MBTI's Concrete Impact on Your Life | Page 3 | INFJ Forum

MBTI's Concrete Impact on Your Life

The amount of introspection and understanding of myself through self reflection under the lens of cognitive functions is unfathomable. More importantly, my awareness of mbti lead me to this forum, which has indeed impacted my life in many profound ways.
 
The amount of introspection and understanding of myself through self reflection under the lens of cognitive functions is unfathomable. More importantly, my awareness of mbti lead me to this forum, which has indeed impacted my life in many profound ways.

In a concrete sense, I have gained a lot of solidity in my being from what I've learned about myself and the people I've interacted with here over the years.
It hasn't had much influence in my physical, external existence, but my way of operating has changed over time due to my growth in understanding myself through this lens, which I'm sure is reflected in my physical reality.
 
TL;DR I am more confident in my own skin having gone through the process of understanding how I function and then proceeding to meticulously reorganize myself in healthier ways.
 
The amount of introspection and understanding of myself through self reflection under the lens of cognitive functions is unfathomable. More importantly, my awareness of mbti lead me to this forum, which has indeed impacted my life in many profound ways.

In a concrete sense, I have gained a lot of solidity in my being from what I've learned about myself and the people I've interacted with here over the years.
It hasn't had much influence in my physical, external existence, but my way of operating has changed over time due to my growth in understanding myself through this lens, which I'm sure is reflected in my physical reality.

TL;DR I am more confident in my own skin having gone through the process of understanding how I function and then proceeding to meticulously reorganize myself in healthier ways.

Thanks for those insights, Wy :<3white:

I was looking forward to your contributions here as you strike me as someone who has done a huge amount of self-reflection, including through the lens of the cognitive functions.
 
Ni is already quite developed in me, and Fi is something that I do not really value except in IXTJ, who gather a lot of motivation and drive from their Fi.

Would you say Fi is something you do not really value in yourself but do in others?

As, for instance, in the case of Proust? :grinning:
 
Thanks for those insights, Wy :<3white:

I was looking forward to your contributions here as you strike me as someone who has done a huge amount of self-reflection, including through the lens of the cognitive functions.

You're right, all I do is think :laughing:

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Would you say Fi is something you do not really value in yourself but do in others?

As, for instance, in the case of Proust? :grinning:

Yes, that's a good question!

To be honest, it was more than 7 years since I read Proust. A lot has changed since then. I might not like him so much now.

But also, is there much Fi in his writing? I don't know how Fi would even look. For example, I don't think his writing is overly sentimental or anything like that. I liked him for his observations and insights, which could also be an Ni, Si or even Ti thing? I am not sure. I think his Fi probably shows in form, as much as in content. In that case, yes, I value the way INFPs can express themselves, for sure.

So yes, perhaps I was too harsh towards Fi. I like it is a function, but I feel it is kinda lost cause for me to develop it, and furthermore, it would not add so much to my personality. Because I already have Ti, which can sometimes even confuse me for Fi.

Se on the other hand is something that attracts me. What about you, how is your relationship with Se or any other "weaker" function?
 
The journey has been a long and perilous one, learning about oneself and others, about human nature, about how we construct schemata to add a sense of structure to this crazy existence known as life. MBTI has been useful in many way, but I have been careful to not accept certain aspects of it that sound too neat and clean and dogmatic. It is best to be used as a tool and a guide and not as something that defines our reality in an absolute way. There are philosophical and scientific problems with the theory. Also much of the theory doesn't converge with our current understanding of the human brain, where people are mostly alike cognitively and have a healthy mixture of F/T, S/N, I/E, making strong preferences predicted by MBTI unlikely. Still, it can be useful to draw comparisons between individuals and groups.

It has been useful to understand the way I think, perceive, and interact with the world, but I have been careful not to make too many assumptions about other people and assume too much about them. Consciousness is one of the most beautiful things in the universe and it unfolds itself in so many countless ways. I would prefer to remain as humble as I can while trying to understand.
 
But also, is there much Fi in his writing? I don't know how Fi would even look. For example, I don't think his writing is overly sentimental or anything like that. I liked him for his observations and insights, which could also be an Ni, Si or even Ti thing? I am not sure. I think his Fi probably shows in form, as much as in content. In that case, yes, I value the way INFPs can express themselves, for sure.

To me, the episode of the madeleine in the first book of In Search of Lost Time is a beautiful example of FiNeSi.

The character is focused on how the surrounding environment — here especially the sensory environment — makes him feel and what it evokes in him (Fi), explores different possibilities and makes hypotheses (Ne) and eventually arrives at the example of the madeleine drawn from a past that he recollects with nostalgia (Si).

