COVID-19 Lockdowns and Jung’s Personality Types

Abstract

ABSTRACT This essay proposes a return to C. G. Jung’s personality theories and argues in favor of their relevancies in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic and the unprecedented changes it produced to forms of socialization. Through a narratological analysis of survey data gathered by the author, this paper maintains that the adaptability, malleability, and complexity of Jung’s psychic paradigms is what makes his theories of the personality current in the 2020s. The survey, distributed globally in the summer of 2021, consisted of open essay-style questions that encouraged participants’ narrative orientation. Results are mixed and do not always follow type expectations (not all introverted participants thrived, nor did all extraverts struggle). Mixed results point to human variability, which Jung acknowledges even within types, and to the existence of multiple stories about the lived experience of COVID-19 lockdowns. Ultimately, I propose a post-Jungian, post-pandemic approach to the personality, which takes contextual factors into account, and I advocate a humanistic approach to Jung, which will result in a better understanding of human psychology.