Third Function

THIRD FUNCTION 

"We all fail in some way," said Jules Renard, wistfully, not realizing that in doing so he was intuitively feeling out the Third Function in himself and others. 

In its principles, the Third Function is almost indistinguishable from the Second Function; it is also processional. It is even, so to speak, superprocessional. However, in its external manifestations, the Third function differs strikingly from the Second. The difference is conditioned by the fact that the Third is not a strength, but a weakness, our ulcer, a sore spot of the human psyche. 

In my opinion, the term "complex" introduced by the Zurich school of psychiatrists, with which attempts were made to describe the Third Function, is not very successful. Much more accurate is the term "dynamic trauma," used by the remarkable psychiatrist Charcot, who was one of the first to feel that the human psyche was inherently flawed. 

Criticism of the term "complex," however, does not negate the important fact that there are very many precise features in that characterization of the Third Function that Carl Gustav Jung gave under the name of "complexes. He wrote: "...experience shows that complexes always contain something like a conflict, or at least are either the cause or the consequence. At any rate, complexes contain signs of conflict, shock, embarrassment, incompatibility. These are the so-called "painful points", in French "betes noires", the English refer to "skeletons in the cupboard", which one does not really want to remember and even less want to be reminded by others, but which often remind of themselves in the most unpleasant way. They always contain memories, desires, fears, obligations, needs, or thoughts from which there is no escape, and therefore they constantly interfere and harm us by interfering with our conscious life. 

Obviously, complexes represent a kind of inferiority in the broadest sense, and I should note here that a complex or having a complex does not necessarily mean inferiority. It only means that there is something incompatible, unassimilable, perhaps even some kind of obstacle, but it is also a stimulus to great aspirations and therefore quite possibly even a new opportunity for success. Consequently, complexes are in this sense squarely the center or node of psychic life, one cannot do without them, because otherwise psychic activity would come to a fraught stagnation. But they also signify the unfulfilled in the individual, the area where something cannot be overcome or overcome; that is, without a doubt, the weak point in every sense of the word. 

This character of the complex to a large extent illuminates the causes of its emergence. Obviously, it appears as the result of a collision between a requirement for adjustment and a special, unsuitable property of the individual in relation to this requirement. Thus, the complex becomes for us a diagnostically valuable symptom of individual disposition." 

If we compress everything Jung said and add a little of ourselves, we can say that the essence of the Third Function is as follows: it is a function that we ourselves consider vulnerable, defective, underdeveloped, in need of constant strengthening, selfdevelopment and protection. Hence all the specific features of the Third Function. 

* * * 

The Third is a double. Just as the entire order of functions is divided into Top and Bottom (which has already been mentioned), so is one Third function divided and bifurcated. It combines a sense of weakness with a sense of enormous but unrealized potential. The Third is the chained Prometheus, a titan who is made weak, defenseless, and vulnerable by psychological chains. 

A friend of mine, when asked to explain what her 3rd Emotion looked like, said very accurately, "Imagine that you are pregnant and the baby is already begging to come out. But your pelvis is too narrow, and its head gets stuck when you try to give birth." Although in this case the reference was to the Third Emotion, the image of a painful labor with a baby stuck in the pelvis is the most fitting description of the Third Function in general. 

* * * 

Vulnerability and heightened sensitivity are the main hallmarks of the Third Function. Strikes on the Third are experienced extremely painfully, and scars from them remain practically for life. 

As a rule, the period of complete defenselessness of the Third Function and particularly frequent blows to it falls on childhood. It is children who are most often beaten, humiliated, insulted, scolded. And if in childhood the Third is not protected, but, on the contrary, constantly hurt, then this circumstance refines to an extreme the already refined Third. 

Fortunately, strikes on the Third Function are extremely rare, since it has a heightened sense of danger, which allows it to prevent an attack, and it is difficult to catch it unawares. For example, a person with the 3rd Physique is extremely wary of the outside world, and therefore injuries occur only in exceptional cases (of course, the words "world" and "injury" have a purely physical meaning). 

