Please help type my brother!

[milti girl]

I cannot figure out what my brother is! He's a patient of bipolar depressive disorder. As a child, he wasn't much different from what he is now. I do know that he's I, N, and P. Here's some stuff about him that could swing him T:

1. He's a brilliant mathematician and can talk pure logic. He's doing his PhD in some Math-blah. (does that even count?) His idea of fun is to sit down with some complex integrated calculus type book and solve through it slowly (slow for him). And I'm not exaggerating. He has a shelf of these books to pass the time.

2. He can give great advice to my mom and I (both notorious Feelers) about relationship stuff and general people skills, though...

3. ...his own people skills suck and are pretty much at the bottom of the family's.

4. He's a total cynic.

5. Ever since he was little, he's loved pulling things apart to see how they work. He pulled my Etch-a-Sketch apart (and then put it back), he pulled my mechanical pencils apart (and didn't put them back), he tried pulling all his Rock Lords and Hot Wheels apart till my very J mom caught him at it and hit the roof.

More about him. He started writing in programming languages at the age of 5. Assembly language - and slowly moved on to bigger and better stuff and wrote some neat programs.

In fact he loves to do self teaching. He's learnt how to play the guitar on his own and says he loves to perform on stage though he usually stands apart and bops his head to the music in a very Introvert way.

He's a total wannabe. He sits with people he thinks are 'cool' and ends up being like them, or wanting to be like them.

I think he might be an Introverted Feeler because:

1. He seems to live in the past.

2. He laughs or cries easily and can fly into a rage for the smallest reason. He also is moved very deeply by movies and books that stir feelings in him.

3. He's forever wishing things were 'like they used to be in the good old days' when I was still a baby and he could bully me and get away with it

4. He doesn't ask for help with his relationships but I know he needs it because he can't keep one for longer than a few weeks.

5. He likes to dabble in art and paint what he feels like and hang it on the wall, whether it's good or bad. He likes to experiment with music. He likes to experiment with photography. He flies into a rage if his experiments are laughed at.

6. He idolises my INTP dad. He says he hates the fact that my dad has no 'emotional depth' but he idolises him anyway.

7. He and my mother do NOT get along in daily life. Her J-ness drives him mad. However both of them are clearly each other's favourites (hey, I'm not the jealous sibling talking!) and my dad and I definitely do not understand that bond.

Of course, ever since he was diagnosed as manic-depressive and been on the medication, he keeps going flip-flop from cold and unaccessible to warm and horribly soppy. But I think he was more F in his childhood too.

As for how he and I get along - I'm the small sister he can bully and get away with. We do talk about serious stuff sometimes; he values my opinion on relationships and people and marvels that I am able to open up to people more easily than he is...but he generally dismisses me as unimportant and dumb

What do you think? Introverted thinker or feeler?

[MacGuffin]

Sorry, the bipolar is going to trump any MBTI.

If I had to guess, I'd say T though.

[Evan]

how do you know he's not J

[milti girl]

He's not J because he's lazy, he prefers my mom to organise his things, he forgets everything, he's just so plain exasperating to even a P like me. Why does bipolar make MBTI difficult?

[heart]

Just because he's lazy doesn't mean he's P.

[Evan]

Originally Posted by milti girl

He's not J because he's lazy, he prefers my mom to organise his things, he forgets everything, he's just so plain exasperating to even a P like me. Why does bipolar make MBTI difficult?

INJs can be quite lazy. They are dominant perceivers. There are no rules that say they need to be good with their auxiliary function.

Your assumption is the reason I couldn't figure out my type for almost a year; I knew I was a P, and I was wrong.

[Viv]

I'd say introvert-thinker. It could be that he's not getting his needs met in areas such as his social life, which causes him to turn to his shadow functions, not necessarily on all of them, just the thinking-feeling part.

Most times, I find that people we most admire, we admire because they share similar traits/values we do.

Thinkers can also be extremely artistic as well. I dated an ENTP who was really creative- into music/arts/politics/reading..

Art probably is his personal interest.

Based on what's listed above, I'd probably type him as INTP with Holland codes IAR. That's just my guess..

[observer84]

Sounds like an INTP to me, too. Especially the part about giving great advice on relationships while being completely socially inept.

[milti girl]

Oh, I always assumed he was P. He doesn't seem to have a single J trait in him. In that way he's totally opposite to my mom. He doesn't have her competitive drive, her urge for order, organisation, punctuality and cleanliness, or her compulsion in finishing one task and then beginning another.
He takes ages to make up his mind about something, and even then can change it at the last minute, he tries to get out of doing things he doesn't like to do, he puts errands off as long as he can, he begins projects with great enthusiasm and then leaves them halfway to finish later...I thought these were P traits. They are traits he and I and my father all share, much to my mother's disgust.

But with his personal items he occasionally makes a stab at real organisation. He'll categorise his books and CDs and the folders on his computer very meticulously.