[INTP] INTPs - Your Openness with Feelings/Problems/Etc

[Matthew_Z]

I feel Jennifer hit the nail on the head when it came to my emotional expression, but I think I'll elaborate anyways.

Raw emotions? I suppose those are rarer than the moods I give myself. I prefer to have a smiling face on, although it sometimes slips into utter stoicism when I'm not watching it. I'd prefer to express openness and freedom rather than glaring restraint. Lighten up the atmosphere, if you will.

That being said, I'd never show much emotion to a person that feel they're superior to me. Myself being describable as an overly emotional creature would only support their sense of superiority. This always applied to my parents more than anyone else. If they saw anything other than a completely and fully rational person with nothing to imply elsewise, it would be even easier for them to disregard my judgment in favor of their own.

In short, I use emotions a tool to make myself appear approachable and not entirely cold, but I exercise restraint as to prevent myself from showing weakness.

 

[sharonrenee80]

I too think what Jennifer described is accurate for me.

I would just add that a lot of times, I forget to feel.

I will be going through life, and things will happen in my daily life, and it won't occur to me to ask myself: "how does that make you feel?"

I've had a few feelers in my life who noticed this about me, and they'll take the time to ask me how I'm feeling, which is great, b/c I just don't take the time (on my own initiative) to stop and feel. I'm usually too busy thinking about something to stop and "feel" about it.

It's like a preconceived idea about what situations in life are the type of situations that are worth getting emotional about, and if things are going on in my daily life that aren't serious enough to warrant getting emotional about, then I won't even notice that I AM emotional about those things. It's been helpful in the past few years to think of my emotions as something that I should be feeling ALL THE TIME, just like I'm thinking all the time.