Sorting apples with apples and pears with pears captures Carl Jung’s warning about confusing psychological orientations. In therapeutic treatment of Gender Incongruence, clarity requires distinguishing between functions such as intuition and sensation, thinking and feeling, and between introversion and extraversion. Jung also insisted that feeling must not be confused with emotion, since feeling is an evaluative function, not an affective eruption. This post explores why careful differentiation matters for therapy: to avoid conflation, respect individual orientation, and support individuation by ensuring the psyche is engaged on its own terms rather than through imposed categories.
When Carl Jung published Psychological Types in 1921, he was not simply offering an abstract taxonomy of human personality. He was addressing a practical problem: the need to clarify how different people orient themselves to reality.[1] His model sought to show why the same facts, images, or experiences are interpreted so differently depending on a person’s psychic organisation. Jung argued that without this recognition, individuals misjudge themselves and others, and therapists risk imposing their own orientation onto the patient. The principle is deceptively simple: “apples should be sorted with apples, and pears with pears.” Yet, the consequences of neglecting this principle are profound, particularly in therapeutic contexts where questions of identity and self-understanding are at stake.
Nowhere is this more evident than in the therapeutic treatment of Gender Incongruence. In contemporary practice, there is a tendency to treat the presenting experience as self-evident, to rely heavily on self-report, or to take linguistic declarations at face value. While this reflects a respect for autonomy, it risks ignoring the deeper patterns of psychological orientation that structure how an individual makes sense of their experience. Jung’s typology offers a framework for distinguishing between orientations and functions, thereby preventing the confusion of categories that so often clouds therapeutic engagement.
The Principle of Differentiation
Jung’s typology rests on the principle of differentiation. Consciousness is organised around a dominant function, supported by auxiliaries, while other functions remain less developed and often unconscious.[2] To individuate—the process of becoming whole—requires recognising and integrating these different orientations without collapsing them into one another. Failure to differentiate functions leads to distortion: intuition mistaken for sensation, emotion mistaken for feeling, thought mistaken for judgement. Sorting apples with apples and pears with pears is therefore an act of psychological hygiene. It ensures that each orientation is understood on its own terms and prevents one function from masquerading as another.
Introversion and Extraversion: Orientation of Energy
The first distinction is between introversion and extraversion. Extraversion orients energy outward, toward objects, social interaction, and external validation. Introversion orients energy inward, toward subjective images, values, and reflections. The same statement of gendered experience will appear differently depending on this attitude. An extraverted person may seek social recognition and visible affirmation, while an introverted person may struggle to articulate experiences that are nonetheless vivid in their inner life.[3]
If the therapist assumes extraversion where introversion dominates, the client may be pressed toward public affirmation before they are ready, or before it reflects their authentic orientation. Conversely, assuming introversion where extraversion dominates may misinterpret social experimentation as inner uncertainty. Sorting these orientations accurately provides a clearer basis for dialogue: is the individual seeking external adaptation, or are they pursuing internal alignment?
Thinking and Feeling: Rational Functions
The second axis is between the rational (judging) functions: thinking and feeling. Thinking operates through logic, analysis, and conceptual clarity. Feeling, as Jung defined it, is a function of valuation: it weighs worth, harmony, and relational fit.[4] Crucially, feeling in Jung’s sense is not identical with emotion. Emotion, or affect, is an involuntary eruption that may overwhelm consciousness. Feeling is a deliberate act of judgement, akin to thinking but oriented toward values rather than concepts.
In English, “feeling” is often conflated with “emotion,” leading to constant confusion. A therapist may assume that intense emotional displays are evidence of a strong feeling function, when in fact they may signal its immaturity. Conversely, a quiet and steady feeling function may be overlooked because it does not erupt emotionally. Sorting apples with apples requires distinguishing evaluative feeling from raw emotion. The therapist who fails to do so may interpret an emotional storm as authentic valuation, or may miss the quiet depth of a feeling orientation beneath an apparently detached demeanour.
Sensation and Intuition: Irrational Functions
The third axis distinguishes the irrational (perceiving) functions: sensation and intuition. Sensation grounds itself in the concrete and the tangible. It tells us that something is. Intuition, by contrast, leaps beyond the data of the senses to grasp possibilities, patterns, and potentials. It tells us what something could be.[5] Both are indispensable, but they orient the psyche in very different ways.
In therapeutic work with Gender Incongruence, the risk of confusion is high. A sensation-oriented person may anchor their understanding in bodily facts, in physical embodiment, and in the here-and-now. An intuitive person may orient toward symbolic imagery, possibilities of transformation, and future trajectories. If the therapist confuses one for the other, the dialogue risks derailing. For example, bodily sensations may be treated as symbols, or symbolic images may be treated as concrete imperatives. Sorting apples with apples means recognising whether the person is speaking from sensory immediacy or intuitive possibility.
