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How can inferior functions be developed?

GZA

Resident Snot-Nose
Joined
Aug 13, 2007
Messages
1,771
MBTI Type
infp
How do people develop and strengthen their inferior functions. For example, for me, Se is naturally a fairly inferior function, but in the last few years I've developed it quite a lot from studying and playing music, and I've noticed the difference, too. What are activities people can do to strengthen their functions?

Just... post your theories beside each function I guess.

Si:
Se: Study/play music
Ni:
Ne:
Ti:
Te:
Fi:
Fe:
 

Hellbourn3

New member
Joined
Apr 26, 2007
Messages
26
MBTI Type
INFJ
Expose yourself to uncomfortable situations all the time. :p

If you couldn't infer, that was meant to be humorous, but I guess this whole topic is an interesting notion. For me, working w/in my jobs helped me strengthen my S functions a bit most likely. I do like some primarily S based things such as action based RTSs and poker, so I suppose that may help too. I think it's pretty hard to strengthen your N functions, unless you actually train to be psychic maybe or something along those lines (I realize intuition does not equate with psionic abilities but like I said, that's a really tough idea to consider). A lot of people are just viewed as naturally smarter; it seems to me that people who fall into that group always quest for more while the inverse group probably falls deeper into their hole. If N really is equated with greater level intelligence, this says a lot about S and N attitudes regarding the strengthening of the mind, and answers my perplexity regarding the strengthening of the N functions (I guess I can't speak for the rest of you but that notion did in fact help me a bit). I think the feeling functions can be strengthened but not consciously; if you're actually trying to strengthen your feeling functions it probably won't work. Feeling isn't contingent upon thinking and thusly feeling can only be strengthened by complete base and natural means IMO, such as expressing your love for someone of course (truly, obviously).
 

shen

New member
Joined
Sep 27, 2007
Messages
129
MBTI Type
ENFP
God thats wierd gza, I was going to ask this yesterday,in fact i've been reading about this today also. I need to develop introverted feeling and apply judgement to it any ideas?

Ne....get creative with things around the house to start with, do something wacky with a broken plantpot or something.....
 
R

RDF

Guest
God thats wierd gza, I was going to ask this yesterday,in fact i've been reading about this today also. I need to develop introverted feeling and apply judgement to it any ideas?

Ne....get creative with things around the house to start with, do something wacky with a broken plantpot or something.....

Personalitypage.com suggests that most people tend to rely too heavily on their Dominant function, and that they can get a fairly quick improvement in quality of life and interaction with the world simply by working on their Auxiliary function.

Just from my own experience, I tend to agree with them. IOW, it's fun to develop inferior functions at random, but you'll get the most bang for your buck (and the most alleviation of personality-related problems in life) by identifying and working specifically on your Auxiliary function.

So I would suggest that people click on the following link, scroll to the bottom of the page, and click on the link for their personality type. The info presented under their personality type will identify their Dominant function, identify what problems crop up when they overuse their Dominant function, identify their Auxiliary function, and suggest ways to develop their Auxiliary function.

Personal Growth

For example, I can talk about INFPs and ENFPs since they have the same functions as their Dominant and Auxiliary functions (just switched around).

*******

For example in another thread I talked about how ENFPs (Dominant Ne) can end up strung out and exhausted from paying too much attention to external stimuli. They need to develop their Auxiliary function (Fi) as a filter. That is, they need to sort through external stimuli and decide what's worthy of their attention and what's not (as opposed to noticing everything occurring around them and getting burnt out from being bombarded by stimuli).

It's kind of hard to describe how to develop one's Fi. But here is a rough picture of Fi taken to its greatest extreme:

Imagine that your body and thoughts are big and heavy and colorful and real and palpable. Meanwhile, everything else in the world around you is filmy and semi-transparent and grey and dreary and unreal and barely noticed. You walk through the city and chew on your personal thoughts (say, irritation at something happening at work), and meantime you don't even notice the people or buildings around you. They're nearly invisible. You only notice them enough not to bump into them. Then you go home, and you walk through the house still playing with your thoughts, and the contents of the rooms are practically invisible to you. You don't even see the clutter or the crying kids or the wife trying to talk to you. All you care about is whatever is happening in your head.