Expecting a blow to the Third Function is our main nightmare: the 3rd Logic is afraid of being accused of incompetence, the 3rd Physics of being beaten, the 3rd Will of being humiliated, the 3rd Emotion of being hysterical. However, this nightmare rarely materializes, as the Third tends to hyperbolize and usually greatly exaggerates the real danger. Returning to the comparison of the Third with the chained Prometheus, I would add that her defenselessness and vulnerability make her see every crow flying by as a Zeus eagle sent to peck your liver. 

* * * 

However, life is life, and sometimes (to continue the metaphor) the Zeus eagle does arrive. Here we have to do something, willy-nilly. There are three ways out of a situation in which the threat of a strike against the Third is real: either the most thorough preparation in the run-up to the conflict, or transferring the struggle to another level and function, or fleeing. To illustrate this point, here is a history of the strained relationship between President Reagan and the press. With the 3rd Logic, Reagan reduced the number of press conferences to a minimum; when he could not avoid them, he agreed to talk to journalists only after long rehearsals. This is the first exit. Despite the preparation, the president did not feel very comfortable at a press conference, and therefore he often avoided the questions with the help of jokes, anecdotes, humor and cautionary tales, i.e. he tried to move the communication from the logical sphere which frightened him into the painless emotional one. This is the second way out. And finally, escapism: Being caught off guard by journalists, Reagan simply pretended to be deaf. 

* * * 

The third function, more than any other, is to experience another's pain. To feel it even more acutely than the object of empathy feels it. Tolstoy, for example, did not give a damn about the work of a scientist or musician, but through the prism of his Third Physics, he could not look at every peasant working in the field without tears. Although the man himself did not necessarily experience the torments that Tolstoy attributed to him, and, in turn, could himself look with compassion of the 3rd Logic at any reading man, etc., etc. 

* * * 

Pity, compassion, are properties that are akin to the Third Function and the Second. However, there is a feeling, unknown to the Second, but constantly accompanying the Third, which is envy. It is identical with the feeling felt by a sick person in relation to a healthy person. It combines the desire to rise to the object of envy and at the same time to humiliate it. Here I will continue to illustrate the story of the Third Function with examples from Tolstoy's life (3rd Phys.). Here is how the director Lev Sulerzhitsky described his joint walk with Tolstoy in Moscow: "Tolstoy noticed two cuirassiers from a distance. Shining in the sun with copper armor, jingling spurs, they walked in step, as if joined together, their faces also shone with the complacency of strength and youth. 

Tolstoy began to censure them: "What majestic stupidity! Totally animals, trained with a stick..." 

But when the cuirassiers had drawn near him, he stopped and, seeing them off with an affectionate glance, said with admiration: "How beautiful they are! Ancient Romans, eh, Levushka? Strength, beauty, ah, my God. How good it is when a man is beautiful, how good..." 

I hope the reader has paid attention to the polarity of Tolstoy's assessments when it comes to a layer of life that Tolstoy himself with his 3rd Physic was vulnerable to and which was clearly in excess (the 1st Physic) endowed with counter-cirassiers. It is typical of the Third Function. 

* * * 

"The fig leaf reaction" is what you might call the first reaction in a situation where the Third Function encounters the same function above. 

The free, open, strong manifestation of what one has been bruised irritates one, makes one look for some justification for one's weakness, actively denies the significance and effectiveness of this layer of life, and hides behind this denial, as a shield, the feeling of one's own inferiority. This is how the fig leaf is born, with which a person usually walks all his life. The number of fig leaves corresponds to the number of the Third Functions: they are irony for the 3rd Emotion, skepticism for the 3rd Logic, sanctimony for the 3rd Physics, foolishness and hypocrisy for the 3rd Will. 

However, hiding one's shame under a fig leaf is not in itself a guarantee of peace. On the contrary. The more active the denial, the more irresistible the secret desire to realize oneself in this vulnerable sphere of life. Here it is enough to remember that monk of KyivPechersk Lavra (3rd Phys.), who, saving himself from the prodigal passion, buried himself up to his neck in the ground. Thus, sometimes the struggle with the processionality of one's own Third leads almost to self-destruction. 