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"And soon, mechanically, weary after a dull day with the prospect of a depressing morrow, I raised to my lips a spoonful of the tea in which I had soaked a morsel of the cake. No sooner had the warm liquid, and the crumbs with it, touched my palate, a shudder ran through my whole body, and I stopped, intent upon the extraordinary changes that were taking place. An exquisite pleasure had invaded my senses, but individual, detached, with no suggestion of its origin. And at once the vicissitudes of life had become indifferent to me, its disasters innocuous, its brevity illusory--this new sensation having had on me the effect which love has of filling me with a precious essence; or rather this essence was not in me, it was myself. I had ceased now to feel mediocre, accidental, mortal. Whence could it have come to me, this all-powerful joy? I was conscious that it was connected with the taste of tea and cake, but that it infinitely transcended those savours, could not, indeed, be of the same nature as theirs. Whence did it come? What did it signify? How could I seize upon and define it?

(...)

Undoubtedly what is thus palpitating in the depths of my being must be the image, the visual memory which, being linked to that taste, has tried to follow it into my conscious mind. But its struggles are too far off, too much confused; scarcely can I perceive the colourless reflection in which are blended the uncapturable whirling medley of radiant hues, and I cannot distinguish its form, cannot invite it, as the one possible interpreter, to translate to me the evidence of its contemporary, its inseparable paramour, the taste of cake soaked in tea; cannot ask it to inform me what special circumstance is in question, of what period in my past life.

(...)

And suddenly the memory returns. The taste was that of the little crumb of madeleine which on Sunday mornings at Combray (because on those mornings I did not go out before church-time), when I went to say good day to her in her bedroom, my aunt Léonie used to give me, dipping it first in her own cup of real or of lime-flower tea. The sight of the little madeleine had recalled nothing to my mind before I tasted it; perhaps because I had so often seen such things in the interval, without tasting them, on the trays in pastry-cooks' windows, that their image had dissociated itself from those Combray days to take its place among others more recent; perhaps because of those memories, so long abandoned and put out of mind, nothing now survived, everything was scattered; the forms of things, including that of the little scallop-shell of pastry, so richly sensual under its severe, religious folds, were either obliterated or had been so long dormant as to have lost the power of expansion which would have allowed them to resume their place in my consciousness. But when from a long distant past nothing subsists, after the people are dead, after the things are broken and scattered, still, alone, more fragile, but with more vitality, more unsubstantial, more persistent, more faithful, the smell and taste of things remain poised a long time, like souls, ready to remind us, waiting and hoping for their moment, amid the ruins of all the rest; and bear unfaltering, in the tiny and almost impalpable drop of their essence, the vast structure of recollection."
 
Se on the other hand is something that attracts me. What about you, how is your relationship with Se or any other "weaker" function?

It's a bit tricky answering this question because I know you're speaking from the conviction that I'm INFP, whereas I don't think so. I have thought about it quite a bit lately, though, to be fair, so I have taken your suggestion quite seriously. Still though, whenever I interact with a FeTi or TiFe user the natural connection is so obvious and clear that I feel much more intuitively FeTi.

Se is a function that's a bit tricky for me; I could certainly engage it more, i.e. in healthier ways especially. I wonder if playing certain beautiful yet mindless video games might qualify as Se engagement? — On the positive side of things, I'm getting seriously motivated about going running again, and making it a twice-thrice weekly thing. I love running while listening to epic music :grinning:
 
people are mostly alike cognitively and have a healthy mixture of F/T, S/N, I/E, making strong preferences predicted by MBTI unlikely.
I think this is quite right and that most expositions of mbti polarise the way that the functions are used by people way beyond the actuality. I like to use handedness as an example. I am right handed, but I have a left hand too, and I use it a lot - like now on my keyboard. I can't write very well with it, though I can if pushed - it takes a lot of conscious effort to do so and I tire easily if I persist. On the other hand I much prefer to use a computer mouse with my left hand, and of course in the UK a car's gear stick is on your left if you drive a manual car.

So I think we all use all of the functions in all the orientations - but like with our hands, we have become much more adept with some than others, like I am with my right hand. It isn't just a matter of practice either because in my teens I tried to learn to write with my left hand and I persisted with it for months. I got to be sort of ok with it, but I couldn't successfully take notes in a lecture that way because I couldn't easily absorb the information and capture it at the same time.

It's the same with the functions - in fact what convinced me that I'm Ni dominant was as much to do with my pretty unconscious, clumsy Se as it was with my inner world perceptions. Similarly, I doubted I was Fe secondary until I came here into the forum and tried it out, and it fit very well :). I'd certainly recommend anyone seeking their type to actually try out the functions for real rather than just taking tests or reading about them - the ones that match will come easy, and the others will tire you in the same way left handed writing tired me.
 
