Information elements - the fusion of Kępiński and Jung
Everything that happens in observable reality, including our own bodies, may be reduced to energy changing its forms. Here, energy is understood in the strictest physical sense.
The equivalence of matter and energy was proved by Einstein and therefore matter is not considered a separate category. Although Kępiński used the notion of Energy Metabolism (EM) only in association with the dynamics of the life processes of a biological organism, Augustinavičiūtė used it to describe energy conversions in general. The latter convention will be used in this section, where the derivation of information elements (a novel concept developed by Augustinavičiūtė) will be presented.
Let us assume that the psyche is observing an event. Any transformation of energy – a unit act of EM – is accompanied by the generation of some information (e.g. if an object moves, explodes, collides with another object – we notice the change). Augustinavičiūtė chose to define the units of information metabolism as corresponding to specific observable transformations of energy. To find out what these energy transformations might be, an object that is representative of all existing objects should be considered. The consideration of inanimate objects only is too narrow, as the psyche deals with much more complex objects, such as people and their emotions and needs (as well as its own).
Therefore, an analysis of energy transformations during the activity of the human body would be appropriate. The founder of socionics compared living organisms to an internal combustion engine and to a bouncing elastic ball (Augustinavičiūtė, 1998). Before the presentation of these analogies, a short, clarifying introduction will be given.
One should notice that organisms are frequently treated as open thermodynamic systems and such a description is quite common in engineering (Cengel & Boles, 2006). The internal energy of an open thermodynamic system may be altered by transfers of enthalpy, heat and work. For biological organisms, the contribution of enthalpy transfers the overall energy balance is very small and can be neglected. Heat is released during the numerous chemical reactions taking place in the cells. In these reactions, nutritional components are metabolized, therefore we can think of food as fuel. Let us notice that heat is a disorganized form of energy, associated with chaotic motions of particles.
Uncontrolled heat transfer leads to the thermal death of the system – the state at which it can no longer perform any work. By contrast, work is an organized form of energy in which particles are moved in an orderly way, in a specified direction (consider a body pushed by a piston). This motion can be directed to desired locations through mechanical links, to perform various tasks. In the case of a living body, we can think of blood circulation, breathing, peristalsis and motor functions in general.
A device which uses heat to generate work is basically a heat engine. This type of modeling was used by Augustinavičiūtė regarding organisms. She divided the general activity pattern of an organism into 4 stages. Firstly, let us observe that any activity requires some form of potential energy. This energy is contained in the structure, like the chemical energy stored in fuel, or the potential energy of elasticity contained in a squeezed rubber ball. Augustinavičiūtė assigned the symbol (
) to this energy state. The next stage is the release of potential energy from the object and its conversion into kinetic energy – the process of mobilization. This stage is dynamic and includes a change in the internal structure of the object. It corresponds to the compression of the fuel-air mixture, or the return of the elastic ball to its unsqueezed shape. This dynamic act of EM was assigned the symbol (
). At some point, the object reaches its moment of maximal mobilization, where it has the greatest kinetic energy. This corresponds to the moment of ignition in an internal combustion engine, or the ball state just after decompression, and at the start of its upward motion. This phase of EM is assigned the symbol (
). The last stage of this cycle is work. The combusted mixture expands and is able to move the piston. The ball can overcome the Earth’s gravitational pull and jump off the floor. As work is done, the kinetic energy of the body decreases. This is the dynamic stage and is assigned the symbol (
).
Humans and animals also act according to the aforementioned stages. If the person is at rest, there is the potential of action () which can be realized if they get excited by a stimulus. The process of mobilization () may be linked to the first phase of IM mentioned by Kępiński, in which emotional evaluation of the stimulus takes place. It invokes an attitude 'for' or 'against' the perceived change. The body is rapidly prepared to execute an adequate physical reaction, for example to escape or to draw nearer to the source of the stimulus. At the beginning of the execution of the physical reaction, it possesses maximum kinetic energy. This state is referred to as (). To accomplish the selected goal, the body must expend energy. In physics, this is called work (). This process also requires thinking – for example planning an appropriate sequence of actions or applying tools. In the process, the person tires. Please note that these are phases of EM, but by observing them, the psyche learns and obtains information. It means that each stage of EM mentioned is accompanied by information content characteristic for that stage. Each change in the body itself or in its position is not only an act of energy metabolism, but also an informational signal to surrounding living beings. This understanding of the link between EM and IM was accentuated by Augustinavičiūtė.
