Theory of Reinin Dichotomies, Part 1

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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

Part 1 – Part 2 – Part 3 – Part 4 – Part 5

Introduction

In mid-1985, Leningrad mathematician Grigory Reinin compiled a table of paired type signs*. Some of them: Rationality-Irrationality, Extraversion-Introversion, Intuition-Sensorics, Logic-Ethics – were already known by Carl Jung. Three pairs: Static-Dynamic, Asking-Declaring, and Democratic-Aristocratic – are described by me in On The Dual Nature of Humanity in 1983.

*Translator’s note: These “signs” represented Reinin Dichotomies. What is referred to as “Reinin’s Signs” or sometimes “Traits” in the paper will be hereinafter called the “dichotomies” here.

Reinin approached the question purely mathematically and found that there are fifteen pairs of such dichotomies, as the 16 types of information metabolism (IM) can be split into two different groups in fifteen different ways. Each of these groups differs from the other by some type-related feature.

At first, Reinin’s idea seemed somewhat fantastical to me because of the difficulty of identifying unknown features of type. But after collectively searching through and analyzing the structure of Model A further, the contours of all the attributes emerged, bringing with them new theoretical generalizations. To show gratitude to their first discoverer, the type attributes were named the Reinin Dichotomies. They will become the basis of a qualitatively new test.

This first hastily revised version of the Theory of Reinin Dichotomies is not intended for a wide circle of readers, but only for a narrow circle of Socionists for the further development of theories, corrections, adjustments, and improvements in terminology. It is possible that, for example, some properties of a personality type that I have attributed to one of Reinin’s dichotomies may, after verification, need to be attributed to another.

The four-scale Myers-Briggs Type Indicator, compiled at the Jung Institute in Zurich*, is based on the four scales of paired attributes discovered by Jung. This would be sufficient, provided that each scale works without fail. But the test method does not provide a 100% guarantee. Each person is not only a type of IM, but also a peculiar character. The Theory of Reinin Dichotomies makes it possible to compose a test with 15 scales. In the case that the test taker answers all 15 scales equally, resulting in the same type, they would have been almost quadruple-checked. In my opinion, this is enough.

* Editor’s note: The Myers-Briggs test was originally created and distributed in the United States; perhaps the Zurich Institute was distributing a commercial version of the test.

Note: To establish the type of IM, it is sufficient to have any four reliably established features of type.

The 15 pairs of Reinin’s dichotomies are divided into three groups:

• Eight pairs of individual or dualizing dichotomies.

• Four pairs of dyadic or quadral dichotomies.

• Three quadral features linking the quadras into a common unit – the Socion.

*Translator’s note: The first 8 dichotomies are not shared by the duals. The next four dichotomies are shared by the duals, and divide the Quadra. The last 3 dichotomies are shared by the Quadra and divide them from the rest of the Socion.

The Individual, quadral, and Socionic functioning of an individual can be spoken of as four levels of individual functioning.

Attached below are Reinin’s notes on the table of type-related characters. The table itself in Fig. 9 and Fig. 19.

Reinin’s mathematical work – Morphology of the Human Intellect (1984) can be found separately.*

* Translator’s note: Unfortunately, this was never released to the public.

Excerpts from Reinin’s Notes

1. The relationship of Duality occupies a special place in the table. It is the only relationship between two types of IM in which the first eight dichotomies differ. There is only one of such an intertype relationship. For any given type, all other types [besides Duality] share four Reinin Dichotomies in the first part of the table.

2. Let’s take a closer look at the dyad.

Two types in a dyad have complementary [opposite] Reinin Dichotomies for the first 8 traits. The 9th to 15th dichotomies are the same – i.e. these attributes are the channels of information in the dyad. This is, dare I say, the third voice of the dyad. It may be assumed that it is these dichotomies that include the worldview, attitude to reality, manners of conversing, laws of communication, behavior, attitude towards the “other”, and to the “world”.

So, dichotomies 9-15 are the informational channels of the dyad. Out of them, 13-15 are the informational channels of the quadra.