It's a bit tricky answering this question because I know you're speaking from the conviction that I'm INFP, whereas I don't think so. I have thought about it quite a bit lately, though, to be fair, so I have taken your suggestion quite seriously. Still though, whenever I interact with a FeTi or TiFe user the natural connection is so obvious and clear that I feel much more intuitively FeTi.

Se is a function that's a bit tricky for me; I could certainly engage it more, i.e. in healthier ways especially. I wonder if playing certain beautiful yet mindless video games might qualify as Se engagement? — On the positive side of things, I'm getting seriously motivated about going running again, and making it a twice-thrice weekly thing. I love running while listening to epic music :grinning:

Well, both INFP and INFJ have weak Se, so my question was strategically posed. :grinning:

I was asking because you seem to be quite feminine and I wonder how you feel about masculinity, strength, image managment etc. Maybe I understand Se the wrong way, but I associate it with masculinity and all the adjectives that belong to it.

I consider Si feminine because it is self conscious. Being self conscious breeds anxiety and insecurity. Se is focused outwardly, it's more in control of the environment, reads body language better etc.

So I never liked the "how do INXJ engage Se" stuff, because it seemed so stupid. Binge watch series, eat food, have sex. Well, I do the same. So this is not good enough for me.

When I came to conclusion that Se is about masculinity and certain will to affect the real world, it became more clear in INXJs compared to INXPs.
 
I think this is quite right and that most expositions of mbti polarise the way that the functions are used by people way beyond the actuality. I like to use handedness as an example. I am right handed, but I have a left hand too, and I use it a lot - like now on my keyboard. I can't write very well with it, though I can if pushed - it takes a lot of conscious effort to do so and I tire easily if I persist. On the other hand I much prefer to use a computer mouse with my left hand, and of course in the UK a car's gear stick is on your left if you drive a manual car.

So I think we all use all of the functions in all the orientations - but like with our hands, we have become much more adept with some than others, like I am with my right hand. It isn't just a matter of practice either because in my teens I tried to learn to write with my left hand and I persisted with it for months. I got to be sort of ok with it, but I couldn't successfully take notes in a lecture that way because I couldn't easily absorb the information and capture it at the same time.

It's the same with the functions - in fact what convinced me that I'm Ni dominant was as much to do with my pretty unconscious, clumsy Se as it was with my inner world perceptions. Similarly, I doubted I was Fe secondary until I came here into the forum and tried it out, and it fit very well :). I'd certainly recommend anyone seeking their type to actually try out the functions for real rather than just taking tests or reading about them - the ones that match will come easy, and the others will tire you in the same way left handed writing tired me.

I agree with much of what you said.

The Ni/Se axis where I deviate the most from other people. I am also strongly introverted, like 80%. It started as an unconscious preference when I was a child, but lost a lot of it due to social pressures. I tried to be more sensing and present for years. Now I try to exist in a state of least resistance in my Being.

The other preferences aren't clear to me. I am very comfortable with my feelings, feeling preferences, yet pretty equally comfortable with logic and thinking preferences. In my opinion, it really doesn't matter beyond the Ni/Se. I think my other "functions" are pretty balanced. Once types differentiate more, it looses relevance.
 
Well, both INFP and INFJ have weak Se, so my question was strategically posed. :grinning:

I was asking because you seem to be quite feminine and I wonder how you feel about masculinity, strength, image managment etc. Maybe I understand Se the wrong way, but I associate it with masculinity and all the adjectives that belong to it.

I consider Si feminine because it is self conscious. Being self conscious breeds anxiety and insecurity. Se is focused outwardly, it's more in control of the environment, reads body language better etc.

So I never liked the "how do INXJ engage Se" stuff, because it seemed so stupid. Binge watch series, eat food, have sex. Well, I do the same. So this is not good enough for me.

When I came to conclusion that Se is about masculinity and certain will to affect the real world, it became more clear in INXJs compared to INXPs.

The big difference imo is what one does with Se. Ni types at some level wish they could be Se dominants, but realize they can never be one. There is something enticing about having that kind of presence and the ability to act. There is an appreciation for Se, but a recognition of its limiations as well. It does seem goes against reflecting, ruminating, contemplation, etc. When I unconsciously do Se things, it makes me feel visible and alive. Too much and you start to loose that Ni perspective.

Right now I just want to f*** someone, while denying this need I have. I don't want to succumb to these desires because of long term consequences. This is why I am being so careful. I want to make sure it is going to be someone I trust and doesn't have longterm negative consequences. I want to make sure they have a host of other desirable traits, someone I can have a meaningful relationship with because f***ing is unfulfilling on its own.