In this regard, it becomes clear why the Third Function is not only rejected but also passionately loved. We can say that the Third Function is the main generator of love, and the choice in marriage is more often determined by it. It is not without reason that the great preacher of asceticism, Tolstoy, married a girl gifted with flesh in abundance (the 1st Function). And she could not understand for the rest of her life how the combination of the monstrous sanctimony of the "Kreutzer Sonata" with the mighty and tireless fervor of love of her husband is explained. And that is exactly how it is explained: The 3rd Physics is everything. 

* * * 

Marriage is not the only means by which man tries to loosen up and realize his Third Function. There are chemical means for this as well, say, alcohol. It is for the sake of the Third that we consume alcohol in companies. I emphasize - precisely in companies, because the origins of drunkenness are manifold. Alcohol, drunk in company, has that miraculous property that allows you to forget about your defect, to freely and easily implement the Third function. 

Hence the amazing metamorphoses that usually happen to drunken people, metamorphoses like those that happened to the millionaire from the famous Charlie Chaplin movie. The dry, reserved man (3rd Emotion) becomes sensitive; the silent man (3rd Logic) becomes a chatterbox; the misogynist (3rd Physics) becomes a dragster; the modest man (3rd Will) becomes a snob... 

The scissors in the behavior of the Third Function under the influence of alcohol sometimes take on a curious, if not tragicomic coloration. Here is a typical quote from a letter to the newspaper: "Jura was tall, strong, handsome, he constantly carried me in his arms. And everything would have been fine, if not for his strangeness. He seemed afraid to fall in love, afraid of love. True, it was worth it when he drank, and he began to say gentle words, fiercely kissing (intimacy with anyone I have never had before marriage). And in those moments, I just went crazy. I loved him so much that I was looking for a reason to drink, just so he would be mine, only mine. When he was sober, he was different, and I didn't know how to get him to relax. Obviously, the problem here was the 3rd Emotion, and here is also named the fundamental disadvantage of alcohol in terms of the realization of the Third Function: the short duration of its action. The problem returns the next day with the addition of a headache. 

* * * 

Like the Second Function, the Third Function likes to put itself to the test. However, there are significant differences between the self-testing of these two functions. First, the Third Function prefers to test itself under conditions that exclude direct confrontation. And second, it goes to the limit in these tests. For example, Tolstoy's sister told me how he ran for five versts behind a carriage when he was 15 years old and when the carriage stopped, the young Tolstoy breathed so much that his sister cried. Only the Third, and, in particular, the Third Physicists, can examine themselves in this way. Other Physicists would behave differently: the productive Physicists would simply not put themselves to the test (the First by virtue of selfconfidence, the Fourth by indifference), the 2nd Physicist would run after the carriage, but would run only as long as it was a pleasure contest. 

The ordeal described above is typical of the Third Function, and what makes it so is the Third's ignorance of the natural limit of its capabilities. Our internal picture of the state of the Third Function is a purely subjective matter. And in order to find out whether there is an "ulcer" in the Third or it only seems to us, and if there is, what its true size is, it is necessary to examine the Third and to examine it at the limit of its possibilities. 

* * * 

If the test for the Third Function is passed successfully, then the highest, unknown in other cases, satisfaction sets in. In general, successes, praise, and awards in the Third Function are valued like no other and are a matter of abiding pride for their owner. For example, Napoleon, having the 3rd Logic, was most proud of his membership in the National Institute (Academy of Sciences) and even signed his army orders "Bonaparte, member of the National Institute" and only after this title put all the others, for others, maybe much more weighty. 

For the same reason, the Third, more than any other function, is sensitive to flattery. It is impossible to overdo it here; no matter how monstrous flattery on the Third is, deep down inside a person absolutely not believing it, still shows full readiness to drink and drink this poison, never becoming satiated and never experiencing heartburn.