That's an extreme case, of course. In real life, it would work out this way: I'm walking down the street and I hear the screech of a car slamming on its brakes. But I'm up on the sidewalk out of harm's way, and there's no sound of a crash. So that stimulus is uninteresting to me and I don't even bother looking around. The only thing that would interest me about that particular stimulus is if it were followed by a crash. Then it might be halfway interesting and I would probably turn around and take a look to see what happened.

Or I'm walking down the hallway at work, and I pass a coworker, and the coworker glares at me strangely as we pass. I don't really care what the coworker is thinking because my job and status at the organization don't depend on his opinion of me. So I pay no attention to his glare--I'm not even curious. Maybe I check my zipper, just in case the cause of his glare is something obvious like fly being open. Maybe I even make a mental note to visit the bathroom eventually to check my appearance in the mirror and see if anything is wildly out of place about my appearance (though I probably end up forgetting about it five minutes later). Of course, if it was my boss glaring at me in the hallway, then I would perk up and pay attention and ask what's happening. The boss is worthy of my attention, because his decisions and opinions impact me directly. But mere coworkers aren't on my Fi radar screen. Their opinions simply don't have much impact on my life.

That would be a pretty strong Fi. That is, I register what's going on around me but don't much care. I filter things. I see something happening around me and ask, "Does it really affect me?" If not, then I ignore it and forget about it.

So that would be a way to work on Fi. Don't just react to stimuli. Instead, when a stimulus pops up, get in the habit of asking, "Does it really affect me?" If not, tune it out. And use that freed-up attention to play around internally with the concept of what "me" is. To the extent that you split yourself off from stimuli and the world around you, you'll want to increasingly define yourself and what's important to you.

That's when you'll really get into the essence of Fi: If the world is insubstantial and ghostly and you're the only real thing, then who are you? What do you want from the world? How do you interact with the ghostly, unsubstantial people around you? (These are the questions that INFPs ask themselves when they get up in the morning and sometimes throughout the day.)

IOW, it's a two-step process. First, play with tuning out the world and ignoring stimuli around you that don't have any impact on you. Second, once you've built that wall properly, then you'll tend to need to define yourself and start to enter the INFP world of self-questioning and self-definition.

It may seem like a crazy game to play. But at least you'll finally get past the ENFP trap of being held hostage to any and all passing stimuli.

**************

Naturally, an INFP would completely reverse the process.

INFPs (Dominant Fi) can end up trapped inside their own head, oblivious to the world around them, and poor at personal interactions. They need to develop their Auxiliary function (Ne) as a way of climbing out of their head. That is, they need to start paying attention to external stimuli, give "weight" and "realness" to the world around them, and eventually develop sophisticated tools for dealing with the complexity of the outside world.

Personalitypage.com offers suggestions, so I won't go into it in detail. But basically it's a two step process:

First, notice the world. Do data collection. Notice how people are dressed, what they're wearing, etc. Memorize those things. Pay attention to stimuli (sounds, smells, colors) in the world around you. It will interfere with the INFP's constant thinking, but that's exactly what's needed: To shut down the endless questioning and exit one's head and go out into the world of stimuli and sensation.

From there, the second step will follow of itself. As the INFP learns to differentiate among people and stimuli, he or she will get more competent at reacting to them. The INFP should watch other people interact and then mimic that interaction. The INFP should practice greeting people, paying compliments, and engaging in small chatter. The INFP should read the paper and pay attention to local news. The INFP should try to live out in the world to the point where it overwhelms and shuts down the internal dialog.

That may sound painful to an INFP, but that's the purpose of developing Ne: to make the world real and tangible and interesting enough that the INFP will learn to live "in the moment" and develop competency at dealing with the environment around them.

