A brief history of BAPT
This content is in the process of being updated.
Original article compiled by Angelina Bennet (INTJ) and published in Typeface Spring 2014.
Angelina is a Chartered Occupational Psychologist and specialises in developing individuals through personality work. She has an occupational psychology business in Buckinghamshire focussing on coaching, development and assessment. Prior to this, she spent several years working as an Assistant Clinical Psychologist with the NHS before studying for her MSc in Applied Psychology. She then worked for OPP for several years, and continues to work with them as an Associate qualifying people to become MBTI® practitioners. Her other areas of interest are around people development include psychosynthesis and the Enneagram. She was awarded a Professional Doctorate in 2011 and her thesis focused on the further development of type theory. She is the author of ‘The Shadows of Type— Psychological Type Through Seven Levels of Development’.
Prologue
As part of the 25th Anniversary celebrations, I thought it might be interesting to look at how BAPT first came into being and why, and how it has evolved over time. Ann O’Sullivan and some members of the original MBUG kindly put together the first part of the article and I have written parts two and three. I apologise for part two being a little sketchy. I had hoped to contact David Stilwell, but did not manage to get in touch with him in time, but was given some useful information from Keron Beattie and Gill Clack.
Looking at it, the BAPT story seems to be an ongoing quest for identity, a battle for survival, and an example of dedication and commitment. For me, it has been enlightening to re-visit the roots of BAPT and to remember what we stand for. I hope you find it interesting and thoughtprovoking too.
Part One: The History of How BAPT Came Into Being In 1989
With thanks to Midi Berry, Sally Campbell, Roy Childs, Peter Naylor, Ann O’Sullivan (Part of the founding group of BAPT)
The Myers Briggs Type Indicator® was first introduced in the UK as early as 1979, followed by formation of The Myers Briggs Users Group (MBUG) and finally the evolution of BAPT (British Association for Psychological Type) in 1989.
Ann O’Sullivan encountered MBTI® for the first time in 1979 while she was on sabbatical in Berkeley California when it was fairly new on the market. Ann and Sister Enid Davies began introductory workshops at Emmaus House in Oct/Nov. 1980. These were held most weekends and mid-weeks, at Emmaus and all over the UK and Ireland. Other workshops emerged: “shadow”, spirituality, teaching/learning etc. After Enid’s death in June 1988, Ann continued the workshops, travelling to France, Belgium, Finland and Gibraltar among other countries. Meanwhile a small group of users had formed MBUG. In the mid 1980s MBTI® was hardly known in the UK. ASE, the then distributor of the Indicator, asked Roy Childs to revamp their psychometric training. Having only a superficial knowledge of MBTI® he felt compelled to seek a much deeper understanding but this did not prove to be a chore of any sort. Two of his early actions were to join the fledgling MBUG and to attend a course at Emmaus House with Ann and Enid. Roy went on to create the first MBTI® course to be recognised by the British Psychological Society and has trained many people since. At MBUG’s first conference, organised by Midi Berry of Organisational Dynamics Incorporated Limited (ODI) at Witney, and held at Heythrop Park, Enid and Ann spoke about the “shadow-side of the personality”. They also joined MBUG. ODI moved to Bristol and became Mosaic Managing Consulting Group, which eventually set up the Enid Davies Memorial Trust Fund to assist those attending training courses at Emmaus House.
The first professional qualifying training programme in the UK, facilitated by Gordon Lawrence and his wife Caroline, on behalf of Centre for Application of Psychological Type (CAPT)/Association for Psychological Type (APT), was held in 1985 or 1986. It was organised by Mosaic in Bristol at Emmaus House. The plan was that MBUG would be allowed to run this qualifying training programme in the UK. History tells a different story. Negotiations did begin with CAPT for an association in liaison with them – thus BAPT started on its path to birth. So what was MBUG? It was a lively, experienced users group, most of who had been using the Indicator in their work, for up to 10 years by 1989, and willing to share experiences. Meeting latterly at Emmaus House, those meetings were full of input, fun and experiential learning. Later, Peter Naylor, who had been on the initial qualifying course above, ran an additional excellent qualifying course but APT subsequently informed the participants that it was invalid! Then, in rapid order two things occurred, again commercially driven. Consulting Psychologists Press in California gave sole distributor’s licence to the newly formed Oxford Psychologists Press. ASE in the UK, could no longer sell the instrument. The licence to train in the UK was still, it was believed, open to negotiation between APT/CAPT and MBUG members who were already experienced facilitators and trainers and were keen to apply. MBUG’s numbers began to fall – and the decision was taken to “re-form”. Negotiations began with CAPT/APT to become an association in liaison with them – thus BAPT was born. In some ways BAPT, initially to be the British Region of APT, was forming as the basis for a bid for the training licence in the UK. But soon after, OPP was awarded an exclusive training licence by APT. OPP proceeded to gradually take qualifying training away from those already doing it in the UK. Previously, some training materials, and questionnaires had been ordered directly from the USA. This proved no longer officially possible. Subsequently costs of both qualifying training and materials escalated. A similar pattern of commercialisation and exclusive trading rights later developed in Australia, USA and, of course, more recently in continental Europe.
