Introverted Intuition in the Shadow

Introverted intuition may be one of the most difficult types to understand. As a quintessential type, both functionally and directionally oriented to the inner object (the images of the collective unconscious) it does not conform to what is normally considered “conscious experience.”

Normal Introverted Intuition (IN)

Introverted intuition is oriented to the inner object, an orientation that is detached from the world at large. With this introverted orientation, grand possibilities may be apprehended at any moment, and new scenarios imagined.

The “outer object” may play a role, but only to direct the attention again to the inner life, to the inspiring images arising there. Profound insights often arise from the capacity to grasp a holistic vision of a course of events not yet born.

“Although his intuition may be stimulated by external objects, it does not concern itself with external possibilities but with what the external object has released within him.” (CW 6, par. 656)

Continually managing two conversations at once, but primarily attending to the inner conversation and only secondarily to the outer one, the person who favors this type may become a complete enigma to his immediate circle. He will often find it difficult to translate what is perceived within into intelligible language.

He experiences an immense inner richness, accompanied by an equally profound difficulty to share that richness with others. He neither desires to communicate what he has experienced, nor has adequate words for it.

Introverted Intuition in the Shadow

When introverted intuition is in the “inferior” or “shadow” position, the capacity to linger in the inner world of imaginative ideas is somewhat hindered.

The lead type for someone with introverted intuition in the shadow will most probably be an extraverted type, for which the “inner life is subordinated to external necessity” (CW6, par. 563).

Those with introverted intuition in the shadow will often shy away from getting too involved in broad imaginative excursions or abstractions, for fear of getting lost in realms unknown to them. Intuitive hunches may be completely discarded as something to be suspicious of.

When in the shadow, introverted intuition will serve as a kind of governor, holding the extraverted proclivity in check so that the individual does not become overly one-sided. Extraverted attitudes are oriented extensively to particular facts and details, so the more holistic and intensive orientation of introverted intuition serves as an effective counterbalance.

Introverted intuition will urge the individual to look inward to the enthralling images in the inner life. While the extraverted attitudes perceive that which is real, introverted intuition apprehends the image that may seem even more real than real.

Individuation will ultimately require the resurrection of a more fully developed introverted intuition, though it will likely be the last to surface. Other attitudes, less submerged and therefore more accessible to consciousness, will usually develop first, bringing introverted intuition with them as they surface.