social progress. The block’s production should provide the individual and society with full awareness of the laws of objective reality reflected by the block, and cognition of the laws part of this reality, which the individual is able to comprehend and submit to their intellect to both theoretically, at the level of Information Metabolism, and practically, at the level of Energy Metabolism. New, more rational feelings towards studied objects appear, and more and more rational norms of relations to objects long familiar become seen in a new light.

It should be emphasized that in the exchange of information the Ego tries to receive about the objects of the objective world only exists within an interesting, necessary, consciously desired, and selective part of the stream of information, for a deep understanding of only some small, limited group of objects. In their behavior, i.e. in Energy Metabolism (EM), which is always an integral part of Socio-Energetic Metabolism, the individual is bold and inventive, and uses the received information skillfully and categorically. Mastering the world, they try over and over, are not afraid of mistakes, which they themselves study with passion.

If the product of their intellect is not recognized for long enough by society and is not included in the Socio-Energetic Metabolism, the individual is not embarrassed and does not cease to feel correct. However, in the end, non-recognition can break the ILE, bringing them to the realization that they are misunderstood and unnecessary. In this case, they are more worried about their unsettled “offspring,” about the thoughts not passed on to others, than about their own fate as the “misunderstood man”.

Id Block. Te

Subordination to the rhythm (mode) of the Socion’s time. 
In the real world, the Socionic nature of humanity manifests itself only as a tendency and an ideal, because the Socion as structural associations do not exist and the Socionic (as well as Quadric and even Dual) connections are only realized between people by “probabilistic” contacts. However, each individual has to obey the Socion and be programmed by it. Otherwise, they feel like a lonely, unhappy, unnecessary, and superfluous person. Programming takes place when the Id block is subordinated to the Super-Ego block of the dual. Therefore, in the behavior of each individual, there is not only a tendency to behave according to one’s own type of IM but also to treat others as if they were duals, to expect from them what only a dual can give. Showing dissatisfaction, which is especially evident in the non-dualized, about anything that does not conform to these expectations.

Subordination to the dual’s Super-Ego block is subordination not to the dual, but to the Socion, because the Super-Ego block does not manifest its own will, but only reflects the surrounding reality. The question of whether the information that accumulates on the Super-Ego is caused by random Socionic contacts (Socion) or by predominating types of contacts (a specific Socion) cannot yet be fully answered. It seems to us, however, that Socionic contacts and information received from the requestee predominate.

The ILE receives a program of the use of time from their dual, which dictates the rhythm of their actions and provides a sense of the rhythm of time. We call the feeling of the rhythm of time the reflection of the rhythm of the external or internal activity of objects and subjects in the psyche of a living being.

A person’s sense of the rhythm of time can arise from:

  • By observing their own activity
  • By observing the activity of others
  • Observation of other people’s sense of rhythm. Only the second and (especially) third ways are available to the ILE. One could say that they reflect the sense of time of their dual (and of all those around him) and, based on this reflection, builds a program of his activity.

How does the imposition of a sense of time manifest itself in everyday life? With a special empathy for other people’s sense of time. It is, first, an instinctive desire to not delay other people, to not take time away from them, and to help save it in every possible way. The person who says “I’m in a hurry,” or at least looks at their watch, becomes the object of the ILE’s intensified concern. “They are in a hurry,” “They have no time,” are holy formulas for the ILE, and they will never ask where or why, even from their spouse. This would already be a questioning of the sanctity and untouchability of another person’s sense of time. One could say that the ILE worships the sense of time of those around them, even though they do not ask them to.

A couple of examples testify to how cautious the ILE is about other people’s time. The ILE is late for their train. There is no cab. Then a private driver pulls up and stops. “I won’t be late,” the ILE says with relief as they opens the door. “But I will be late,” retorts the driver. Although there is no doubt that this is a joke, the ILE becomes uncomfortable. In line, an ILE cannot lag one step behind the person ahead of them, because it might seem to the others that they are holding them up.

Equally, the SEI is afraid to impose their will on another person, the EIE their likes and dislikes, and the ESI their emotions.

Can it be argued that the ILE completely lacks their own sense of time? It seems to us that we can rather speak of an “instinct of time”. That is, their own sense of time remains at the level of an instinct, which makes itself felt in every case when the programmed rhythm does not ensure realization of the accumulated energy. This sometimes manifests itself in ill-considered impulsive activity. To impose another’s sense of time on the ILE is precisely due to the presence of this instinct.

The program of actions.
The ILE’s insufficient sense of time manifests itself in the fact that they only function successfully with time if someone (preferably the dual) provides a program of actions and if they ILE does not need to think during the transition from one form of activity to another, including the transition from work to rest. Their time must be broken down by someone else into segments, intended for one or another kind of activity. Without such a program, the ILE does not provide themselves themselves with a necessary variety of things to do, is constantly bogged down in one thing, while many vital needs remain unsatisfied.

The ILE is ready to fulfill every request: if a person asks, it means that they themselves cannot. But if they want to “take them by fear”, demand and threaten them, they forget it is sometimes reasonable to give in. They automatically respond to any aggression with stubbornness and rebellion.

Not only does the ILE willingly obey schedules imposed on them, but as if to show how glad they are that they were commanded, and demanded of concrete work, the ILE tries to show off their skill to save the “allotted” time for the task. That is, they “carries out and exceeds” the “productivity” of the task. What are they trying to achieve? Emotional reaction and surprise of the partner, which inspires further activity.

Emotional tension. 
The ILE works enthusiastically and very well in emotionally tense, extreme situations or in expectation of emotional support and emotional reinforcement. Situations in which others are numbed by fear very often only activate them. The reason for this is not only that the activation is due to the emotions of others, but also that the ILE simply, thanks to their extraverted intuition, sees better than others the true potency of the opponent or of the obstacles standing in the way. And if they enter into confrontation, they usually have a feel of what they are getting into. For the same reason, for people with other types of IM, their victories seem to be unexpected, or accidental, or they suspect that the ILE is hiding exceptional strength.

They are inspired by the fact that dangerous, tense situations make the ILE feel needed by others. And even to many. In peaceful, quiet work, the rhythm of life is often so diminished that the ILE hungers for emotional tension. It could be argued that for such people, dangerous and hot situations are much more prosperous and safe than peaceful and quiet ones when they don’t know where to place themselves.

In dangerous situations, where others are lost and retreating, the ILE willfully accepts responsibility. The more social excitement or panic, the calmer the individual becomes. In chaotic situations, this type of IM receives more of the information needed to make accurate decisions and has no doubts about their social indispensability. It is often said of Churchill that he spent his life striving for power. Not power per se. (This type does not seek power. It is the type of a teacher, not a leader.) He sought to eliminate the bottlenecks in the mechanisms of his state which others did not notice and could not cope with. So, too, was the reduction of the feeling of anxiety that he was “out of work.” This feeling invariably haunts every ILE when there is something happening near them that no one is truly engaged in, and they are “not allowed.” The biography of Alexander Suvorov is replete with situations of “I am out of work again”.

When the ILE learns that they are hardly needed and replaceable in the business they are engaged in, their interest in their work vanishes. If they do not feel indispensable, it is simply not the ILE’s place. The ILE does not compete with anyone. The search for new problems and new situations begins.

Watchdog. 
With cooperation, the ILE does not keep themselves waiting and is never late anywhere, even if they weren’t serious about their time commitments. If the ILE provides a service by their own initiative, it almost always serves to save the time of a person or a social group as a whole. You could say that people tend to use all their time to serve others. With the expectation that, undoubtedly, others will be attentive to your time (and interests) and won’t let you down.

What it means for the ILE to “serve those around them with all their time” can most easily be understood through the example of Anton Makarenko, who proved this to the colonists in all of his days. His office was a place where anyone could stay for as long as they pleased. By providing such a situation for contact with people, the ILE feels confident and relaxed, because they most fully get in tune with the rhythm of life with their team.

The more people program the ILE’s time, that is, to seek their services, the more free and independent they feel. Apparently, under such conditions, they are simply freer from the “grace and disfavor” of individuals, that is, from their possible uselessness to them. In other words, the more the ILE’s time and services are needed by society, the easier they realize their social role.

What is rational and irrational from the ILE’s point of view is what is rational or irrational from the perspective of the use of time. Even when it comes to the irrational use of objects, the ILE sees nothing but the irrational use of time embodied within them.

Such an individual feels like a watchdog whose function is to watch vigilantly how time is used. As soon as the ILE notices that something is wrong, they propose amendments, make rational proposals, and fight for their implementation. They use their own time as a reserve and as a plug. Their time is the means of saving other people’s time. Especially the time of those closest to them and those more important for the progress of society. This gives rise to a tendency to give advice, first of all, to those higher up, to their superiors. But if there is not another ILE or SEI at the top, this usually ends in failure.

For the ILE, the time of others is more real and tangible than their own. That is why one often gets the impression that they are too compliant. However, this happens with every type of IM. Everyone intertwines their interests through the Id with the interests of the society or the Socion. There is no other way. For example, the LSE yields in the same way to the order that others have established. They adapt to the established legal and other logical norms, and other people’s sense of logic. And the LSE uses all their strength and will to help maintain that order. There is no other type of IM who would be such a connoisseur of legal subtleties, so diligent in enforcing the laws and demanding the same from others as the LSE.

The ILE at Work
The ILE lives in the present. The past and the future are not real to them. The differentiation of the sense of time ends in the fact that time is divided into time occupied by the present interesting work and time unoccupied by it.

The ILE is never able to say what they spent their time on, and others report on it. The ILE themselves only notices what they have not done or when they are interrupted in their work. It’s better to work with passion. It’s bad when there isn’t any inspiring work to do: the world stops and everything becomes meaningless. When there is an interesting task at hand, one can only envy the ILE’s energy and resourcefulness. But when there is no “real” business to do, they are weak and helpless.

The ILE works the better the more personal contacts, trust, and friendly relations they have. The less formality and reprimanding there is, the greater the output. They tend to do what is most needed in a given situation, in a given area, regardless of whether it is their job or not. But what the ILE once went above and beyond for, and as if for more fun, they choose, by their own volition, to include as their permanent duties, which becomes tiring and burdensome. They are prone to work harder than others only when it is a free choice. The ILE gets tired of work, even if it is necessary to society if they cannot contact many people. Because this kind of work reduces the sociability of the individual, the ILE feels the absence of haste, jokes, and general anxiety, which results in a decline in the ILE’s vitality.

