Fi ~ Introverted Feeling
- Thread starter YourFavoriteNightmare
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It's you personal subjective beliefs. It affects your life by forcing you to act based on those beliefs. It's not really an "emotional" function but an ethical one. For instance, most people believe that murder and rape are wrong and that kindness and helpfulness are right. What they do based on this belief judges what their function dictates about them. You could believe they deserve the death penalty, that they deserve to spend life in prison, that the law should dictate how they are treated or even that they should be let off and forgiven albeit watched carefully with slightly more restrictions than the average individual (justice vs. mercy). You could believe that stealing and lying aren't wrong because they don't hurt anybody or that they are because they're deceitful.
You could run a stop light in the middle of the night when no one is around and get pulled over by a cop. Either you could believe that you were treated unfairly by getting a ticket since it was a failed law system or you could believe receiving the ticket was justified for breaking the rules. You could be a nurse who has to give a shot to someone for the death penalty. You may believe from your values that it's wrong to kill someone so even though it's your duty to give the shot, your other values are more important so you could administer it even though it's the law. It's the subjective belief that one moral or ethic is more important than another.
Another example I have personally that I have yet to figure out. I told this ISFP girl that I really liked her even though he was with a boyfriend and I was impulsive and startled her by accident. She retaliated by saying she was pregnant and that they were going to get married. It startled me in return. So because I startled her, she startled me in return. It was a joke, of course, and I laughed it off but it's a strong example of Fi. She felt that she was treated unfairly and returned the same feeling in a passive way. Granted this is probably only the case for well developed Fi users but I believe it gives some insight into Introverted Feeling although I'm not sure how.
I suggest to develop it by forming a belief system. It will come across in it's own good time but really introspect and place yourself in situations where you might do something irrational because of your ethical code. What do you belive is right? What do you believe is wrong? More importantly weigh these beliefs against each other to find out which is more important to you. It may be different in each situation you're faced with since Fi is a P function but try to understand the difference between these and the reasons behind them. For instance, some people may say it's better to kill 1 person to save 10. However, if placed in a situation where they had to push a fat man off a bridge in front of a moving car to save 10 people they may not do it because it's unethical to directly kill someone intentionally. It may not be logical, but because you're having some direct affect on a life you may be hesitant to do so. If you have any more questions ask but I hope this helps.
You could run a stop light in the middle of the night when no one is around and get pulled over by a cop. Either you could believe that you were treated unfairly by getting a ticket since it was a failed law system or you could believe receiving the ticket was justified for breaking the rules. You could be a nurse who has to give a shot to someone for the death penalty. You may believe from your values that it's wrong to kill someone so even though it's your duty to give the shot, your other values are more important so you could administer it even though it's the law. It's the subjective belief that one moral or ethic is more important than another.
Another example I have personally that I have yet to figure out. I told this ISFP girl that I really liked her even though he was with a boyfriend and I was impulsive and startled her by accident. She retaliated by saying she was pregnant and that they were going to get married. It startled me in return. So because I startled her, she startled me in return. It was a joke, of course, and I laughed it off but it's a strong example of Fi. She felt that she was treated unfairly and returned the same feeling in a passive way. Granted this is probably only the case for well developed Fi users but I believe it gives some insight into Introverted Feeling although I'm not sure how.
I suggest to develop it by forming a belief system. It will come across in it's own good time but really introspect and place yourself in situations where you might do something irrational because of your ethical code. What do you belive is right? What do you believe is wrong? More importantly weigh these beliefs against each other to find out which is more important to you. It may be different in each situation you're faced with since Fi is a P function but try to understand the difference between these and the reasons behind them. For instance, some people may say it's better to kill 1 person to save 10. However, if placed in a situation where they had to push a fat man off a bridge in front of a moving car to save 10 people they may not do it because it's unethical to directly kill someone intentionally. It may not be logical, but because you're having some direct affect on a life you may be hesitant to do so. If you have any more questions ask but I hope this helps.
Despite the name, Introverted Feeling does not refer specifically to feelings. It refers to a decision-making process that factors in personal identity, emotions and values, but that alone is not what Fi is conceptually nor does it even begin to tell the whole story.
