And thanks people for taking this opportunity to be gratuitously insulting. Seems like this is what is admired and respected on the forum.
Oh. Sorry. That was so INTP of you -- i've made a terrible mistake.
(I'm kind of surprised you felt the need to slander the entire forum, though.)
Ok.
Point #1: You are incorrect in the part of your post to which I was replying. What you said I was doing is not what I was doing. I instead listed what I was doing. How is that not clear?
Point # 2: I asked if anyone saw Te in my posts. You said you did, I said you might be right. That should be clear as well.
Point # 3: In my mind an opinion should be based on things which are true fitting together. Being XNTP produces the fewest inconsistencies with what I think I know about myself. Other people may have a different understanding of the functions and attribute things about me to different functions, so I am always open to new perspectives. If I am to agree with someone else's opinion it should have the same level of coherence. I prompt people to respond to what I think is inconsistent with their opinion, and evaluate the response.
Point #4: I asked you to flesh out your opinion.
Point #5: Reiterating the purpose of the OP about which you seem to be confused.
Does that clarify things?
No, it doesn't. One thing I've noticed in your posting history is that your attempts to clarify usually just obfuscate the matter further. I mean, none of your answers (1) say anything differently or (2) say anything, really, content-wise. It's all the same vague circular commentary that occurred earlier.
Evidently you do care then, because you care about me not being one of 2.
Oh alas, humiliated again by your powerful logix.
Anyway, take my comments seriously for a moment. Your username is actually very apt, and I don't mean that in any kind of judging way, it just is what it is:
You're very much like a little green fairy, puttering about like a butterfly in a beautiful garden, sipping nectar from flowers and humming and talking to yourself and whoever might pass by. These conversations tend to manifests more as musings, with no real direct in mind. You seem to be focused on an inner world that only you really see. When someone asks a question, you can either agree with them (if it matches up with your inner vision) or you immediately push back (if it doesn't match), but you're not really listening to what is being said and evaluating it on its own merits by some type of process logic, you're just responding to how it matches up with your inner world.
You rather like to remain absorbed in your inner reality and keep a placid calm outer world. on occasion, if prodded enough, you'll become annoyed and splash social water in someone's direction for a moment, then go back to your normal behavior.
Whatever type that is, that's what you are.
Your psyche is based more in the collective unconscious than in your individual, conscious self. If you lack a dominant characteristic, then the pattern is still trying to emerge from your unconscious self. Jung calls this "constellating," which is a product of an unconscious function brought forth by interaction with your conscious environment. The "constellation" which is (or could become) your dominant function is still part of the conglomeration of functions which lie in the unconscious, but it functions more consciously and volitionally with the environment. Parts of yourself which do not rise from the unconscious by your own will are in a constant state of flux, like the chaos that existed in the universe before there were any laws of physics.
I suggest that every time someone talks about you personally, even if in an attempt to be helpful, you not only take it as an insult, but I think you are seeing everybody whose opinion you ask as a proxy parent. You are looking for approval and not getting it.
Fe is far more likely to have that pattern than Fi. So while your patterns do exist, they aren't based on an individual sense of self-worth. Being reactive to the environment, they are as unpredictable as the environment you're in. You will then attempt to surround yourself with a predictable environment in order to keep the flux under control. That is auxiliary Je, in this case, Fe.
Mal, we tend to disagree on some things strongly, but here I think you have done an excellent job in perceiving and explaining what's going on. In fact, I think you are getting at something similar to what I am trying to get at, just in very different ways. I appreciate you offering yet another framework for looking at this.
I'm nodding a LOT when you mention "based more in collective unconscious," and "approval seeking" and the connection to Fe.