This piece continues the series on integral theory and aims to introduce types and typology. On a curious note concerning the history of integral theory, type was simply the leftover of the system. Type refers to whatever wasn't stages (or levels), states, quadrants, or lines (which we haven't quite gotten around to yet).
You're more than likely intuitively familiar with typology. Quizzes all over the internet abound -- ranging from Harry Potter's ‘Wizarding Houses of Hogwarts’, to "which Disney princess are you?" Put another way, typology speaks to both our capacity and proclivity to categorize.
While each of us may vary in our affinity for systems and categories, what's beneath the intuitive surface appeal of types? As I’ve mentioned throughout this series, integral theory offers us a grammar for empathy. Recognizing our own and others’ types yields increased empathy, self-awareness, recognizing the need for and promotion of diversity. These are obvious benefits for teamwork, cooperation, and collaboration.
Nature clearly agrees, as evidenced by the sheer variety of sexual dimorphism.
Some examples of types I've come across:
Yin and yang in Taoism and its combinations in the trigrams of ba gua and hexagrams of the I Ching used in divination. I would count it among the most primordial of typologies and an ancient precursor of the binary system that is foundational to our digital technologies today.
Masculine and feminine -- gender in both life, language and spiritual practice. As an example, David Deida has managed to sustain an entire writing and speaking career essentially talking about these two things.
The zodiac in Western astrology contains both triplicities (fixed, mutable & cardinal signs) and quadruplicities (fire, earth, air and water signs) among its twelve signs, while the Chinese zodiac uses fiveness with its slightly different take and elemental system (earth, metal, water, wood, and fire).
Ayurveda and the doshas of kapha, pitta, and vata that correspond with phases of life, times of day, types of people, individual variation, disease, responsiveness and sensitivities.
Sheldon's somatotypes -- endomorph, mesomorph and ectomorph as three types in a constitutional and personality theory. While suspiciously reminiscent of Ayruvedic doshas, it is not particularly well developed or thorough by comparison. Whether or not it was independently arrived at is open for debate.
Elemental theories -- ancient Greece, Japan, China, India, etc. usually incorporating 4 or 5 aspects -- Earth, Air, Fire, Water and sometimes Spirit or Void.
Tarot and the major arcana addressing phases of life.
While those are ancient attempts at organizing the world into categories and such, we can also see types in modern examples like:
positions in a sports team (offence, defence, special teams, etc.)
members of an orchestra, band, or company.
political party affiliation -- liberalism versus conservatism
Jungian psychology; storytelling; myths, etc. (Hero, Allies, Maiden, Adversary, Mentor, Trickster, etc.)
Personality systems -- Myers-Briggs, Enneagram, Big Five, StrengthsFinder, DISC, etc.
Classes found in games like RPGs (fighter, mage, cleric, rogue, etc.).
Something I find compelling about typology and personality systems is framing them as strategies for human survival and flourishing given our social dependence as a species and that such traits are evolutionarily selected across a wide range of circumstances.
In a way, all of these types could be viewed as storytelling in one way or another.
The importance of storytelling and mythology serves double duty as vehicles for cultural transmission across generations but also as ways to simulate different ways of being and to learn from that as something to be emulated or not -- virtues, vices and perhaps the basis of ethics or morality. I also came across the example of chess and how learning the rules of how the different pieces move engenders a roleplaying capacity in the developing mind.
While these systems can be useful for cultivating awareness in self and others, acknowledging and accepting different people and different ways of being, thinking and acting in the world -- they can also lead into the trap of excessive rigidity and putting people into boxes.
Someone wise once shared with me the framing of personality as a strategy to survive childhood and that each of us contains the capacity for all of them -- one learns about one's type in order to understand our habits of being, thinking and doing in order to fully accept and eventually transcend them entirely.
Put another way, developing character happens at the edges of our given temperament. It is in becoming and expanding our capacities that we grow and mature as individuals. In some ways, it’s another riff on the timeless nature versus nurture conversation that informs each of our lives and destinies.
PS If there’s a typology that resonates with you that you’ve found useful in your development, I’d like to hear about it in a comment.