[INFJ] You know you're an INFJ when...

[Skyward]

My friends know me for my slightly wild streak that can show up out of nowhere in public for no reason. They also know the drowsy-eyed look shortly afterwards when I start wanting some caffine.

It's the worst when I'm DMing in our DND group. I have to focus on keeping level headed and un-social so I don't burn out quickly and mess up the whole session.

when you can't even read books or magazines anymore because it takes too much time away from thinking and pondering about the complexities of life.

Books, for me, are things that get my mind started in a direction without being tough to chew like a philosopher's work. I've had times when I barely read 2-3 pages in a half hour because I pause after every paragraph of the book, contemplating what's going on in it. Stephen King is probably my favorite author for his reastic (And surreal) plot and characters. Both entertaining and thought provoking.

 

[Kyrielle]

Books, for me, are things that get my mind started in a direction without being tough to chew like a philosopher's work. I've had times when I barely read 2-3 pages in a half hour because I pause after every paragraph of the book, contemplating what's going on in it. Stephen King is probably my favorite author for his reastic (And surreal) plot and characters. Both entertaining and thought provoking.

[YOUTUBE="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=spIrcYWuM94"]Mirrormask Sphinxs like Books[/YOUTUBE]


That statement makes me think that INFJs are like the sphinx-cats in Mirrormask. We don't just read books, we eat them.

By the way, if no one has seen this movie, please rent it and watch it. It's so fun and delightful and weird and dreamlike.


Skyward, do you, like me, love "magical realism"? The "genre" that takes a slightly surreal approach to art and attempts to make the impossible entirely possible because it bases enough foundation in reality.

 

[Skyward]

Skyward, do you, like me, love "magical realism"? The "genre" that takes a slightly surreal approach to art and attempts to make the impossible entirely possible because it bases enough foundation in reality.

I call it 'Realism Gone Crazy' personally

Realism itself is insufficient because -I- am in reality, and fantasy is very hard to relate to unless the characters are portrayed right.

 

[Kyrielle]

I call it 'Realism Gone Crazy' personally

Realism itself is insufficient because -I- am in reality, and fantasy is very hard to relate to unless the characters are portrayed right.

Definitely. Sometimes, the surreal is more real to me because I expect the surreal to happen all the time. Reality is never...real to me. It's always like it's a dream and what's happening isn't actually happening. Like it's something I'm imagining happen.

 

[Skyward]

For me, I think I'm just more comfortable with the surreal because it means a more free reality. Something that isn't as constrained and nearly-predictable as current reality.

 

[Obstinate]

I don't know if this is just me but


....you talk with someone, you often have the entire conversation planned out in your head, to the point that you freak out when the person says something that doesn't go along with your in-head conversation!

 

[Thursday]

I don't know if this is just me but


....you talk with someone, you often have the entire conversation planned out in your head, to the point that you freak out when the person says something that doesn't go along with your in-head conversation!

or you know exactly what they will say and plan according so that if the conversation and result of it is unpleasant that you leave your negative feelings in that thought as if writing a letter to the person you are mad at but not sending it

 

[sade]

*Yanks a post from earlier in the thread*
I tend to think the same thing as someone else WHEN they think it it seems like, and I tend to say it. My dad commented one that I'm the guy that says the stuff everyone else is thinking.

So I guess I point at the elephant in the room?

I've been told I'm too straight or blunt about this, but it's just so that my Fe absolutely loathes those big elephants taking all the space. So I point them out thinking I could clean up the space. Sorta like a devil's advocate.
But I thik I'm too absent minded about other stuff to notice and make a remark about 'em.

I'm very short of an empath. Sometimes I can feel the emotion someone else is having, but usually it is just a response, and not a connection, to what they're feeling. NFPs are a LOT better at understanding people than me.

