History of Socionics - Socionics

This is a record of significant events in the history of socionics (and related typologies like Jung's typology and MBTI, despite the fact that they are not socionics). I focus on the history of ideas as well as significant community events, especially in the Western socionics community.

1921: Jung publishes Psychological Types.
- He talks about e.g. an Introverted Intuition type as embodying the thought processes, behaviors, reactions associated with Ni. He acknowledges no one "mechanism" predominates completely; we all have access to both introversion and extroversion, etc.: "But every individual possesses both mechanisms — extraversion as well as introversion, and only the relative predominance of the one or the other determines the type." (PT, p10)
- However, he sees type as a habitual use of one mechanism (e.g. introversion, as opposed to extroversion) and not something that is ingrained: "But, as I have already emphasized more than once, introversion and extraversion are not characters at all, but mechanisms, which can, as it were, be inserted or disconnected at will." This is unlike MBTI which places the types and type dichotomies at the forefront and makes little use of functions (mechanisms).
- "Just as extraverted sensation strives to reach the highest pitch of actuality, because only thus can the appearance of a complete life be created, so intuition tries to encompass the greatest possibilities, since only through the awareness of possibilities is intuition fully satisfied. Intuition seeks to discover possibilities in the objective situation;"
- "Sensation establishes what is actually present....intuition points to possibilities as to whence it came and whither it is going in a given situation." [Jung defines thinking as meaning and feeling as value — less like socionics.]
- "I have often been asked, almost accusingly, why I speak of four functions and not of more of fewer. That there were exactly four was a result I arrived at on purely empirical grounds."
1960s-70s: Cybernetic ideas become popular in the Soviet Union (and later influence Augusta's conception of Model A).¹
1961: Jung dies.
1968: Augusta has her "flash of insight" which leads to Model A, in particular the idea that the psychological functions must correspond to aspects of objective reality, and therefore be accessible to all of the types.¹
Early 1970s: Augusta becomes acquainted with the works of Jung and Kempinski.²
1977: Russian psychiatrist Andrey Lichko publishes a typology monograph called "Psychopathy and Accentuations of Character of Teenagers". Uses the term "locus of the least resistance": "Introducing the notion of the "locus of the least resistance" ("weak unit") within the character, as well as the description of these loci in relation to each type of accentuation of character is a most important contribution to characterology. It also appears to be an invaluable tool in practice. It is urgent to know the vulnerable areas of every person in order to avoid inappropriate steps, overwork, accidents, and complications.[7]"
1978: Augusta writes the article “The Theory of Relativity of Erotic Feelings” and publishes through samizdat the first version of the article The Dual Nature of Man. These were the first works on socionics.²
- Nikolai Medvedev, an engineer by education, also helped to create Model A, and Vytautas Lyashkavichus the intertype relation chart.² ³ ⁴
- "In addition, socionics in the presentation of Aushra was more like a rough draft, [6]than a complete system. A more or less complete form of socionics took shape only in the late 80's - early 90's, when Aushra herself began to move away from active activities." ³ ⁵ ⁶
- Aushra saw her research as hypothetical: "Meeting recently with Aushra, I asked her a question, she said: "It's not science at all. That I wrote, it's a lot of hypotheses, it's still proving and proving! I'm saying - I'm not at all pleased with the fact that this made science, and then they have also given their names to this science.""⁷
- She views the interactions between types and functions as merely about communicating and transferring information — conflict to Augusta is based solely on miscommunication. She does not seem to acknowledge that different types have real conflicts of goals.⁸
- She also calls the rational elements "aspect[s] of perception" - so irrational does not mean "perceiving" in socionics.
1978: Keirsey's Please Understand Me (Keirsey temperament theory) is published.
1980: Gifts Differing is published. Isabel Briggs Myers dies.
1980: Augusta "published an article ["Informational metabolism model"?] analyzing socionic types through Model A in the Lithuanian magazine Mokslas ir Technika, which drew harsh criticism from psychologists but great interest from readers, and published a new work, The Theory of Intertype Relations."
- Defines Ne as "structure" at this time.
- Mentions Jung and Kempinsky, describes Model A, the rings, the blocks. Mental/vital rings are called active/passive here instead.
- Ni is already described as time.
1980 (early version 1978? some say 1983?): Augusta publishes "[On] The Dual Nature of Man".
- Per Bukalov it was published in samizdat form in 1980.¹
- However note other inconsistencies in his account: he says the flash of insight about how to make an 8-function model was in 1968, while Model J was used initially in socionics, and some say she didn't become aware of Jung until the 70s. Maybe he was referring only to the number of types as 16.