It seems that the dichotomies 9-15 are some kind of deep channels, completely unconscious to the individual, penetrating into everything, not requiring any verbal expression. This is the space in which the dialogue takes place. Perhaps this is the law of the dyad.

It looks like one stream of energy, from which two complementary types of IM live. And the 9th-15th dichotomies are the scaling characteristics of this flow.

We sometimes suspect that all of the 9th-15th dichotomies are innate. It would be enough to show this for any two dichotomies shared by a quadra: the 13th, 14th, or 15th, while the rest are derived automatically from the trait multiplication table. Could it be that one’s belonging to a certain flow of energy is innate?

3. There are three dichotomies that are shared between all types in a quadra. All the others are evenly distributed (i.e. the number of pluses equals the number of minuses).

Apparently, the set of these three traits represents the law of the quadra. Maybe it is the law of communication, norms of morality, social behavior, manners, notions of politeness, and language.

4. What is a sign?

It is the principle of a dichotomy in Socionics, i.e., a way of dividing the 16 types of IM constituting the Socion into two groups of 8 types each.

A trait X can also be viewed as an axis with two poles: at one pole there are 8 types of IM possessing property x, and at the other pole – not x . As was shown earlier, there are fifteen of such pairwise, orthogonal axes for socionics.

There is not just the sign of “logic”, there is the axis of “Logic-Ethics”.

5. I think that the types of IM are just devices of human information equipment. There are 16 types of apparatuses “produced”, and attributes of types are simply a technical characteristic of the functioning of a particular information apparatus.

Note: This is how it is, it is a mechanism for producing and reproducing informational (mental) energy. A total of 16 different mechanisms “working” on another “type of fuel”, on other information signals or using the same signals in a different way.

The type of IM is like a skeleton, a framework of personality.

Personality is a specific form of a person’s existence in society. Personality, apparently, appears as a result of binding the type of IM to a specific social territory.

6. Each of the 16 relationships has a certain pattern of coinciding features.

The Semi-Cycle Cube (Fig. 1) shows that the duals are fed from one source of information – one face of the cube – a certain type of informational fuel. This flow is perceived differently by the static and dynamic rings. The difference between the duals in Model A is that only in one structure is there a static vital [ring] and dynamic mental [ring] – the other has the opposite.

7. Each dyad lives from one energy stream, therefore, the dichotomies that are shared in a dyad are simultaneously dichotomies of that stream. There are 7 of them.

It seems to me that it is necessary to describe a generalized type space. That is, the structure of this space with functions of individual elements and blocks. This can be done in the form of a simple table. This can then can be explained to readers with abstract, structural thinking according to the following scheme:

– A presentation of the elements’ base. (Two rings – static and dynamic with description of their constituent elements.)

– Description of the type space structure (A table of properties and functions of blocks and elements).

– Concrete implementations of this structure on a given element in the base [leading] position. (Characteristics of types).

– 16 ways to implement this structure on a given element base, formed from, as it were, a “type switcher”.

This is a structural exposition of Model A.

Dualizing Dichotomies

Horizontal Blocks

Before we start talking about individual dualizing traits, it is necessary to consider some regularities in the functioning of Model A. Much is known from The Socion, but we will not stop there. We will talk only about the new qualities that would make it impossible to understand the Reinin Dichotomies without.

Model A is formed of mental and vital rings, one of which is positive (+) and the other is negative (-), rings of blocks. In The Socion, we only talked about the horizontal blocks: the Ego, Super-Ego, Super-Id, and Id. They are paired: the Ego and Super-Ego are Mental, and the Super-Id and Id are Vital. In addition, we call the Ego and Id the programming blocks, and the Super-Ego + Super-Id the “basic” or “middle” blocks. (see Fig. 2).

Each horizontal block is composed of two half-phases, the first of which is accepting and the second of which is producing.

A complete phase is composed of two homogeneous half-phases, e.g:

Half-phase + half-phase = The phase of sensorics.