In some ways all this turmoil provided the impetus for BAPT to emerge as a professional leader in 1989, the forerunner of the BAPT we know today; a steering committee was created from MBUG, and in due course the BAPT constitution, and organisation was approved by the association and applied for charity status. The mission was to uphold the integrity and ethical values of the Indicator, provide opportunities for meetings, conferences and professional ongoing training at reasonable cost, and to give practitioners a supportive organisation for their own development. The BAPT newsletter, first published in 1989, has provided open space for articles, discussion and learning. The first BAPT Annual Conference was held at The Lucas Institute, Ashton University in Birmingham in 1989 with an impressive 80 participants attending. It was followed a year later where we had over 100 attending the 1990 Conference at the GMWU College in Manchester. These conferences hosted speakers from home and abroad. There were pre-conference workshops too. The GMWU College was a wonderful location, built as a Congregational College in the late 19th century. Now festooned with ancient union flags and union memorabilia; with helpful staff and meals designed for hungry people! Successive annual conferences continued to be held there for several years.
Local Chapters were set up around the country; some still exist. A register of members, together with addresses and areas of interest, became available to members, thus promoting contact and networking. BAPT had its first administrative office at Emmaus House in Bristol and smaller conferences and workshops continued to take place there, including a yearly series given by Angelo Spoto – a Jungian analyst and author of the book Jung’s Typology in Perspective. Kathy Myers ran workshops on the Mid-Life journey and other friends from the USA contributed their various expertise in the MBTI®. It was felt strongly, backed by a belief still upheld by many of us “old-timers”, that using the Indicator without our own development input and without really understanding the link to Jung, the relationship of the functions to conscious and unconscious parts of ourselves, made the instrument simply a swift, transient tool of little consequence in the longer term. So Jungian theory and philosophy were kept within the circle of learning. The Indicator can be holistic, give an understanding of complexity, and contribute massively to human growth and development. The Indicator has gone on to be the best known way to introduce Jungian thought and whilst there may be many criticisms of MBTI®, or the way it is used, few can argue that it opens the door on a valuable experience in personal understanding that has helped countless people. But we need to remind ourselves that it is a personal development tool, not just as a quick fix, serving egos and cash cows!
Part Two: The Middle Years – Refining and Sustaining BAPT
(Compiled by Angelina Bennet with contributions from Gill Clack and Keron Beattie)
It seems as if this period in BAPT’s history had two main points of focus; refining the administrative processes of BAPT and dealing with the decline in number of members. David Stilwell was ‘persuaded’ (as we all are) to take on the role as President of BAPT and he stayed as President for the full term, ending his role in 2006 shortly after I joined the Board. During his Presidency, David did a remarkable job of setting up the administrative processes of BAPT. He spent a considerable amount of time sorting through the existing paperwork from Emmaus House, and managed to set up the computerised keeping of records. He set up the member database, the BAPT website, the new constitution and Board structure, and arranged gift aid for member contributions. During this period he was ably supported by Keron Beattie who was BAPT’s Administrator and Board Secretary for a number of years.
After Keron stood down from this role, David negotiated the setting up of a virtual office for BAPT to be held at JCA’s offices in Cheltenham; an arrangement we still have today. Using his design skills, he designed the Blue Petal logo that we were still using until late last year.
