by Sheri Bortz

​I have been a BAAPT member since 1995. I was introduced to BAAPT by Hillevi Ruumet, a Jungian analyst and professor at the institute of Transpersonal Psychology, where I received my master’s degree in Transpersonal Psychology. My original MBTI test was ambiguous except for a strong N, but with a little study I realized I had ENFP preferences.

Along with understanding the implications of whole type, learning about all eight function-attitudes has been extremely useful in understanding myself and others. My introduction to function-attitudes was from (Henry) Dick Thompson who years ago, gave BAAPT a program on the topic. I then read his book Jung’s Function Attitudes, Explained, which explained a lot! 

My understanding of Function-Attitudes was built on by our own John Beebe. Beebe’s theory was made easier for me to understand when interpreted in a program by Adam Frey, a long time BAAPT member. With John Beebe’s theory I explored how to rank the eight functions in our psyche, and the archetypes associated with those rankings. Depending on our whole type, each function-attitude has different archetypical roles and ease of use in our lives. Dealing with the seventh or Trickster function, in my case Ti, has been particularly challenging, yet rewarding.

It takes a lot of effort for me to use Ti consciously. Nothing else must work, before I sigh and grumble, and use careful logical analysis to solve a problem. But when pushed to the wall, I know I can do it, at least for a brief period of time! I have used Ti to do complex jigsaw puzzles, and sometimes to strategize managing challenging interpersonal relationships. 
Then there are the more disturbing times when I use Ti unconsciously. The recent program on “Failed Conversations: The Psychodynamics of Connection” by Kevin J. Woolums, brought up my unconscious, shadow use of the Trickster. 

During COVID, a close, decades-long friendship ended after a dramatic interaction where my friend became emotionally abusive and frightened me. After the incident, my friend and I worked at salvaging the relationship, but I was stuck in fix-it mode. My ENFP was cringing inside as my seventh function, Mr. Trickster-Ti, spoke on and on logically analyzing my friend's failings through the medical model. I knew that I was destroying what remained of the friendship as I spoke, but I could not stop. 

I revisited this “failed conversation,” in a breakout room during the Woolums BAAPT program. I realized that my ENFP persona was having a challenging time releasing a friendship whose time had passed. My shadow trickster, seventh function took over and created a long overdue conclusion to an outgrown life situation. It was a blessing in disguise. 

Thank you, Mr. Trickster Ti.  ❖

by the late Richard Hendrickson (1935-2023)

At mid-life, my marriage was coming apart, our two children were leaving for college in the east, the house we were remodeling in Berkeley, with me as electrician, was taking a toll on all, and I was offered a promotion to what should have been my dream job: Director of the Thailand program of the educational foundation I had worked for the last 16 years. I turned the assignment down, as gradually I realized that after years of traveling and working abroad, I was more interested in an inner journey and discovery of self.

I left the foundation (this was mid-1980s) and looked around for what else to do; I joined a job-search group, helped others write their resumes, got good feedback on that, and discovered there was a whole field called Career Development. One could now get a Masters in it at JFK University in Orinda, CA. I signed up (Bill Bridges, author of Transitions,
Making Sense of Life’s Changes, was my first professor.)

Of course in career school, one is introduced to the MBTI® right away. Luckily for me, a qualifying program was being offered on the campus of USF in San Francisco (we believe it was the first such training offered in the western United States.) It was conducted by Mary McCaulley (Isabel Briggs Myers’ associate, and co-founder of CAPT and APT) and Rachel Fitzgerald. Rachel lived in the East Bay, as did I, and she became a good friend and my lifelong mentor in all things typological.Immediately after qualifying to purchase the MBTI®, I attended an early meeting of a group that met at what was then Notre Dame College in Belmont. Bill Yabroff led a workshop on Carl Jung’s concepts of Introversion and Extraversion that is still a vivid memory. There I also met Eleanor and Roy Woenne, Chuck and Kathie Kallander, and others who became the founders of BAAPT.