And the above answer crosses over to this a bit, if the elephant is of emotional quality.
I've felt a bit stupid of never bothering to learn to understand people since I could always gravitate with 'whatever-emotion-is-in-the-air-at-the-moment- and-where-it-came-from' -sense and not get in trouble and be liked to a limit. I'm learning to understand now though.
We're empaths, I suppose.
If you don't mind.. This brings my ISTJ mom to mind. She's the opposite, great at telling people's underlaying motivations and responses and what they'll most likely do next (according to previous actions; that Si is... somewhat scary), but she seems to be oblivious to emotions and emotional responses until they smack her in the face.

I don't know about the rest of you but I've had an NFP complaining that she can't understand me at all at times.

*stops hijacking thread*

You know you're an INFJ when you can go from ultra-pensive to a crazed wacko when there are a number of people in the room. Though it's like sugar, the energy goes away fast and then you crash.

Yes.

 

[sade]

Definitely. Sometimes, the surreal is more real to me because I expect the surreal to happen all the time. Reality is never...real to me. It's always like it's a dream and what's happening isn't actually happening. Like it's something I'm imagining happen.

Absolutely.

 

[tess2008]

i feel like i always have in the back of my mind (or just slightly buried in my subconscious) that life's short, life's a gift, the world is beautiful, and we should be doing everything we can to make our mark, and to change things with the talents we have.

^ this stresses me out, and every day i'm trying to find the deeper meaning in everything and the beauty in everything, and trying to give it back in some way.

and lately i've noticed just how much my family and friends aren't necessarily pondering these things at all. my mum, dad and brother are all ISTJ's, and we don't see eye to eye on anything at all. but lately i've been so bothered by how they don't seem to care about things like i do. they don't care about music or art, they are content watching sport and talking about how boring their jobs are.

and i overhear conversations they have, and it's about how me or my brother went in school, and how i'm making bad choices for going to film school and studying cinematography instead of being a doctor, which "she could have been if she wanted to, and it would be much better financially"


and i'm finding that it's BOTHERING me so much. :steam:

which i know i shouldn't be, because people are different etcetcetc.
but i feel so opressed! and i feel like so many people are being opressed by emotionless systems we're all fed into, and if we reject them our parents will not be proud of us (at least mine)..

lol, is this an INFJ reaction, or just a crazy person reaction? :hi:

 

[Kyrielle]

and i overhear conversations they have, and it's about how me or my brother went in school, and how i'm making bad choices for going to film school and studying cinematography instead of being a doctor, which "she could have been if she wanted to, and it would be much better financially"


and i'm finding that it's BOTHERING me so much. :steam:

Well, of course it bothers you. Your family, your basic support group, is not supporting you. So, yes, that should bother you!

Your family is just worried about you being a "starving artist". They don't want to see you living in squallor trying to get by, asking people for money and not being able to pay them back, and ultimately, unhappy because of this. What needs to happen, is you, or they, need to do some research into the film industry and start to understand what kinds of jobs are out there. Help them understand that you can get a job and support yourself rather well.

My parents and I went through this process when I decided to go study at an art school for illustration. Once they researched what kinds of jobs I could get and exactly how widespread the field really is, they relaxed about it because they realised I could make a living off of this.

They're just worried that if you aren't successful, then they will feel like they failed somewhere as parents. Because that is a big part of their job: To raise you into an independent adult that can take care of itself.

 

[Glycerine]

You don't necessarily learn the traditional curriculum in the class but you try to find the overall life lesson(s) from the tidbits you gain from it that relates to you. For me, education is the foundation for what I teach myself.

You don't like long extraneous conceptual explanations, you just want the person to get to the point (or maybe its just me). It's like "you spent 10 minutes explaining all background of the concept when you could have explained the basic premise of it in a minute."

 

[Thursday]

You don't necessarily learn the traditional curriculum in the class but you try to find the overall life lesson(s) from the tidbits you gain from it that relates to you. For me, education is the foundation for what I teach myself.

You don't like long extraneous conceptual explanations, you just want the person to get to the point (or maybe its just me). It's like "you spent 10 minutes explaining all background of the concept when you could have explained the basic premise of it in a minute."

