INFJs: Do you see yourself in this description?

Yup.

 

It's a good summary.

However, I prefer the descriptions which make a sharp, deliberate distinction between INFJ's at their best; and INFJ's functioning badly.

 

One's own nature may differ from the descriptions, in part, because one's particular functions may be stronger or weaker than the typical model - If the description is typical of INFJs, then I think that I function better in my Ti and Se functions than the typical INFJ. Additionally, we all are individuals. Furthermore, it is likely that the type description was not written by an INFJ.


^^^
Something like that.

 

bolded are really accurate for me, underlined, not so much.

 

I'll highlight the text I relate to:

Areas in black bold - somewhat identify with
Areas in blue bold - strongly identify with
Underline - not sure I can relate, at least not in my experience

 

Yep, I see myself in this description.

 

The I love both of the descriptions as they seem to be spot on, I identify with the zoning out when thinking alot.

The high expectations is also truly my best strength and greates weakness. When it's good I can get people to realy work to acjieve what they are aiming for, when it's bad people view me a self-righteous.

 

I can definitely see myself in that one. Especially the "INFJs may fantasize about getting revenge on those who victimize the defenseless." bit.

 

"INFJs may fantasize about getting revenge on those who victimize the defenseless. The concept of 'poetic justice' is appealing to the INFJ."

I don't relate to this much.

I was going to say at all, but then I recalled watching a recent season of the Wire on DVD and one of the characters was so self-focused that they failed to take care of a couple innocent people who were entrusted to him. As the consequences to these people grew more and more grave, I grew more and more angry with that character. I began ranting about how I wanted to take his head and smash it into the concrete and watch his brains splatter like a broken egg.

But that's not really poetic justice, just an expression of rage, and it's also not real life. I'm very submissive and forgiving in person. Even with the show, when he began to take ownership of his responsibilities, I softened and felt bad for my rage. I don't think I'd ever act on it and it's pretty rare that I even get to the point of feeling it.

Otherwise, I felt varying degrees of resonance with everything in both descriptions posted.

The next least resonance was the part about not being able to be fooled. I think I can be. Kind of. I'm always suspicious, but I often pair that with a chosen willingness to put suspicion aside and trust. I am afraid of being fooled. Also, I think Fe leads me to honor others expressed authority on a topic, or my lack of detail-oriented nature leads me to be too lazy to research everything, and if someone is expressing knowledge about something I know little about, I'm likely to accept it as true until I learn more or their story stops making sense to me. In that interim time, I believe I can be fooled.

 

I'll do the highlighting thing to for compare and contrast, same codign system as Restraint's:

On the internet, that particular description is well known to be flowery and a bit over the top. Many INFJ descriptions are. They tend to be romanticized. I am pretty cool, but not that cool. There's a lot of truth in it, and maybe I am downplaying how powerful the intuition can be.

About 'seeing the hearts of men':
I've known some pretty powerful manipulators, dictator types, etc, who have been scared to death of me because they know (like Sauron's eye) "I SEE YOU!" Its tempting to be hard on myself about being accurate with intuition, because an ego-driven intuition can be dangerously inaccurate. Just like a good jedi-knight would never brag about their abilities, a good intuitive knows to keep the ego at bay. I rarely confront a manipulator directly with formal language. I'll mostly use body language to communicate my knowledge.

About being a counselor:
I'm well known for this at work.

About being fooled:
I think there is a difference between being open minded and gullible. I do have a rather open mind and will let people spout theories, etc, and listen to them for a long time. This may make me seem gullible, but I am building up a database in Ti of information from which I later reach a conclusion. I see no need to "look smart" by reflexively rejecting the unusual. Instead, I enjoy adding to my Ti by actively persuing the unusual. I usually cross-check later to find out which elements of their talk and writing is fictional or not. I then feed that into my Ti. In my Ti, all information, both fictional and non-fictional, is of equal value, although it needs to eventually be properly sorted, and then stored with metadata about its perceived truthfulness versus its inherent symbolic truthfulness.

