greenfairy
philosopher wood nymph
- Joined
- May 25, 2012
- Messages
- 4,024
- MBTI Type
- iNfj
- Enneagram
- 6w5
- Instinctual Variant
- sx/sp
My first thought was no, it's not necessarily about sensitivity. However I was thinking in the more superficial/stereotypical sense and you seem to actually ask about something deeper. I see what you're getting at and I think a degree of sensitivity is necessary to be NFP. I'm not awash with feeling in general nor am I incredible fragile but there is a sensitivity that, say, NTPs don't seem to share. I don't think that this makes NTPs colder or nastier, it's just that they aren't as attuned and responsive to charged emotional experiences (especially negative ones).
I do want to emphasise that this does not mean that we are very emotional, but only that we invest more of ourselves in things we find meaningful. I really don't see myself as a remarkably emotional person if I compare to my ISFJ mum or ESTJ sister. They're very reactive people, whereas I tend to be impassive and indifferent. I'm typically pretty neutral because I don't really care too much either way about most things. At the same time the complete opposite is true; I'm a person of great feeling and would say I feel more deeply and intensely than my mother and sister. It's strangely contradictory - I'm not even sure if I'm explaining it well.
The sort of things you are describing here sound more NTP-like than NFP to me. I don't know that I could distance myself that much from such things - I couldn't help but feel negativity/upset because they relate to things that matter to me. If I passionately believe something, I really do believe it emotively, not merely strongly.
But then, this is just my opinion. I imagine others would disagree and would not necessarily be wrong.
EDIT: I feel like the definition of sensitivity could be at issue here - there are subtle differences between various definitions. It depends how broadly you mean to use the term.
Yeah I agree. There are many definitions of sensitive, and I tried to explain what I meant; but I also think Fi makes a person more sensitive in every sense of the word (though not more emotive).
Yeah, I don't know why I asked. It's silly for me to still entertain the possibility of being INFP. But I just can't help wanting to rule it out for good, which was the purpose of the thread I think. I thought this was clinching proof I'm not INFP. Not a type me thread per se, just a thought on sensitivity as it relates to the types with me as an example (with the typing as an ulterior motive).