***********

Other personality types would similarly follow suit with their own Auxiliaries.

Naturally, everyone's mileage is going to vary. People will have different levels of need for developing their Auxiliary. The tendency is: As you get older, you have more need for your Auxiliary to balance you out and help you deal with an increasingly complex work and living environment. For younger folks, it may just be a fun game to play around with.

To reiterate on the subject of developing inferior (non-Auxiliary) functions: It's fun to develop other functions beyond the Auxiliary. For instance I've had fun developing Si through sports and ballroom dance (trying to "sense" whether I'm doing a move or a step correctly just from the memory of how it should feel in my muscles and body). But it's the Auxiliary that will really create some progress in life and address the big problems that inevitably arise from over-reliance on one's Dominant function as we get older.

Just my two cents (and also my own experience as an older INFP who has managed to get pretty good at dealing with the outer world).
 

anii

homo-loving sonovagun
Joined
Jul 9, 2007
Messages
901
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infp
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9
T - I've tried doing logic puzzles. While they're fun and engaging, I'm not sure how much effect they have.
 

wolfmaiden14

*ears perk up*
Joined
Oct 14, 2007
Messages
590
MBTI Type
Infx
Fineline - Thanks for that link!! I've copied the Ten Rules to Live By(for INFJs) - they're so true!

I do have some advice for anyone who's trying this... don't try to work on too many weaknesses at once! I just realized not too long ago(before I even knew about types) that I had done this! I'm an INFJ who has mostly SP friends and knew I had to work on my E. I was trying to understand my sensor friends, working on my P in order to improvise for the acting troupe I volunteer with, and also because I had so many things on my plate I didn't have time to put everything in order for my J, and took on waitressing to become used to being extraverted... for about a year and a half this INFJ has been trying to be an ESFP! Work drains me, I feel like I don't fit in with my friends and I've become so disorganized and late for everything, and beat myself up for it. Plus school is dragging that T back out of me(kicking and screaming!) I'm stressed and mildly depressed because I've almost forgotten what it's like to be my natural self! X.x

I've only recently started making some changes that should allow me to flourish again. I mean, I guess you can learn alot and quicker by just jumping in.. and I certainly feel like a stronger person, but I recommend developing a little at a time. I almost got absorbed in what I was doing, and it actually is going to be work to change my habits back.
 

proteanmix

Plumage and Moult
Joined
Apr 23, 2007
Messages
5,514
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1w2
Posting here actually helps my Ti quite a bit. It's Se that I have zero control over. It's not the refined, aesthetically pleasing Se that results in mild snobbery and weekends at an art museum. Just trashy, tacky, overindulgent craziness.
 

Totenkindly

@.~*virinaĉo*~.@
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Apr 19, 2007
Messages
50,187
MBTI Type
BELF
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Instinctual Variant
sx/sp
Te: Basically, learn to break tasks down into their natural step-by-step components, then DO them and mark off the checklist. The goal is to complete the task, not necessarily to do it the most "efficient" way possible, although you do want to think through the activity and come up with a list of rational steps by which to accomplish it. Adults who live on their own, who have children, or have thought-involved work will find opportunity to develop Te. (Just take that Microsoft Project and go to town!)

Fe: This function comes into play when you consider the needs and expectations of those around you. When you are getting married or inviting people for Thanksgiving and you have to make decisions about who is coming, who they're going to sit with, who you are NOT going to invite (i.e., what do you say to them, what reasons do you give, how do you approach the topic), etc., then you are now using Fe to "organize your event." Being a parent also gives ample Fe practice, when you decide how to treat each child in a way that is appropriate and equal, yet tailored to their individual needs.
 

proteanmix

Plumage and Moult
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Messages
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Didn't read the OP.