Learning, training, and skills. 
The ILE usually throws themselves into the thick of social life, the hectic, strenuous work. The greater the hurry, the more precisely and effectively the ILE acts. In dangerous and difficult situations they work with particular excitement. This also happens when they encounter a new, interesting task. Each situation where they need to remove some kind of bottleneck is seen by the ILE as a way to train their qualities. Because of this the ILE is not inclined to do things other people are already able to do.

They like to take on work that allows them to realize their energy, physically harden and develop new skills and abilities. The hobby of this type is to learn new things, as if in preparation for extreme situations in the future. First, to learn it themselves, and then to teach others. The ILE is usually a patient teacher.

Physical hardening, the desire to do everything available to one’s own hands, to be capable, to thus gain pragmatic skills, and to be excited about difficult tasks – is the way that the ILE gets out of extreme situations and tries to earn recognition from society. And there is no painstaking, boring, and dirty work that the ILE would not agree to redo, or would not agree to go through. The ILE does not know how to spare their efforts if it is “necessary,” “interesting,” or if “nobody else will do it.” All of this mobilizes them. They are a specialist in breaking barriers, and it doesn’t matter whether they have to do physical or mental work to do so. In math, such students like to solve problems that others can’t solve. Solving what others can’t is perceived as an exciting social imperative, while everything else is boring, everyday life.

There is something mysterious about any processes or dynamics for the ILE, because they do not remember them. The ILE is bad at describing the simplest of incidents and generally bad at delineating verb forms, like all static types. Instead of narrating the situation, they analyze it or characterize the participants in the incident. This is because the memory of the Id block can be called “muscle memory” or skills. The ILE only remembers what they had to go through themselves or what they have done with their own hands. And even then, they remember it more so for the ability to repeat it in practice, rather than how to teach it.

The ILE must “enter into work with their whole body.” In the situations where the ILE did not enter this way, they cannot lead. They just do not understand what is what. So when Peter the Great decided that Russia must become a maritime power, he himself was forced to learn maritime affairs. How, without knowing the situation, should they order people? Those who have read about Suvorov know that this commander also knew how to do everything himself.

The three levels of social integration. Because of the way that the ILE individual feels their place in society and their social integration, we see that their vitality and ability to work are determined by society’s demand for their time. That is why everything they do, and attempts to improve themselves, are aimed at increasing their “labor power.” The more their labor power is sought after, the fuller their sense of life. Three stages of the ILE’s social integration can be distinguished.

1. The ILE is doing the same things others do. No one needs their individuality, their special skills, abilities, their patience, friendliness, or stubbornness. In this case the ILE acts sluggishly, like a real phlegmatic, only occasionally showing their impulsivity and getting involved in silly stories because of their “obnoxious personality”.  

2. The ILE acts under the supervision and command of their dual. This means they are needed by at least one person who programs their time and work. It improves the way the ILE feels physically, gives them emotional stability and saves them from pointless, impulsive “revolutionarianism”. 

3. The ILE’s abilities and strength are needed by many, i.e. by society. In this case they become a kind of person who is exceptionally active and at the same time focused, well-balanced, who never gets nervous or gets into a bad mood.

The “Buildup” of the Cyclothyme. 
For the ILE’s physical activity, like that of every cyclothyme, a kind of build-up is necessary, i.e. the appearance of a feeling of anxiety that time is going to waste, that danger is approaching. This is because, in their blockings, the element Te is always preceded by Ni, a sense of time. Good actions and therefore good realizations of vital energy are those which most fully reduce the sense of anxiety (one of the forms of a sense of time) while giving the individual a sense of belonging to the affairs of society. Therefore, the ILE does not get involved in any work immediately, but after the emergence of a feeling of anxiety. They warm up due to feelings of anxiety from other people, which are transmitted to the watching ILE, or when their own instinct is triggered. Therefore, the danger that threatens others usually activates the ILE to be stronger, whereas routine orders are carried out sluggishly. The dualized ILE is more agile and less impulsive for the simple reason that they are constantly provided with the conscious feelings of the SEI, who are sensitive to the social rhythm of time. In a non-dualized ILE, only instinct works, and they are constantly gnawed by intense anxiety. For example, Mikhail Lermontov, who was bored in the Caucasus, roamed the mountains and disturbed the highlanders because of this feeling of anxiety. Or gets involved in pointless quarrels.

Quality. 
The ILE is drawn to high quality in work, but like all intuitive types they are not good at evaluating quality. Therefore they are always at risk of getting into a “loop” when they are doing something. They do not know what the limit to quality is, and are unable to finish if there is no one to tell them “enough” and tear the work out of their hands. Without this “enough” from someone the ILE will keep improving until they give up and abandon it. For example, suppose the ILE is writing a scientific paper. The SEI or the SLI have an idea of how much quality and quantity they “need” in advance, and vigilantly monitor that there are no excesses, god forbid. If they do end up with something extra, they leave it for the future. But to the ILE something they already completed seems insignificant compared to the new prospects opening before them, which they cannot refuse nor run out of. And this goes on indefinitely, up until the ILE is completely exhausted and lost, until they can no longer do this work at all and abandon it, feeling that it remained unfinished. In this respect Suvorov’s situation was ideal, since he had to complete each task within days.

Bad character. 
The “grumpiness” of Suvorov’s character is often noted. It manifested itself when he had already seen how to solve a problem but was required to agitate those who didn’t know anything about it. The ILE who entered the business does not notice people who do not understand the matter, they do not exist to them or are merely like annoying flies that must be swatted away. They cannot negotiate with them. The ILE is not a tactician, but a strategist. The person standing in the way of their business is seen simply as an obstacle and a hindrance. Therefore, if their enterprises involve the SEI, who is an expert at building relationships and possesses the ability to praise any talents, all things go perfectly well and there is no room to be a “bad character.”

When writing about Suvorov, people often express bewilderment at the fact that he was attentive to the soldiers and even prisoners, that is, to people whose fate was in his hands. At the same time, he paid little attention to and even showed defiance in regard to higher-ups. The whole point was that the former did not interfere in his matters, while the latter did tend to interfere. He had no time to adjust to people; he was adjusting to the situation of tomorrow’s battle, where he usually acted on the edge of possibility, and that possibility would cease to be possible if he paid even a little bit of his attention to “extraneous” problems.

ILEs often hide behind eccentric behavior to conceal and protect their line of action without running into too much hostility from their environment. This is what Suvorov did as well. Eccentricity is used to conceal a purposeful line of action from those who hinder the ILE. Such people have to argue with the ILE over their eccentric line of action, but the ILE does not think when acting eccentrically, they do it just because, as a distraction. By nature they are meant to have the SEI cover for them – while the ILE is acting, the SEI is meant to explain their actions. (Equally, the ILE is meant to explain the SEI’s relationships, otherwise people will talk about the SEI as a person who is sly and selfish, which is not true at all.) When there is no SEI, the ILE is forced to hide behind eccentricity. This is like a homemade SEI effigy.

Dualization. 
What does the dual provide the ILE? An opportunity to figure out which of someone’s proposed works or actions are useful, promising, fitting into the overall picture of social activity, and acceptable, and which are not. And in what sequence this should all be done.

In addition, the dual is ready to reveal their Super-Ego as an encyclopedia, which frees them from the need to constantly reinvent the wheel and gives examples to follow. When the ILE has only vague suspicions about what might be useful and what might be useless, the dual explains in detail and specifically what exactly should not be done and why, and what would be short-sighted to overlook.

Without a dual the ILE occasionally takes on activities indiscriminately, and may even take on a completely lost cause due to the fact that the process of EM* cannot stop. The ILE does not know how to refuse and why they should refuse other people’s requests. Therefore they see the SEI giving them advice as an exceptionally reasonable and good person, someone who is truly serious and businesslike, who knows how to live among people.

* Translator’s note: EM here stands for energy metabolism.

The ILE feels that they are loved by someone who respects and preserves not so much the ILE themselves, but rather their time from being lost to trivial matters. Someone who takes care of their activity, directs, limits, and regulates this activity, provides it with socially acceptable forms, and relieves psychological tension, insecurity, and resolves doubts.

When someone knows how to ask the ILE to do something, and the ILE does not have a programming dual who could warn or correct them, the ILE can get involved in all kinds of unnecessary and unwise risks, and no obstacles will stop them. And once they start, they are unable to stop, especially until the dangerous situation is over.

The ILE cannot be stopped by fear or the words “This will make things worse for you.” This is fuel to the fire. You have to talk not about the ILE themselves, but about others, about the fact that “This will make things worse for others.” The ILE will not cross that line, and this can divert them away from the wrong path. But the former helps the more selfishly inclined or the more fearful EIE.

The ILE fulfills the commitments they have made both when they are clearly disadvantageous, and when the other party violates their side of the deal. That is, in circumstances where it would seem reasonable to change their behavior, the ILE does not feel it is possible to “let someone down”. Even if they know that more responsible matters await. All of this must necessarily be told to them by someone else. To say, “Don’t do this, do that.” That is – someone else must “reprogram”, remove the first obligation and impose the second. Even something as simple as “I don’t have time,” is something the ILE can’t say by their own initiative.

At every moment, the ILE acts as they see fit, or rather, as the only possible thing to do. Questions about the reasons for one action or another puts them in an exceptionally awkward position. They do not have the answers. Take a simple example. Suppose the ILE rubs their hand over their arm. A small thing, but if they are asked about the reason why they rubbed it, they are put in a situation of unpleasant embarrassment. If asked about it, then apparently it’s bad, and it’s apparently a rebuke. The dual guards against these kinds of questions. The SEI always knows the reason for everything going on around them and will say it. If someone rubbed their hands, they will know that it was done due to a feeling of cold, a sense of impatience, the desire to do something, or even boredom.

And it is not as important which exact answer the SEI will give. What is important is that they answer at all, thus “protecting” the ILE from the unexpected, “tricky” question. In addition, the protected ILE will brighten up as they learn the reason why they sometimes rub their hands. (The SEI pointing out feelings in this way annoys the EIE, for whom a feeling is a consequence of an action rather than its cause.)

Single-mindedness. 
The inability to think about more than one thing, and hence the resultant absent-mindedness in everyday life, is a hallmark of the ILE. When in the Id block next to Te there is Ni, the “line of sight” of a person is a perspective into the future. And not space, as it is for those who have Te paired with Si. The special narrowing of the ILE’s interests is determined by the fact that this block is in the Id. When the same block is in the Ego, as in the LIE, on the contrary, a special dispersal of interests is noticed. The individual takes on many things at once.

