My best friend in high school was an ENFP -- tested and everything. Actually, he was the one who got me started into all this MBTI nonsense.
Anyhow, I don't have much experience with ENFPs besides him, but here are some of the biggest characteristics I noticed with him. Maybe they're ENFP things, maybe not... so take it with a grain of salt.
- The stereotype of a bubbly, touchy-feely ADD type didn't totally fit him. In fact he'd often lapse into cold, logical analysis. His attitude towards logic, however, was vastly different from mine, and we've talked about this in great deal.
To him, logic reflects our finite understanding of human affairs, and certain gaps in it are subjective and had to be filled in. He steadfastly adhered to whatever his "inner logic" told him, but his understanding was always under revision, and his increasing understanding of humans were what filled those holes.
To me, logic is beyond any interpretation of it. So I typically dealt with people much more impersonally. I remember a conversation we had regarding a mutual friend who was having some relationship troubles:
Him: "Nemo, you can't just say that to her. You're probably right, but she'll never respond to it -- think of how she feels. People don't behave like circuits and switchboards."
Me: "Too f***ing bad. The truth doesn't care what she thinks of it."
So while he was capable of being and appearing to be super logical, I think the way he internalized it was fundamentally different from me.
(Now that I think of it, this may be an Fi vs Ti thing.)
- He was extremely adamant about adhering to whatever his personal "inner logic" (I called it "voodoo logic") told him was right. And if any of this was challenged in a mean-spirited sort of way -- look out. He would go mentally ape-shit and and release all kinds of intellectual kung-fu'ery on you for displaying such ignorance.
The sort of irony in our relationship was that between the two of us, he was definitely seen as the more aggressive and challenging if he was confronted or ganged up on. He would push back much harder than me. He had more of an emotional investment, I think. But at the same time, he had a much more sophisticated sense of empathy and was capable of coming to terms with the emotional environment he was in. So he bounced between wider cold--hot extremes, whereas I was more even-tempered.
- I said above that the touchy-feely, bubbly stereotype didn't fit him -- but in some ways, it did. He was definitely like that sometimes, especially when he was happy about something. It wasn't overwhelming though, in fact it was rather infectious.
- In general: funny, intelligent, engaging, very deep and complicated. I've never felt like I was being manipulated or used by him. He is very upfront, honest, and doesn't play games.
- Have you ever put two Ne dominants in the same room together? There's enough raw mental energy to power a small city. He's one of the few (only?) people I've met that can tolerate, and even be energized, by my constant steam of verbalized thoughts -- and vice versa. Whenever we were together the result was an explosive intellectual man orgy of sorts.
- Extremely creative. Very widely read -- definitely more than myself. In most ways that really matter, he's probably smarter than me.
- Interested in absolutely everything -- from poetry to quantum mechanics. Plus he's extremely enthusiastic and animated when he's exposed to new and interesting ideas.
- Random. One sure way of knowing you're talking to an Ne dominant is if the conversations all go like this:
Person A (Non-ENFP): "So, when do you think we can get together and work on that project?"
Person B (ENFP): "Well, whenever. I was thinking tonight, actually."
A: "Cool, I'll give you a call tonight and maybe we ca-"
B: "Oh, speaking of which, have you ever been to Nepal?"
A: "... wait, what?"
It was typically extremely hard for other people to follow his train of thought, so he would consciously control himself (or at least attempt to) when in the company of most others.
- One of the bigger problems he had was related to the voodoo logic that I was talking about above. Since it was so personalized, people who were being insensitive/ignorant often didn't know they were violating some unwritten rule for him, and they'd have no idea why he would get so worked up over certain things. His problem was that while it was extremely clear and made sense to him, it was so internalized that other people had to freaking clue what was going on and didn't understand what set him off. This escalated a good deal of the drama he'd get involved in.
- Extremely funny. I can't emphasize that enough.
That's all for now. I have to get going to class.