Intuition

## 1. Etymology

**Intuition** names the **psychic function that perceives possibilities inherent in the present**. Compare [sensation](/index/sensation/); related: irrational function; unconscious perception; outlook and insight.

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## 2. Plain summary

**Intuition** sees where something might go—the garden of magical possibilities—without conscious proof. Like [sensation](/index/sensation/) it is irrational (perceiving, not judging), but it perceives via the unconscious, not via concrete sense data alone.

A content can present itself whole, with intrinsic certainty, while its origin stays opaque. It may flash from within or be sparked by subliminal cues from another person. Related to [feeling](/index/feeling/)/[thinking](/index/thinking/) as the rational pair, and to typology’s superior/inferior balance.

**Examples (exhaustive house list for this Index lemma — common intuition-function motifs named across Jung’s essays and standard Jungian lexica; not a claim that Jung’s CW contains only these):**

perceives possibilities in the present; outlook and insight; irrational function with sensation; via unconscious not dependent on concrete reality alone; whole complete content without explained origin; instinctive apprehension; intrinsic certainty; subjective unconscious data vs object-dependent subliminal cues; complementary to [sensation](/index/sensation/); pairs with sensation as irrational pair; [dreams](/index/dreams/) / [active imagination](/index/active-imagination/) kinship; [compensation](/index/compensation/) when one-sided; [inflation](/index/inflation/) via “magical” certainty.

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## 3. Academic elucidation

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## 4. Lexicon

**Sharp (1991)**

> Intuition. The psychic function that perceives possibilities inherent in the present. … Intuition gives outlook and insight… In intuition a content presents itself whole and complete, without our being able to explain or discover how this content came into existence… Intuitive knowledge possesses an intrinsic certainty and conviction…

(Sharp, 1991, p. [provisional — unverified])

> typology … Some individuals are more excited or energised by the internal world and others by the external world; these are introverts and extraverts respectively… in addition… thinking, feeling, sensation, intuition…

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## 5. CW concordance — sample, not exhaustive

> I regard intuition as a basic psychological function. It is the function that mediates perceptions in an unconscious way. … The peculiarity of intuition is that it is neither sense perception, nor feeling, nor intellectual inference, although it may also appear in these forms. In intuition a content presents itself whole and complete…

> Intuition may be subjective or objective: the first is a perception of unconscious psychic data originating in the subject, the second is a perception of data dependent on subliminal perceptions of the object and on the feelings and thoughts they evoke.

> We may also distinguish concrete and abstract forms of intuition, according to the degree of participation on the part of sensation. Concrete intuition mediates perceptions concerned with the actuality of things, abstract intuition mediates perceptions of ideational connections.

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**See also:** [sensation](/index/sensation/); [feeling](/index/feeling/); [thinking](/index/thinking/); [consciousness](/index/consciousness/); [dreams](/index/dreams/); [active imagination](/index/active-imagination/); [introversion](/index/introversion/); [extraversion](/index/extraversion/). *(Queued — sensation next after this triad.)*

## References

Jung, C. G. (1971). Psychological types [Definitions]. In H. Read, M. Fordham, G. Adler, & W. McGuire (Eds.), *The collected works of C. G. Jung* (R. F. C. Hull, Trans.) (Vol. 6, p. 627, ¶¶770–771). Princeton University Press. (Original work published 1921)

Samuels, A., Shorter, B., & Plaut, F. (1986). *A critical dictionary of Jungian analysis*. Routledge.

Sharp, D. (1991). *Jung lexicon: A primer of terms & concepts*. Inner City Books.

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