- It emphasizes dyads and Jungian dichotomies, i.e. duals' differences are emphasized (except rationality). Quadras are not mentioned.
- She uses I/E + T/F and I/E + S/N to form groups of four that include two dyads.
- The fact that there are 16 relationships in all is mentioned, but not the specifics or their names.
- Uses the 1-letter Latin abbreviations? (may be an artifact of typesetting -- they are usually understood to be due to Gulenko, e.g. as mentioned here)
- Describes three of the Reinin dichotomies: static/dynamic, questioner/declarer, democracy/aristocracy.
1982, December: Augusta mentions quadras at least by this time, in "Social nature of man and the association of society"⁹
1982: Augusta comments on Jung's typology and its differences with socionics.
- Model J is coined to retroactively refer to four of the most significant functions from the Jungian perspective: dominant, auxiliary, tertiary, and inferior.
- She seems to imply he had an 8-element model: "For convenience, we will call the formation discovered by Jung from all eight elements the K (Karl) model."
- Contains a section named "Jung's erroneous hypotheses": "Some of Jung's hypotheses and provisions are clearly outdated, and they can already be replaced by others."
1982: The first charge system is made: "the very first version of charge system was made in 1982, that is 2 years before Reinin made his dichotomies that happened per Aushra's account in 1984".¹⁰
1982?: Augusta publishes The Theory of Intertype Relations.
- Or 1980? (per wikisocion link above, The Theory of Intertype Relations) Per Bukalov it and Socion came out after TDNOM.¹
- She discusses Model Ju/J, calls the 4th function the PoLR and refers to it as being insecure and sensitive to criticism: "The most vulnerable in the structure of Yu is the third, adaptive function. This is the so called place of least resistance (MLS) in the human psyche, the main source of all conflicts, resentment and misunderstanding. If there is a close individual with a complementary psyche with whom you cooperate control of this function is automatically transferred to him. Then there is a feeling security. You can act relying on the other, with partial deviation of attention. But even in such conditions, this function remains the place of the greatest doubts and worries, although it does not lead to a sense of maladjustment in society. On the contrary, it becomes the basis of creative quests. And if there is no such feeling of security, any criticism from the outside, any hint, ambiguity, even only implied, is perplexing, unbalanced, injure, lead to character accentuations and mental illness."
- also calls quadras D/E/J/G - ?
1983: Final version of? The Dual Nature of Man is published.¹⁰
Augusta publishes her third major work, The Socion: or The Foundations of Socionics.⁸ source
- Socion mentions, and therefore came after, The Theory of Intertype Relations: "This issue is examined more broadly and sequentially in our earlier monograph “Theory of intertype relations.”"
- She uses function signs, albeit without any elaboration of the semantics.
- Uses "(inner) structure" for Ne, but the description sounds like NeTi maybe, still about potential, abilities, interests.
- She notes that her typology, while Jungian, is not the same as Jung's: "Therefore, I feel it my duty to warn that we have not thought up anything ourselves, but have just extended and elaborated on the provisions of C.G. Jung, though in the process some of them have changed beyond recognition."
- "This monograph introduces basic premises, main categories and definitions of socionics. The work cannot be considered finished. It still contains a lot of inaccuracies and contradictions, the reason being that we had to feel our way through the process because of the subject’s novelty and the author’s lack of special training."
- "In other words, while the work seems theoretical, “theory” is merely a way to most densely describe everything we were able to decipher during practical observation of specific individuals. There is not a single drop of some kind of “pure theory” that would not follow from our observations."
1984: Augusta uses the pseudonyms Don Quixote, Dumas, Hugo, Robespierre, Hamlet, Gaben...¹¹
- Also claims that rationality/irrationality (schizothyme/cyclothyme here) is innate but extroversion/introversion may not be.
- Later (1987) she prefers Niels Bohr for ILE.¹²
1984 (middle): Reinin compiles his dichotomies and traits.¹⁰
1984: Gulenko becomes acquainted with socionics.¹³
1985: Augusta learns of MBTI, and partly revises her view of the types based on it.⁴
1985: Igor Weisband publishes the first complete set of type descriptions, based on Augusta's notes: “Working material on socionics”.⁴
1985: Augusta publishes a long paper on Reinin dichotomies.¹⁰ She also mentions MBTI here, and has a diagram of the Model A cube.
- She mentions getting the different types as configurations but does not mention that the relationships are rotations and reflections.
- Pseudonyms Don Quixote, Hugo, Dumas, Stirlitz are used.
