I am still confused
My sister always tests as an INFP and if I were to ask her at any given moment how she feels - she will always be able to answer this simple question with I feel....
If however she were to turn the tables and ask me it would take me several moments to 'think' my feeling out. Often a cloud of unknowing is how I describe my emotion.
Is this indicative of Fe vs Fi?
I can often effectively gauge as 'thoughts' how those around me are thinking and feeling. I also notice that if someone smiles or is in anguish around me I will likewise feel a burst of happiness or anguish in their presence - sometimes though I can shut this off if I need to be there 'present' for the person but this emotion will catch up with me after a few hours when I am on my own.
Again is this again Fe vs Fi?
I also read somewhere that Fe is both the ability to connect and withdraw from others.
Any viewpoints most welcomed.
To Goatman I am saying with Fi you know how you feel and with Fe you don't.
Based on that are you sure you are Fe not Fi? This is not an attack of any sort in case you take it as such. Perhaps it meeans I am Fi not Fe - Me wonders.
But then again I could have my constructs the wrong way round. I know Socionics does it differently to other sites hence the confusion.
Me confused.
I am still confused
My sister always tests as an INFP and if I were to ask her at any given moment how she feels - she will always be able to answer this simple question with I feel....
If however she were to turn the tables and ask me it would take me several moments to 'think' my feeling out. Often a cloud of unknowing is how I describe my emotion.
Is this indicative of Fe vs Fi?
I can often effectively gauge as 'thoughts' how those around me are thinking and feeling. I also notice that if someone smiles or is in anguish around me I will likewise feel a burst of happiness or anguish in their presence - sometimes though I can shut this off if I need to be there 'present' for the person but this emotion will catch up with me after a few hours when I am on my own.
Again is this Fe vs Fi?
I also read somewhere that Fe is both the ability to connect and withdraw from others.
Any viewpoints most welcomed.
On Vicky Jo's infjorinfp.com I read that it is much easier for INFPs to recognise what they want for themselves than what other people want, and vice versa: it is much easier for INFJs to recognise what others want than what they themselves want. So maybe you did describe the difference between Fe and Fi correctly. I don't know. To me this kind of distinguishing between the two feels much artificial.
Vicky Jo's site irks me a bit because she seems to underestimate Fi as selfish and only interested in "personal values" while describing Fe as altruistic and self-sacrificing. I think she's got it wrong. An example of very healthy use of Fi is rebellion against groupthink when groupthink is cruel; ie if someone is treated badly, a person who uses Fi might risk her own status in the group by defending the mistreated one.
I can often effectively gauge as 'thoughts' how those around me are thinking and feeling. I also notice that if someone smiles or is in anguish around me I will likewise feel a burst of happiness or anguish in their presence - sometimes though I can shut this off if I need to be there 'present' for the person but this emotion will catch up with me after a few hours when I am on my own.
I think the bold bit mainly has to do with the particular combination of Ni and Fe. It's intuition for a good bit. Then feeling it as your own feeling is that as well, you are putting yourself in the other person's shoes using Ni and feeling it as your own using Fe.
Fe is a social function : it is the way you relate to the group, knowing how everyone in the group is relating to it, and how the group as a whole is doing. It has do to with others. That's why INFJs are so good with empathy. We use our switching perspective (Ni) in a social way (Fe), literally living through what the other person is living. Fe is about reaching to other people
INFPs are great with knowing what they feel, who they genuinely are and what they want their place in the world to be. They use their feeling as a filter with which to take in the world, and the world as a place to show their own perspective of things. The world outside is more shifting to them probably. We are more shifting inside.
Of course it is more complicated than that, and I feel I haven't express myself very well, but I hope it helps somewhat.
I think you aren't giving INFPs enough credit. You are kind of repeating that bit about Fe being about others and Fi being about the self.
"They use their feeling as a filter with which to take in the world, and the world as a place to show their own perspective of things. "
This line can also describe INFJs IMO.
When someone is healthy and balanced you will find they are not just thinking of themselves (or just others) no matter whether their type or function is I or E.
I find that Fi can genuinely have incredible emotional insight. Fe is good at picking out what people are feeling, Fi is good at picking out what people don't realize they are feeling, if that makes sense.
I think when someone is unhealthy they become selfish with their Is and too thoughtless with their Es.
Hello I wondered if someone could tell me what Fe actually is in your own words not a definition. Similarly what is Fi in reality not as a construct.
I find examples of real life much more elucidating than a dry definition.
Oh, of course as I said it is more complex, INFJs aren't always thinking about other's feelings and INFPs about their own. I think most INFJs have a pretty well developped Fi, and the other way round. They are very similar types after all.
As to that line, I certainly have noticed that I second guess myself much more than most of the INFPs I know. I am never quite certain that what I think is right, after all it is but an individual opinion. I might be conviced of something but there is always a part of me that thinks I am arrogant if I think I can understand any issue perfectly. So, I would say I don't use my feelings as a filter. I keep my feelings in check with my intuition. I don't trust my feelings as much as a lot of NFPs I know. Which is a good and a bad thing. It makes for a lot of tiring thinking, what with the rationality battling the feelings. I think it's a problem for a lot of us, a problem INFPs don't seem to have as much. They seem to battle more with the external world, to me.
That is very interesting and I think true. I don't think Fi is always right but when it is it strikes deep. I will need to think about it.