Why isn’t the ILE loved? Why are they disliked? 
Because of their obsession with work, for the fact that they only expect work from others, while looking at the “inactive” ones as if they were nothing, not even noticing them at all. But this is inherent in every person, as every person gladly demonstrates the second element of their Id block. For the LSE [demonstrative ] this is quality of objects, for the IEE [demonstrative ] – emotions, for the EIE [demonstrative ] – talents, for the SEI [demonstrative ] – relationships with people. This obsession becomes less flashy only under conditions of dualization.

The ILE does not understand work without passion or effort to do things better and faster than others. Equally, the LSE does not understand a poorly made object. This is surprising and outrageous. The LSE does not understand the psychology of a person who produces a product that is not of the highest quality. And therefore, they, more than any other type of IM, are suited to the “struggle for product quality.” And those to whom quality seems superfluous because it is “unplanned” do not like the always neat, tidy, and demanding LSE.

Self-competition. 
It seems to the ILE that all people, like they themselves do, compete with themselves in work. Therefore, any other competition is not only unnecessary, but also offensive to the dignity of a person. In addition, the ILE values work from the point of view of the future, not the present moment, and this cannot be taken into account by any competition. To oppose the results of the work of one person to the results of the work of another seems illogical to them. You can work for results now, but you can also work for results in the future. What is done for future results cannot be measured in the present. Therefore, competition with such an A-Model, as in the ILE’s, does not bring anything worthwhile. They are interested in any process from the point of view of its significance for the future and – as already mentioned – as training from the point of view of today. Also, for example, they love sports that give pleasant and strong feelings, hardening, but do not like sports competitions. The possibilities and abilities of a person are for their endless development, and not for counting and measuring.

Work for the future. 
What is usually called “Don-Quixoteism” is, more often than not, a truly necessary thing for society, in terms of its tomorrow. Alexander Suvorov, Konstantin Tsiolkovsky, Anton Makarenko, and many others seemed like complete crackheads. They were all “impractical losers” because the one who works not for today but for society’s future always loses out financially. Among the others, Sigmund Freud stands out to some extent, who had at least a reasonably good paid practice all his life, but this is also due to the fact that, according to our research, his wife was a practical SEI and so programmed her husband’s activity so that the family was decently well off, not falling out of their class. Carl Jung‘s idea that the harvest from the fields sown by such people is harvested by others is fully applicable to our day as well. Only it is even more difficult to sow these fields in a “planned” economy.*

* Translator’s note: This is a reference to the fact that Soviet Russia once had a planned economy, an economic system where the distribution of goods and services is determined by a plan over a free market.

The Horse.”
The Id is the horse one uses in situations for which one finds no other solution. For the ILE, it is work; for the EIE and LIE, it is the demonstration of their abilities and potential; for the SEI and IEI, it is the ability to establish relationships with people.

III. Middle Blocks

Figure 6

Extraverted Super-Ego and Super-Id. These blocks are the two channels of information about two objects that, from the perspective of the IM process, are equal: the external world, and the individual themself. The Superego is the individual’s conception of themself through the prism of what they know about the world. The more one knows about the world, the more accurate the representation of oneself and place among others, and the more peaceful one’s feelings (the second introverted element of the block). The Superid is the individual’s conception of society based on what they know about themself from this society. A society that, by giving a lot of information, helps one realize their feelings is a good, “trustworthy” society.

The inner life of a person – their doubts and feelings – is centered on the middle blocks. The two blocks are the two forms and components of this inner life. the Super-Ego constantly doubts how the individual is evaluated by society, what value they represent in its eyes, what feelings others can hope for, and what feelings they can afford to have. The Super-Id doubts and worries about who “owes” whom, who should care more about whom: if the individual should care about others or if others should care about them. Usually, the first element of this block is the individual sacrificing themselves, that is, doing favors, and sacrificing their own interests. But this is only an unconscious test of one’s attitude. If the sacrifice is taken for granted, if in this impulse they are not restrained and helped to realize their own interests, a semiconscious dissatisfaction accumulates in their soul, they feel that something is wrong, that something is being taken from them without giving anything in return. On this element, the individual’s own interests must be protected by others from their own “compulsion” to do good.

Figure 7

According to the accepting element of the Super-Ego block – element C () – an individual receives information from different sources. These include direct reflection of the world, eyewitness accounts, and literature, i.e. indirect sources of knowledge. Moreover, a decisive role is played by one’s own experience and not the suggestion of others. It is quite different from the accepting element of the Super-Id block, element c (). It also receives stimuli signals from outside (the outside world and its own body), but it can understand them, and moreover react correctly, only if they are reinforced, differentiated, and indoctrinated by others. Without this, the bulk of the stimulus signals pass by their attention and consciousness, without producing distinct feelings that they themselves understand. Unconscious feelings are not taken into account in the individual’s activity, and are not transformed into attitudes, which leads to constancy of the above-mentioned “victims” and chronic disintegration of the body system, which in the psyche is represented by the first Super-Id element.

When information is gathered on the C () – the Super-Ego element, the individual’s adaptation to society, their socialization, takes place. The ILE studies and evaluates the properties of surrounding subjects and objects in order to evaluate themselves among them. And to establish the “right”, i.e. corresponding to the ILE’s own qualities and the qualities of others, expected by others, ethical relations to them on element D (), i.e. to establish what feelings one should harbor toward each individual subject and object. Because for such a block, the qualities of the object are primary, and the feelings, what is conditioned by those qualities, are secondary. Feelings are “correct” if an individual’s self-esteem coincides with how they are socially evaluated.

Note. Only the Super-Ego cares about others’ evaluations. If society is outraged by the activity of the individual’s Ego, the individual argues their reason for doing what they did, and is certain that they are in the right until proven otherwise. If they do receive such proof, they are glad that they acquired new experience, and do not worry about their mistake. If it is the Id’s realization that causes outrage, the individual is outraged as well – “if you knew, why didn’t you tell me in time?”.

It could be said that with their Middle Blocks, the individual tries to be more humble than what society expects. During the realization of the individual’s Super-Ego, others must note their social humility, and during realization of the Super-Id, they must notice the individual’s care for others.

When the ILE collects information about objects on element C (), they receive this information against the background of a faintly flickering feeling of comfort or discomfort on element c(), a feeling which in practical life forces a person to act. For example, reaching out their hand towards a fluffy puppy and moving away from stinging nettle. But here we do not need these subsequent things that happen during the realization of the Id block. For now all that matters to us is the fact that, when any object provides information to the Super-Ego in the form of sensory-aesthetic sensations, it also provides it to the Super-Id in the form of feelings by the same name. Because of this, when the ILE remembers an object, the memory is always followed by a ghost of this feeling. Perhaps it would be more precise to say that the object appears in memory against the background of this feeling. We call it a ghost or a background because that which is perceived by the Super-Ego is more vivid than that which is perceived by the Super-Id.

On the producing element D (), the emerging ethical feeling is a conscious inner reaction to the objects whose information is gathered on element C (). Both the feeling for the objects themselves and the expression of an attitude toward them are very cautious, deliberate, and at the same time very timid. At every moment the individual is ready to give them up, both under barely perceptible pressure from the environment and under the pressure of feeling the objects. Such an individual is never sure whether they seriously love or hate someone. They simply do not know whether they have the right to do so or not. On the one hand, this right is determined by the evaluations of others, and on the other, by the individual for whom these feelings are felt. It is the latter that is probably more important. However, it takes a great deal of evidence until certainty comes to the ILE as to which feelings they have a right to. With the emergence of certainty, this feeling of the other is seen as a program that must be completed. The ILE loves everyone who loves the ILE back (but it is love, not attraction) and does not yield to those who harbor negative feelings toward them. That is why the ILE is quite ridiculous when the situation calls for initiative in showing their feelings. They simply cannot do this. A good example is Nikolai Gogol‘s letter to his beloved Anna, in which nothing can be understood and which, moreover, contains neither the girl’s name nor even the date when it was written – a common technique of the ILE, who tends to mask the feelings that bind them to others. And at the same time, the ILE’s ideal is universal love. They want everyone to love each other – including them.

Emotions on the producing element of the Super-Id block unfold on their own, only if element C () is provided with the necessary variety of exciting signals. We call “emotions” the excitation of the body or the organism’s internal echoes – a response to external and internal sensory stimulus signals. Therefore, if a person, through element C () evokes pleasant feelings (makes them feel better), then, despite the ILE’s conscious attitude to stay away from them, the ILE will involuntarily become relaxed and smile when they meet this person. Anything that improves their well-being or gives the necessary change in exciting signals leads the ILE to emotional activity and, through this, labor activity.

The Super-Id block perceives feelings of sensory-aesthetic comfort or discomfort from immediate reality. But without the care of others, this block cannot truly understand them. This block must be handled by the dual or by society – through certain social institutions. For example, it is not up to the ILE to sort out their own well-being and take care of it, nor is it up to them to find ways to improve their mood. If society helps in this, then the ILE feels the friendliness of those around them, and the world seems bright and open. Conversely, if society has a careless attitude toward their Super-Id, the ILE would lack the inner emotional excitement to function intensely. This is perceived as being unnecessary to society: I am not needed, and people don’t care about me. In essence, society does not care about those who are both non-dualized and not included in the activity of the Socion.

The more pronounced society’s need for the activity of the individual, the more attention is given to the functioning of the block, and the fuller the life of the individual. We can say that energy production on the block shows us how much society agrees to pay the individual for their participation in the SEM (Socio-Energetic Metabolism). According to our research, the Super-Id is the weakest point in the structure of IM. This can be judged by the prevalence of diseases that affect the body systems hiding behind the elements of this block.

The value of the self as a subject among other subjects for the ILE is determined by its qualities, one of which is the individual’s information baggage – awareness of people’s lives. The heavier this baggage, the more relatively humble and confident the individual becomes, as they feel like a part of the larger world.

The amount of information available to the Superego is conditioned by the individual’s social opportunities, and especially by how mobile they are.

On the Superego the individual adapts to the external world. They create a conception of their self in accordance with the social reflection of this self, and they act in accordance with this social reflection.

On the Superid the individual adapts the world to their own image. It could be said that they create the world in accordance with their personal parameters, the latter being something other people have notified and continuously notify them about as they inform the individual about this aspect of reality.

In the process of dualization information that is accumulated on the Superego is “opened” and involved in the Socio-Information Metabolism (SIM) with the help of the dual’s Id. On the contrary, the Super-Id is covered, shielded from SIM by the dual’s Ego. 

One can say that an extravert’s situation in society is determined by how much necessary social attention to their feelings on the Super-Ego and Super-Id blocks are given for energy production. Thus, the secret is revealed why, despite the many tears that get shed over the difficulties of leadership, these positions are never empty – it is customary to take the feelings of leaders into account more.

