Introverted thinking. Ti. The function that automatically assimilates and evaluates data according to certain rules, rules that are based on rather impersonal characteristics of the data themselves, yet are subjectively chosen by the user. It is my dominant function, my operating charter, my orientation to the world. It's only recently that I've begun to see how everything is shaped by that orientation: how it shapes the internal and external realities of my mind accordingly.
There is not one aspect of my life that can escape its gaze, and certainly not even myself. Not one idea, not one person, not one inanimate object, not one perceptible event is spared the deconstruction of its facade in order to reveal the essential components underneath. Everything is a system, everything has rules, everything that exists is a specific manifestation of a greater truth. The world is full of puppets, and I am looking for all the strings.
On one hand, this disposition, this orientation is something that enriches my life by embedding an unquenchable curiosity and lust for knowledge into my mind. I need to know how everything works. I need to know why everything works the way it does. On the other hand...this mindset can be very debilitating, especially in the social arena. Most notably, I'm rarely able to turn it off and appreciate events or people for just themselves and their existence. My mind tries to peel away surface characteristics, trying to get to something deeper, but in doing that, I paradoxically lose some of the essential components of socialization that I’m trying to find..
Introverted thinking as a dominant process is bizarre animal. The world and your ideas [to the introverted thinker, these are the same thing] are understood in such an interrelated way, things can really only be understood holistically and completely. This is part of what makes Ti, and Fi, so difficult to express. Ji’s understanding of things is rather 3 dimensional, but can only be translated into the real world 2 dimensionally. The Ji user has to slice up their 3d thought into 2d slices, and we experience this process as generally destructive to the original idea, since you lose the structure of the thought in the translation from sphere to slices of circles arranged side by side.
Ti is a solitary function. Your mind and your world tells you that you are alone. Yet, you’re not lonely. How can you be, when the world around you is hiding her mysteries, waiting for you to find them? With each discovery, you feel a little closer to everything. You feel a little closer to home.