- She mentions that the traits are still a work in progress: "This first hasty edition of “Reinin’s Theory of Signs” is not intended for a wide circle of readers, but only for a narrow circle of socionics for the further development of theories, adjustments, amendments, and improvement of terminology. It is possible that, for example, some properties of a personality type that I attributed to one of Reinin’s characteristics, after verification, will have to be attributed to another."
- She groups the dichotomies (signs) according to how they act on quadras.
- Cites The Socion: "Much is known from The Socion, but we will not stop there."
1986: Bukalov meets Augusta.¹⁴
1988: Gulenko begins publishing: "Gulenko V.V. Special logic functions - Kiev, 03/23/1988."¹⁵
- The other earliest one is May 1989: "On effective spheres of activity of socionic types", 05/03/1989
1989, June: Gulenko publishes on quadras.
1989: The theory of dimensionality is formulated by Bukalov and Yermak, per Eglit.¹⁶
- Bukalov also says that he himself introduced dimensionality: "And it turned out that when I introduced the concept of dimensions I managed to describe it so well." ¹⁴
- "The first function has 4 active dimensions. The second one has three. Before that we didn’t understand what was their difference. We just said that -even Aušra said that- the first function is stronger than the second, the second is stronger than the third."
1989: Bukalov also says Model B was developed at this time.
1989: Gulenko presents his theory of function signs (published in 1990).⁶ ¹⁷
- In this article he also presents essentially modern Eastern definitions of the IM elements: time, relationships, sensation, objective? logic, business logic, possibilities, emotions, volition.
1990s: Augusta withdraws from socionics research due to health issues.⁴
1990: Mention of subtypes. Gulenko mentions the 16-type (secondary type) model — and he doesn't like it. (Number of types in social analysis) ¹⁸
1991: Gulenko again publishes on quadras. Here they are called 1st, 2nd, 3rd, 4th, as well as Alpha/Beta/Gamma/Delta.
1991: Bukalov and others found the International Institute of Socionics.¹⁴
1991: Gulenko describes initial and terminal (accepting and creative) subtypes (Portraits of types (initial and terminal subtypes)).¹⁹
1991: Gulenko describes at this time the "age" interpretation of quadras ("Quadras and Their Socio-Psychological Features" (1991)).²⁰
- Here the concept of valued IMEs / quadra values ("Alphas value Ti" etc.) is mentioned.
1993: Gulenko founds the "School of Humanitarian Socionics" (SHS).¹³
1993: Gulenko sets out the IM element dichotomies and relationships in "Functional states of personality".²¹
- The relationships:
  - equivalence (duality): "their mutually beneficial coexistence, which is not violated either in the active or passive mode of their manifestation"
  - anti-equivalence (superego)
  - conjunction/coincidence (identity)
  - anti-conjunction (contrary)
  - and the asymmetric relations
- Also identifies rationality with discreteness here, as opposed to later interpretations that associate discreteness with static and continuity with dynamic.
1993: John Beebe presents his 8 function model.²² It is unclear if he knows about Model A, but his functions share almost nothing in common with those of Model A.
1995: Gulenko publishes a paper with Meged on proto-DCNH (Compatibility and Duality)²³ and one on proto-Model G.²⁴
1996: Model B article. source
- Or 1990ish? source
- Nothing before 1996 is listed there, so maybe.
1996: an ultimately obscure Model A-2 is created by Filimonov. source
1997: Stratiyevskaya publishes her type descriptions.
- "From 1993 to 1996, [she] worked on descriptions and characteristics of 16 types of MI and in 1997 published them as a separate book entitled “How to make sure we don’t part” (SME Publishing House, Moscow, 1997, Circulation: 31,000 copies)" source
1997: The English-language site socionics.com is first put online.
- 1998 Dec: copyright "S&I" - apparently Sergei Ganin and Ian Attwell. source
- They published a book "The Infosocial Model of Human Behaviour"
- Still uses regular 4-letter notation "ENTP". Has type and relationship descriptions.
1999: Mikhail Gut notes the group structure of the intertype relations. source
- He gives a permutation and matrix representation of the group but he does not say it is D₄ x ℤ₂.
- "Using the mathematical apparatus of group theory, it is easy to verify that these cyclic permutations corresponding to intertype relations form a group of the 16th order, where the identity substitution performs the role of the unit element. Multiplication of permutations of order n = 2, by itself, yields the identity substitution. Multiplication of substitutions having order n = 4, four times on themselves also gives the identity substitution. Multiplication of the substitution of a direct order for the substitution of a return order gives an identical substitution. The multiplication of the substitution of a direct revision into a substitution of a reverse revision gives an identical substitution."