With the Super-Id block, the individual evaluates the reliability of their society. Society is what it recognizes, nurtures, and cares for the feelings of the extravert.

Note. Accordingly, the introvert does not demands attention to their feelings: they are secure in their feelings, but not to themselves, their work, their abilities, or their emotions. The goodness of society depends on the extent to which it notices these outward manifestations of the activity of the introvert.

In my opinion, our press are much better at satisfying the needs of the introvert than the extravert. We write about people and their work. And we write with no reservations. But when an article expresses one’s feelings about certain phenomena, there are bound to be reservations. As if not all feelings are equally valid and objective.

The Middle Dream of the ILE. 
Each type of IM has its own “middle dream,” which stems from the problems of both middle blocks. The ILE dreams of an interpersonal relationship in which they will be comprehensively positively evaluated, and loved not by mistake, but for their merits. And not just by one person, but by all. And that these contacts would result in the understanding of their aesthetic and sensory feelings and complete emotional protection. And this allows for the manifestation of emotions, the security of excitement, and sufficient emotionality for all occasions. The middle dream is a dream of understanding the innermost self of the individual, the part of it that is hidden from the audience and is often not accessible to the self as well.

If the Super-Ego is an effort to understand the world around us, to have full information about an aspect of the external world for the sake of self-assessment compared to the world and knowledge of how society evaluates, then the Super-Id is an effort to understand oneself and one’s needs and through this self-knowledge to know the corresponding aspect of society and its needs.

If the Super-Ego of the extravert says, “I show the feelings as others expect of me,” then the Super-Id says, “I act the way I do.”

If the Super-Ego of the extravert says, “I am worth as much as how my personality is evaluated, and what kind of relationships others allow me to have,” then the Super-Id says “I live as much as society cares about my feelings and excites them.”

If the Super-Ego of the extravert tries to figure out what value the individual themselves has for the world, the Super-Id tries to figure out what value the world has for them, and how it pays for the individual’s participation in the Socio-Energetic Metabolism.

Super-Ego – the more information about the objects of the outside world collected, the more objective the knowledge of what is expected of them by those around them. Super-Id – the more information received from others, the more objective the individual’s expectations are, and the more the real world has given corresponds to the individual’s own assessments and expectations.

Super-Ego Block.

Accepting Element. The Super-Ego of the ILE perceives animate objects, while the producing element perceives the relationships with them. The block also notices inanimate objects – “things”, but evaluates them mainly as additional qualities of the subject. Each “thing” is a quality of some animate object. It is difficult, if not impossible, to think and reason about the object separate from the subject. An inanimate object can become an object of study, provided it is taken up by the individual’s Ego. This is why the ILE does not understand them well.

So, the accepting element accumulates information about people. People are the object of the block’s orientation toward the external world. The world is people and only people. The world is what the people it encounters are, so they know and should know a lot about them and often becomes an avid reader of fiction. Animate objects are the only constant chain linking the ILE to the objective outside world. They are responsible for all living things and for what happens to them, because the object the Super-Ego is oriented to cannot be allowed to collapse. It would be a loss of connection with the objective and chaos in the consciousness. If the object of orientation is threatened, everyone becomes aggressive. The ILE becomes aggressive in defense of people and other living things.

All other realities – science, art, propaganda – are true and “real” only insofar as they enlighten and ennoble people, help them to understand their nature and aspirations, and protect the living. They give people psychological stability, and reduce the possibility of the accumulation of aggression and anger, which makes the object of orientation unstable and unreliable.

The ILE is sensitive to everything that is not objectively necessary, brings people unpleasant experiences, or humiliates their dignity. They look for difficulties in human relations only in objective phenomena – in obsolete models of family or society, sometimes in backward science, or in human darkness, but not in people themselves; neither in their ill will nor their bad aspirations. People are what life has made them.

The connection with people is the connection with the objective world. Without it, one loses the vividity of their mind, their interest in life, and begins to mope. The Super-Ego block perceives the people it encounters with all their merits, which are important for the evaluation of interpersonal relationships, starting with physical data: the ability to dress and present oneself, and ending with energy, business acumen, willpower, sociability, and responsiveness.

Such an individual does not divide people into friends and foes. On the one hand, all people are their own, since the ILE cares about equality, and tries to be equally useful to all. But those who try to be useful to everyone cannot be truly attentive and caring to the narrow circle of their loved ones.

The value of the self as an object is determined by its qualities, one of which is a person’s informational baggage. The greater this baggage, the relatively more humble and confident the person themselves become, because they become a part of the larger world. And at the same time, their behavior is more confident, and they know better what the world expects from them and what they hope for. This is the view of oneself through the prism of the world or through the eyes of the world.

Producing Element. 
It follows from the structure of the block that the subjects are the primary focus, and the relationships connecting their feelings are secondary. Feelings are derived from the qualities of people’s interactions.

If relationships are a consequence, a result rather than a cause, then they must change in response to changes in the material conditions of society and the individual themselves. Artificial relations that do not correspond to human nature and objective conditions bring with them the danger of conflict, and this means a danger to the object of orientation. This diminishes the stability of the ILE’s world, and the more such a situation drags on, the greater of a disaster it can become. The world becomes dangerous, people become aggressive, and since aggression is long concealed, the world also becomes deceitful. Obsolete relationships seem artificial, as they no longer correspond to real feelings, but rather kept at someone else’s whim to please them.

People are the main connection to the world and the main objective source of information from the outside. This is the “umbilical cord” that cannot be severed, without which there is no full-blooded life. Hence a special disposition towards the study and objectification of human relations, and the establishment of regulations for the revelation of new possibilities. And intolerance of everything outdated. The ILE simply cannot live in the old way. They cannot accept the fact of the existence of outdated interpersonal relations which do not correspond to the qualities of the subjects, because the ILE does not understand them and is not able to adapt to them. (In this, too, the Ego seems to manifest itself strongly.)

The second, producing element of the Super-Ego uses the “average” method. Its “conclusions” – sympathies and antipathies – seem to be derived from the qualities of the observed subjects. Feelings, according to the ILE, are what the people who evoke them are. At any rate, they must be. If the feelings are wrong, it simply means that one has misjudged people or oneself. If new information about the qualities of the object comes in, feelings about it change, and the relationships are adjusted.

Note. “Where is the constancy of feelings?” may every schizothyme ask, because due to the structure of the blockings, the feeling for a person is always more primary to a person than their qualities.

In the Super-Ego, a person adapts to the external world: in their perception they creats a picture of themselves in accordance with the social reflection of themselves. And they behaves according to this social reflection. For example, for the ILE such a manifestation of this behavior is in their relationships with people. Their orientation is based on how (i.e. with what ease) these relationships are established.

If relationships are made too easily, it is a sign that society has more feelings for them than they thought, which means that their responsibility for society is greater than they thought. The more the extravert’s personality is respected, the greater their responsibility for society. Every extravert seeks responsibility for society according to society’s abilities. Equally, every introvert seeks responsibility according to the introvert’s actual capabilities.

The normativity of ethics. 
The ethics of such an individual is normative. This means that the same attitude cannot be judged as ethical and unethical, and cannot be both good and bad at the same time. If Anna Karenina‘s love is holy, then one cannot call any other person who, for whatever reason, has not worked out in her personal life a libertine either. One cannot condemn them. Or, for example, if it is known that some respectable people have an expense that exceeds their income, one cannot call the less deserving thieves.

Each individual has the right to know what is allowed in this society, and what ethics are expected of them. One should not be called a martyr, torn apart by social contradictions, and another a “debauchee” for the same reason. People should not be held accountable one time by one standard and another time by another. The ILE is more or less always interested in ethical problems and “saving” people: Konstantin Tsiolkovsky wanted to enable them to move to a better planet, Albert Schweitzer improved Africa, Emile Zola fought for Dreyfus, and Karl Marx fought for the working class.

This normativity of ethics, like the ILE’s borderline fanatical honesty, often irritates those around them, raising the suspicion of abnormality or malice.

The ILE agrees that new ethical attitudes can be declared by writers or philosophers: such as Bertrand Russell and Denis Diderot (both IEEs). The individual creation of new ethical “norms” by everyone they meet is looked upon negatively, as a form of deception. There is a certain logic to this, because in everyday life almost all ethical types allow themselves to manipulate their relationships in whatever way is convenient to them in pursuit of their goals. And they cannot independently distinguish where the new progressive pattern of these feelings and relationships is hidden, and where it is an ordinary deception. Just as the ethical type, through the strength of their own logic, cannot assess whether their logical colleague has uncovered a real, objective regularity or whether an incident is simply just an imaginary regularity.

The constant contradiction between normative and creative ethics is resolved by laws and legislation; the contradiction between normative and creative logic is resolved by academic sciences.

For the ILE, relationships with people must be regulated by all known rules. Because the most important thing is the inviolability of a person’s personal life, dignity, and peace of mind. Any interference in personal affairs is forbidden. It irritates people, deviates them from their normal functioning, incites aggression, and their actions become unpredictable. Aggression is incomprehensible to the ILE, reminiscent of a genie released from the bottle, which cannot be chased back.

Note. Just as the ILE does not trust innovations in ethics, the IEE fears new logical feelings and relationships – new scientific conclusions. Because one does not know what kind of human actions, what kind of chaos is going on, and what will it lead to. Just as the ILE fears disorder in emotion, so does the IEE fear disorder in action. Therefore, the IEE is the best fighter for the purity of science and novelty in ethics, and the ILE is the best fighter for the purity of ethics and novelty in science.

The ILE is sure that all people are good, and that they all cherish and love each other. And if they themselves do not feel this love very much, it is only because they lack some qualities for which they are usually loved. Love is the rule; its absence is the exception to the rule. The IEE, on the other hand, approaches every person in the same way as intelligent and capable, which the ILE certainly cannot.

Good and honest. 
It is very important for the ILE to be good and honest. Suspicion of dishonesty is probably worse than any other suspicion, so, under conditions in which almost every other type of IM would have gotten rich, Suvorov remained a beggar. They wait for evaluation and payment for their work; they cannot demand payment for themselves. We do not think that this property is good or bad. It simply exists. But it almost ceases to be evident in the dualized ILE.

The ILE does not feel well among new people who do not know about them and are unaware of their virtues. This is not the case with the dualized ILE, as the SEI takes over relationships with people entirely, although it is from the ILE that they learn to respect people.