All of them [the phases and half-phases included] are either accepting or producing.

The accepting/producing phases of duals are also the same: what is accepting to one type is also accepting to the other type.

With the Mental Ring, an individual comprehends information about the outside world. The Super-Ego thinks about how the world around us is and how it manifests itself. The Ego is about how it should be, how it should manifest itself.

The blocks of the Vital Ring comprehend the signals received from one’s own body. The Super-Id knows how the body really is, what happens in it or with it, and how it can manifest itself. The Id understands how it should manifest itself. So, in a nutshell:

Mentality is thoughts about the environment, comprehension of the external world.

Vitality is thoughts about oneself and one’s own situation.

Fig. 3 shows dualization by mental-vital and programming-basic blocks.

What is mental for one type is identical with what is vital of the other in terms of the content of energy metabolism. What is basic for one type is identical to vitality of the other.* It’s the same with the positivity-negativity of the rings: one’s Static Ring is positive, the other’s is negative. The same can be said of the identical vertical blocks – inert and contact. But more about that will be said later.

*Translator’s note: It is unclear what Augustinavičiūtė meant by contrasting Basic and Vital here. Based on the context, she may have meant “Kinetic” here.

All this is the inner essence of Duality. That is, the essence of Duality is not that what one doesn’t have, the other does. It is about the fact that they both have it, only in a different quality.

Vertical Blocks

In addition to the horizontal blocks, vertical blocks can be distinguished in Model A. They are formed from the same half-phases, only that a half-phase at the end of a horizontal block becomes the one at the beginning of a vertical block. The first half-phase of a vertical block is producing and the second is accepting – for horizontal blocks, this is reversed.

Vertical blocks are divided into inert and contact blocks (Fig. 4). This division, as we will see later, opens up completely new sides of the dualization process.

Fig. 5 shows how the horizontal and vertical blocks intersect with the A-Model* of the () ILE as an example.

* Translator’s note: The literal translation is “Model A”, i.e “The Model A of the ILE”. However, because “Model A” is often used to refer to a way of thinking about Socionics rather than the model itself, it will sometimes be referred to as the “A-Model” in this translation.

* Translator’s Note: 1/2, 2/2 represents phase notation, where each the first number refers to which phase the element is in, and the second number refers to whether it is Mental (1) or Vital (2). This is not commonly used in modern Socionics schools, but will be used in this website and works by Augustinavičiūtė.

Inert and Contact

Let us briefly discuss the differences between Inert and Contact half-phases and blocks.

The functioning of contact half-phases is conditioned by contacts with the external world. It is characterized by impulsiveness, a kind of reactivity, changeability, uncertainty, indeterminacy, the absence of rigid line, and principles. It is a kind of bearing of the environment. For example, 1/1 [Role] – the sensing of objective reality and quick, impulsive reactions to it.

4/1 [Demonstrative] – the sensing of how the surrounding people perceive one’s conscious intervention, firstly, intervention with words – the second signal system – which contains corrective encourage remarks to gain determination alongside some clarification, change, and strengthening of the positions of people in action, i.e. the people who need it for more energetic activity.

The functioning of Inert half-phases, has, as it were, a more independent, accumulative character. It is characterized by viscosity and sluggishness. For example, because of the self-doubt and completely relaxed conscience in 2/1 [Mobilizing], it simply gets immersed in the reality it studies and is unable to quickly change direction.

Dualization

Duals help each other supply themselves with necessary information. In the recruitment of potential information energy (PIE), its mobilization, programming and implementation. Therefore, the dualized function much more effectively, in terms of saving psycho-physical energy, less wear and tear on the body and nervous system, while simultaneously being more efficient and striving for balanced creative realization.