If I were to write a generalized INFJ summary based off of solely who I am:

We have an innate ability, discovered at a very young age, to let our egos sleep and see into the lives of others. The downside of this is that we are often afraid of conflict and have trouble with self esteem. We may have a deep inner model of our own mind, filled with character and mindfulness. By mindfully lowering the ego and reading the emotions of others, we connect with the outside world in what we perceive as its truest form. This bond-based connection with the exterior can make conflict with it, and others, particularly difficult to maintain for long periods of time. When our rage does finally overtake us, it is often quickly snuffed out by a strong internal pull to restore the flow of energy with those around us. We can be withdrawn sometimes, and outgoing others, and this may seem random. But it is in fact the way we respond to the turbulent energy waters of a social situation. All the while we are building models of the universe with our connections, establishing meanings, and pondering the unknowable, tending a garden of the unseen that rewards us with a fruit of sudden intense knowledge. Maintaining the quality of this garden is expensive, and we are therefore inherently introverts who must rest from the very labor we love.
There are dangers for our type. It is possible in the state of lowered ego to confuse the self and other, and to loose track of identity. Sometimes, it can be very hard to know one's own emotions until it is too late to control them. We live in a world where 'sensitive' and 'thin-skinned' are negative connotations for our talents, and therefore there are some who would seek to 'take advantage' of our weaknesses. For those with anxious and fragile egos from past abuses, there can be particular trouble in establishing healthy boundaries, or a tendency to constantly change the rules. Fragile male INFJs, in particular, may find themselves hiding their emotions in their muscles, experiencing intense pain problems as they age, due to a need to appear strong combined with relatively poor introverted sensing capabilities.

 

Same here.

Good note. I am more comfortable writing than speaking. And I'm glad you mentioned this Raccoon, because I believe this explains why I may have trouble expressing my ideas or thoughts, because some people are analytical on one hand, but on the other, they may instinctively know something without understanding how it works, making it difficult to explain it to someone else.

 

This is actually the first description of INFJ's I read...I felt really connected to it...

.

 

BLUE: Very much for who I am.
RED: Not enough of me to say I am this way.
NORMAL: It's me, but not "holycrap this is so me", or there is no reason to highlight.

----------------

Beneath the quiet exterior, INFJs hold deep convictions about the weightier matters of life. Those who are activists -- INFJs gravitate toward such a role -- are there for the cause, not for personal glory or political power.
INFJs are champions of the oppressed and downtrodden. They often are found in the wake of an emergency, rescuing those who are in acute distress. INFJs may fantasize about getting revenge on those who victimize the defenseless. The concept of 'poetic justice' is appealing to the INFJ.
"There's something rotten in Denmark." Accurately suspicious about others' motives, INFJs are not easily led. These are the people that you can rarely fool any of the time. Though affable and sympathetic to most, INFJs are selective about their friends. Such a friendship is a symbiotic bond that transcends mere words.
INFJs have a knack for fluency in language and facility in communication. In addition, nonverbal sensitivity enables the INFJ to know and be known by others intimately.
Writing, counseling, public service and even politics are areas where INFJs frequently find their niche.

Introverted iNtuition
Introverted intuitives, INFJs enjoy a greater clarity of perception of inner, unconscious processes than all but their INTJ cousins. Just as SP types commune with the object and "live in the here and now" of the physical world, INFJs readily grasp the hidden psychological stimuli behind the more observable dynamics of behavior and affect. Their amazing ability to deduce the inner workings of the mind, will and emotions of others gives INFJs their reputation as prophets and seers. Unlike the confining, routinizing nature of introverted sensing, introverted intuition frees this type to act insightfully and spontaneously as unique solutions arise on an event by event basis.

Extraverted Feeling
Extraverted feeling, the auxiliary deciding function, expresses a range of emotion and opinions of, for and about people. INFJs, like many other FJ types, find themselves caught between the desire to express their wealth of feelings and moral conclusions about the actions and attitudes of others, and the awareness of the consequences of unbridled candor. Some vent the attending emotions in private, to trusted allies. Such confidants are chosen with care, for INFJs are well aware of the treachery that can reside in the hearts of mortals. This particular combination of introverted intuition and extraverted feeling provides INFJs with the raw material from which perceptive counselors are shaped.

Introverted Thinking
The INFJ's thinking is introverted, turned toward the subject. Perhaps it is when the INFJ's thinking function is operative that he is most aloof. A comrade might surmise that such detachment signals a disillusionment, that she has also been found lacking by the sardonic eye of this one who plumbs the depths of the human spirit. Experience suggests that such distancing is merely an indication that the seer is hard at work and focusing energy into this less efficient tertiary function.