We mentioned above that IEE does not dare to start, let us say, a dissertation without the suggestion of others, unsure that they have enough objective qualities for that. The ILE is different. They know perfectly well when their strength and abilities are enough to act. What they lack is the knowledge that they are morally entitled to it. The ILE attributes their inclination to do research to everyone else as well. And they do not know whether or not it is ethical to compete with them.

Self-Esteem. 

The ILE is constantly checking the extent to which they conform to what their everyday environment expects of them. Passionately and from all available sources, they collect information about the merits of others for the sake of the most accurate self-evaluation, and if possible and necessary, to raise themselves up. This evaluation is determined by the social norms of the evaluators, the social status of the person being evaluated, and what others have come to expect from them. And also by how much this individual is currently needed by society, how much they should be activated or, on the contrary, restrained in their activity. The individual whose activity should be encouraged receives more opportunities for self-expression, and any manifestation of their personality is looked upon with approval, and their feelings are accepted with special pleasure and joy.

If relationships with others are established very easily, it is a sign that society has more positive feelings towards the individual than it seemed to them, i.e. that they are more needed than they thought. So the ILE is more valuable than they assumed and society needs them more than they assumed. Respect for the extravert’s personality is fostered by a sense of responsibility for society. The extravert never abandons this responsibility, and the degree of this responsibility for society, or the circle of responsibility, is determined by the degree to which society allows them to assume this responsibility. In every extravert, there is a dormant leader.

If difficulties appear in a relationship, if someone even shrugs their shoulders, wondering at their overfamiliarity and rudeness, this is already a sign that the ILE, in their feelings, has overstepped the allowed boundaries, that they and their feelings are valued less than they thought, that their personality does not correspond to the assessments of society.

Typically, the ILE constantly evaluates themselves critically by comparing themselves to others. They strive to become exemplary yet the ILE is cautious in this striving. It must go unnoticed, because in the Super-Ego, praise is no less dangerous than criticism.

This block gathers information that is necessary for objective orientation in the outside world and for self-assessment. This is possible only as long as the realization of the block does not attract the attention of outsiders. As soon as the ILE themselves becomes an object of praise or condemnation, the connections surrounding the ILE become more obvious than the ILE’s surroundings. And they lose the external orientation they need.

Therefore, if the ILE does something where they have to prove themselves and willy-nilly draw the attention of others to their personality, they tend to justify themselves by saying that they were allegedly forced by others. Which the SEI is usually very pleased with: they made the ILE do it! If they give a gift, they say they are giving away something they do not need. They try to be average in their goodness, politeness, elegance, etc. And in no way can they become an example for others. As soon as there is such a danger, they start to be a freak. For example, they train with pleasure, but avoid competition because they do not like to win or lose.

For the ILE, the evaluation of a “good” or “bad” person is unpleasant and ambiguous. If someone calls them a good student, it is also uncomfortable. It’s different when someone says, “This one could learn if they wanted to.”

In interpersonal relationships, the ILE is the way they are expected to be. They do not deceive those who trust them – neither those who have a positive view of them, nor those who have a negative view. This applies as long as the ILE knows exactly what is expected of them. They are evil with those who are evil, and soft with those who are soft. Someone whose softness is deliberate, who deliberately manipulates this softness, can wrap the ILE around their finger.

To please the expectations of others and soothe one’s conscience is not easy and it is still not possible to do it perfectly, because one has to face very contradictory expectations. Therefore, the ILE’s knowledge of themselves, of who they really are and what they should be, is contradictory.

The ILE seeks constancy, so they are drawn towards groups of people who are as similar to them as possible, for a constant, as far as possible, self-assessment, and a constant image of their own self.

Providing Information. 
The ILE gathers information about subjects and objects not only for themselves. They share it with others. First, they give information to those who ask for it. Without asking, the ILE provides what others need to those whom they want to bring closer to them or those whom the ILE loves or respects.

Purchases. 
Because the feeling in this block is a consequence of the qualities of the object itself, the ILE buys an object before they are sure that the object is exactly what they need. They first buy the object and then get used to it, and either get used to it or do not. In addition, what matters is the feeling with which the object is perceived by others; if they reject the object, the ILE cannot get used to it.

It almost never happens to the ILE that they would really want something, that they dream of something concrete in advance, that is, that they harbor a feeling for something that is not there. They just want to have all the things that people think they should have, so that the ILE doesn’t draw too much attention to themselves.

The ILE as an Organizer.
The ILE is a good organizer because they see the potential of people and situations. But at the same time, they only fulfill the will of others, that is, they act on someone’s behalf. Or by order of some authority, some institution, that is, according to their official position, as Suvorov also acted. Or at the request of the organized group itself. Oliver Cromwell and Giuseppe Garibaldi were probably ILEs. This is the reason why (regardless of actual conditions) this type cannot get rich. Why, for example, did Suvorov not take advantage of any of his victories, why did he not bring home rich trophies? Because he acted according to “the will of the state,” which means that all the “loot” belonged to the state. The state, on behalf of whom the ILE acts, must take care of them, their share and their well-being. This means that the state must behave like a loving and intelligent person who is concerned about the ILE’s well-being like an SEI. That doesn’t happen very often in real life.

The ILE can organize only the completely free will of people with full confidence that the ILE is not manipulating anyone, and that they aren’t imposing their will.

In order to avoid the opposition of wills, the people being organized must understand what the organizer understands, and the people must want what the organizer wants in general. Only in this way can one avoid opposing one’s own will to the will of others and achieve successful results. Therefore, in their work, the ILE begins with an analysis of the interests of the organized group and tries to get used to these interests. Only then can business begin.

The ILE is only a successful organizer when they believe that they are acting in the interests of the group rather than their own. Their own personal interests and benefit are at the level of what the environment offers and gives them. The ILE’s wellbeing must match others’ expectations. Many noted that Suvorov tried to live in a way that would make a good impression on his soldiers. This is definitely true, but we call it differently. He would not be able to work with them otherwise. This follows from the specific nature of the Superego, which requires complete trust. 

On their own initiative, as far as we know, the ILE organizes on two occasions. The first is the search for people who need their courage and resourcefulness. Thanks to the fact that someone needs them, the ILE becomes necessary to themselves. If each sensing type is needed for themselves and can live for their own sake, then the intuitive, and especially logical ones, do not succeed in this. They feel the content of their life only on the condition that someone needs them, and that they work for someone. The sensing type chooses the one who they need, and the intuitive – the one who needs them.

The second is the search and creation of their reference group. As we have already said, the ILE cannot stand out among others even for their good qualities. They cannot become an object of admiration and worship. That is not this type. We do not yet understand in detail why, but the fact remains: this inconspicuousness is necessary for their Ego block. What we call Extraverted Intuition – the perception of the structures of objects – does not work in other conditions. If the ILE says: “I am not like others and I want to be different from others,” they oppose their will to the will of others and cannot function normally under these conditions. Therefore they say:

“Sorry, but I can’t become different from who I am,” and pretends to be an eccentric about whom it no longer occurs to anyone to say that they oppose themselves to others. But being an eccentric is less conducive to improving the conditions of functioning than a group with which the ILE can merge and become “one of them”, in which growth is possible through the exchange of thoughts. Freud always had such a group (collections of psychoanalysts at home). Thus his school was formed and its influence grew. And – not so much the influence of Freud as a person, although he eventually became famous, but rather the influence of psychoanalysis.

So, the ILE organizes a reference group when they cannot merge with the immediate environment and become invisible in it, when it is too difficult to fulfill the expectations of others, because this is not growth, but the degradation of both their personality and his deeds. The ILE selects people with similar abilities, interests, and aspirations, that is, as a rule, those for whom they cannot become an example and leader, but on the contrary, if possible, those for whom they themselves can also catch up. People who are too far behind and thus do not participate in the life of the group in any way cease to interest them. The ILE is not afraid of personalities brighter than themselves, on the contrary, they try to attract them as a natural prerequisite for their own growth. By organizing such a group, most often the ILE becomes the center thanks to which the group arose and functions. But it is precisely the organizational center, and not the leader. With no less pleasure, the ILE participates in groups organized by others, as long as they satisfy their needs.

It is interesting to note that when the ILE organizes a group of people according to their interests, it expresses the interests of all intuitive and logical types the most. Both extraverts and introverts. The participation of all other types tends to be more or less occasional. They feel like guest listeners. Whereas for all four intuitive types:

ILE, LIE, ILI, and LII, this group becomes a natural refuge.

Note. Let’s call such a formation of four types of IM a club group. Four club groups, i.e. interest groups, are formed of the 16 types of IM. Apart from the afforementioned one, such groups form as all intuitive-ethical, all sensory-logical, and all sensory-ethical.

Super-Id Block.

The individual looks at the outside world with this block as the world looks at them. If the world notices their feelings and attaches importance to them, then the feelings of the outside world for the individual, as well as their own, hold relief and greater value. Only through one’s own feelings, in which the outside world and other people have helped one to understand, do the feelings of others become “accessible”. In fact, it is only through these others that the individual’s own feelings and the feelings of others become accessible or inaccessible to them.

If the world looks at the feelings of the extravert, as well as those of others around them, with kind, attentive eyes, the extravert themselves begins to notice all this around them (the world). Whoever speaks in depth about the subject of the corresponding feelings of others, or even about their own feelings, tells the ILE, first of all, that they also have it, so it is as if this person is talking about them. This enriches the ILE with self-knowledge, and thus their cognition. In this block, the cognition of the world comes through self-knowledge. Whoever has not understood themselves in this way (including through the concerns of others) and is not constantly understanding themselves and the world around them in this way again and again, is deaf to this aspect of the senses. Those who have not understood it from words or through the care of others for them produce little energy on this block, and their “efficiency” is low. Their feelings then only come in two shades: black and white. For the ILE, it is “hurt” and “not hurt,” with no shades of pleasantness or unpleasantness. There is an interesting paradox here. If an individual’s feelings on this block are not reproduced, and not deciphered by other individuals, that is, if it is as if they are in a lump, the individual does not separate themselves from this aspect of the rest of the world.

For example, the ILE, with unrecognized sensory-aesthetic feelings, does not distinguish their pain well from the pain of other people as well as other living beings. Moreover, they are no less shocked by the pain on the movies or TV screen than by their own pain. Therefore, when the physical interests of others are infringed upon before their eyes (beating a child or a dog), this enrages them and leads to aggression: by protecting others other, the ILE actually protects themselves.