Fe/Ni: Actively search for ways to be helpful towards other people. Usually requires active listening. If they mention they like/dislike something, store that away in your memory bank. Notice if they've changed anything about their appearance and compliment them (only if you mean it). Look to see if their behavior deviates from what it normally is and ask if everything is alright. Ask people how they're doing (really doing). If they say things about themselves, family, friends, hopes, anxieties and fears, try to combine this information with what you already know about them and get a fuller picture of who they are. Don't let it be just a random assortment of facts about the person with no coherence. Be patient with people. Look for commonalities and bond over them. Ask probing questions (but don't be too invasive). Ask yourself and the other person what isn't being said. What other sides/perspectives are there? What is really at stake here? What's your motivation? Why do you want this to happen? Sympathize/Empathize. Help them find a solution if they want one, and if they don't just listen. Ask yourself how would I feel if I were in this situation.

If you don't think you can do this and don't genuinely care, DON'T DO IT. Just say hello/goodbye and keep going. That's why Fe gets a bad rap, because people are being fake with it.
 

Magic Poriferan

^He pronks, too!
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Nov 4, 2007
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Yin
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One
Instinctual Variant
sx/sp
I honestly wonder that myself.
I worry about my weaknesses a lot, but I was reading some place that our culture was too heavily focused on highlighting and correcting failure, and not enough on making the best of success.
Like, when ever a kid comes back with grades, the parents will always point out the F's sooner than the A's.

A little aside from the question, but I think it's something worth pondering over.
 
Last edited:

quietgirl

New member
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Sep 29, 2007
Messages
401
MBTI Type
INFJ
I'm an avid hiker and I think that feeds my Se a bit. I'm sure I experience a hike different than a Se dominant, but I think it helps develop my inferior a bit. I've also been trying to make an effort to actually create something tangible with my ideas & feelings - usually something artsy. That seems rather Se to me.

My shadow functions are the ones I have problems developing. I seem to have a good enough grasp on Ne, but I'm clueless on how to develop Te, Fi, & Si. I'm equally clueless on how to stop feeling negative about Fi & Si. I feel downright selfish if I need to use Fi (and if I say someone did something selfish, I am normally referring to a Fi driven action) & Si is all but a mystery to me. Even in my thread deciphering my boyfriend's type (whom IS probably an ISFJ & an absolutely wonderful man), I was so hesistant to accept the Si dominant b/c I cannot figure out how to NOT think of Si in a negative way.
 

shen

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Sep 27, 2007
Messages
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ENFP
this is really cool, thanks for the stuff FL, and everyone...i've only been partially interested in this since about may when i'm not getting carried away....:blush:
if a person had developed all the functions say, how would they be described and is this possible to achieve?
 

CzeCze

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GONE
this is really cool, thanks for the stuff FL, and everyone...i've only been partially interested in this since about may when i'm not getting carried away....:blush:
if a person had developed all the functions say, how would they be described and is this possible to achieve?


They would be Jesus, Buddha, God, etc.

I've read in some descriptions of personality typing, especially if with the thinking of Ennegream and 'evolving' and going along with the idea of reincarnation -- you only reincarnate until you 'get it' and become 'enlightened' which to me basically means 'perfect' or you've maxed out all the human check boxes you needed to master and you transcend humanity.

Or maybe personality is how your ego expresses itself with the world. But once you become 'perfect' you no longer have an ego in the traditional sense.

Something like that.

So an elightened being like Jesus, Buddha, etc. are beyond traditional typing.

And if you 'max out' and 'perfect' your typing, you would be enlightened.
 

CzeCze

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For example in another thread I talked about how ENFPs (Dominant Ne) can end up strung out and exhausted from paying too much attention to external stimuli. They need to develop their Auxiliary function (Fi) as a filter. That is, they need to sort through external stimuli and decide what's worthy of their attention and what's not (as opposed to noticing everything occurring around them and getting burnt out from being bombarded by stimuli).

Expose yourself to uncomfortable situations all the time. :p

On both counts, agreed!

Hellbourn, that is actually my strategy for self-improvement in general. With the ultimate goal of living without fear, or living with fear meaning it doesn't control you or hamper the quality of your life.

