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[NF] Introverted Feeling vs. Extraverted Feeling

Silence11

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Can someone explain to me in normal terms exactly what the difference is... I seem to be having a difficult time wrapping my brain around it.

It seems I've heard that introverted feeling is feeling turned inward, and extroverted feeling is feeling projected outward onto others, but if this is true, how does it manifest itself in a persons decision making?

Any clarification would be appriciated. Thank you!
 

Oaky

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Fi people suppress their feelings
Fe people express their feelings

Fi
Feeling people makes decisions based on feelings, so the Introverted Feeling function allows a person to know what they value. It is the ability to see through others and know what they are really like as if they had an internal radar. When it identifies a person with similar values there is a desire to connect.

Fe
Feeling people make decisions based on feelings, so the Extraverted Feeling function allows a person to adjust their behavior to the needs of others. Is it the ability to relate and the desire to connect with others with warmth and consideration. It draws others out and responds to expressed or unexpressed needs.
 

Lux

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When I use my Fe I try to maintain harmony of a group. I'm concerned about offending people or other people offending people. I try to guide everything to be pleasant, if that's possible. I care about social pleasantries. Fe can be overwhelming though and sometimes the best thing is to take a step back. I'm not so sure about Fi.
 

fill

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It's not very easy to determine the two without incorporating Introverted Thinking (Ti) and Extroverted Thinking (Te).

Fi: I do what I feel I should do.
Ti: I do what I think I should do.

Fe: I see the world in terms of people (and their feelings).
Te: I see the world in terms of substance (and its practicality).
 

Oaky

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To extremes

Feelers
Insult an Fe user and he/she will cry.
Insult an Fi user and he/she will not show any emotion but cry on the inside.

Thinkers
Insult an Fe user and he/she will take hostile action towards you (verbally or physically)
Insult an Fi user and he/she will ignore you and treat you like shit.
 

Lux

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To extremes

Feelers
Insult an Fe user and he/she will cry.
Insult an Fi user and he/she will not show any emotion but cry on the inside.

Thinkers
Insult an Fe user and he/she will take hostile action towards you (verbally or physically)
Insult an Fi user and he/she will ignore you and treat you like shit.

^ Not my Fe... I have much more control than that ;)
 

Lady_X

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right...and a fi person will react warmly towards someone they feel a connection with...something within that person jives with their personal beliefs...a fe user i believe is more apt to treat everyone warmly because that's the nice thing to do...??

also...yeah...outwardly shown emotion is more of a fe thing, i think.

and fi will judge things based on their own made up belief system...and a fe person judges things based more on a global belief system...i think.
 

Oaky

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^ Not my Fe... I have much more control than that ;)
That's because you don't use the full power of the Fe function
As in your not an extreme Fe user. :D
 

PeaceBaby

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Fi people suppress their feelings
Fe people express their feelings

I was thinking about this yesterday - it resonates with me as the most concise yet accurate description of the two.

There's this misconception that Fi dominant individuals are so "emo" yet you would be hard-pressed to know what I am feeling because I keep the real stuff inside for the most part. And when I sense someone is trying to read me I tuck it away deeper if I don't really want to share it.

Fe tells me what the "appropriate" social responses are and over the years I have developed it very well. To me it is a veneer over the less pretty stuff I might be thinking inside about any given situation or person.
 

Cybin

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I've heard Fe describes as being able to sense feelings radiating from others and see the way that they connect between people. This is what gives way to the 'social etiquette' idea that gets equated with Fe. Fe users want harmony in the world. When unchecked, Fe users can lose themselves in maintaining his harmony to the point of overlooking their feelings.

Fi is an inner experience of feelings. They begin internally. Fi wants harmony in themselves. Fi relates to people by taking on the feelings of others as their own. When unchecked, Fi users can lose themselves by taking on these feelings to such an extent it forgets about itself. Fi will help others by helping them find inner harmony, rather than between many people.
 

OrangeAppled

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Fi people suppress their feelings
Fe people express their feelings

Eh, I don't like this. I don't repress my feelings; I just don't deal with them externally, so they are not always visible on the surface.