Let us notice that Augustinavičiūtė divided the EM process into phases which can be easily linked to the 4 Jungian functions. As a matter of fact, if the Jungian paradigm is adopted, the information about potentials of objects is related to imagination and acquired by intuition, specifically by its extraverted version (Ne). The information about releasing this potential - mobilizing the body into action, is related to extroverted feeling (Fe).
Consequently, the information about the object in its full explicit power is obtained by extroverted sensing (Se), while information about work done by objects in the physical world is obtained through extraverted thinking (Te). There is one apparent inconsistency, as Jung pointed out, that the input into the psyche is only via sensing and intuition, and not by thinking or feeling. Indeed, thinking and feeling work on the stimuli received through senses and intuition, but, here, the information obtained through Te or Fe is considered something which, of course, has its basis in sensory inputs and intuitions, but is focused more on further reflections than raw input data.
For completeness, it is necessary to discuss the introverted side of the 4 functions, as only their extraverted versions have been mentioned thus far. As noticed by the founder of socionics, introverts think not in terms of objects and what happens to them, but in terms of relationships between objects, especially the relationship between the subject and the external world. To refer to relationships, Augustinavičiūtė utilized the concept of a field, taken from theoretical physics. This association should be considered metaphorical and can be easily explained. Celestial bodies interact mostly from afar due to fields. The field is a sum of relationships of one body with other bodies. It becomes clear if we imagine a particle. We cannot say if it has an electric charge (and therefore an electric field around it) unless we put another charged particle nearby and see how it reacts. It may move closer, drift away or stay in place. Only then can we say something about the relationship between the charges of these particles. Other physical fields work in the same way.
Therefore, the concept of a field is somehow akin to the concept of a relationship. Now, let us consider that any transformation of the energy of an object – e.g. motion, excitation, deceleration, work – is accompanied by change in the surrounding fields. An object might have changed its position in space, so its spatial location with respect to other objects may have changed. The person might get excited or depressed, and thus their energy level will change relative to another person or people. In the last example, the term “energy” was used in the psychological sense, but it should be kept in mind that behind all activities there are physical processes of energy conversion.
In the previous paragraph, it was demonstrated that every element of EM (and Information Metabolism - IM) referring to objects can be assigned a corresponding element related to fields. Among object-elements, there are 2 static and 2 dynamic elements. In the Jungian model, the functions are characterized by symmetries, so symmetry is also expected between object-and field-elements. The first object-element is potential energy () and it is static. The field version of this element is denoted by a white triangle (
), and it refers to the dynamics of the field of potential energies of objects. Potentials possessed by various objects may unfold in the future. This element is associated with time, as time is the manifestation of events which had previously been mere potentials. This element is dynamic as it describes the process of unfolding, and relational as it describes the field. It corresponds to Jungian introverted intuition (Ni).
Now let us think of the field version of element (). It will be denoted by white symbol of the same shape (
). The process of internal mobilization of the object is dynamic, therefore the field-element associated with it should be static, by the law of symmetry.
Living organisms become motivated to action due to the feeling of attraction (or repulsion) to something. Such a feeling of attraction or repulsion can be seen as a static moment (still snapshot) of (). Therefore, () is the static field of attraction/repulsion (between all objects, with the emphasis on the place of oneself in it).The explicit state of energy is (). Its field-element should be dynamic and is denoted by a white circle (
). It can be described as the dynamics of the relationship between explicit energy states of objects. If Jungian functions are considered, it is related to introverted sensing (Si).
The field-element associated with work is related to Jungian introverted thinking (Ti). As work () is dynamic and requires purposeful procedures, the information about explicit statics of relationships between objects (
) is needed to avoid chaotic (and therefore useless) actions. Treating objects as aggregates of static (frozen) properties allows for their comparison and classification, which helps in making decisions and building mental models of reality (Kępiński, 1977b).
As before, any field-element of EM implies the existence of an associated IM element. In summary, Augustinavičiūtė classified the information received by the psyche into two categories:
(1) sensations that are formed into perceptions and bring information about the qualities and condition of objects (black elements of IM);
(2) sensations that are formed into impressions and bring information about fields (white elements of IM).
The quality of received information depends on the characteristics of external stimuli and the quality, strength, development, and training of the personal information-receiving system. At this stage it is worth mentioning that various authors have given slightly different definitions of IM elements. Even Augustinavičiūtė’s definitions changed from paper to paper, yet still the qualities which these descriptions tried to convey were always the same. In some socionic papers, descriptions of IM elements involve many examples, which is good for beginners and people with weaker intuition (Eglit, 2010). At the same time, these kinds of descriptions can be too specific, and the necessary level of generality may be lost.