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[Jungian Cognitive Functions] Function Clarifier

lunalum

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This is all written by and thanks to [MENTION=16710]Arkigos[/MENTION] . I find this to be a very good way of seeing the essentials of the Jungian Cognitive Functions, and rating which ones apply to you most and least.

The order of the functions follows at the bottom.


1.___ I am a crusader. Whenever I look around I see too much injustice, too much loneliness, too many victims with nowhere to turn. They can turn to me. If no one else had the courage to call out the bad guys, then it is a good thing we have me, because I will. Sometimes people think I am overbearing, and that I can be strident in my moral judgments, but I will not be silent. That would be inappropriate and utterly disagreeable. I can be a little judgmental and it is so hard to keep my mouth shut sometimes. It's all for a good cause. Right and wrong are clear for everyone to see, and only those with dark motives would pretend that they aren’t. I wouldn’t be so overbearing if it wasn’t so present for me. I can't break away from my moral obligations.

2.___ There is something beneath the skin of this world. It is difficult to put into words. Things are more than they seem. Images burn up into my mind from some unknowable place. I try to write them, but I can’t… I try to paint them, but it falls short. Sometimes I can only describe the things that happen to me through these images. This has always been best done through metaphor, because in a sense these images connect to the outer world metaphorically. But, it always goes deeper than that. The physical world is sometimes a morbid or absurd place to me, and I find that sometimes the images the world evokes for me are what is more real.

3.___ It astounds me how often people think things that don’t make any sense at all. It seems so obvious to me. 2 + 2 = 4, but if it is convenient we are so willing to say it is 5. If you jump off a cliff, you die, and yet it seems like people are selling that stuff every day. Bad calls all around. The sky is blue and if you touch a flame you will get burned. The universe has laid it all out for anyone to see, but, impossibly, most people just talk non-sense and do things that just seem so foolish. It is difficult not to criticize. It is a real urge for me, and sometimes it really is fun to offer commentary on the things that interest me. Sharing information, sharing my opinion, maybe some stats, maybe just a little common sense - that is the best way to get the world straightened out. Those bulletheads that do it now make all the wrong calls. I’d make the right calls, but I am no genius, I just have eyes and a brain.

4.___ Sometimes I feel so disconnected with the world, and that void just fills up with my own private one: the street on which I live, or my beliefs, or just the fantasies in my mind. It is as if those things out of my view don’t truly exist, and sometimes I wonder if I would notice if much of the world just evaporated. It isn’t that I am not interested in new things - I am! But I guess there is a process of incorporating those things into my rich world and I am not always proactive about it. I feel like chasing every little thing is more a diminishment of a rich life than otherwise. Is that a full life? Sometimes a whole world can exist in a garden, or in a well-worn book. There is so much more power in diving deep into those things that are pleasing to me… but who knows what that could be. Sometimes there is no rhyme or reason to it.

5.___ I don’t always know where to stand, but when I do, I am immovable. It takes time to work it out, because it really matters to me. I can’t go off guns-a-blazing and really do right by someone. Is it this hard for everyone? People say I don’t answer to anyone, or that I tend to wallow in things, and I guess that is true; but I have to answer to myself, and I hold myself to such rigid principles. My feelings are like a deep well. How do you share that? How is it so easy for people to judge when there is so much to consider? At least I know that when I do make a judgment, I can be okay with myself. That’s all that matters.

6.___ This world is a golden palace, half-made. Everyone is happy to mill around in the construction zone and they can’t see it. They just see what is there, but you gotta blur your eyes a little bit and then it will come together. Yes, that! You see it there? Now, go make it! For me, this vision beckons too loudly for me to bother with the tiresome minutia along the way. The vision is what matters, and if you want a fire that can burn down the world, you gotta start it and you gotta keep it hot. You think I want Utopia, the world that cannot exist? Yes, I do, because I can see it clearer than I can see you. Call me a dreamer if you like, but this world is only what you’ve made it. Let’s make a better one. You’ll work out the details when I am gone if you have any vision at all. There is no time to ‘live it up’, or ‘balance the books’ because as hot as I run, I am chilled by your myopic tendencies and insipid routines.The Golden Palace awaits.

7.___ Everything is a system. It can be organized and reorganized, but I am not talking about arranging our desk here, I am talking about logic itself. Something can seem to make sense, but when you bring it into the workshop and tear it to bits, you get to the truthiest bits of truth, though sometimes it is hard to put it back together again. People say I think too much, but I can’t say something makes sense until I have worked it over.. and that isn’t done until it is done. People can’t tell me what makes sense, because I know better anyway, and I don’t believe in co-dependence of thought. I am not always open to peer review - everyone has got to figure it out for themselves or it is just mind control.

