Accentuation of Functions

Written by Victor Gulenko. Original blog entry at Kvarterion: http://goul.socionics.kiev.ua/2010/03/aktsentuirovannyie-funktsii/

The concept of accentuated functions in socionics was borrowed from general psychology. The term "accentuation" was first introduced by a German psychiatrist Carl Leonhard, who in 1976 published a book titled "Accentuated Personalities". In this book, he presented his understanding of different accentuations and provided real life examples of their manifestations, as well as examples from classical literature.

What exactly is accentuation? It is an emphasized, acuminated personality trait that distinguishes a person from other people by clearly discernible peculiarities of behavior. Accentuation is not a pathology, although it may provide for some drawbacks during a person's life. To be fair, it must be noted that there is a possibility that accentuation may transfer into a pathological state under unfavorable conditions.

A study about accentuation was used by A. Agusta in the development of socionics typology. Particularly, in her work "On the Dual Nature of Man" she has conducted a simple comparison of Leonhard and Licko's accentuations with the 16 sociotypes. There turned out to be more types than accentuations, so several lines of her comparison table were left as blank.

Humanitarian Socionics considers that there is no direct correlation between accentuation and types, thus accentuation is not determined by the functional model of the type and any function of any type may be accentuated.

Based on my practice, I present the following list of requisite signs of an accentuated function:

• a strong manifestation in behavior,
• an energy imbalance,
• situational inadequacy.

The painfully and acutely accentuated function is commonly accompanied by anxiety, and even complexes. That is, this comprises that which the person is fixated on, what gnaws at them, what they worry about and inopportunely attempt to actualize by their actions - this is the person's accentuation. Do not fall into the error of the supporters of the informational paradigm, who believe that constant concentration of thought on some object or event leads to accentuation. On the contrary, already emergent accentuation finds a reflection in obtrusive thoughts.

Many especially talented theoreticians involved in abstract sciences (mathematicians, computer programmers) have strong accentuation that leads to autism-like traits, deep sinking into their mental imagery to the point of ignoring of external reality. Apparently, such an accentuation is inherent to the Russian mathematician Grigori Perelman, depicted in the photograph below, to whom the Clay Institute awarded the Millenium Prize for his proof of Poincare's hypothesis.

If accentuation leads to outstanding abilities, should it be counteracted? I think that it shouldn't be. However, in some cases if the person wants to be within aa community or society, it makes sense to introduce some changes or correctives. One can "treat" the unstable-excess mental functions, primarily, by trying to balance out their functioning. How does one establish balance and harmony between abstract-mathematical and concrete-aesthetic functions? Simply by not allowing slovenliness of appearance and neglect of the body. See this report about a scientist whose lifestyle resembled that of a homeless person: eg.ru/daily/melochi/9823/

Another way is to vent one's problematic energy outward. An example of this way may be the characteristic behavior of people in many online communities, where some of the members present themselves as a sort of caricature, in an exaggerated manner that has little in common with their real selves. In this manner, they remove stress from their accentuated functions for some period of time.