Perception by the Super-Id block is very complicated. First, while the blocks in the Mental Ring receive information about the outside world and, to some extent, about themselves, the blocks in the Vital Ring, on the contrary, receive information about themselves and only to some extent about the outside world. That’s why the ILE’s Super-Id receives stimulating signals mostly only from their body, i.e. they learn something only about themselves. This is undifferentiated knowledge at the level of the first signal system.* The ILE cannot find out how they feel.

* Translator’s note: Signal system refers to a model of the brain’s mechanisms proposed by Pavlov. See this link.

The ILE cannot regulate their well-being or moods as a product of this block either.

The accepting element of each extravert’s Super-Id perceives feelings as a “lump”, and the individual cannot say anything intelligible about them. One cannot function successfully in such a state; the block does not serve the individual’s psychosomatic needs. What is needed is “illumination” or social guardianship from other types of IM, and the differentiation and arousal of feelings, primarily from duals and activators. Their perfectly differentiated feelings and experiences become amplifiers. Feelings, which the extravert themselves perceive in a crumpled, compressed form, thanks to those types, “straighten out,” take shape, become distinct, and it becomes possible to make sense of them. The extravert themselves is now much better able to orient themselves in them.

The ILE’s moods and emotions are determined by their well-being, i.e. by a complex of sensory feelings and experiences. When one feels good, one’s mood is good; when one feels bad, one’s mood is bad. Their moods are malleable, or “labile,” but the ILE does not notice it themselves, being fully surrendered to the impression of the moment. When they are in a good mood, they are sure that they are strong, the world is beautiful, and this feeling will last for centuries. When they are in a bad mood, they feel weak, the world is dull, and this feeling will also last for centuries.

This individual’s emotional activity and vitality resemble a river whose water rises in the presence of sensory stimuli through the first and second mixed signal systems and falls, or even dries up completely in the absence of them. It can be said that as a cheerful, able-bodied member of society. this individual materializes only thanks to the sensations with which they are provided by the surrounding space.

Empathy. 
The ILE can learn to distinguish the constituent parts of well-being, and even more so of the higher aesthetic-sensory feelings, only through means of empathy. Self-knowledge and cognition of the world by means of empathy take place. It is formed, as it were, of two parts.

1) The individual observes sensing types and learns from them what sensory feelings are and how one should relate to them, learns how to notice and distinguish their own sensations, and gets used to the fact that attention to these feelings is one of the components of life.

2) The experience that others have of the ILE’s personal sensations and the correction of those sensations, and with it, the adjustment of their moods.

Someone who expands on the subject of their sensory and aesthetic feelings and experiences forces the ILE to listen to their own feelings. Until they have thus come to know their own feelings, they are also deaf to the nuances of the feelings of others. Self-knowledge, then, comes from concern for the other, both about one’s own and about the other’s comforts and pleasures.

The SEI’s Ego handles this function the best, as it differentiates and “stretches” it, thereby making more fixed impressions of what is going on in the environment. It gives significance, shapes the uncertain feelings of the ILE’s Super-Id, and thereby imprints it on the way it is perceived and experienced by all of society.

The ILE’s “sour” moods are a sign that they are unwell or lacking in impressions of their sensations. The SEI entertains them by providing sensory-aesthetic experiences, such as sightseeing, travel, and generally an active lifestyle, adding their own reactions to it all as an amplifier. To each of their sensation, even to the little details, the SEI responds with a specific mood, that is, in a differentiated way.

The more diversely the SEI reacts to sensory impressions that reach the ILE, the more qualitative information accumulates on the accepting element of the ILE’s Super-Id, and the higher the intensity of their emotional readiness and determination towards life and action. If these impressions are sufficiently vivid, which is usually the case with a very active lifestyle that provides strong sensory impressions, then the need for a permanent dual is felt less, and is not as urgent.

The ILE’s mood is determined by personal sensations, and personal sensations are poorly understood by this individual. Hence, there is a helplessness in the regulation of one’s own moods. A bad mood is a signal of poor well-being or simply a lack of sensory and aesthetic impressions (one could say entertainment, although it is not necessarily entertainment in the literal sense of the word). To take control of the block’s functioning, it is necessary to have a person around who is constantly aware of the constituents of physical well-being and knows how to change them. In daily cooperation, there is a continuous imitation of the subtle feelings and sensory attitude toward one’s own feelings by the dual. Perhaps most important here is how freely the SEI feels in the space they occupy, how they lounge in it, and enjoy being there. How the SEI can categorize sensory and aesthetic feelings and impressions, listens to them, and turns the ability to understand them into a means of deep intellectual cognition of the world.

In the exchange of information (IM), the ILE tries to learn everything available to them about the feelings of the people around them and, on this basis, constructs and reproduces the corresponding aspect of the surrounding world. And in their behavior (SEM), the individual behaves according to the laws of the world that were constructed this way. In the Super-Id, the individual adapts the world to their own image. One could say that they create the world according to their own personal parameters, which they have learned through other people. The more stimulus signals mediated by others they have received, the more of what the ILE perceives corresponds to what the world actually provides, the more objective their view of the external world, and the more their assessments correspond to reality.

At the doctor’s.
The ILE’s physical sensations are so vague that even when they get sick and go to the doctor, they complain about their inability to work rather than unpleasant feelings, including the feeling of pain. They cannot say what hurts, what kind of pain it is, or which unpleasant sensations they have. The ILE simply does not know how to do that, they have no memory or vocabulary for it. Even acute attacks of pain only seem real while they last and actively influence their mood.

Only their mood is indicative of their well-being. So, in essence, it all comes down to what is happening to the body – the “bodily feelings”-which allow for or don’t allow, and either contribute or do not contribute to a good mood.

In the consciousness of the stimulating signals received by the block, the individual is more dependent on the suggestion of their loved ones than on the actual stimulating signals. The suggested information is layered on top of the directly received information and manifests in it. If are no such suggestions or the suggestions contradict the sensations reflected, the ILE loses orientation to their well-being and the ability to react to its deterioration, which leads to chronic Energy Metabolism disturbances, i.e. to illness.

A simple example. An ILE developed episodic pains. They went to the doctor, who said that they didn’t see anything serious and that they shouldn’t pay attention to it. The pains were getting worse, turning into prolonged attacks, but they were told that they shouldn’t pay attention to them. They cannot seriously sort out their sensations or talk about them, nor can they complain, especially since they are certain the doctor did not believe them the first time. It’s easier to repress than to complain. The fact that there is something wrong with their body can only be figured out by their dual, who judges everything by their partner’s moods and altered mobility. By the emotional lethargy and lethargic movements of the ILE. That’s why one should go to the doctor together with someone else, or it will otherwise take decades for there to be an objective diagnosis. It is a fallacy to think that doctors judge an individual’s illness by objective indicators. Not by objective indicators, but by the patient’s subjective ability to describe the way they feel and their issues. Only sensitives* can be diagnosed without this.

* Translator’s note: It is unclear what the word “sensitive” means in this context. One meaning of the word in Russian language is “psychic”, but it could also refer to a character accentuation from Lichko’s typology.

On Super-Id, one’s own feelings are in the background; that is, one’s feelings – and thus the needs of others are considered first. “How can I torment the doctor with my problems?” one ILE told us, “If I see that my personality is like a rope around their neck, if they are not interested in me or my case, if all that they are thinking is about when I will finally leave him alone. So I’m in a hurry.” When this self-sacrifice takes place in a constant, rather narrow circle of people, not only does the one making the sacrifice suffers, but also the one in whose name the sacrifice is made, because the sacrificer becomes, as if for no reason at all, angry, nervous, and perpetually displeased. Only the duals can refuse these “sacrifices”.

The cognition of the environment on Super-Id goes exclusively through self-knowledge. That is, if the individual, thanks to dualization, is aware of their needs, they can really take care of the needs of others without violating their own interests. One could say that the individual treats the world the way the world treats them.

An interesting trivia is that when asked, “Are you still going to eat?” the ILE is aware of their fullness, and without much concern for themselves, may gulp something down without holding back, just to calm some inner restlessness rather than to satisfy their hunger. With such a question, as well as caring for them in general, the ILE becomes aware of their real well-being.

A successful sex life provides a variety of aesthetic and sensory feelings and therefore contributes to a sustained good mood and even some euphoria. The ILE only becomes sexually aroused when their partner is aroused, i.e. the palm of sexual activity is in the hands of the other. Although the right of the first touch is theirs.

Emotional Uplift. 
The ILE’s Super-Id should provide a continuity of inner excitement and emotional uplift, the absence of which interrupts the EM process. It sharply affects the entire human condition and all steps or stages of EM. This means that it also affects the way the person looks – their activity and intelligence.

The ILE’s activity is directly proportional to the emotionality of their life. The ILE is never tired or in a bad mood when they are in an emotional environment, especially when they are emotionally bewildered, groaning or gasping.

The ILE always feels great and completely safe in a stream of other people’s positive emotions, especially if those people care about the way the ILE feels physically. At the same time, the ILE gets lost whenever there is any emotional unfriendliness, which is a blow to their weakest link of IM. They are not afraid of what are called real dangers, those simply excite their activity. What is dangerous to the ILE is the unfriendliness of others around them, not having people around who would have a positive attitude towards them. Why? Probably because an emotional blow to the Super-Id tells the ILE that society does not approve of the realization of their Id. This kind of blow is a way to draw energy away from this realization. The ILE’s Id acts only insofar their Super-Id is provided with emotional arousal to turn “potential” energy into actual energy. An emotional blow removes this inner arousal, sort of denies it, crosses it out as wrong, erroneous. This is why the ILE loses heart.

The ILE cannot be bought with gifts. They and their services are bought by emotions. Interestingly, the most flattering compliment for the ILE is their emotional stamina, the fact that they, more than anyone else, “don’t lose their hearts” in difficult situations. But they are indeed resilient in difficult situations; they lose their heart in situations colored by negative emotions. Often it seems that they simply feed on positive emotions, that is, they act properly until their supply is used up and until the negative reinforcement they receive exceeds the positive reinforcement.

If at all possible, the ILE hides moments of emotional weakness very carefully. They are not at all inclined to show others their impulsive emotionality, and much less their confusion or hot temper, especially tears, which come quickly in moments of helplessness. Tears are not a sign that they are in pain, but that they are confused, that they have lost control of the situation.

In general, everyone feels that malfunctions of the Super-Id are due to the attitude of society toward them, and therefore one should not expect help by showing their weakness, as it will do nothing but cause more misunderstanding.

