Archetypes and function analysis using cross-axis mapping | INFJ Forum

Archetypes and function analysis using cross-axis mapping

Sandie33

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Hi- I am an INFJ and using Archetypal labeling I am trying to create a model from a cross-axis map to aid in understanding the complexities of the 8 cognitive functions and how they move up and down and left to right within the axis, (see picture below), depending on Ego submission or deference for an INFJ.

I'm missing a piece, or pieces, and would appreciate feedback from others. Please add your thoughts, perspectives, etc. on this topic.

Thank you all in advance for your help and input. I am deeply grateful. :)

The below link gives more detail in the enacting Archetypal influences when understanding where in the map one may be depending on current experience as well as past instances.

http://www.erictb.info/archetypes.html

Help in understanding (?)

Research produced the 8 functions and the perceived corresponding Archetypes appear as the following for an INFJ:

Ni Leading dominant The Hero/Heroine
Ne Shadow The Defender
Fe Supporting The Good Parent
Ti Relief The Unsettling Child
Fi Discovery The Bad Parent
Te Deceiving The Trickster
Se Anchor Aspritional Female/Male
Si Transforming The Demon

The blank map is such:
View attachment 32241

Again, thank you for your help...:D
 
I just starting reading a book related to this. The archetypes relating to psychology. Although I think it focuses more on shadow self. I will have to came back here when I have finished the book and bounce theories off of you.
 
This has relevance to my qurery in relation to building the cross-axis map. A quote from Lenore Thompson in Personality Type-An Owner's Manual. (This book is an amazing analysis so far.)

"Life always places us at a typological crossroads. Whenever we employ a function or attitude, we are axiomatically choosing against its opposite. In a very real sense, life pushes us to make this choice and to grow and evolve as we contend with the consequences."
 
Hm, this sounds interesting, but I can't quite understand what you're doing. :/

To give some of my ideas though: there is a difference between using a function in one position of a function stack, versus using it in a different position in a different stack. So, while INFJ has Si in the 8th position, they can also use it in the 1st position by employing an ISFJ function order. Each use of Si will have a very different character, but the underlying processes will be the same.

Essentially, when we use one function, it is acting on its own, without all other 7, but will have the qualities of the neighbouring functions, giving it the quality of the function stack it is in - so, in INFJ, the Ni will have Fe-like qualities, and presumably the Fe will have Ti-like qualities. The Ni will furthermore have dominant qualities, i.e. it will have an initiating force to it, whereas the Se will have more of a conclusive air to it, and functions 5-8 may or may not be activated at all, with Se tending to loop back into Ni, or into a different function stack altogether.

I am interested in knowing what factors lead to the 5th-8th functions being activated, as they sometimes turn up but it is quite rare.
 
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Hi- I am an INFJ and using Archetypal labeling I am trying to create a model from a cross-axis map to aid in understanding the complexities of the 8 cognitive functions and how they move up and down and left to right within the axis, (see picture below), depending on Ego submission or deference for an INFJ.

I'm missing a piece, or pieces, and would appreciate feedback from others. Please add your thoughts, perspectives, etc. on this topic.

Thank you all in advance for your help and input. I am deeply grateful. :)

The below link gives more detail in the enacting Archetypal influences when understanding where in the map one may be depending on current experience as well as past instances.

http://www.erictb.info/archetypes.html

Help in understanding (?)

Research produced the 8 functions and the perceived corresponding Archetypes appear as the following for an INFJ:

Ni Leading dominant The Hero/Heroine
Ne Shadow The Defender
Fe Supporting The Good Parent
Ti Relief The Unsettling Child
Fi Discovery The Bad Parent
Te Deceiving The Trickster
Se Anchor Aspritional Female/Male
Si Transforming The Demon

The blank map is such:
View attachment 32241

Again, thank you for your help...:D
Put an x in the middle. Your move...
 
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Hm, this sounds interesting, but I can't quite understand what you're doing. :/

To give some of my ideas though: there is a difference between using a function in one position of a function stack, versus using it in a different position in a different stack. So, while INFJ has Si in the 8th position, they can also use it in the 1st position by employing an ISFJ function order. Each use of Si will have a very different character, but the underlying processes will be the same.

Essentially, when we use one function, it is acting on its own, without all other 7, but will have the qualities of the neighbouring functions, giving it the quality of the function stack it is in - so, in INFJ, the Ni will have Fe-like qualities, and presumably the Fe will have Ti-like qualities. The Ni will furthermore have dominant qualities, i.e. it will have an initiating force to it, whereas the Se will have more of a conclusive air to it, and functions 5-8 may or may not be activated at all, with Se tending to loop back into Ni, or into a different function stack altogether.

I am interested in knowing what factors lead to the 5th-8th functions being activated, as they sometimes turn up but it is quite rare.
Thank you for responding @Kaotiklysm I appreciate your time.

I am attempting to plot how the horizontal functions and vertical functions slide on the axi using my own details as the example. In an attempt to show that as we mature so do our functions. With time and purpose we can develop them. The link to Archtypal influence and functions is still being sorted out in my mind. I 'know' there is a connection between life experiences and events and how our type can metastasize into a completely different or 'masking' type depending on the situations we encounter during a lifetime. E.g. Trauma or perceived trauma.

Because I think abstractly, tossing a net out and catching facts and information from many sources, then categorizing them based on relationships to each other, what is known and yet to be known, it creates a gap in my ability to turn my concepts into linguistics so I hope you'll bare with me in my attempts to decode the big picture verbally for you.

