MiRo uses theoretical models from Jung and Marston to talk about personality and behavioural type but there are other ways of viewing it. Native Americans talked in terms of spirit animals while in classical and medieval Europe the four humours were seen to be behind human temperament.
These days the thinking is far more about the nature of the human brain. The problem is (As Iain McGilchrist says in this lecture) is that “when we talk about anything we have to compare it to something else that we understand better” so this may all just be another set of metaphors but he tries not to talk about the brain as if it were just a machine. Perhaps it is more like a person or perhaps more correctly, like two people. Once again it is worth being careful here too, neither he nor we are suggesting some kind of army of homunculi (a la that Woody Allen movie) but that we humans have more than one possible way of being. Competing or complimentary aspects of our personalities, creating the tensions and talents that make us who we are. Fascinating stuff and for the 21st century at least this may be the way forward for MiRo. It’s certainly food for thought.
We’d heartily recommend McGilchrist’s weighty by enlightening book:
The Master and His Emissary (The Divided Brain and the Making of the Western World
Or if you don’t have the time have the time for that, a fascinating 40 minute lecture can be found on YouTube