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Attitudinal Psyche

Rob found “Syntax of Love” by Alexander Y Afanasyev₁ in 2015, who created a personality system called “psicosofya” which played an imperative role in the creation of Attitudinal Psyche. At the time, the little-known personality system in the English speaking world was referred to as “Psyche Yoga”. Rob was fascinated by the core theory of Psyche Yoga and he quickly started researching the merits of what it posited about attitude which is that humans have four essential mental functions (or aspects): emotion, logic, will, and physics. Furthermore, they spend their mental (or psychic) energy unequally towards the four modules of reality – creating four stairs and 24 possible types. Afanasyev further understood that there were unique dichotomies in attitude formed from this hierarchy of mental energy. The attitudinal dichotomies seemed to create a divide over the self versus others. This became a key part of how Attitudinal Psyche developed, and this is what separates Attitudinal Psyche from Psyche Yoga. Read more about the differences here.

Rob started researching, conducting surveys, and creating descriptions based on the subjects’ responses in 2016. The research was centered around an individual’s attitude towards their own handling of the aspects versus their attitude towards how others handle the aspects. He quickly realized that although Afanasyev’s theory was remarkably brilliant, it was incomplete and needed further development and fine-tuning as more details were unearthed that contradict the original premise. The feedback he received from others and resulting findings were noteworthy for a few reasons. The first being that individuals do not follow a set cascading pattern of focus, mental energy, or “psychic energy” based on their first through fourth mental functions like Afanasyev suggested. Instead, people change their proportion of focus depending on their enneagram type, cultural or familiar mode of importance, or stage of life. Secondly, the attitudes do not motivate people to protect, attack, or escape from situations – instead, they simply act as a doorway of disposition (positive or negative) that the vulnerability or motivation traverses through, which results in numerous archetypes (or subtypes) of each attitude. The enneagram defense strategy is what motivates individuals to protect themselves, and they are then most likely to enact these defenses through their first and third attitudes. This was seemingly unknown to Afanasyev as he combined what we would think of as a present day understanding of Enneagram into his theory of psychosophy. Attitudinal Psyche has separated these two components from one another. These patterns were previously unwritten about by anyone as most of the literature on the topic is theoretical, conjectural, and based on perceived impressions of what an individual believes comprise the personality rather than directly translated from data of what the attitudinal types say about themselves. This difference became imperative, because it set the stage for an accurate portrayal of attitudes that transcend the theoretical and represent something real: our fundamental disposition and attitudes.

Rob recognized that the most important part of his research was the focus on attitude, rather than how individuals personally organized their mental energy, as these attitudes were always present in the personality regardless of where they spent their energy. Although Attitudinal Psyche uses the same nomenclature (e.g., VFLE) as Psyche Yoga, the type descriptions, attitude relations, type relations, blockings, enneagram correlations, and research findings are all unique and set it apart from Afanasyev’s work. For this reason, Rob has named the system Attitudinal Psyche to reflect its specialized set of research and data that is ever evolving. Attitudinal Psyche types, and Psyche Yoga types should NOT be used interchangeably. However, this does not mean there are no similarities, nor should we ignore the links between the two systems, as they are important. Attitudinal Psyche is not a simplified version of Psyche Yoga, as the core theories are opposing in terms of mental energy, focus, and divorcing the motivation from the attitude. This creates two distinct systems which represent core differences that cannot be contained within one another.

Rob has continued on from 2016 to present conducting research, working one-on-one with clients, and developing testing methods for Attitudinal Psyche. He has a strong interest in understanding how the types coalesce in relationships, friendships, work environments, and culture – and authored his first mini e-book “Intertype Relations” based on his findings which is now available for free in the type relations tab.

Rob is excited to continue making discoveries and developing the theory further. If you are interested in being typing, please click on the “Get Typed” button at the top!

Why learn and use Attitudinal Psyche?

• Helps you understand why you have consistent reactions to certain areas of life.
• Improves your empathy and compassion towards those who greatly differ in their own attitudes.
• Gives you language to describe why you treat certain aspects of life differently than others.
• Offers insight into communication styles between individuals.
• Helps you improve your relationships at home, work, and community.
• Separates out attitude from cognition, ego, motivation, and core components of other type systems.
• Celebrates the gifts, and makes aware the insecurities of how you inherently handle your priorities.
• Provides strategies to advance team morale, build stronger alliances, and communicate effectively.
• Is revolutionary to use in tandem with the Enneagram of personality typology.

Follow the Artist of Attitudinal Psyche

E is the artist and illustrator who created all the inspirational art as seen throughout the website. He’s a blossoming digital artist and children’s book illustrator. He’s been engaged and interested in various forms of art for over 15 years. His main media is digital and watercolor. He’s currently working on a children’s book which will be available for purchase in the near future! For all business related inquiries for the artist: Email him at essenceclinecole18@gmail.com

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₁. Afanasyev, Alexander Yu. – Syntax of Love: A forecast in Pair Relations – Yelena Afanasyeva, 2005-2017 – aleafan.org