Historical Development of Socionics

This is a pseudoscientific theory of information processing and personality types.

The basic structure of socionics was established in the 1960s and 1970s by Aushra Augusta (formerly Augustinavichiute), the founder of Socionics, along with a group of enthusiasts that met in Vilnius, Lithuania. What resulted from their discussions and Augusta's personal investigations was an information model of the psyche and of interpersonal interaction based on Jung's typology but with 8 psychic functions rather than four. Augusta's first works on socionics were published between 1978 and 1980, and after that an awareness of the new field of socionics slowly began to spread to other cities around the Soviet Union.

Organizations

There are several socionics organizations across the former Soviet Union today. While some include the word "institute" in their titles, they are not officially accredited academic institutions. 

The International Institute of Socionics (IIS) was established in 1991 in Kiev, Ukraine and for years has held the most prominent annual socionics conference. The institute pursues the continued development of Socionics theory, renders commercial consulting services, and since 1994 has released a bi-monthly journal (six issues a year). Topics in the journal usually range anywhere from studies and applications of the primary principles of socionics to speculative extensions of the theory. The director and founder of the institute is Dr. Alexander Bukalov. In 2006 the institute established an academic board to issue bachelors, masters, and PhD degrees in Socionics to Socionists who had demonstrated competency in Socionics and published significant work in the field. However, these degrees are not recognized as official outside of the Socionics community. 

The Scientific Research Socionics Institute is located in Moscow, Russia and is led by Tatyana Prokofieva. The institute primarily studies socionics, personality and relationships within a socionics context, and develops methods of individual and business consulting.^[ Furthermore, the institute provides socionics instruction allowing participants to receive a "bachelors" or "masters" degree in socionics according to the criteria of the International Institute of Socionics.

Recognition

According to information published in the journal Socionics, Mentology and Personality Psychology, in 1995 Russia's Academy of Natural Sciences (RANS) recognized socionics as a discovery, and its creator - Aušra Augustinavičiūtė - was awarded a diploma and a Peter Kapitza medal. 

Socionics in the former Soviet Union today

In the Russian-speaking world (primarily Russia and Ukraine, but also the Baltic States, Central Asia, and Russian communities abroad) socionics has grown significantly in popularity, and is now a topic of discussion among large numbers of amateurs, as well as a group of a few hundred professionals. Clubs for socializing, theoretical discussion, exchange of experience, and other activity exist in many large cities across the former USSR. A couple of journals exist, as well as a number of organizations which periodically hold conferences in Kiev, Moscow, St. Petersburg, and other cities.

Currently, Socionics is a topic of discussion and a way of thinking for a large number of people in post-Soviet states, especially in Russia, Ukraine and the Baltics. In mid-2009, Socionics populated more than 2 million pages in RuNet [a Russian search engine] (for comparison, at the same time, Christianity - 12 million pages of Marxism - 2 million pages).

Russian language socionics literature is abundant in these countries, and talk shows have featured Socionics on their YouTube.com, news, and radio stations.

Socionists have devised humanitarian, political, and information technologies that have been applied to various fields of human activity. Socionic techniques have been applied at more than 120 enterprises from Russia, Ukraine and the Baltics by members of the International Institute of Socionics. At the same time, socionics is relatively unknown outside the former Soviet Union and exists as a small online movement. 

In the west

In the western hemisphere, the socionics community is mainly limited to the internet due to its novelty and lack of official academic status. It was first introduced in English in the mid-1990s when Ukrainian emigrant Sergei Ganin created Socionics.com. Dmitri Lytov, creator of the multi-language socionics resource Socioniko.net, presented a more classical model of socionics, and participated in online discussions in English. In 2006, Rick DeLong published hand translations of excerpts of several works by Augusta at Socionics.us which clarified her beliefs about the subject. Socionics is little known among psychologists outside of the former USSR, and no significant research on socionics has been published in English-language peer reviewed scientific journals. Access to Russian-language articles, journals, and particularly books is difficult unless their texts can be found online.