Something I've been thinking about recently. I welcome all opinions, not just that of INFJs.
INFJs are to a degree emotional creatures. I'm not sure how far this extends with other INFJs but from what I've seen here and other's I've spoken with INFJs feel other people's pain and often find themselves doing whatever they can to help.
Thinking about it tends to be mostly down to us feeling other people's emotions as strongly as our own. We we see someone crying, especially if we have a connection to that person we feel compelled to drop everything and help them, because we too are feeling their pain purely by seeing it.
It could be a self defense mechanism. By helping them we stop ourselves feeling bad so it could be particially out of self interest we help. Perhaps its not worth over analysing that aspect.
But at this point the INFJ has a choice to resolve the situation and make the INFJ feel better. Either to help the person, or remove themselves from the situation and potentially cut this person off and abandon them.
The later may sound cruel, and it is. But it also undenyable that sometimes the INFJ can do nothing to help the person and no amount of action will help, so only by removing themselves from the situation can the INFJ recover and resume normal life.
But the question is: Do INFJs have a moral Duty To Care?
1) Should INFJs always TRY to help if there is the possibility they can?
2) Or is it acceptable out of self-preservation to reject and avoid anyone who is emotionally distressed to avoid being emotionally drained as well?
Taking these both to their logically extremes, is it better for the INFJ to help any and all they can regardless of emotional pain and the work required, also knowing sometimes it is doomed to failure.
Or is it acceptable for an INFJ to breeze through life, deliberately not looking down to see the suffering and pain of those all around them, even if they could easily help them with no significant cost or hardship on their part.
Possibly this even includes rejecting any family and friends who fall on hard times, only speaking to them again after their life had taken an upturn again on its own without inteference by the INFJ, and where that does not occur naturally ignoring them completely for the rest of their lives.
I suspect most will say is down to personal morality, but which is the 'better' path in your opinion. Laissez-Faire or Intervention?
Or if you are more moderate like myself, where is the line drawn? When is it acceptable to ignore the suffering of nearby friends and family and when is it worth any cost to help someone?
INFJs are to a degree emotional creatures. I'm not sure how far this extends with other INFJs but from what I've seen here and other's I've spoken with INFJs feel other people's pain and often find themselves doing whatever they can to help.
Thinking about it tends to be mostly down to us feeling other people's emotions as strongly as our own. We we see someone crying, especially if we have a connection to that person we feel compelled to drop everything and help them, because we too are feeling their pain purely by seeing it.
It could be a self defense mechanism. By helping them we stop ourselves feeling bad so it could be particially out of self interest we help. Perhaps its not worth over analysing that aspect.
But at this point the INFJ has a choice to resolve the situation and make the INFJ feel better. Either to help the person, or remove themselves from the situation and potentially cut this person off and abandon them.
The later may sound cruel, and it is. But it also undenyable that sometimes the INFJ can do nothing to help the person and no amount of action will help, so only by removing themselves from the situation can the INFJ recover and resume normal life.
But the question is: Do INFJs have a moral Duty To Care?
1) Should INFJs always TRY to help if there is the possibility they can?
2) Or is it acceptable out of self-preservation to reject and avoid anyone who is emotionally distressed to avoid being emotionally drained as well?
Taking these both to their logically extremes, is it better for the INFJ to help any and all they can regardless of emotional pain and the work required, also knowing sometimes it is doomed to failure.
Or is it acceptable for an INFJ to breeze through life, deliberately not looking down to see the suffering and pain of those all around them, even if they could easily help them with no significant cost or hardship on their part.
Possibly this even includes rejecting any family and friends who fall on hard times, only speaking to them again after their life had taken an upturn again on its own without inteference by the INFJ, and where that does not occur naturally ignoring them completely for the rest of their lives.
I suspect most will say is down to personal morality, but which is the 'better' path in your opinion. Laissez-Faire or Intervention?
Or if you are more moderate like myself, where is the line drawn? When is it acceptable to ignore the suffering of nearby friends and family and when is it worth any cost to help someone?