Its like we are the same person

 

[Immaculate Cloud]

You know you're an INFJ when you've just spent like 8 hours

1. troubleshooting a family member's PC - slow and buggy.
2. been long-suffering with the constant griping, 'I just WANT this thing to WORK'
3. tried to ignore the constant cursing from the technically-challenged who expect the machine to JUST obey as if it was an intractable kid while you work at it patiently and systematically
4. are content with just a dinner plate and a thank you
5. felt exhausted by it all and
6. swear that next time you will make yourself a bit more rare
7. and swear that next time you'll charge what professionals charge

... as adequate compensation for being forced to endure an atmosphere of tension and anger directed at a ... piece of metal!

 

[TaylorS]

You know you're an INFJ when...


-the world stops when the favorite part of your song comes on...a song that your itunes play-counter claims you've listened to 3957 times
Yep

-you see connections between radically different things
Yep

-your wardrobe is all black, but your shoes are colorful
No

-you are one of three people at a Swedish film festival
No

-you wonder if you will ever see the one you are infatuated with again
Yep

-you live in a neighborhood with art, trees, books, and music
Yep

-you understand the nature of people but don't know how to be with them
Yep

-you know what's around the corner before everyone else does
Yep

-you feel most people are transparent and OBVIOUS and their lack of subtlety can be grating
Yep

-you are attuned to absurdity in the most mundane thing, and may burst out laughing uncontrollably at the absolute wrong moment. No one else gets the joke
Yep

-you feel like when you make a connection with someone, it's for life. Long after they've disappeared, they regularly show up in your daydreams
Yep

-you can't inhabit an environment that is unaesthetically pleasing for too long
Yep

-you know what you want but you never seem to be able to get it
Yep

.

 

[ByMySword]

You know you're an INFJ when...


-the world stops when the favorite part of your song comes on...a song that your itunes play-counter claims you've listened to 3957 times
Yes

-you see connections between radically different things
Yes

-your wardrobe is all black, but your shoes are colorful
Can my shoes be black, too?

-you are one of three people at a Swedish film festival
Yes

-you wonder if you will ever see the one you are infatuated with again
Yes

-you live in a neighborhood with art, trees, books, and music
Yes

-you understand the nature of people but don't know how to be with them
Yes

-you know what's around the corner before everyone else does
Yes

-you feel most people are transparent and OBVIOUS and their lack of subtlety can be grating
YES!!!

-you are attuned to absurdity in the most mundane thing, and may burst out laughing uncontrollably at the absolute wrong moment. No one else gets the joke
All the time

-you feel like when you make a connection with someone, it's for life. Long after they've disappeared, they regularly show up in your daydreams
Yes

-you can't inhabit an environment that is unaesthetically pleasing for too long
Yes

-you know what you want but you never seem to be able to get it
Eh, I do alright. Its more the pace at which I get it that I don't like

 

[TaylorS]

You internalize criticisms because you are driven to view yourself from whatever vantage point produced the criticism. Then you start questioning whether your own vantage point or the other person's is more valid, or if they are in fact equal. Next you start philosophizing about what the self is and what boundaries do and do not exist between people which leaves you feeling ironically isolated for connecting to everything including the negativity.

LOL, that SO sounds like me!

 

[TaylorS]

I've been to one therapist and the response after 1.5 sessions was, "well, it seems like you already know what's going on and what to do and how to deal with it. Do you think you need to keep seeing me?" I was floored! I dont know if she was just a bad therapist or if my life wasn't interesting enough for her to listen to, or if I really don't need therapy.

LOL, my therapist thinks it's hilarious how I'm often one step ahead of her in my CBT sessions!

 

[TaylorS]

About the love of intensive music.. Anyone else love Disturbed? Some of the lyrics just strike me somehow, besides the music itself.

Ooh, ooh, ooh!!! *Raises hand*

 

[TaylorS]

-You have imaginary conversations going on in your head for hours on end.

-You compulsively eavesdrop on others' conversations.

-You are an Atheist yet still consider yourself "spiritual".

-You psychoanalyze your therapist.

-You are the person everyone wants to talk to if they have things troubling them.