The Heart of Personality Type
Beauty, of course, is always in the eye of the beholder. Here is what I beheld in Sydney this year as we came together to celebrate ‘The Heart of Personality Type.’
On Thursday afternoon the new AusAPT management committee met for the first time. It was largely an informal chat to reflect on where AusAPT is at right now. And to explore how we will move forward without Ellen Owen as a committee member and with Terri Connellan stepping back into the role of ‘Past President’ – a longstanding AusAPT practice to support times of transition. That evening we were joined – for an informal supper and drinks – by the majority of conference participants who had flown into Sydney that day. Sadly, Sue Blair couldn’t be with us to deliver her session due to a family bereavement on the eve of the conference. We sent condolences from the AusAPT community.
Day 1 began with the acknowledgement of the traditional custodians of the place in which we were meeting – the Gadigal people of the Eora nation.
Catherine Stothart – a BAPT Board Member from the UK – delivered our first session – on the Berens’ Interaction Styles model and how it can throw light on relationships, conflict and communication. Interaction Styles maps well to general Psychological Type insights. For me, the selection and use of Interaction Styles is a great way to address an unrealistic expectation – that practitioners can introduce Type in an ethical way when clients want us to present for a half day or day.
Daniel Liew joined us from Malaysia. He engaged us with an excellent Case Study of a significant business merger undertaken by a client of his. Participants were divided into small groups – each applying a different ‘Type lens’ to throw a light on a number of difficulties faced by the client organisation. We enjoyed suggesting ways forward applying Type insights. But where was Clare Ayers this year when the topic of grief came up!? Daniel was joined by his compatriot Jonathan Lee who was great company – especially when he gave us all free coffee sample from his Barista past!
Liz Hallows took us on a deep dive into a consideration of Jung’s explorations in the 1920s and insights from the ever evolving understanding of neuroscience in recent times. She had me nodding more than a few times about the need to tighten up the way we present on Type. Thanks Liz for such thorough preparation and that fabulous 21 page handout.
Meredith Fuller and Brian Walsh invited us to relate Type and Temperament to their latest movie ‘Heroin Addictionary’. Superb acting with a brilliant script made for compelling viewing and offered a deeper understanding of the impact of addiction on individuals, their families and the broader community. Those of us in the Vic/Tas region had a sneak preview a few months back.
Harumi Gondo helped us to explore Type through the eyes of the many mothers she works with and supports in Japan. And the activities of their children captured on film as they played and interacted with each other. I learnt a little at the TypeLab/AusAPT conference in Tokyo in April this year about the pressure on parents to have their children conform to the societal expectations of Japanese culture. For me this is a fascinating way to apply Type. Letting Mums know that their children are different from each other in ways that are quite normal if Type is your lens. The conference dinner was well attended and there was no shortage of good food and wine. Your Truly – according to a now established conference tradition – presented a Crosby, Stills and Nash variant to ‘Teach Your Children’ – ‘Teach the Punters’. Congratulations to Catherine McGuiness who was able to detect the source of the second ‘song’ just from the opening few table slamming beats – Queen’s ‘We Will Rock You’ – transformed into ‘We Will Type You’ – which, of course, we all know we shouldn’t!!.
And so we reached Day 2. As usual, Mary McGuiness did not disappoint. Mary examined those differently wired brains of ours and the impact of our preferred mental functions – as described by Jung in his work – on the way we learn. And a reflection on how we teach type as well of course – if we are willing to put in the extra effort to adjust our approach to the needs of our client groups rather than comfort with our own style.
There has been a growing interest across the Psychological Type community in another Personality framework – the Enneagram – for some years now. A Sydney local, Samantha McKay, delivered one of the best introductory sessions for the Enneagram that I have seen – and I’ve seen a few – having been aware of the Enneagram since 1988. So far I have collected 7 books about Jung, 51 on the MBTI® and 15 on the Enneagram – but the gap is closing! Thanks Samantha we hope you will stay in touch with AusAPT.
An important prior commitment resulted in me missing Terri Connellan’s session: ‘Thinking Preferenced Women- their Experiences of Type and Culture’. I hear that it was very well received. I was impressed by the fact that Terri got so many women to respond to her survey as a feed in to the session. We don’t seem to do enough independent research these days.
A special mention once more to Catherine whose ‘shout out’ intervention was perfectly timed to have us all in stitches just as Brian Walsh captured the ‘whole of conference’ attendees shot. Best set of AusAPT smiles I’ve ever seen. Thank you Brian and Meredith for capturing the whole conference with your superlative camera work.
A huge thank-you also to those who made this conference happen – Phil Kerr and Terri Connellan as the driving forces – ably assisted by Meredith Fuller, Harumi Gondo and Ellen Owen. We may be smaller in numbers these days but we remain big in heart. And isn’t that what the Heart of Personality is all about!
Andrew Mountford
President,
Australian Association for Psychological Type