It was also during this period that the BAPT library was set up and this is also housed at the JCA offices in Cheltenham. Nick Evans was the Education & Research Co-ordinator for BAPT at the time and, with a generous contribution of type books and journals from Jamie Johnson, Research Librarian at CAPT, he set up the library. He also ran a number of successful workshops during his period in office in the early 2000s. A major initiative was also launched during David’s time as President when the first approaches were made to our European partners to set up links. Benelux, France, Germany, Ireland and Sweden, who had active type associations, sent representatives to the 2005 BAPT Conference when it was decided to set up a federation to promote type across the wider community. The first European APT Conference was held the following year in Brussels, followed by Copenhagen in 2008, Berlin in 2010 and Paris in 2012.
Simon Loveday had been producing the BAPT newsletter during some of this period and, when he stood down in 2000, Gill Clack took over as Editor and developed the newsletter into the Type- Face that we have today. (See her article on The Development of TypeFace which follows). The annual Conferences continued, and during that period BAPT attracted some top quality speakers such as Gordon Lawrence, Larry Demarest, Carol Pearson and Otto Kroeger.
But the challenge of dwindling membership numbers dominated much of this time in BAPT’s history. Part of the problem was in how to let newly qualified practitioners know that BAPT existed. Previously BAPT had had an arrangement with OPP, who would give a BAPT promotional leaflet to MBTI® trainees; however this arrangement had lapsed. Additionally, clarifying the purpose and mission of BAPT was frequently part of the discussion in Board meetings.
When I joined the Board in 2005 at the end of this particular period, David Stilwell was still President, John McGlinchey was Treasurer, and Jackie Ashton and her soon-to-behusband, Jonathan Taylor, were the other Board members. The story continues from here (hopefully with a little more accuracy).
Part Three: Taking BAPT into the Digital Age (Angelina Bennet)
My involvement with BAPT began at the end of 2005 when I took up the Board role of Research & Education Co- Ordinator. David Stilwell was still the President, and Jackie Ashton kindly hosted our Board meetings at her house in the Midlands. We spent most of our time discussing the purpose and mission of BAPT and how to attract new members, and will BAPT survive or fold – a discussion we are still having at almost every Board meeting today. With (the relatively young) Jonathan Taylor on the Board looking after Marketing, there was also a lot of discussion about how to make the most of technology and about re-designing the BAPT website.
I attended my first BAPT Conference in 2006 at Harben House near Milton Keynes. This was my first real taste of what an amazing community the BAPT membership were and how dedicated many of the members were to both BAPT and psychological type. I was in the fortunate position of having the wonderful Otto Kroeger as keynote speaker at my first BAPT Conference. It was at the AGM held at this conference that David stepped down as President, as his maximum term was up, and Jackie Ashton took over.
Although Jackie brought a fresh injection of energy, enthusiasm and ideas to her role as President, she, unfortunately, did not stay in the seat for long due to changes in her personal circumstances – marrying Jonathan and moving to the far north of England. So we also lost Jonathan from the Board too. John McGlinchey also stepped down as Treasurer around this time, and Nancy Silcox was ‘persuaded’ to take up the role. (I think we needed to use the thumbscrews for that particular ‘persuasion’). Jackie was replaced by the wonderful and insightful Sophia Dunn. Board meetings with Sophia made me feel as if BAPT could get a new sense of direction and a new lease of life. In her ‘Ti’ way, Sophia facilitated discussions about our mission, our demographics, and our identity, and she began work on a new website. Unfortunately, again, Sophia was unable to stay in the role for very long and was replaced by Wynn Rees. Anyone who has ever met Wynn will know that he is a distinctive character and the epitome of ENTP. Wynn brought positivity, optimism, open-mindedness and a never-ending stream of cutting edge technological ideas to the meetings. Wynn must be what they call an ‘early adopter’, and it was through Wynn that I first heard of Twitter, QR Codes, and Google Docs! Also on the Board at that time were Isabel Chaney as Secretary, Bill Davies as Marketing Co-ordinator, and Gwyneth Adams as Membership Secretary. Nancy, Wynn and Isabel all stayed with the Board for their maximum permitted terms, and Gwyneth is still with us. Bill has stayed in the wings and frequently helps BAPT out with various things, and his help has been invaluable.