The paradox of empathy.
If an individual’s feelings on this block are constantly unguarded by the dual, forming an undifferentiated “mass,” the person’s “Self” in this aspect does not separate from the rest of the world. Such an ILE can react to the pain of others as to their own. Moreover, they are shocked by the pain in movies or the TV screen. Therefore, when the physical interests of others are infringed upon before their eyes, they become more agitated than they would be if they were affected. Aggression that makes someone uncomfortable hardens them as a fact of disorder in the world. By protecting the other, they protect themselves. They become a defender, not considering the danger of defeat and the fact that they risk more than the victim themselves. All this is the result of an inexplicable inner state similar to shock. There is no doubt that among the organizers of animal welfare societies – where they exist – this type of IM is necessarily present. These emotions are too unpleasant for a person not to make every effort to prevent them.

Emotions in danger. 
Emotions are not visible in dangerous situations when they (i.e, Extraverted Ethics) are the second element of the Super-Id, as is the case for the ILE. This is because all inner excitation is used on the Id’s external activity instead. When it comes to showing activity, the Id, being an expansive block, takes priority over the middle Super-Id block. The ILE’s inner excitation is only realized in emotions on the Superid when it is not realized in activity on the Id. Hence in dangerous situations this type is not emotional, instead being tense and very resourceful. The higher the tension, the more resourceful the ILE is. All excitation is meant to be used on the Id first and foremost. Only the “surplus” is realized on the Super-Id: the ILE only emotes in excitatory but safe situations, or after the danger passes. In other words, when there is a surplus of energy that cannot be used in activity, an “auxiliary valve” opens and the ILE “emotes”.

If we turn the situation around, we can say that during tense work, which they do only in moments of certain danger or excitement, they cannot emotionalize, i.e. they cannot produce emotions; all their inner excitation turns into work. In such a situation, the Super-Id block does nothing.

The IEE and SEE, whose extraverted ethics is the second element of the Id, have different ways of doing things. The Id block enjoys the right of primacy. So arousal, first, is not used to turn potential energy into “kinetic energy” for the sake of using it in action, but for emotions. And this is not as silly as it may at first seem. These emotions fulfill a social role, used to influence the duals that cannot be aroused by other means.

Note. It is well-known that SEEs that they reach epileptoid-like* seizures when they are emotionally overstressed.

* Translator’s note: This is connected to the fact that the SEE is correlated to the “epileptoid” type, a personality psychology that was once connected to epilepsy. See SEE Psychiactric Descriptions.

In addition, even in dangerous situations, the ILE lacks personal feelings of discomfort and danger for a truly strong inner excitement.

One becomes truly strong, strong-willed, decisive, and quick to act only in conditions where one can take responsibility for others. For those who are emotional in dangerous situations, in many ways, including with words, show their feelings. They gladly accept this responsibility, because only thanks to this can they fulfill themselves more fully.

How often do you manage to take on this “unwinding” responsibility? In my opinion, more often than not they don’t, and this leads to a lowered tone of life. In addition, the person who is under-excited does not lose time on that excitement either, and more time is left for day-to-day work. This reflects poorly on the under-excited individual because it further increases the rift between how much energy a person can give to work and how much they try to put in because they have nothing else to do. In society, only work is often prestigious, and every ILE, like the SLE, tries to make all possible time for work. The organism itself looks for and finds the way out. The organism goes into battle with its consciousness. Therefore, these two types of IM are especially “cycloidal”. Andrey Lichko calls the SLE the “Cycloid”. And the ILE, as a result of the same mechanism of incomplete realization, earns the name “Labile”. The ILE is labile in both their moods and well-being. They are all prone to depression or low blood pressure, which in itself puts obstacles to their ability to work. The usual “running into sickness”.

IV. Other Authors’ Characteristics

All psychiatrists and psychologists have described the same real-life types of IM, only that they each describe them through a different name. For example, what we call an ILE, Jung – the Extraverted Intuitive Type, Kępiński – the Impulsive Type of personality or psychopathy, Lichko – Labile Type. Therefore, what other authors have said about this type of IM is added to our description below. At the same time, we recall that what psychiatrists describe as various forms of accentuations, neuroses, and psychopathy are actually the neuroses and psychopathy of different types of IM. For example, an Emotive-Labile psychopath, using the terminology of Gannushkin, can only be an ILE.

Lichko writes about the mechanisms of compensation and decompensation and that they are carried out by changing the work or family microenvironment. We fully agree with this point of view. A change in the microenvironment is a change in the contingent of people with whom an individual communicates, that is, exchanges information. A change in the microenvironment introduces changes in the information metabolism of a person: they receive new stimulus signals and respond to them differently.

That is, Lichko, like us, knows that something needs to be changed in the environment of an accentuated or psychopathic personality. But the answer to how exactly the microenvironment should be improved, which of the people around them should be brought closer and further away from such a person, is provided only by our theory of intertype relationships. When a person knows which types of IM “compensate” and which ones “decompensate” communication with, they are able to avoid decompensation.

Lichko pays quite a lot of attention to the “point of least resistance” – the PoLR. In our case, this is the producing element of the Super-Ego block. Sometimes we call this element the “third function.”*

*Translator’s note: This is a reference to Model J, where the PoLR is the third IME in the four function model. For example, the ILE is in Model J.

Observation of the recovery of patients in psychiatric hospitals has shown that the most effective treatment results are obtained when patients in the wards are placed according to the principle of duality or quadra. The placement of two patients with conflicting types of IM next to each other often results in a sudden and inexplicable sharp deterioration of the patient’s condition.

The Extraverted Intuitive Type by Jung

Jung called this type the Extraverted Intuitive type. It is true that Jung describes not only the ILE through this name, but also the IEE. Here we will quote only those passages of Jung’s characterization that refer to the ILE.

*Translator’s note: This portion contains the English translations of Psychological Types by H.G Baynes.

“Intuition seeks to discover possibilities in the objective situation… Where intuition has the priority, every ordinary situation in life seems like a closed room, which intuition has to open. It is constantly seeking outlets and fresh possibilities in external life. In a very short time every actual situation becomes a prison to the intuitive; it burdens him like a chain, prompting a compelling need for solution. At times objects would seem to have an almost exaggerated value, should they chance to represent the idea of a severance or release that might lead to the discovery of a new possibility.

He seizes hold of new objects and new ways with eager intensity, sometimes with extraordinary enthusiasm, only to abandon them cold-bloodedly, without regard and apparently without remembrance, as soon as their range becomes clearly defined and a promise of any considerable future development no longer clings to them. As long as a possibility exists, the intuitive is bound to it with thongs of fate. It is as though his whole life went out into the new situation. One gets the impression, which he himself shares, that he has just reached the definitive turning point in his life, and that from now on nothing else can seriously engage his thought and feeling. How ever reasonable and opportune it may be, and although every conceivable argument speaks in favour of stability, a day will come when nothing will deter him from regarding as a prison, the self-same situation that seemed to promise him freedom and deliverance, and from acting accordingly. Neither reason nor feeling can restrain or discourage him from a new possibility, even though it may run counter to convictions hitherto unquestioned…

The morality of the intuitive is governed neither by intellect nor by feeling; he has his own characteristic morality, which consists in a loyalty to his intuitive view of things and a voluntary submission to its authority, Consideration for the welfare of his neighbours is weak. No solid argument hinges upon their well-being any more than upon his own. Neither can we detect in him any great respect for his neighbour’s convictions and customs; in fact, he is not infrequently put down as an immoral and ruthless adventurer.

It is at once clear, both from the standpoint of political economy and on grounds of general culture, that such a type is uncommonly important. If well-intentioned, with an orientation to life not purely egoistical, he may render exceptional service as the promoter, if not the initiator of every kind of promising enterprise. He is the natural advocate of every minority that holds the seed of future promise. Because of his capacity, when orientated more towards men than things, to make an intuitive diagnosis of their abilities and range of usefulness, he can also ‘make’ men…

This attitude has immense dangers — all too easily the intuitive may squander his life. He spends himself animating men and things, spreading around him an abundance of life — a life, however, which others live, not he. Were he able to rest with the actual thing, he would gather the fruit of his labours; yet all too soon must he be running after some fresh possibility, quitting his newly planted field, while others reap the harvest.”

Emotive-Labile Psychopath by Gannushkin

Gannushkin, in his article, Clinical Manifestations in Mild Psychiatric Syndromes, describes Emotive-Labile psychopaths, in whom we recognize many inherent character traits of the ILE. According to our hypothesis, which states that each type of IM has its own form of psychopathy, it turns out that what Gannushkin called the Emotive-Labile psychopath is the psychopathy inherent to the ILE. There is no doubt that the same personality traits only become more pronounced in the psychopath, so it is almost always not difficult to recognize in descriptions of these psychopaths of which type of IM they belong to. Quote:

“Emotive-labile (reactive-labile) psychopaths. In some cyclothymes, fluctuations in their condition occur extremely often, sometimes day by day. Such subjects are most striking in the capricious variability of their mood, as if for no reason swinging from one extreme to another. A position close to them is occupied by a group of psychopaths, in whom emotional instability, as such, has a more independent significance and occupies a more prominent place. This instability often gives their character an imprint of something tender, fragile, and somewhat childish and naive, which is also facilitated by their great suggestibility. In essence, these are for the most part cheerful, open, and even simple-hearted people, but they often give the impression of unpredictable moodiness to those around them; the slightest trouble overshadows their spiritual disposition and leads them to deep despondency, although usually not for long; as soon as such a subject announces some interesting news or flatters their vanity a little, they already blossom, and become energetic, open, and cheerful again. Their mood almost never changes for no reason, but the reasons for its change are usually so insignificant that from the outside these changes seem completely irrational: emotively labile people can be affected by bad weather, a sharply toned word, the memory of some sad event, and the thought of unpleasant coming ahead, in a word, such a mass of completely unaccounted for trifles, that sometimes the patient themselves is no longer able to understand why they became sad and what trouble forced them to retire from a cheerful society in which they had just laughed carelessly. It must be added that for the most part, they still have their good and bad days, and on good days they sometimes very calmly endure even major sorrows and troubles, while on bad days they hardly get out of dreary oppression and angry irritability; in some cases, this irritability is even the main character trait of this kind of psychopath.”

Impulsive Type by Kępiński

Kępiński describes the ILE in the book “Psychopathies” under the name Impulsive. He writes: “The impulsive personality type or psychopathy is characterized by mild excitability. The decision-making process of these people is sudden, explosive. In general, there are no long fluctuations between opposing structures of action. This mode of behavior is explained by the weakening of the action of the inhibitory mechanisms of the nervous system. According to Kępiński, impulsive actions are unpredictable. Decisions are made quickly, are thoughtless, changeable, due to the influence of the environment. The hierarchy of values is unstable, determined by circumstances and moods. They do not take into account the opinions of others at all, therefore they easily enter into conflict situations with others. When their activity meets with social opposition, they want to change the way they act, but nothing comes of it. Can’t stand outside pressure. The greater this pressure, the brighter the impulsiveness and hostility to the environment. Most often, however, they are kind people with a good heart, impressionable at the sight of injustice to other people, willingly rushing to help. When influencing the impulsive, one should take into account their dissatisfaction with themselves. The stabilization of behavior leads to emphasizing the positive aspects of their character.