I was hooked on typology, with still lots to learn, but I also discovered there was the field of Organizational Development, with an interest group called the OD Network, a Training and Development group that met regularly (ASTD), and a Career Development Association. I took classes on OD at the California Institute of Integral Studies in the Haight, classes on Training at UC Extension, classes on Adult Development and Jungian theory at San Francisco State, and for a time joined the OD Network. You could say I OD-ed on CD, OD, AD and ASTD.

In the end, the group that had the most soul, the most intellectual curiosity, and the most integrity in the pursuit of self-discovery and personal / professional development was BAAPT. ❖

by Evelyn LaTorre

​I majored in psychology and sociology in college so I could study how individuals and human societies develop and function. My search led me to the MBTI. My interest has kept me in BAAPT, where my learning has continued for the past 40 years and heightened my understanding of myself, my family, and those with whom I work. 

My two major interests, personality type and the Latino culture, combined when the international women educators’ organization I belonged to, Delta Kappa Gamma (DKG), chose me to be the international speaker at Jalisco State’s Convention in February 1994. The planners of the two-day event requested that I administer, interpret, and give a talk in Spanish about the MBTI to 139 educators in a half-day session. Flora, a Spanish-speaking psychologist colleague agreed to accompany me. I packed my suitcase with 140 booklets of the MBTI in Spanish and two sets of scoring templates.

Mexico felt familiar the minute the plane descended. Cheerful buildings of bright yellow, orange, and green slid by my window to greet me. I heard lively Mariachi music coming from somewhere in the terminal. Only in Mexico would there be welcoming entertainment in an airline terminal. Flora and I disembarked and were greeted with hugs by Hilda, the local DKG chapter president.

“Our program tomorrow morning, Education in the Twenty-First Century,” Hilda said, “will feature a government official speaking for the first hour about the new North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA). You’ll speak for second hour and after lunch.”

As often happened to me in Spanish-speaking countries, the day didn’t unfold as planned. Instead of the 139 teachers I expected, 230 people were in the audience. The official speaking about how NAFTA would affect Mexico held the audience’s interest, so he just kept talking--for two and a half hours! He encroached an hour into my allotted time. His overage meant I couldn’t explain as much about the MBTI as I’d planned. In my forty-five minutes before the lunch break, I explained what I could, then distributed the booklets and answer sheets for the assessment. There weren’t enough pencils or booklets. From somewhere we obtained more pencils, and I asked the participants to silently share question booklets with each other. That broke the required test protocol, but I needed to get through this. Then, I was caught off-guard by a voice from the middle of the auditorium.

“Doctora, what do we do with the sheet full of circles?”

“I’ve never seen a page like this. What is this page of zeros for?” said another teacher.

It had never occurred to me that my audience wouldn’t know how to use this type of fill-in-the-bubble answer form, a staple in US schools for tests. I searched my Spanish vocabulary to explain the concept of filling in a bubble to correspond with an answer. Next problem: How to score the inventories during the hour lunch break.

Fortunately, 100 participants had been from another group and didn’t return any inventory sheets. Foregoing plates of delicious-smelling tacos, beans, and rice, Flora and I managed to hand-score all the forms using the two sets of templates. As the teachers present took the last bite of their flan dessert, I jotted down the total number of individuals in each of the sixteen personality categories. A bit frazzled, I hurriedly returned to the stage. Upon entering, I heard several participants expressing skepticism at how answering a series of questions could correctly describe them. But when these same individuals read the description of their type that I provided them, I heard gasps of surprise. Many exclaimed that they couldn’t believe how accurately the MBTI had depicted their personalities.

Using a series of overhead transparencies, I explained the importance of understanding personality differences and emphasized the instrument’s usefulness for successful communication and learning.

“Would the two of you with ENFP preferences care to identify yourselves?” I asked, searching the audience for those with my same personality type.

The two Mexican teachers with ENFP preferences were good friends and sat side by side. There was no time to do the required type verification. Based on research at that time, the expected percentage of ENFPs for a group of businessmen in the States would have been around 5 percent, not the .01 percent of the teachers here.

