Carl Jung's Theory

Describe and evaluate Carl Jung’s theory concerning personality types and show how it might usefully help a therapist to determine the client’s therapeutic goal
Personality can be described as the individual’s characteristic patterns of thought emotion and behaviour together with the psychological mechanisms, hidden or not, behind those patterns. The influence of both genetics and heredity factors alongside upbringing, culture and experience are recognised as influencing an individual’s personality. Within the counselling arena, this theory explains how the client’s unique personality will influence their movement and path to finding solutions to the issues and problems they bring.
Carl Gustav Jung, (26 July 1875 – 6 June 1961), was a Swiss psychologist and psychiatrist, and the founder of what is known as Analytical Psychology.   His work and influence extends way beyond defining and trying to understand personality, and he is considered to be one of the greatest thinkers to have theorised about life and how people relate to it. This essay will be evaluating Carl Jung’s type theory of personality which suggested that there were distinct personality types into which each individual could be placed. This essay will also discuss how useful the application of his personality type theory is within the counselling setting when determining the client’s goals.
For thousands of years some kind of 'typology' has existed to try and categorise individual’s attitudes and behaviour, e.g. astrology. Oriental astrologers invented the oldest form of typology; believing is that there is a personality trait that is relevant to each sign and that a person’s character/personality can be classified in terms of the elements – fire water air and earth. Those under fire, for example, had a fiery nature and corresponding temperament and fate.
The ancient Greeks believed in the 'four temperaments' / 'four humours', which can be traced back to Ancient Greek medicine and philosophy...