The Dual Nature of Humans. p.1
1. The Nature of Erotic Feelings
Where does erotic love come from?
Is it rooted in humanized sexual instinct?
That’s a common thought. But love fulfills two completely independent needs: the need to relieve sexual tension and the need for a psychological connection with another person. Both depend on intellect, culture, and social conditions, and are interconnected, yet they are not the cause of each other. The most convincing hypothesis suggests that love is explained by the dual nature of humans.
Many philosophers have pondered this.
"One person alone is not truly a person," wrote Feuerbach, "only in a pair do they achieve harmonious wholeness."
Hegel similarly stated: "The true essence of love lies in renouncing self-consciousness, forgetting oneself in another, and yet in this self-forgetting, one truly finds oneself and gains possession of one’s true being." (Hegel, Collected Works, XIII, 1940, p. 108).
Erich Fromm also reflects on this idea:
"Love allows one to be oneself and maintain one’s wholeness. Love is a paradox where two beings become one, yet remain two."
The ancient Greeks explained this phenomenon through the myth of androgynes, as told by Aristophanes to Socrates in Plato's "Symposium." In the myth, humans originally had double bodies—four arms, four legs, two faces. Angered, Zeus split them in half, leaving each person as a half, constantly yearning to reunite with their other half.
2. The Problem of Psychological Complementarity
If a person seeks psychological complementarity, it means they can only be complemented by someone with specific psychological qualities, not just anyone they find physically attractive. While opposites are often thought to complement one another, our research shows not all opposites can be considered complementary. Some opposites lead to constant conflict or suppress one partner’s activity. However, there are complementary opposites that balance an individual’s psyche and activate their life. The answer lies in typologies used by psychiatrists, from P.B. Gannushkin to E. Kretschmer, C.G. Jung, A. Kempinsky, A.E. Lichko, and K. Leonhard.
Among these, Jung's typology stands out as the most developed for understanding the compatibility of different types of people. Jung's structural approach to the psyche differs from other descriptive typologies. So, we will begin with his work, while also offering a comparative table of other typologies for those interested.
3. Advantages of C.G. Jung's Typology
One advantage of Jung’s typology is its structural approach. Additionally, he classifies healthy individuals, not those with mental illness, avoiding the more unpleasant terms used by other typologies. Instead, Jung focuses on the strengths of the human psyche, which he refers to as psychological functions. We refer to these as elements of human information metabolism.
Unfortunately, even Jung's terms don’t quite fit our needs. Where Jung uses "thinking," we use "logic"; where he says "feeling," we use "ethics." While these aren’t perfect substitutes, they are more precise. For example, when Jung contrasts thinking types with feeling types, it creates the false impression that one group "thinks" while the other merely "feels." In reality, both groups think, just about different things: thinkers focus on the objective world, while feelers consider the subjective aspects. This is why we refer to ethical thinking rather than emotional thinking.
4. Humor and the 16 Types of IM
Since personality type is essentially a difference in how one processes information, we refer to personality types as information metabolism types, or IM types. Each type processes certain information more clearly while other aspects remain vague. This explains why people in the same situation recall and describe it differently. The way someone expresses themselves—their words, gestures, tone—can either resonate with others or alienate them, depending on their IM type.
Humor plays a role here, too. A joke only works if it provides some needed relief or insight. Each person’s sense of humor is limited by what offers them comfort, which is why people sometimes say others "don’t have a sense of humor" when, in reality, their humor just differs.
5. Understanding Personality Types and Relationships
In order to meet our needs, we cooperate with others. Each personality type excels in different aspects of life, and they complement each other. Throughout human evolution, individual psyches specialized, leading to an asymmetrical, one-sided development. This asymmetry is why people need psychological complementarity from others to function more effectively in society.
Our typology divides information processing into eight elements, each representing a different aspect of the world. These elements, which are used to process information, define an individual’s IM type.
6. The Consciousness of Love
Is love a conscious or unconscious phenomenon?
Some people consciously choose who they love based on the qualities they find desirable, like attractiveness or value. This type of love is calculated and rational. Others, however, do not choose to love; love simply happens to them. For these individuals, love is not something they do—it’s something they experience. This difference depends on one's IM type.
People with an ethical IM type are in tune with both their own and others’ emotions. They openly express their feelings because they believe emotions are a valuable part of the human experience. Logical types, on the other hand, repress their feelings, considering emotions a weakness. These individuals may even struggle to believe that they are loved.
The end of part 1.