I've heard Fe describes as being able to sense feelings radiating from others and see the way that they connect between people. This is what gives way to the 'social etiquette' idea that gets equated with Fe. Fe users want harmony in the world. When unchecked, Fe users can lose themselves in maintaining his harmony to the point of overlooking their feelings.

Fi is an inner experience of feelings. They begin internally. Fi wants harmony in themselves. Fi relates to people by taking on the feelings of others as their own. When unchecked, Fi users can lose themselves by taking on these feelings to such an extent it forgets about itself. Fi will help others by helping them find inner harmony, rather than between many people.

Agreed.

Fe aims to create external harmony between people, especially between others and themselves.

Fi aims to create internal harmony, within themselves & within others.
I would say that Fi can be more in danger of becoming self-absorbed than losing themselves in empathy. Unhealthy Fi is only concerned about it's own inner harmony.
 

Oaky

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Eh, I don't like this. I don't repress my feelings; I just don't deal with them externally, so they are not always visible on the surface.
Not dealing with feelings externally = Suppressing feelings
 

Liminality

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"Fe seeks social connections and creates harmonious interactions through polite, considerate, and appropriate behavior. Fe responds to the explicit (and implicit) wants of others, and may even create an internal conflict between the subject’s own needs and the desire to meet the needs of others."
Essentially they're empathic and so move towards external harmony.

"Fi filters information based on interpretations of worth, forming judgments according to criteria that are often intangible. Fi constantly balances an internal set of values such as harmony and authenticity. Attuned to subtle distinctions, Fi innately senses what is true and what is false in a situation. With Fi as their dominant function, INFPs live primarily in a rich inner world of emotion."
Fi has more connection with internal emotion, sense of 'rightness' and 'wrongness' and yet also autheticity. A mixture between what's good (harmonious) and what's true, and real to ones innerself. ~Both quotes from wiki.

This confuses me a tad. I'm likely Fi, but it's not as if I'm masses amounts of volatile emotion; almost the opposite. My feelings only show their real, strong, true faces' occasionally. I introspect on happiness and contentedness too much to ever let myself believe there's much feeling in those concepts. The 'criteria' must be adhered to, and so it leaves me thinking things through, though not for Fe reasons(though now I say this...) - here's my guess at a distinction...

I must be 'good' because that's what feels 'right'.
I must be 'good' because of how others percieve (me)/will react (to me).

And, last wifflewaffle, I'm far too second guessing to know what's wrong or right...

*Is majorly going to bed now* Just putting some thoughts on the table.
 

Thalassa

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This is a bunch of bullshit. I have Fi and I definitely don't repress my feelings. In fact I often deal with them externally.

so.

wrong.
 

Oaky

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Not at all. I deal with them internally.
And how exactly do you deal with them? Isn't that what suppressing feelings is. Hiding your emotions. Like when you feel upset but you don't show it and the more you don't show it the more it gets suppressed inside because you can't let it out.
 

rainoneventide

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And how exactly do you deal with them? Isn't that what suppressing feelings is. Hiding your emotions. Like when you feel upset but you don't show it and the more you don't show it the more it gets suppressed inside because you can't let it out.
Dunno if this pertains to other INFP's... but I talk to myself. Yes. I admit it. Lol.

But what does dealing with feelings externally mean, exactly? Like voicing them to someone else, or composing music? Maybe internally vs. externally are too simple words for a too complex system. But I'm basically writing myself into a hole right now.
 

Thalassa

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And how exactly do you deal with them? Isn't that what suppressing feelings is. Hiding your emotions. Like when you feel upset but you don't show it and the more you don't show it the more it gets suppressed inside because you can't let it out.

Ahem. Again I say: I express my emotions. I'm very expressive. Even if I'm an ENFP, I still have Fi.

So your theory isn't quite right. I don't believe that all Fi people don't express their emotions. In fact, they might express them openly, but just not always in a socially appropriate manner.
 
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