Spirit of Arms of the Brazilian Army and Psychological Typology

Abstract

This article establishes a connection between a social identity construct, developed by anthropologist Celso Castro in his work "O espírito militar: um antropólogo na caserna" and referred to as the spirit of arms, and the psychological typology created by psychologist Carl Gustav Jung in his work "Psychological Types". The research was developed taking into account the training of combat officers in the Brazilian Army, which takes place at the Agulhas Negras Military Academy (AMAN). At AMAN, cadets graduate with bachelor’s degrees in military sciences in one of seven specialties or arms. The overall objective was to determine whether there are relationships between the spirits of arms, which are characterized by their peculiarities, and the psychological typology proposed by Carl Gustav Jung. To do so, semi-structured interviews were conducted with officers, professors, and instructors trained at AMAN, across different time periods, aiming to identify characteristics of the spirit of arms. The data were analyzed to determine the relationships between the “spirits of arms” and psychological types. The results indicated the existence of common characteristics that indicate likely the relationship between certain psychological types and the unique spirit inherent in each “arms”.