Introverted – Ni (INTJ, INFJ)
- Preoccupied with internal thoughts, inspirations and imaginings.
- Intuitive flashes are abstract and may be difficult to translate verbally for extraverted expression.
- Thinks and communicates poetically with fragmentary and evocative language that leaps associatively.
- The wandering and dreaming mind is preoccupied with internal details and lacks focus in physicality.
- Distaste for time wasted in distraction away from personal goals and interests.
Focusing on possibilities, the Ni has a future-orientation and processes input internally before communicating publicly through his auxiliary function of Te or Fe. They will often need to explain their evaluations—with active listeners—for their own understanding.
An internally and intuitively focused person needs space and solitude to recharge. He is easily over stimulated in noisy and busy environments, avoiding these as a regular part of his socialization—preferring smaller more intimate gatherings. Due to cultural pressures toward extraversion, he may have developed this auxiliary attitude more than an extravert may have developed introversion—but with neglect of and thus at the expense of his primary attitude.
For Ni-s, reality is inward, over stimulation through too much sensory-detail—especially disruptive and interruptive noise and too much visual action—creates internal chaos in which their intuitive insights have difficulty processing to their auxiliary functions Te or Fe. An absence of inner peace threatens their existence.
To avoid overwhelming an Ni with extraneous sensory-detail, when offering something such as instructional information, pare it down to the bare minimum, otherwise they may hear:
head North on Main Street, blah blah blah, turn right on 4th, blah blah blah, go 1 mile past the blah blah blah, turn right, blah blah blah… Typically the
blah blah blahs are information about how many specific landmarks such as gas stations you will pass between points or bits of trivia about the locations—details often helpful for extraverts. An Ni forced to endure too much detail may become flustered if he is unable to tune out the extraneous information; his brain is already adding additional information through his many simultaneous intuitive insights as the external sensory detail is also provided.
Ni-s are not data collectors which requires a strong sensory function, but their ability to focus by tuning out external sensory stimuli gives them a high-level of detail orientation for analyzing and organizing data—especially INTJs.
Midlife Development & Overuse: Ni-s are more detached than other types from their bodies. Due to this they may view illness as a nuisance, dismissing their own physical ailments and interpreting illness in others as evidence of weakness. They are poor delegators, feeling instead that they should be able to
do it all. The INFJs do this in an effort to please, whereas the INTJs are slow to trust in the abilities of others over their own.
There is within Ni-s an idealism and need for authenticity; if there is something of great value that no one will do, they will do it. If someone will do it, the Ni will do it anyway since
if you want something done right, do it yourself. This attitude is most prevalent for things personally valued by the Ni, who views time spent away from their values as wasted and may feel dissatisfied and disillusioned if their time is spent in what they view as non-productivity toward their personal values. In such conditions an Ni loses his sense of purpose and may retreat internally and is prone to depression—whether it is turned inward or manifested outward. He is easily stuck inside his internal abstract flashes of insight and communication through his auxiliary function falters. Of all types, Ni-s are the greatest at risk to turning completely inward and rejecting outer reality.
Those who turn inward reject outsiders—including their spouse. They become increasingly angry with themselves as the pain they cause for families, but this only causes them to spiral further into their internal world.
Extraverted-sensing is the inferior function for primary introverted-intuition. Se is a grounding function. Development of his sensing function can stabilize an Ni1 in his grounding, giving him a connection to physicality and helping to define reality with greater dimension.
For Ni-s, keeping chaos at bay is vital. Sensory stimuli, which is external and therefore outside of personal control, refuses to stay away, interrupting more insistently through midlife. The person who does not embrace this may instead find himself attempting to control the external world through obsessive or compulsive behaviours.
