In Unit 13 we explain and demonstrate Jung’s concept of irrational type.

IRRATIONAL TYPE  

Jung classes the individual with an intuition mind-set as an irrational type.  Intuition orients towards accidental facts, that is, irrational facts.  Such facts do not present aspects which conform to law. (CW 6, par. 616) Irrational intuition mediates accidental facts into irrational perceptions. 

Jung differentiates three irrational components in the decision-making process of intuition. The first component is the accidental fact itself ― the kind of facts that excites intuition and facilitates its process.  The second component is the psychological function of intuition.  The principle of intuition “cannot be related or reduced” to the principle of rational thinking. (CW 6, par. 731)  As Jung puts it: “…the irrational as such can never become the object of science.” (CW 6, par. 777)  The third component is the end result of the process of intuition ― the subsequent intuitive perception or viewpoint ― the intuition itself.  Intuitions are not explainable by the principle of thinking.  Jung writes: “I don’t know how it works … I do not know how he [the intuitive] has come by it, but he has it all right and he can act on it.” (CW. 6, par. 26)  

The term irrational thus refers to a certain class of facts, the nature of intuition as a psychological function, and finally, to the nature of the resulting intuitive views.