The feeling functions interpret and understand the thing they're examining in its totality. They consider the all; the underlying concepts uniting the pieces of the whole; the meaning, the origin, the why. Introverted functions, as you know, focus on a limited perspective. They cut out a piece of reality and focus within that immediate square of perception. In a nutshell, introverted Feeling zeroes in on a singular concept and tries to discern what it means, but it's operating from a limited experience rather than a global context.
How it manifests in each of the types is entirely dependent on where it appears on the function stack. It doesn't operate on its own. How EXFPs, IXTJs and EXTJs express Fi is much, much different than the way IXFPs express Fi.
For example, a dominant Fi frequently struggles to define itself in the world. An auxiliary Fi, which supports an extroverted perceiving function, may be about recreating a perspective within oneself. Tertiary Fi can rationalize the findings of an extroverted judging auxiliary by organizing priorities, whereas inferior Fi can manifest negatively as a disdain for emotional outbursts that projects ones own fears of being perceived as weak if demonstrating emotions.
How to develop it, again, depends on the goals of all your other functions. If Ti is in your line up, you don't need Fi because you already have a function that offers you a holistic perspective (which is Fe) and you prefer to understand things in a linear, structured manner. If Fi is in your line up and it's not dominant, you can engage it more by asking WHY and what it all ~MEANS~ and what is important or isn't important about the thing to you.
In my function stack, my Fi is auxiliary. I use myself as a guinea pig and try to put myself in another person's shoes. Fi prompts me to discern what the other person is thinking, feeling, and line up what I think they need to hear to help them solve their own problem as I juggle through ideas and adjust my view as I speak to them. I'm not about emotional support so much as I am about trying to get people to think about something a different way, which is actually what I adjust my view towards first. I try to cheer them up or steer their thinking in a different perspective to match up with my own beliefs in the moment that I think will help. Unfortunately, that sometimes leads me to presume too much or makes me sound pedantic (or obnoxious).... and then get upset when I'm misinterpreted because my intentions didn't line up with what was expressed.
The feeling functions interpret and understand the thing they're examining in its totality. They consider the all; the underlying concepts uniting the pieces of the whole; the meaning, the origin, the why. Introverted functions, as you know, focus on a limited perspective. They cut out a piece of reality and focus within that immediate square of perception. In a nutshell, introverted Feeling zeroes in on a singular concept and tries to discern what it means, but it's operating from a limited experience rather than a global context.
How it manifests in each of the types is entirely dependent on where it appears on the function stack. It doesn't operate on its own. How EXFPs, IXTJs and EXTJs express Fi is much, much different than the way IXFPs express Fi.
For example, a dominant Fi frequently struggles to define itself in the world. An auxiliary Fi, which supports an extroverted perceiving function, may be about recreating a perspective within oneself. Tertiary Fi can rationalize the findings of an extroverted judging auxiliary by organizing priorities, whereas inferior Fi can manifest negatively as a disdain for emotional outbursts that projects ones own fears of being perceived as weak if demonstrating emotions.
How to develop it, again, depends on the goals of all your other functions. If Ti is in your line up, you don't need Fi because you already have a function that offers you a holistic perspective (which is Fe) and you prefer to understand things in a linear, structured manner. If Fi is in your line up and it's not dominant, you can engage it more by asking WHY and what it all ~MEANS~ and what is important or isn't important about the thing to you.
In my function stack, my Fi is auxiliary. I use myself as a guinea pig and try to put myself in another person's shoes. Fi prompts me to discern what the other person is thinking, feeling, and line up what I think they need to hear to help them solve their own problem as I juggle through ideas and adjust my view as I speak to them. I'm not about emotional support so much as I am about trying to get people to think about something a different way, which is actually what I adjust my view towards first. I try to cheer them up or steer their thinking in a different perspective to match up with my own beliefs in the moment that I think will help. Unfortunately, that sometimes leads me to presume too much or makes me sound pedantic (or obnoxious).... and then get upset when I'm misinterpreted because my intentions didn't line up with what was expressed.
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