Due to individual type traits, duals merge into a unit greater than the sum of their parts:

Dyad > Dual + Dual

What one can think of, the other can turn into reality. Invent with the mental blocks, act with the vital blocks. Because of the identity of the mentality of the one and the vitality of the other, the thoughts and actions of the one warn the thoughts and actions of the other, are perfectly understandable, and do not come as a surprise. Therefore, where I would only think about myself, my dual would see me in the context of other people and is therefore able to help me with advice. They’d explain who I am from the outside – from a societal lens. They’d give me the opportunity to understand what my problems objectively represent and how they are usually solved. Where I would only think about the outside world, my dual can only think only about themselves and thus draws my attention to my own problems of the same kind, and helps me see those same aspects of my life.

Where I know how things are (middle/basic blocks), my dual knows how things should be (Program blocks). Where my dual knows how things should be, I know how they really are.

The above says that a dyad is greater than the sum of two duals, but a more accurate calculation would probably be this seemingly contradictory one:

– One Type of IM = 0.5;

– Dual + Dual = 1;

– Non-Dual + Dual < 0.5;

Because after getting acquainted with the functioning of the dyad, it is not clear at all how the non-dualized survive and still do something.

After all, if we discuss our affairs with the dual, without even having time to penetrate into our problem, they already guide us by their own leading questions into the aspects of the problem which we have not thought about, i.e. giving us the necessary information.

Four Phases of Dualization

Dualization is a certain level of information metabolism and like any other energy process, has four phases: Phase I – Potential Energy, II – Mobilization, III – Kinetic energy, IV – Realization.

Potential energy is energy without a program. Kinetic – with a program. Kinetic energy is always mobilized for something and can only be used for one or more [specific] ways. Potential is untapped energy, the use of which has not yet been programmed.

At each phase of dualization, i.e. at the realization of any horizontal or vertical blocks, two pairs of the Reinin Dichotomies are realized: Phase I – Basic, Phase II – Mobilization, Phase III – Programmatic, and Phase IV – Realization.

We refer to types of IM to group or another according to the Reinin Dichotomies by their mental ring, program and contact blocks, and the sign of the static ring. In the following [section], we will describe the dualizing signs of IMs, i.e. the properties of their mentality, staticity, programmaticity, or contactingness. Their vitality, dynamism, basicness and inertness have the opposite properties.

The process of dualization can be imagined as the interaction of something like induction coils with block-fanblades, which, due to opposing signs, are attracted to one another, giving mechanism A a rotational force. In Fig. 6, we show the scheme of such interaction over only the Static Rings of the types (ILE) and (SEI), one of the static rings of which has a “+” sign, the other – “-”. The diagram shows all four cycles of dualization, that is, dualization in the four blocks of the same static ring.

The horizontal static blocks of this dyad: and , vertical: and . They play the role of interacting blades.

During dualization, the block-fanblades should make contact with each other smoothly, starting with the first half-phase’s block and gradually moving to the second. This smoothness is possible if the rings have not only a rotational, but also a particular “rocking” motion. Therefore, the figure should be given some more softness, it should come to life, becoming something like Fig. 7.

The contact of any identical blades of duals is like a call and response to it. If everything goes well for someone, if they are “lucky”, then every call – every outstretched fan-blade – receives a responding signal. At each “connection” of identical block-blades, some mutual information needs or information requirements disappear.

During dualization, something like the “speed of rotation” and rhythm of jiggling should coincide. Both should be balanced. A person who is “lucky” not only maintains, but also increases their “speed”. No one stops them, no one yanks them, but only encourages them.

Cooperation of Blocks

When realizing the blocks of the mental ring, the following happens:

– The Super-Ego, a basic block, provides potential informational energy (PIE) to the dual’s Id.

– The Mental-Inert block provides the Dual’s Vital-Contact block with mobilizing signals.

– The Ego, a programming block, provides the program, i.e., the kinetic Informational energy (KIE) of the dual’s Super-Id.

– The Mental-Contact block contributes to the realization of the dual’s Vital-Inert block.

* Translator’s note: These were slightly reworded for consistency: instead of the “Contact block of the Vital Ring” and the “Inert, Mental” block, these were reworded to the more consistent forms “Vital-Contact block” and “Mental-Inert block”

When any two blocks of Duals that are identical in energy metabolism (EM) make contact, two pairs of Reinin Dichotomies are revealed and realized – one trait for each half-phase.

