What do you mean by "acknowledge their feeling side"?
Hehe! Classic T question.
Strong thinkers or weak feelers?
Same thing. Strongly differentiated thinking precludes the development of a mature feeling function, or so the books tell me.
Thinking seeks to eliminate personal values from the decision-making process, i.e. the opposite of what feeling seeks to do. Over time, this tends to lead to a dulling or weakening of the feeling process, an inability to recognize what one's values are in a given situation.
This is a problem for me. I find decision-making very difficult in my personal life, because from an objective stance it can be difficult to determine which outcome is more favourable. I can go through an endless iteration of "on the one hand, x, other the other hand, y, but on the other hand....". Is x > y? Sometimes, I have no idea if there are no objective criteria to guide me. When I finally make a decision, I always end up second-guessing myself and wondering if I've done the "right" thing and usually conclude I haven't. But I'm amost certain I would feel that way whatever I decided. I see this, along with weak rapport with others, to be major problems for the overly differentiated thinker.
The "danger" lies in making the "wrong" decision in important matters - i.e. the decision which doesn't accord with one's value system. Because the latter is there all the time, lurking in the shadows, and will leap out and bite you in the butt when you don't expect it. The trouble is, when I try to project myself into a future which is contigent on a certain choice, it (my internal value system) remains infuriatingly silent. The best analogy I can think of is: it's like a kid you ask if it wants to go to the zoo/park/cinema/whatever. The kid says, "Sure, why not?" but really he's tired and just wants to stay at home, but he doesn't know this, 'cos he's a kid. Then the minute you get to the zoo/park/cinema/whatever, he starts balling his eyes out and says he wants to go home. Bloody kids! That's why I don't have any.
Does anyone else identify with this? (not the paedophobia bit, the emotional-retard bit) How have you developed strategies to help with making the "right" decision?