- He expresses it as a permutation group and examines the action in terms of the IM element dichotomies. (His matrix for direct revision contains an error: it should be 1 1...)
- The dual one seems incorrect too: the antipodal map (total negation) should not be a Process/Result-preserving relation.
- He uses axes (1st) I/E, (1st) S/D, 1st ext/int, 2nd ext/int, and the latter two are not Reinin dichotomies.
- Gut asks whether you can get a linear model using only Reinin dichotomies. In fact you can.
2000: Rick DeLong travels to Ukraine and learns of socionics. source
2001: Rick DeLong attends the Kyiv socionics conference for the first time.²⁵
2002: Gulenko publishes a paper on cognitive styles ("forms of thinking"). source
2003, February: socionics.com still anonymous. Mentions visual identification (VI) and modified 4-letter notation "ENTp".
- 2003, April: socionics.com has Sergei Ganin's name on it.
2004: John Beebe, ‘Understanding consciousness through the theory of psychological types’, in J Cambray & L Carter, Analytical Psychology, Hove and New York: Brunner Routledge, pp 83-115.
2004, September: Jimmy Cartrette (username metaiwan) founds the16types forum.²⁶
- On September 7th 2004, registers the domain name the16types.info.
- On September 11th 2004, around 4:15 UTC time, he creates his account here.
- The following day, at 18:01 UTC, he creates the first post and thread.
2005, January: the Lytovs publish an introduction to socionics online.
2005, July 13: Expat joins the16types.²⁶
2005, August 19: Aushra Augusta dies.
2006, January 6: Rick's English-language site socionics.us is put online. source
2006, January 20: Rick DeLong joins the16types.²⁶
2006, May: aestrivex joins the16types.²⁶
2006, June 10: Ibrahim Tencer joins the16types.²⁶
2006, July 27: Reuben McNew becomes the16types owner and admin.²⁶
2006, December: Rick starts "The Socionist" blog. source
2007-2008: the16types' most active year by threads created, which declines subsequently.²⁶
~2007: the16types.info forum is hacked and many posts are deleted.
2007: Alexander Kasyukov identifies ITR group as D₄ ⨯ ℤ₂. source1 source2
2007, April: First English-language socionics meetup in London. Rick, Expat, Olga Tangemann, and others attend. source
2007, May: Rick DeLong launches Wikisocion as a wiki about "consensus" or mainstream socionics; the16types members contribute. source
2007, June: First English-language socionics benchmark list. source
2007, August: First North American socionics meetup, in New York City. Rick, Ibrahim Tencer, aestrivex, and others attend. source1 source2
2007, September 17: Gulenko comes out with a preliminary version of his "energy model" (Model G). source
2008, December 26: Subterranean (Subteigh) becomes the16types owner and admin.²⁶
2009, April 12: Gilligan/Gilly becomes the16types owner and admin.²⁶
2010, February: Wikisocion suffers a database failure, and much of its content is lost.
2010, June 30: xerx becomes the16types owner and admin.²⁶
2010, December 31: "Triumvirate" of thehotelambush, Subterranean, and chameleon become the16types owners and admins.²⁶
2011, April 8: I attempt to clarify the internal structure of the IM elements as not just categories of information, but goal-oriented actions. An early attempt to boil down the IMEs to their essence. source
2011, May 1: I write an article explaining the math behind socionics and Model A. I also discover (and publish on September 2nd) the existence of an alternative dichotomy system, which overlaps with Reinin dichotomies in the 8 "orbital" dichotomies. source
- These dichotomies are rediscovered later by Minaev.
2011, July 9: Jack Oliver Aaron joins the16types.
2011, August 22: hkkmr becomes the16types owner and admin (until present, as of 2024).²⁶ He also acquires Wikisocion and at some point only allows access to a few editors.
2011, September: Rick criticizes/renounces socionics. source
2013, March: World Socionics Society (WSS) is established as a Facebook group, and eventually has a small diagnostics team. source
2015, December: Sedecology (née Sedenology) is created and used privately "in beta" by WSS Diagnostics.
2016, January: WSS Diagnostics holds a vote to reconsider membership, new chat is started.
2016 (middle): Many members leave WSS Diagnostics.
2016, June 13: Sedecology is launched publicly. source
2018, August: Rick DeLong un-renounces socionics. source1 source2
2019 April: Flow State Discord server is created by Damon Grey and Trey.
2019-: Socionics discussion grows on other Discord servers like Brain's Journey (2019), Transcendence (2019), and Synthesis (2020).
2020, July: I publish an article on the presence cube.