8.___ Stuff has got to be engaging, you know? My attention span is not exactly legendary. It’s like with kids; they aren’t gonna sit there while someone drones on and on… so, get in there! Have fun! Put on a show if that is your thing, be a rockstar if that is your thing, start a business, start a blog, take a trip, whatever you want. Experience is the only thing worth anything sometimes, and I don’t mean taking drugs and jumping off cliffs. I mean BEING THERE. Being there with the people you love, doing the things you love. Life is nothing but a path of experiences. A wise man is one who has lived, who has been there and made it back alive. What else can you trust? Sleep under the stars, see the world, but whatever you do, don’t miss a moment sitting around letting life pass on by. Then, take that experience and make something big. Change the world, or give your family a better life. Your experiences will shape you and empower you.


1 = Fe
2 = Ni
3 = Te
4 = Si
5 = Fi
6 = Ne
7 = Ti
8 = Se




According to this one, I am Ne, Ni, Ti, Fe, Se and then the others...
 
Last edited:

PocketFullOf

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Ti, Te, Ne, Fe/Ni Fi Se Si in that order for me...according to those descriptions at least.
 

OrangeAppled

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I can hardly relate to any of these or find them vague enough to relate to all of them a bit. It's also pretty predictable which is supposed to be which, if you are remotely familiar with the 8 functions.

Going by this, I would be INFJ. Fi & Ne are almost unrecognizable to me and don't align with my grasp of Jung.

Here's how I'd order them for me:

Ni>Fe>Si>Te=Fi=Ti>Se=Ne

----

 

senza tema

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These are too flowery and overtly coated with someone else's emotional content for effect, which makes it difficult for me to relate to any of them.

Closest for me would probably be Te followed by Ni ... but not really. Don't like the Fi description at all.
 

EJCC

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The Te, Fe, and Ni ones are probably the best. I'm confused by the Si one and don't relate to it much at all. The Ne one seems wrong to me as well.
 

HongDou

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I can hardly relate to any of these or find them vague enough to relate to all of them a bit.

Yeah, this.

The only one that stood out for me was Se. I somewhat related to Fi, Fe, and Ne.
 

lunalum

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[MENTION=6561]OrangeAppled[/MENTION] and [MENTION=23222]Arcana[/MENTION] I am curious about what may be lacking in the Fi description. I think it could be filled up a bit as well but a bit lost on specifically what is wrong. I'm a bit surprised that the Ne one is being called out as not true to Jung.... it almost reads as a direct translation to me. At the very least, it's a whole lot closer than those descriptions out there who make out anyone who is mentally quick to be an Ne type.
 

Thalassa

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Fi makes sense to me. I have a ridiculously terrible time making decisions and can try to see other people's perspectives, but when I feel strongly about something, it's on, I will hold extremely tenaciously it's the essence of who I am. Also if I don't feel like expressing something to a stranger I can be cold or incommunicado but if I am extroverting through another function or feel comfortable I really open up, especially one on one or in writing.

Ni made just as much sense to me and was as obvious as Se...Te could have been Te or Se.

Your Si also sounds like Si. I think you did a good job.
 

lunalum

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Fi makes sense to me. I have a ridiculously terrible time making decisions and can try to see other people's perspectives, but when I feel strongly about something, it's on, I will hold extremely tenaciously it's the essence of who I am. Also if I don't feel like expressing something to a stranger I can be cold or incommunicado but if I am extroverting through another function or feel comfortable I really open up, especially one on one or in writing.

Ni made just as much sense to me and was as obvious as Se...Te could have been Te or Se.

Your Si also sounds like Si. I think you did a good job.

I knew you'd appreciate this. I dragged it over from Personality Cafe, for the people here to appreciate. Per my disclaimer, I didn't write it, but it does very closely match my own interpretation.
 

Galena

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NiTi, if any of them.
 

prplchknz

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I tried to do this, but I dunno i can't view them at once and it's hard to decide an order cuz of things. and it's just too much squooshed text at once.
 

EJCC

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Fi makes sense to me. I have a ridiculously terrible time making decisions and can try to see other people's perspectives, but when I feel strongly about something, it's on, I will hold extremely tenaciously it's the essence of who I am. Also if I don't feel like expressing something to a stranger I can be cold or incommunicado but if I am extroverting through another function or feel comfortable I really open up, especially one on one or in writing.
Agreed. Fi definitely sounded like Fi-dom and Fi-aux.

Te could have been Te or Se.
Agreed -- I think it has to do with the sensory language that was used in the description. If I had written it, I would have probably referred more to others' actions, and the steps they're taking/directions they're going, as opposed to the current state of the world in a sensory way (e.g. "the sky is blue").

Your Si also sounds like Si. I think you did a good job.
Is the person who wrote those descriptions an Se-user? I'm wondering if this is Si from an Se perspective. Because the Si description seemed totally foreign to me.
 

Totenkindly

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Is the person who wrote those descriptions an Se-user? I'm wondering if this is Si from an Se perspective. Because the Si description seemed totally foreign to me.