The impulsiveness that Kępiński is talking about can be seen in every Intuitive Extravert when they find themselves in a psychological situation that is unfavorable for them. Namely, when instead of the advice they always expect about actions that have not yet been committed from other people, they hear the opposite – reproaches about actions that have already been done. The more such an individual is annoyed by caustic reproaches, the more impulsive and unrestrained they become. Therefore, in a favorable environment, among people who understand their tendency to compliance, this is the most calm, balanced type of personality, seeming just like an unflappable phlegmatic. Their decisiveness and some aggressiveness are manifested only in conditions when there is a need to protect those who ask for protection or whom they themselves consider necessary to protect from aggression or misunderstandings.

Something similar can be said about all types of IM in the sense that they are prone to becoming psychopaths when their expectations are in constant conflict with what they receive. Basically, a person’s social integration, or more precisely, socio-psychology, is manifested in the fact that they can function fully successfully only in conditions when those around them constantly “feed” them with necessary information and support them with certain actions inherent to this type of IM, and when the information transmitted to them, including physical activity, makes their life easier. A person is woven into society by two-way informational ties and two-way physical interaction. In the Socion, everyone must become the subject and object of both certain information and certain actions of other people.

Each type of IM gives and expects something different from society, and therefore, when this is not realized, their mental and physical overexertion, burnout, and irritability manifest themselves in another form, under the name of a particular psychopathy. The ILE expects advice on what to do or when to implement their mobilized energy in which specific activities. If there is no such advice, if no SEI places before them a picture of what could or should be done to obtain results, what different kinds of actions will lead to, and in general what actions can be invented in a given situation, the ILE very often simply does not know what exactly should be undertaken. Interestingly, in the presence of advisors, the ILE very skillfully and accurately chooses the most socially rational option.

When Kępiński writes about the weak inhibitory mechanisms of the Impulsive type, he is mistaken in the sense that, in fact, their weakness is in their strength. That is, if the ILE lacks the right advisors and is constantly confronted by an environment hostile to them, with people who do not smile like all SEIs do, but snaps back, the ILE restrains their activity to the minimum. They hold back until the moment when it becomes physically impossible to do so because of the internal tension usually caused by emotional tension. That is, until the dam bursts on its own accord. The mechanism of activity of a living organism is that it reacts with physical activity to stimuli, i.e. under the influence of stimuli it becomes excited and this excitement is realized in activity. Arousal of the organism is nothing but the transformation of part of its “potential” energy into “kinetic” energy. The advantage and weakness of a thinking being is that they do not react to an irritant immediately, but after thinking over what they can and cannot react to, and how to react. That is why a person can and more often than not realize the accumulated energy not with regard to immediate stimuli, but with regard to what they considers reasonable or useful. For example, a person in love, under the influence of a love interest as a stimulus, accumulates energy, which they do not even think of using to get an object that mobilizes them, and which they quietly refuse to satisfy their immediate needs, and uses the energy thus obtained for something more corresponding to their imaginary or real social interests. For example, they may write poetry or earn a degree. This is not important to the body, but it is important that their accumulated energy not lie dormant, so that it doesn’t start overstrained. And besides, the basic needs of the body should not be left unsatisfied, which is reflected in its somatic state.

This overstrain has various psychosomatic consequences, including the appearance of almost uncontrollable reactions to external stimuli. Moreover, inadequate reactions, since in such reactions not only is the energy mobilized by a given stimulus realized, but large deposits of energy are also accumulated as a result of the action of previous stimuli. In the ILE, they accumulate in conditions when they do not know in which activities this energy should be realized. And the more the body restrains itself from “rash” reactions, the more impulsively it eventually reacts to some final stimulus in the chain of other stimuli, especially if it is unexpected.

Each activity is not only the desire to achieve some result, but also the physical need of the body, the need to realize internal tension, which can only conditionally be called emotional tension and which appears under the influence of external and internal stimuli.

In the type of IM that the ILE is, the need for physical fulfillment becomes an acute need of the body itself.

An impulsive person becomes too restrained in their actions, the one who is too zealous, slamming the “brakes”. With a large accumulation of unrealized energy, we are not dealing with reactions of the person as a personality, but with forced reactions of the organism itself. The physical under-realization of the ILE’s body is manifested not only in their impulsiveness, but primarily in their liver disease, which suffers from the lack of physical activity.

When people of this type occupy a prominent place in society, they are often considered eccentrics, because when they are “hungry” for physical activity, they grab at whatever they can, disregarding social conventions, thus “undermining their authority.”

On the other hand, in order for an impulsive person to act, they need quite strong of an excitement. That is why they are an impossibly bad worker in the same boring job, especially if they do not work with the emotional and light-hearted SEI. And they are indispensable in dangerous, emotionally exciting situations, where others are afraid of because of physical danger, or simply because of great responsibility, when tension is created due to the responsibilities of the task ahead.

A dangerous situation with high stakes does not suppress the Labile, but excites and enlivens them. When danger strikes, the ILE’s eyes light up, this is their moment. I remember once having to read the military memoirs of a test pilot, who divided all pilots into two groups. Some, in anxiety-inducing combat conditions, get excited and lively, while others, on the contrary, droop, get pale, and feel lost. Undoubtedly, the Labile ones belong to the former. To see how the ILE feels no fear on the battlefield, it is enough to read about Suvorov’s life. Another of his traits is the ability to show mercy to the men entrusted to him under any circumstances. This is the reason why the soldiers loved the same Suvorov so much.

So, in a dangerous situations, the ILE does not experience fear but rather an influx of strength, provided they know how to act. But in dangerous situations they are smarter than usual, becoming a strong, strong-willed, and successful organizer. Napoleon said of one of his generals that he oversees really works only on the battlefield; this was probably said of a Labile type. Under conditions of open aggression, such an individual usually mobilizes themselves so that they defeat a much stronger opponent.

Why does the Impulsive type, as Kępiński argues, not have a stable hierarchy of values? Apparently, because, from the ILE’s point of view, this hierarchy of values must be determined by those around them. They try to adapt themselves to the hierarchy of values of those around them. There cannot be as many hierarchies of values as there are people. They think it is necessary to agree on what should and should not be considered a value. Such an individual also has no goals of their own; the goals and interests of society become their goals. This is simply the social function, and the social role of the ILE. That is why in everyday life, especially in their families, such a person very often seems to be overly compliant. What is their mind occupied with at the time when they give in to everything? That is, what are they doing when they don’t show their will in any way, but only their compliant nature? They are studying the potential energy of objects in the world around them. This is the only way to gather objective information about the potential energy of different objects and phenomena, and even more so about people. Such knowledge of people contributes to the knowledge of how this potential energy should be distributed and used so that positive human emotions would be added to the world and negative emotions would be diminished. For the ILE, the question of emotions is a matter of the vital ring. Aggression is a basic evil. They hate it and react to it with all of their instincts.

Churchill belonged to this type of man: and the English Parliament, which had long rubbed him out of the prime minister’s seat, understood perfectly well that in the face of German aggression, only this sixty-five-year-old ball of fire would be able to save the British from defeat.

As Kępiński said, the Impulsive type only becomes angry towards society when they are convinced that society does not need them. And in general, it is not malice against society, but against themselves as a person unnecessary to society. Because all of their actions under such conditions are aimed as if to make their situation even worse.

Labile Type by Lichko

Lichko describes the ILE as the “Labile Type”. We will reference the places in his book, Psychopathies and Character Accentuations in Adolescents, that give an idea of the author’s vision of this type among adolescents.

“In childhood, Labile adolescents usually do not particularly stand out among their peers… However, almost all of them have a childhood filled with infectious diseases… Frequent sore throats, continuous colds, chronic pneumonia, rheumatism, pyelonephritis, cholecystitis, and other diseases, though not in severe forms, tend to have a long and recurring course…

The main feature of the labile type is extreme variability of moods… Moods change too often and too abruptly, and the reasons for these radical changes are insignificant. An unflattering word, a casual conversation partner’s unfriendly look, untimely rainfall, or even a button ripped from their suit can plunge them into a gloomy and somber mood in the absence of any serious problems and hardships. At the same time, some pleasant conversation, interesting news, a fleeting compliment, a suit dressed well for the occasion, a prospect heard from someone, though unrealistic but tempting, can lift the mood, even distract from real trouble, until it reminds them of themselves again. In a psychiatric examination, during honest and exciting conversations, when one has to touch on many different aspects of life, for half an hour one can see several occasions of tears about to fall and a joyful smile soon after.

Their mood is not only characterized by frequent and abrupt changes, but also by their considerable depth. The mood of the moment affects how they feel, their appetite, sleep, ability to work, and desire to be alone or with someone close to them, or to rush into a noisy society, in company, in public. According to the mood, the future looks bright, then appears gray and gloomy, and the past is presented as a chain of pleasant memories, and then it seems solidly composed of failures, mistakes and injustices. The same people, the same environment seems then nice, interesting and attractive, and then uninteresting, boring and ugly, full of all kinds of flaws.

An unmotivated change of mood sometimes gives the impression of being superficial and frivolous. But this judgment is not true. Representatives of the labile type are capable of deep feelings, of great, sincere affection. This is primarily reflected in their relationship to relatives and friends, but only to those from whom they themselves feel love, care and participation. Attachment to them persists, despite the ease and frequency of fleeting quarrels.

Devoted friendship is equally characteristic of Labile adolescents. They spontaneously look for a psychotherapist in a friend. They prefer to be friends with someone who in moments of sadness and dissatisfaction can distract them, comfort them, tell them something interesting, cheer them up, convince them that “all is not so bad,” but at the same time, in moments of emotional lift easily respond to joy and fun, to satisfy their need for empathy.

Realizing the weaknesses of their nature, they do not try to hide or obscure anything, but as if invited to accept those around them for who they are. In the way they are treated by others, they discover a surprisingly good intuition – immediately, at first contact, feeling who is sympathetic to them, who is indifferent, and in whom lies a trace of ill-will or hostility. A reciprocal attitude arises immediately and without any attempt to conceal it.

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