Evidently, I am 'wired' differently than the historical INFJ.
Typically the firing order for INFJ is : Ni, Fe, Ti, Se, Ne, Fi, Te, Si
My firing order is:
Fi, Fe, Ne, Se, Ni, Ti, Te, Si
All of which, when tested show exceptional usage except the Te and Si functions. These were shown as limited usage.

I'm trying to understand and ultimately convey the 'why' of it by employing again, facts provided by others, what is known and yet unknown.

I'll need time to mull over your input. Again I thank you for your interest and your time. I may have questions for you if that's acceptable.
 
Thank you for responding @Kaotiklysm I appreciate your time.

Ah, it barely took any time - I practically have that material as an automatic response now :p So thanks for reading it, as I've had less interest shown in my ideas thus far than I expected.

I am attempting to plot how the horizontal functions and vertical functions slide on the axi using my own details as the example.

So is this something to do with why, say Ni pairs with Se in a given function stack, and how we move from using one to the other?

In an attempt to show that as we mature so do our functions. With time and purpose we can develop them. The link to Archtypal influence and functions is still being sorted out in my mind. I 'know' there is a connection between life experiences and events and how our type can metastasize into a completely different or 'masking' type depending on the situations we encounter during a lifetime. E.g. Trauma or perceived trauma.

Well, yes of course our functions develop as we mature - we gain greater mastery over their use. Not only functions, but as I mentioned, function orders develop. For example, if you were to spend a lot of time with an INTJ, you would find that you would become increasingly better at using Te following Ni rather than Fe. This also explains type masking somewhat - that if our default function order is being interrupted, we may rely on a well developed secondary function order which is promoted by the environment (which is not necessarily the environment one is in at the time - for example, I have been called delusional by mental health services, and as a result I have come to have severe doubts over my Ni, and used an STJ style of cognition to compensate and be considered "normal")

Because I think abstractly, tossing a net out and catching facts and information from many sources, then categorizing them based on relationships to each other, what is known and yet to be known, it creates a gap in my ability to turn my concepts into linguistics so I hope you'll bare with me in my attempts to decode the big picture verbally for you.

Evidently, I am 'wired' differently than the historical INFJ.
Typically the firing order for INFJ is : Ni, Fe, Ti, Se, Ne, Fi, Te, Si
My firing order is:
Fi, Fe, Ne, Se, Ni, Ti, Te, Si
All of which, when tested show exceptional usage except the Te and Si functions. These were shown as limited usage.

I'm trying to understand and ultimately convey the 'why' of it by employing again, facts provided by others, what is known and yet unknown.

I'll need time to mull over your input. Again I thank you for your interest and your time. I may have questions for you if that's acceptable.

I think you are confusing firing order with strength of functions. For example, an INFJ may have stronger Si than Se, but this is due to the influence of secondary styles - when we call someone an INFJ, what we mean is that the INFJ function order is their default, their strongest and most natural to use.

Now, if your Ni is way down there in the stack, then either you are not accurately measuring your Ni usage, or you are not an INFJ. An INFJ can even have stronger Te than Fe, at least hypothetically, but the Ni is always strong, because it is the strongest function of the strongest function order. Only in some extreme hypothetical scenario, such as one who develops a wide range of secondary styles, none of which include Ni, could the Ni be seen to be that low.*

I can certainly relate to catching information from a variety of places - it took me a long while of gathering and mulling over info before I could get my own view of how functions work together, which I am showing to you now, and I am highly confident that my picture is correct, although I recognise that there is a lot that I haven't covered yet, so I still seek further information.

Feel free to inquire further as you so desire.


* however there is the case of "skipping over" a function, so that the dominant function would still be used first to initiate the sequence, but may, as soon as it is activated, pass over to the auxiliary function, which stays active for a longer time. In this case, the dominant is still strong, but underused. This is the case in a "loop", in which an INFJ would skip over Fe (and Se) and seemingly go from Ni to Ti to Ni again
 
I completely forgot about this ...
 
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fingerprint=e1bb72ff59f25a5a3370794d519e1962[/img]
 
Does this wheel help? (It's not uploading for some reason; sorry)
(PS: @Eventhorizon ...would you like to buy a vowel this time?) :tongueclosed:...

http://www.soulcraft.co/essays/images/archetypal_wheel.bmp

archetypal_wheel.bmp
 
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This is the rest of the website it came from: http://www.soulcraft.co/essays/the_12_common_archetypes.html

My personal interpretation of this wheel is that the INFJs tend to be more in the ego and freedom ends of the wheel, because I believe ego archetypes= intuition (creating new things by oneself), and freedom archetypes= feeling (believing that life is relative and not black & white).

In contrast, social archetypes are more sensing (doing things the way they have always been done and being like everyone else), and order archetypes are more thinking (applying a standardized set of rules regardless of how it impacts particular individuals). While the judging archetypes are appealing to the "J part" in INFJ people, they ultimately don't strike us as the most important archetypes because they don't appeal to the "FJ" -- only to the "TJ."

My favorite archetypes on the wheel are the creator and the magician. I would bet that most INFJs would like the creator ... the archetypes that we like best are directly related to the overall personality type. I can't envision any INFJ liking the "everyman" and the "jester" best.

I think to break it down into a firing order is a bit overboard, but I see what you were trying to analyze... I try to keep the whole INFJ together and work backward from the most favorite archetype to the least favorite. When you look at the least favorite ones, I found that my least favorites were on the exact opposite sides of the wheel! (In my case, the everyman and the lover).

That's my personal interpretation... the archetypes are basically the embodiment of the personality type, like putting meat on a skeletal framework.
 
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