Extraverted Sensing
INFJs are twice blessed with clarity of vision, both internal and external. Just as they possess inner vision which is drawn to the forms of the unconscious, they also have external sensing perception which readily takes hold of worldly objects. Sensing, however, is the weakest of the INFJ's arsenal and the most vulnerable. INFJs, like their fellow intuitives, may be so absorbed in intuitive perceiving that they become oblivious to physical reality. The INFJ under stress may fall prey to various forms of immediate gratification. Awareness of extraverted sensing is probably the source of the "SP wannabe" side of INFJs. Many yearn to live spontaneously; it's not uncommon for INFJ actors to take on an SP (often ESTP) role.

 

Alright, I'm going to highlight the things that I can agree with.

I'm not particularly fond of the INFJ descriptions out there. They do seem a bit too much at times, sometimes even making me doubt my type as I can just as easily relate to some other descriptions as well. But when I take the information into account from multiple sources, add some mix of the functions theory, strip about half of the mysticism away, then I am convinced that I am indeed an INFJ.

 

Beneath the quiet exterior, INFJs hold deep convictions about the weightier matters of life. Those who are activists -- INFJs gravitate toward such a role -- are there for the cause, not for personal glory or political power.
INFJs are champions of the oppressed and downtrodden. They often are found in the wake of an emergency, rescuing those who are in acute distress. INFJs may fantasize about getting revenge on those who victimize the defenseless. The concept of 'poetic justice' is appealing to the INFJ.
"There's something rotten in Denmark." Accurately suspicious about others' motives, INFJs are not easily led. These are the people that you can rarely fool any of the time. Though affable and sympathetic to most, INFJs are selective about their friends. Such a friendship is a symbiotic bond that transcends mere words.
INFJs have a knack for fluency in language and facility in communication. In addition, nonverbal sensitivity enables the INFJ to know and be known by others intimately.
Writing, counseling, public service and even politics are areas where INFJs frequently find their niche.

Introverted intuitives, INFJs enjoy a greater clarity of perception of inner, unconscious processes than all but their INTJ cousins. Just as SP types commune with the object and "live in the here and now" of the physical world, INFJs readily grasp the hidden psychological stimuli behind the more observable dynamics of behavior and affect. Their amazing ability to deduce the inner workings of the mind, will and emotions of others gives INFJs their reputation as prophets and seers. Unlike the confining, routinizing nature of introverted sensing, introverted intuition frees this type to act insightfully and spontaneously as unique solutions arise on an event by event basis.

Extraverted feeling, the auxiliary deciding function, expresses a range of emotion and opinions of, for and about people. INFJs, like many other FJ types, find themselves caught between the desire to express their wealth of feelings and moral conclusions about the actions and attitudes of others, and the awareness of the consequences of unbridled candor. Some vent the attending emotions in private, to trusted allies. Such confidants are chosen with care, for INFJs are well aware of the treachery that can reside in the hearts of mortals. This particular combination of introverted intuition and extraverted feeling provides INFJs with the raw material from which perceptive counselors are shaped.

The INFJ's thinking is introverted, turned toward the subject. Perhaps it is when the INFJ's thinking function is operative that he is most aloof. A comrade might surmise that such detachment signals a disillusionment, that she has also been found lacking by the sardonic eye of this one who plumbs the depths of the human spirit. Experience suggests that such distancing is merely an indication that the seer is hard at work and focusing energy into this less efficient tertiary function. Extraverted Sensing

INFJs are twice blessed with clarity of vision, both internal and external. Just as they possess inner vision which is drawn to the forms of the unconscious, they also have external sensing perception which readily takes hold of worldly objects. Sensing, however, is the weakest of the INFJ's arsenal and the most vulnerable. INFJs, like their fellow intuitives, may be so absorbed in intuitive perceiving that they become oblivious to physical reality. The INFJ under stress may fall prey to various forms of immediate gratification. Awareness of extraverted sensing is probably the source of the "SP wannabe" side of INFJs. Many yearn to live spontaneously; it's not uncommon for INFJ actors to take on an SP (often ESTP) role.



Hmm... Actually, this whole description completely fits me.

 

It'd be easier for me to focus on what isn't me. Otherwise, this is very much me. Wow. Dead on. This might be one of the best descriptions of me I've read in MBTI. I'm putting in blue what is especially so.