Same here... and I was raised by Si people (much of my family + culture growing up). They would not write it like this at all, and I don't think they think about it like this, especially if it's their assumed framework.
 

prplchknz

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re tried, dunno if i agree but i did it in order of relatablity. solely based on the descriptions.

si>ti>te>fi>ni> ne>se>fe
 

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senza tema

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[MENTION=5857]LunaLuminosity[/MENTION]

Re: Fi, I will bold what I identify with and comment on what I don't, I guess.


I don’t always know where to stand, but when I do, I am immovable. It takes time to work it out, because it really matters to me. I can’t go off guns-a-blazing and really do right by someone. Is it this hard for everyone? People say I don’t answer to anyone, or that I tend to wallow in things, and I guess that is true; but I have to answer to myself, and I hold myself to such rigid principles. My feelings are like a deep well. How do you share that? How is it so easy for people to judge when there is so much to consider? At least I know that when I do make a judgment, I can be okay with myself. That’s all that matters.


OK, looking at it carefully, I do agree with some of the content. It's the wimpy, uncertain tone that annoyed me. I guess I should read things more carefully before bitching about them, haha.

Anyway, the stuff I don't agree with ... usually, when I'm trying to figure out where I stand, it's not that I'm worried about getting it wrong or holding myself impeccably to rigid principles or anything like that ... I kinda take for granted that ultimately I will find the way that sits best with my conscience ... what's more of concern to me is the sense of dissonance until things have clicked, not anxiety about getting things right.

I don't actually see people being particularly quick to judge, actually, I mean, sure, they might make some quick, easy, superficial judgements based on some stupidly arbitrary standard but I think it's far more common for them to stand on the sidelines and not take genuine stances, which I find even more irritating. I'm not saying people should artificially force themselves to care about specific subjects that they don't care about at all ... just kinda ranting about that kind of feeble apathetic approach to life in general.

The stuff about being stubborn, having a hard time answering to others, wallowing in feelings and finding it difficult to express them truly I do identify with very much.
 

AphroditeGoneAwry

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Okay, I'm going to post my results. I STILL have not looked at the 'answers'. I will review the answers after I post my results here:

Best Fit to Least: 6, 7, 8, 2, 1, 4, 3, 5

so this is saying I'm: Ne>Ti>Se>Ni>Fe>Si>Te>Fi

Lol. Pretty sure I'm not an NTP?
 

ancalagon

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My functions according to this: Te Ne Ti Si Fe Fi Ni Se

My functions according to a function test I took right after: Ti Ne Ni Si=Fi Se Te Fe

Things they agree on:
Ne > Ni
Si > Se
N > S
T > F

Things they disagree on:
Whether Ti > Te
Whether Fi > Fe
Whether or not there is an enormous difference between the strength of Ti and Te, and similarly Ni and Ne

My top 2 functions, according to this, are extroverted, predicting that I'm an extrovert. I'm about as introverted as possible without being actually catatonic.

As far as I can tell, the descriptions are fine, except for Ti and Te.

The Te description has a lot of "I can't believe how dumb everyone else is" bits in it -- more an emotional reaction to other people being wrong than anything. It would be much improved by being phrased in a less facepalmy way. (Facepalming is not the sole domain of Te. :doh:) The "2 + 2 = 4" thing is about logical consistency, not external evidence, so I think it would fit better in a Ti description.

Ti says stuff about "the truthiest bits of truth", and that's nonsense for 2 reasons: 1 - a thing is either true or false, it isn't something that has degrees, and 2 - "truthy" doesn't mean 'particularly true', it means 'particularly true *seeming*'. Since those 2 fine (but vital) distinctions are the sort of thing Ti is really good at seeing (unless I've totally misunderstood Ti), it's particularly bad to have them in the description of Ti, since they aren't just wrong, they're wrong in a way that stands out to Ti. The part about being unable to put something back together in your head after taking it apart is the exact opposite of my experience. I think the last 2 sentences, about being convinced by other people, are trying to say that the standard of logic and making sense is applied, rather than trusting other people's opinions because of who they are or whatever. What they actually get across is more like a combination of arrogance, closed-mindedness, and individualism.

My attempt at a good description of Ti: I wield logic like a scalpel, cutting ideas apart and reassembling them in order to understand them. Often I reassemble them in a different way, just to see what happens. I make no distinction between my ideas and other people's ideas, an idea is an idea; if it's any good, it needs to be torn apart and reassembled to make it closer to perfect, but if its logical structure is broken, it needs to be demolished as efficiently as possible. The only fun thing about bad ideas is breaking them. The structure of an idea *is* the idea; an idea that has bad structure and a bad idea are the same thing. If I think an idea with a structural flaw is worth saving, I'll cut the bad parts out, like a surgeon, healing with a knife. An idea that can survive being sliced into pieces and reassembled without needing to be changed at all is a thing of beauty.
 
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