Perception and Judgement: Attitude Toward Closure
Modern adaptations of Jung’s model often highlight another axis: perception versus judgement. Some people prefer to keep experience open, provisional, and exploratory (perceiving). Others prefer to reach closure, definition, and decision (judging). In therapeutic work, this affects whether a client benefits from ongoing exploration or from structured decision-making. Misjudging this orientation can result in either premature closure or endless deferral. Sorting requires recognising whether the psyche is served by open exploration or by decisive structuring.[6]
The Dynamics of Combination
Each of these functions and attitudes operates in combination. An intuitive introvert relates to gender incongruence differently from an intuitive extravert. A thinking extravert evaluates possibilities differently from a thinking introvert. Jung’s typology does not present rigid boxes but dynamic patterns. Therapy must therefore attend to the whole configuration: dominant and auxiliary functions, conscious and unconscious orientations, and the interplay of opposites. Misidentification at any point—confusing introversion with social withdrawal, intuition with fantasy, feeling with emotion—can lead to mismatched interventions and deepen incongruence.
The Cost of Conflation
The central danger is conflation. If apples are treated as pears, therapeutic clarity is lost. Conflating emotion with feeling mistakes eruptions of affect for stable valuations. Conflating intuition with sensation mistakes symbolic possibilities for physical realities. Conflating introversion with pathology mistakes inward orientation for dysfunction. Each conflation distorts the therapeutic picture and prevents accurate engagement with the psyche.
In the context of Gender Incongruence, these conflations are not trivial. They shape how an individual narrates their experience, how they are heard by others, and how treatment pathways are framed. Sorting requires a sustained, systematic engagement: careful listening, reflective questioning, and typological awareness.
Individuation and the Ethical Dimension
Sorting apples with apples and pears with pears is not merely a technical matter. It has an ethical dimension. The therapist’s task is not to impose a predetermined path, but to clarify the person’s own orientation so that they can take responsibility for it. This means distinguishing between dominant and inferior functions, between conscious valuations and unconscious eruptions, between external adaptation and inner alignment. Only by such differentiation can the person move toward individuation—the integration of the self as a whole.[7]
Individuation requires balance. Over-identification with a dominant function leads to one-sidedness. Neglect of the inferior function invites unconscious eruptions. The therapist who confuses these functions risks reinforcing one-sidedness rather than fostering integration. The ethical task is therefore to ensure that the psyche is approached in its own terms, not through the projections or biases of either therapist or patient.
Clarity Amid Complexity
Gender Incongruence presents itself as a complex and multifaceted phenomenon. Social, biological, cultural, and psychological factors intertwine. Jung’s typology does not explain away this complexity, but it offers a method for clarifying it. By sorting orientations accurately, the therapist can avoid category errors that distort both understanding and treatment.
The task is to maintain clarity amid complexity. Apples should be sorted with apples, pears with pears. Sensation should be distinguished from intuition, feeling from emotion, thinking from judgement, introversion from extraversion. Each has its own validity and its own distortions. Only when they are sorted accurately can they be integrated meaningfully.
Conclusion: Sorting as Stewardship
To apply Jung’s typology in therapeutic work with Gender Incongruence is to act as a steward of differentiation. It means honouring the psyche’s own organisation, preventing conflation, and creating space for individuation. This is not about rigid categorisation or imposing typological labels. It is about sorting accurately, clarifying carefully, and engaging systematically. When apples are sorted with apples and pears with pears, the therapeutic process becomes clearer, more ethical, and more effective. When they are not, the risk of confusion and distortion is high.
Jung’s message remains urgent: differentiation is the essence of the psyche. Sorting is not optional; it is the ground of authentic development. In the therapeutic encounter, especially where identity and incongruence are at issue, it is the difference between clarity and confusion, between integration and fragmentation, between individuation and disorientation. The task of therapy is to sustain this clarity. The principle is simple, but its application requires patience, attentiveness, and depth. In this work, apples must remain apples, pears must remain pears, and only then can the orchard of the psyche bear its full fruit.
Endnotes
[1] Jung, C.G. (1921/1971). Psychological Types, Collected Works, Vol. 6, Princeton University Press.
[2] Ibid., §§556–561, on the principle of differentiation of functions.
[3] Ibid., §§562–580, on introversion and extraversion attitudes.
[4] Ibid., §§725–738, distinguishing the feeling function from affect or emotion.
[5] Ibid., §§770–781, on sensation and intuition as irrational functions.
[6] Myers, I. & Briggs, K. (1998). MBTI Manual, 3rd Edition, CPP Inc. (for perception/judgement axis as later elaboration).
[7] Jung, C.G. (1954/1968). The Practice of Psychotherapy, Collected Works, Vol. 16, Princeton University Press, on individuation and integration of inferior functions.
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