how is Ni a left brained trait? It deals with abstraction mostly doesnt it? I am a left handed INFJ who lives on Ni, I am so right brained its ridiculous.
Please stand by for wall of text:
So, I'm not sure I have a great grasp of the Ni side of things, since that's not a real strength of mine. But, stealing from another Ne vs Ni thread:
Understanding the Eight Jungian Cognitive Processes / Eight Functions Attitudes
And here are the descriptions:
Extraverted iNtuitive:
Extraverted iNtuiting involves noticing hidden meanings and interpreting them, often entertaining a wealth of possible interpretations from just one idea or interpreting what someone’s behavior really means. It also involves seeing things “as if,” with various possible representations of reality. Using this process, we can juggle many different ideas, thoughts, beliefs, and meanings in our mind at once with the possibility that they are all true. This is like weaving themes and threads together. We don’t know the weave until a thought thread appears or is drawn out in the interaction of thoughts, often brought in from other contexts. Thus a strategy or concept often emerges from the here-and-now interactions, not appearing as a whole beforehand. Using this process we can really appreciate brainstorming and trust what emerges, enjoying imaginative play with scenarios and combining possibilities, using a kind of cross-contextual thinking. Extraverted iNtuiting also can involve catalyzing people and extemporaneously shaping situations, spreading an atmosphere of change through emergent leadership.
Introverted iNtuitive:
Introverted iNtuiting involves synthesizing the seemingly paradoxical or contradictory, which takes understanding to a new level. Using this process, we can have moments when completely new, unimagined realizations come to us. A disengagement from interactions in the room occurs, followed by a sudden “Aha!” or “That’s it!” The sense of the future and the realizations that come from introverted iNtuiting have a sureness and an imperative quality that seem to demand action and help us stay focused on fulfilling our vision or dream of how things will be in the future. Using this process, we might rely on a focal device or symbolic action to predict, enlighten, or transform. We could find ourselves laying out how the future will unfold based on unseen trends and telling signs. This process can involve working out complex concepts or systems of thinking or conceiving of symbolic or novel ways to understand things that are universal. It can lead to creating transcendent experiences or solutions
Also:
Ni-Uses the objective situation in the interests of the inner understanding.
Ne-Uses the inner understanding in the interests of the objective situation.
Also:
Ni favours adapting oneself to one's environment. If both are to be changed, it is preferred that the internal plan be completed before any actual changes are implemented.
Ne favours adapting one's environment to oneself. If both are to be changed, it is preferred that actual changes are implemented as they are conceived.
To me, as primarily Ne users, my intuition seems to suggest lots of possibilities all at once in parallel, that I then have to cull down through my judging functions. The hardest part is keeping the possibility generation pointed in the right direction.
My image of Ni is that it is more symbolic or verbal, and follows an almost narrative thread of connections, one jump at a time. Each jump is still intuitive, and an individual jump can be more complex than with Ne. Each jump represents a connection of understanding and is often about a shift of perception that changes the meaning of the elements involved.
So, Ne considering a deadlocked situation might say (somewhat breathlessly) "we try this other approach, or that, or the other way, or -- hey! the sun is shining, today would be a good day for a walk -- oh, yeah... back to the the problem! we could try this other thing or maybe..." (possibilities flickering by faster than they can fully be considered)
Ni considering a deadlocked situation might pause for a bit, take few tentative mental steps into what the problem means, and then suddenly say "Aha! There IS no problem, because the real issue is THIS, not what we've been deadlocked over, and if we frame it that way, it's obvious that we can..."
In both cases, intuition is idea generating and the jumps can't be predicted in advance. In Ne the ideas are more outwardly oriented and tend to be possibilities for changing objective reality. In Ni the ideas are more inwardly directly, and change our understanding. To me it feels like Ni is more mysterious, and is like being able to change the rules of the game part-way through in a transformative way. To me, Ni seems more "meta" and subtle, and tends to produce a bigger chunks of concepts at a time.
It also helps me understand why INFPs are more rigid in some ways than INFJs. Ni helps an INFJ to adjust without destroying (to harmonize) their mental model when new information comes in that challenges their existing ideas. Ne isn't as helpful for that, plus Fi can help stomp on the challenging information before it's fully taken in.
According to Thomson, both Ni and Fe are left brained, so I would think INFJs would lean that way, although it's still an intuitive and feeling oriented kind of left brained.
Again, this from someone who doesn't have a good handle on Ni, so your mileage may vary.