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What is a shadowed type?

swordpath

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I've heard it used a few times... an ISTJ with an ENFP shadow for instance (or substitute whatever types).

What exactly does this mean?
 

Domino

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When I start manhandling expensive British cars around mountain highways and wooing the ladies. *shiny teeth*


You know, to the best of my knowledge and understanding, there's both positive and negative connotations to one's shadow.

On the one hand, negative, when one is under protracted stress, coping strategies ultimately break down, and the person begins to act entirely unlike themselves - for example, my ENFP twin begins to exhibit behaviors seen in ISTJs only exaggerated and stripped of their merit, so what you have is everything bad in an ISTJ being used by someone who is the least like an ISTJ. This is under severe stress and total breakdown is imminent. She becomes comfortless, implacable, controlling and cold.

On the other hand, positive, when my ENFP twin is NOT under terrible extended duress and she's able to unconsciously access her shadow, she really comes through. She exhibits traits seen in ISTJs that are their strengths - steely resolve, decisiveness, organization, consideration, ability to see into the near future and set plans, covering every base. It's astonishing to see it working underneath her ENFP exterior, almost like a viral program running quietly in the background.

In other words, when you're exhibiting your shadow, it's either a good thing, like exercising a weakness, or it's very bad, where you show all the good things of a shadow type through a warped mirror that destroys the original context of the virtues.
 

Eric B

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Shadow also means the four unused functions (which are the four primary ones with the e/i attitudes reversed). So that kind of "shadow" of the ENFP is the INFJ and for the ISTJ, would be ESTP. They are even more opposite than ENFP-ISTJ.
 

Anja

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So what's the theory then? Would our shadow types be the people we have the most difficulty dealing with?
 

Haphazard

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Beat, it means that somewhere in you is a cuddly ENFP.

An ENFP who's probably screaming right now.
 

Domino

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Actually, Anja, I find my shadow not only easy to deal with but easy to understand. The person who falls into your Enigma category is the one you're going to have to apply yourself to understanding. In my case, it's ISTJ - not because I find them irritating, but because they have a level of mystery that I have difficulty unraveling without help, esp the girls. If they wanted to confuse or cow me, they wouldn't have to try hard.

My ENFP twin takes one look at ISTJs and has them dead to rights while she finds ISTPs to be opaque and slippery.
 

entropie

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Actually, Anja, I find my shadow not only easy to deal with but easy to understand. The person who falls into your Enigma category is the one you're going to have to apply yourself to understanding. In my case, it's ISTJ - not because I find them irritating, but because they have a level of mystery that I have difficulty unraveling without help, esp the girls. If they wanted to confuse or cow me, they wouldn't have to try hard.

My ENFP twin takes one look at ISTJs and has them dead to rights while she finds ISTPs to be opaque and slippery.

Shadowed Type, Val Kilmer at his best :D:

293.kilmer.val.100407.jpg
 

Domino

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Sooooo. VERY. Wrong.

*bites Entropie*

LOL
 

Eric B

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The "shadow" type in the old four function theory, all four letters opposite, actually shares all four ego-compatible processes, but in the reverse order. So as they get older, and their tertiary, and finally inferior develop, they should "grow towards each other". Types who use the other four functions will always be ego-incompatible to them.
 

raz

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It's mostly just acting like another type. I mean, for an ISTJ, if you can consciously get yourself to STOP the second guessing yourself, the analysis, the what if's, the deliberation, the focus on yourself, you might even be able to act like a perceiver. All those traits that keep an ISTJ from doing things that are considered wild and spontaneous, are like a volcano trying to erupt. If you can reach the point where you can keep the volcano pushed down temporarily, it can be a fun experience. You'll just spend a few hours analyzing it afterward. :p
 

Jack Flak

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I don't buy shadow type theory. I've never seen it in action in myself or anyone else. When people are troubled, they act troubled, not like a healthy member of another type.

There isn't one type I have trouble understanding more than others. As time progresses, I learn more across the board.
 

Anja

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Would you say more, Jack, about your first sentence. When people are troubled the false assumption is that they act like a healthy member of a different type? Not tracking here.
 

Jack Flak

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Would you say more, Jack about your first sentence. When people are troubled they assumption is that they act like a healthy member of a different type? Not tracking here.
People supposedly act like their shadow type when stressed, right? That's the theory.

And the only way the theory would be worth something, and "testable," is if people act like a "normal" member of this shadow type when they are stressed.

It would be too easy to say that an INFP under stress acts like an ESTJ under stress, because stress leads to some similar behaviors in everyone.
 

Tiltyred

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Under extreme stress, fatigue or illness, the INFJ's shadow may appear - a negative form of ESTP. Example characteristics are:

* acting very impulsively, making decisions without thinking them through
* doing things to excess - e.g.: eating, drinking or exercising
* being critical of others, and finding fault with almost everything
* being preoccupied about unimportant details and doing things that have no meaning
* acting in a very materialistic and selfish way
* cutting corners, breaking the rules, and even contradicting the INFJ's own values
INFJ Personality Types

That was me for about 8 years after my divorce...
 

Anja

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Thanks, you guys. I see what both of you are saying. Have to think about this.
 

Jack Flak

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Case in point:

Under extreme stress, fatigue or illness, the INFJ's shadow may appear - a negative form of ESTP. Example characteristics are:

* acting very impulsively, making decisions without thinking them through
* doing things to excess - e.g.: eating, drinking or exercising
* being critical of others, and finding fault with almost everything
* being preoccupied about unimportant details and doing things that have no meaning
* acting in a very materialistic and selfish way
* cutting corners, breaking the rules, and even contradicting the INFJ's own values
INFJ Personality Types

That was me for about 8 years after my divorce...

People of all types can and do exhibit these behaviors under stress, and note that this doesn't describe typical ESTP behavior.
 
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