Cross-cultural research with the MBTI, at that time, had predicted my test results for Mexican businessmen. Fifty-three percent of my mostly female teacher instrument-takers fell into the STJ category and another 18 percent into the SFJ category for a total of over 71 percent in the SJ grouping. SJ types are broadly defined as systematic, factual, and conservative. The US population falls around the 40 percent level for SJ types. The differences maybe were partly attributed to the Mexican education system, which in 1994, tended to emphasize facts and “one correct” solution or what an authority says, instead of many possible outcomes.

I couldn’t say I liked the evaluations of my presentation. Quite a few of the attendees criticized the mistakes I’d made in speaking Spanish. However, many wrote that they now had new information about why people are different. I felt pleased to have facilitated new knowledge. However, I wouldn’t attempt such a bold teaching venture again any time soon. ❖

This reflection is an abbreviated excerpt (pp. 277-282) from Evelyn’s memoir, Love in Any Language.

by James Campbell

I was an Internist, MD, in private practice, and often racing with the clock, when I began exploring both the Enneagram (Social 5) and the MBTI. When I retired in 1998, my MBTI preferences were for INTJ.

In 2000, I attended a presentation by Pat Wyman who specializes in the Enneagram and the MBTI and together we concluded that I was INFJ. This felt right! Relationships are very important to me, as is political correctness, but for medical judgments, I favored thinking decisions.

I soon learned about the 8 functions and the Beebe model that made much more sense than the dichotomies. I really resonated with Se as my inferior function. For example, my passion for more physical interests, like skiing and singing that demand more Se control, can sometimes be awkward and challenging.

I am 88 and now live in a CCRC (senior living facility) in San Francisco. I’m busy with the Health Committee (although I didn’t enjoy being Director for 2 years), the library committee, a group dealing with end-of-life issues, the chorus, Great Books, plus 2 book clubs. Because of lumbar spinal stenosis, I work out daily in our gym for an hour.

Despite all the activities, I definitely prefer introversion. I have always needed time alone to read, practice the piano, and now to work on a climatology project. My (ISFJ) partner who died in June 2023 was also a regular member of BAAPT and active in the Church choir where we met. He was extremely helpful, practical, and an excellent driver! He amazed me with his Se function! 

We always discussed BAAPT programs on the drive back home, and I would explain new insights I gained from that meeting. (He hated the small groups; I loved them!) We had great respect for each other’s different opinions; I credit learning psychological type and both of us sharing the Fe function. 

​Belonging to BAAPT for 24 years has helped me better understand, retrospectively, choices I’ve made and the interests I’ve had in my life. ❖

by Adam Frey

When I first joined BAAPT in 2010, I searched for keys to teaching type most effectively. Here are some learning experiences offered by BAAPT presenters that deeply impressed me:

Danielle Poirier’s The Magnificent 16
A gorgeous, interactive DVD-ROM featuring people of each type talking about what it is like to be them. Thirteen years later, I still remember phrases from it.

Linda Berens’ workshop on Interaction Styles
Linda’s serious, systematic approach wowed me. Even today, I still catch myself rehearsing the division of the sixteen MBTI types into the four Interaction Styles, as if Linda might suddenly phone up and quiz me.

Vicky Jo Varner’s “Can You Spot It?”
An image- and video-filled online course in identifying the eight function-attitudes in action. Vicky Jo loves this vital subject and makes it fun to learn.

Bob McAlpine’s conferences and webinars through Type Resources
Bob has a genius for creating community and engaging people with type long-term. He knows exactly how much hands-on participation is needed for people to learn and remember. 

Rob Toomey’s TypeCoach Verifier
This app treats users like adults, helping them learn type while also figuring out their own orientation. It’s MBTI-based thinking, but the language is unusually clear, vivid, and unbiased! They also offer type-dependent coaching modules. 

One takeaway from these experiences is that great teaching is tied to the type development of the teachers. In these learning situations, I could very easily see many more functions at work than the teacher’s two preferred ones. ❖