Wow, I butchered my last post on here. Used INFJ instead of INFP.
i can not believe that you are right. That would mean that an Fi user doesn't use Fe and therefore has no understanding of common ethics or take it into account when making decissions.
Actually, every definite user of Fi I have ever met does not comprehend common ethics unless they do it from a theoretical standpoint. As a person living their lives gravitate to a value system, and from everything that I have seen, they then impose that value system on the reality around them using their other functions. Even if they can grasp Fe-like thinking in theory, in practice they invariably revert back to their natural state of validating personal values. I am mainly talking about types like the INFP, ISFP, and even the ISTJ. I haven't analyzed all Fi types.
That an Fi-user's personal value system may be only a biased morality that they and very few others possess doesn't seem to register with them generally. Even if they consider it, they wont reject their core values to adopt a global way of thinking that accommodates conflicting beliefs. They either can't, or doing so would be so emotionally damaging as to cause them a mental disorder.
Fi by definition is a personal value system that focuses on what is important to the self... these things it focuses on may be great things like, honesty, integrity, and compassion. That's fine, but you're arbitrarily defining what is good and acting upon it. Fe users do the same thing, but the focus is different. It's group-level morality rather than a personal one. Fe is validated when I behave in a way that maintains group cohesion, improves the group, or receives recognition by the group. I'll have my personal thoughts on how best Fe can do this, and I can call that personal values. Yet if my personal values never serve the group in any way, I wont feel very good about them and Fe will not be validated.
Fi users could theoretically create an Fe-like effect in their personality by using their other functions, as previously stated, but doing so would be alien to them since it would require rejecting Fi. Rejecting Fi, if in your top two functions, should cause you problems just as rejecting my Fe to simulate Te causes problems.
I am actually not bad at doing this. I can simulate Te really well. Yet it is Fe simulating it by relying on Se + Ti to do the thinking. Te types make quicker and crisper decisions than me because it is a natural behavior learned in childhood rather than an acquired behavior in adulthood. Yet, when I am given adequate thinking time, given the right situation, I'll take charge and be an implementer. Ti runs overtime and Se picks up on details and past experiences; the effect is Fe is suppressed and I am unable to enter any lengthy Ni-related thought. I still implement using Fe; though, and a skilled interpreter of facial expressions can pick-up on the Fe still being present rather than me using Te. (I have heard the difference is that the INFJ suppressing Fe looks like they're depressed, while the real Te user does not. This coincides with my experiences.)
Anyway, doing this is highly draining on me as it uses my weakest functions. I will always naturally revert back to using Ni and Fe because that's where I am healthiest.
So if Fi users want to pretend they're using Fe and call it that, I guess I don't have a problem with it, since in-practice it will achieve the same result. The difference only really matters for people who are discerning which type they actually are. It also matters in that, if you're simulating a function you don't actually possess, it will be highly draining on you. Likely, you'll need respite time afterward. Furthermore, if you go around using this function that you don't possess, because you think you possess it; a mental disorder might surface.
As for shadow functions... from what I've read on it, those shadow functions might only surface in highly stressed states, which to me implies we're not using those functions but merely simulating them.
reading all these good posts. People are handling it for me and show that they are learning