Identical EMs are in contact with each other, i.e. according to the aspect of the reflected world and different in terms of the level of their energy mobilization or in terms of IM cycles, the blocks of Duals:

PIE (Potential Informational Energy) blocks feed KIE (Kinetic Informational Energy) blocks, and those same blocks mobilize and program PIE blocks;

Implementing-Contact blocks transform the partner’s PIE into KIE, and Mobilizing-Inert blocks, on the contrary, transform PIE into KIE.

Potential informational energy is the information needed by the individual. Kinetic energy is the mobilization, programmaticity of available energy resources.

For any given block, each type of IM is only provided with exclusively potential or kinetic informational energy. In dualization, this is combined. Kinetic programming blocks are connected to basic potential blocks, as a result of which the owner of kinetic energy learns how to use their energy, and the owner of kinetic energy is provided with the information they need as potential energy. Because PIE is only information stored, collected and systematized in the psyche of an individual. One does not know what to do with it. What is needed is a charge of kinetic energy identical in EM, i.e. in the same aspect of the objective world, and the determination of another individual: their will and knowledge of what to do and how to act.

It is the same with kinetic programming blocks. They have a program about what is necessary, but they do not have potential energy. Without cooperation with potential basic blocks, they are powerless, and are disconnected from reality.

The Id only feels the need for its own realization, which manifests itself in a certain mobilization of the body. But it does not know the needs and interests of society, and does not know what it accepts and what it rejects. The program is given by the Super-Ego, which does not know another thing – the interests and needs of its own organism and its own possibilities.

At a glance, a question arises. If the Super-Id lacks the necessary impressions and stimulus signals, and the Id is inactive, not receiving a program from the Super-Ego of a dual, it acts stupidly from a societal lens. How do we explain this with our energy vocabulary?

The fact of the matter is that we are talking about vital and mental activity, which one constantly combines in their activities. In dualization, the vital energy of one dual is supplemented by the mental energy of the other, and the mental energy of the former is supplemented by the vital energy of the latter. And at the same time, the potential energy of one receives a kinetic charge – the kinetic programming of the other. And the kinetic energy, kinetic programming of the former is provided by the potential charge – the potential information of the other.

The Super-Id accumulates information about one’s own body, about the pleasant, unpleasant, acceptable, and unacceptable stimulating signals. The kinetic, programming block of the Ego, which provides the program of how to adapt to this aspect of the surrounding world, also gives a charge of kinetic informational energy.

The same approach is possible for vertical blocks. The mobilization block of the mental ring activates the contact block of the dual’s vital ring with its doubts or determination, denial or recognition of incoming information, and mobilizes it for a specific activity.

The contact block of the mental ring is a block that constantly gives out advice and information and thus contacts the environment. This block spiritualizes the mobilization block of the dual with its emotions or appeals to some actions and feelings. It holds its hands on the Inert-Mobilization block of the vital ring of the dual, which, in fact, regulates the degree of its activity.

The first two phases of dualization are determined by the belonging of the type of IM to one Ring of Supervision or another, and the following phases are determined by the content of EM of separate blocks, by what energetic half-phases the programming, contact and any other blocks are formed of.

The symbols ,,, denote separate half-phases of energy and information metabolism. When combined into one phase, the conditional “black” or “white”* disappears, leaving just “ethics”, “logic”, etc., for instance:

* Translator’s note: This is in reference to the fact that extraverted information is called “black” and introverted information is called “white” based on the color of the symbol. So what English communities typically call “Introverted Intuition” would translate literally to “White Intuition” in Russian.

The first part of the Table of Reinin Dichotomies – the table of dualizing features – is placed in Fig. 9. In the description of the features themselves, we used a two-pronged approach: we mention very briefly about what has been known for a long time, while saying everything that we managed to find out about what was newly discovered.

Next: Part 2