It was fortunate that Wynn was so au fait with technology as one of the new challenges to BAPT was that of surviving in the internet age. Why would type users join BAPT when they could create virtual communities on Facebook and Linked In? Why would they want to access BAPT resources when everything is free on the web? Why would they need additional training when they could pull up video clips on You Tube? Of course, we know that being part of an APT in ‘real life’ offers much more quality and depth, to say nothing of the networking, knowledge sharing and general sense of community. But how do you convey this to those who believe that, a) they know everything they need to know about type, and b) they can get whatever else they need free on the web? This latest issue had a direct effect on the everpresent problem of declining membership. In addition to this, another issue arose that threatened BAPT’s survival – a lack of willing volunteers to take on Board roles. So the challenges to BAPT went on …
In this period of BAPT’s history, the e-Newsletter was set up by Bill Davies, and TypeFace had a facelift and got a colour cover. The relationship with OPP was re-kindled and Wynn negotiated member discounts on OPP courses and the ability to have a BAPT promotional leaflet given to newly qualified type practitioners. This was a great help towards increasing our membership.
During Wynn’s time as President BAPT introduced a constitutional change which allowed Board members to return to the Board (subject to election) when they had completed their maximum term, provided they took a year off between terms. So in 2010 I took a year away from BAPT as my term as Research & Education Co-ordinator was up, and was elected in 2011 as President. Wynn stayed on for two more years as a Board member. During the first year of my Presidency, another threat to BAPT’s future became ever more apparent; all of our income was going into the production of TypeFace. So the decision was made to produce TypeFace in-house, in electronic form, with optional print on a pay-as-you-go basis. This has saved BAPT several thousand pounds per year and made us financially viable again.
In 2013 there was quite a turn-around on the Board as Nancy, Isabel and Wynn had completed their terms of office. Janet Parsons came on board as Secretary, Sue Nash volunteered to be Marketing Co-ordinator, Sheila McAlpine was given the new role of Conference and Events Co-ordinator, and (after the usual ‘persuasion’) Chris Rigden agreed to be Treasurer. This first year in post has been a baptism of fire for the new Board! As you know, we picked up the cancelled EAPT Conference, so it has been full steam ahead organising the biggest conference BAPT have ever been involved in. Chris stepped way beyond her Treasurer duties and re-designed our website, Sue has been working away on marketing and Sheila has been pulling it all together.
In terms of other news, our relationship with OPP is better than ever – as you can see from the Conference sponsorship. BAPT, OPP and Susan Nash’s Type Academy collaborated to bring Dario Nardi over for a workshop last year and we hope to do more of this in the future. Our relationship with other APTs has got stronger and we are developing ideas for a more ‘global’ APT in the future. BAPT members now have access to the other APT publications, and TypeFace is now distributed to APTs in the USA, Australia and New Zealand, and we can now offer our members access to webinars being hosted by other APTs. So the future is looking brighter – we just need to maintain the momentum.
Epilogue
As I enter my third year in the President’s role and I read the first part of this article written by Ann O’Sullivan and the MBUG members I realise that, rather than look for its future direction, BAPT needs to look at the past and go back to its original purpose: to help practitioners a) with their own development, b) to understand the link to Jung, and c) to understand both the conscious and unconscious parts of ourselves. I fully agree with Ann’s statement that, without this, the instrument is “simply a swift, transient tool of little consequence in the longer term”. Not only are BAPT and the other APTs (still) fighting for survival, but the integrity of the Jung-Myers theory is fighting for survival due to poor use of the tool, superficial understanding of the theory, and a lack of real learning that comes from self-development. All around us, businesses are looking for ‘quick and dirty’ or ‘entertaining’ alternatives to MBTI®, and test publishers are bringing out diluted or trait-based instruments that they think are more accurate and user-friendly versions of psychological type. This is all borne out of lack of knowledge about the potential depth and value of type theory, and from clients’ experience of poor application of type. BAPT and other APTs could really be instrumental in helping type users to make the most out of applying type, and helping excellent practitioners to differentiate themselves from the new norm.
So, in the future of BAPT, I would like to promote more selfdevelopment activities and provide opportunities for discussion and education, and to resurrect the original mission of BAPT; “to uphold the integrity and ethical values of the Indicator, provide opportunities for meetings, conferences and professional ongoing training at reasonable cost, and to give practitioners a supportive organisation for their own development”.
Thanks Ann and co. for giving me this valuable reminder.