FineLine -- uncanny. I had this issue when I was younger, had no idea it had personality type correlation. I would usually have to try at least 3 seats in a movie theater before settling. Small things would bother me needlessly in general. I could get so angry about someone or something that I literally could not sleep at night.

I trained myself out of this by making myself stay in the seat and quieting the firestorm of protests in my mind. It wasn't just the stimuli, it was the value judgement it was burdened with -- meaning if I settled for a less than ideal seat, I was settling for less than what I deserved and I was capitulating to 2nd class treatment and never getting what I truly deserved in life. I also felt this compulsion to 'keep searching' and 'keep trying for something better which I know is out there'. Sound a little too much?

I was able to train myself to refocus on what was really important and try to use my Se to really see the situation more objectively. Being more grounded and with more reserves of and general command over my faculties, I was able to actualize more of my goals and fare better in interpersonal interactions. Basically, I learnd to say and act on things in the moment to the fullest and exactly the way I wanted at that moment -- and then accept the consequences and let it go. You can only truly let something go when you have no regrets, and if you didn't get to say or do what you wanted to, that's a HUGE regret that is hard to let go of.

I am much better at living in the moment and feel like a healthier person who is much better able to take care of myself. The irony is that now I am MUCH less prone to emotional outbursts because I am able to more grounded and express myself honestly and authentically most of the time (not pent up or frustrated).

When and ENFP has a firestorm of stimuli and nervous system reaactions to it, they need to take a deep breath, calm down, and do the exact OPPOSITE of whatever their neurotic compulsion tells them to do. It'll drive them crazy at first but it will get better with time.

So just my own 2 or 3 cents.
 

shen

New member
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Sep 27, 2007
Messages
129
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ENFP
They would be Jesus, Buddha, God, etc.

I've read in some descriptions of personality typing, especially if with the thinking of Ennegream and 'evolving' and going along with the idea of reincarnation -- you only reincarnate until you 'get it' and become 'enlightened' which to me basically means 'perfect' or you've maxed out all the human check boxes you needed to master and you transcend humanity.

Or maybe personality is how your ego expresses itself with the world. But once you become 'perfect' you no longer have an ego in the traditional sense.

Something like that.



So an elightened being like Jesus, Buddha, etc. are beyond traditional typing.

And if you 'max out' and 'perfect' your typing, you would be enlightened.

oh cool:) we all better get cracking then!!
 

Jive A Turkey

New member
Joined
Dec 12, 2007
Messages
151
MBTI Type
INFP
How do people develop and strengthen their inferior functions. For example, for me, Se is naturally a fairly inferior function, but in the last few years I've developed it quite a lot from studying and playing music, and I've noticed the difference, too. What are activities people can do to strengthen their functions?

Just... post your theories beside each function I guess.

Si:
Se: Study/play music
Ni:
Ne:
Ti:
Te:
Fi:
Fe:

I love this idea GZA. When I think about it, though, I've been playing music, performing in and out of different bands for almost 20 years now and my Se could not be worse. I think that a very conscious effort to exercise an inferior function needs to be put forth before the headway really begins.

How's your Se development going?
 

nemo

Active member
Joined
Jan 21, 2008
Messages
445
Enneagram
<3
My guesses

Si: Photography
Se: Hiking, kayaking, sports
Ni: Meditate? (i.e. something like Jung's Active Imagination)
Ne: Brainstorm
Ti: Study mathematics
Te: Conduct science experiments
Fi: Keep a journal
Fe: Volunteer at a hospital?
 

Mort Belfry

Rats off to ya!
Joined
Jan 12, 2008
Messages
1,238
MBTI Type
INTP
I know for me the first thing to develop my inferior extraverted feeling would be to start legitimately caring for people.


I am yet to take this first step.
 

Ezra

Luctor et emergo
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Dec 12, 2007
Messages
534
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ENTJ
Enneagram
8w7
Instinctual Variant
sp/sx
Learn to see how your inferior functions manifest themselves at present, and look at descriptions to see an improved inferior function and an end result of a mature inferior function, then aim for that.
 
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