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[Type 4] The plight of an INTP 4

auriel

New member
Joined
Jun 5, 2010
Messages
30
Someone who has no interest in sytemizing or solving problems for the fun of it but has really only the skills to do something like that for a career? Someone with lifelong artistic compulsions but little talent? Someone whose inner desire is to cultivate strong emotions and individuality but whose functions are incapable of handling them, leading to emotional anaesthetization and thus a lack of purpose in life? Someone who wants to do nothing but revel in strong emotional states but is often incapable of sharing them in any meaningful way? An eccentric outcast whose friends were mostly NTs, without emotions deep enough to understand them?

I keep switching back and forth between INTP and INFP in my mind...I still can't figure it out and really don't want to at this point, because the reccomendations of each profile would put me on a course in life I'd be very dissatisfied with. I believe in Jung and his functions, but I think MBTI should only serve as a guide insofar as it's useful. I keep coming back to this combination though...it explains all the frustrations I've had as a person. Some will say it's impossible, and part of me thinks it is, but I'm starting to wonder. I think emotionality is seperate from T/F preferences, and I think that is what causes 4-ness, not cognative functions.

What does someone like this do as a career? What do they do to come to terms with their conflicted selves?

I'm swtiching around between majors right now...I'm good at the Humanties because I have both an emotional perspective on life but strong analytical skills. I can get into systems (like MBTI) so long as they involve people and human/emotional interests, so maybe a therapist of some kind would be a good idea? I know occupational therapist is one of the reccomended careers, but if I am a T, would that be a good idea? I'm energized working with people, despite being an I, and feel rewarded when I help them out, but still. I don't have the T problem of saying blunt things without realizing what I'm doing because I'm quite sensitive myself, but (I think) have bad interpersonal skills.

Any other rare INTP 4's here? Anyone at all have any reccomendations? Please help!
 

JocktheMotie

Habitual Fi LineStepper
Joined
Nov 20, 2008
Messages
8,491
Well, if you color your life with the chaos of emotionality and value, I'd find it hard to believe you were a T simply because a T user will separate emotional content from the world and not consider it very important. Which is doesn't seem like you do.
 

Eldanen

Arcesso pulli gingerios!
Joined
Apr 26, 2007
Messages
697
MBTI Type
INTP
Enneagram
5w4
I feel somewhat like this myself. I categorize myself currently as an INTP in MBTI, but I'm more confident of my type in Enneagram as a 5w4. Are you sure that you really have no artistic talent? Perhaps if you read some artsy works and absorbed the modes of expression there, you'd find that you had a language with which you could express your more abstract, impressionistic thoughts. I'm thinking of procuring some mediocre position in a slower-paced technical field and spending my spare time in my own devices, but this might not suit you.
 

auriel

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Joined
Jun 5, 2010
Messages
30
Well, if you color your life with the chaos of emotionality and value, I'd find it hard to believe you were a T simply because a T user will separate emotional content from the world and not consider it very important. Which is doesn't seem like you do.

That's true, and I still haven't dismissed the possibility I'm an INFP, but I think you're confusing type (cognative processes...tools) with outlook on life (Enneagram...ultimate desire...subconscious motive). There are certain opinions and desires certain types tend to hold, yes. But none are universal within type. I think lots of T users recognize the importance of paying attention to emotions and some even find their emotional lives quite beautiful. It's just that they make decisions using logic. I'm more INFP-ish than pretty much every INTP I've ever met, and I've met several people of both types. But at my core, I identify with the INTP description more. I don't believe "emotions can only harm" and value them highly, but other than that...yeah, it's bang on. I suppose I was just seduced my the magical world of feeling and beauty:wink:. I don't know if I "color my life" with value...I'm not out to "save the world" like an INFP...or at least it isn't constantly on my mind...I'm just not completely cynical, and as evil and strange as we can be at times, I do have a deep and abiding love for humanity.:)

I feel somewhat like this myself. I categorize myself currently as an INTP in MBTI, but I'm more confident of my type in Enneagram as a 5w4. Are you sure that you really have no artistic talent? Perhaps if you read some artsy works and absorbed the modes of expression there, you'd find that you had a language with which you could express your more abstract, impressionistic thoughts. I'm thinking of procuring some mediocre position in a slower-paced technical field and spending my spare time in my own devices, but this might not suit you.

Good to hear there are others out there:).

Yeah...that's the thing...I'm really not good with technology. So I can't really do the standard "computer job" that INTP's seem to gravitate towards. If I can manage to slg it out through school I could land a job as a liberal arts professor...that's what I'm hoping for right now at least.

No, I don't really have no artistic talent, but I'm not very good at painting or drawing, which is best for this type of abstract, impressionistic release. I am a talented pianist (just by ear but I'm good enough to pass as someone who finished Conservatory...and I have), and do express myself that way, but I wish I could do so visually as well. I have a deep appreciation for the beauty of words and write poetry occasionally...I even have ideas for novels swirling around in my head. I've even produced the odd beautiful creative writing piece (I've been an "author" since the age of 5...I still remember writing an alternate ending to "The Giver" in middle school which got the best mark in the class...everyone was moved by it and the teacher actually asked to keep it). But that was more of a fluke. I get the feeling INTP's aren't usually very good at writing fiction in general (except science fiction, which bores me...mind you I think we can do really dark, whimsical stuff well), even though this is where I think I could express myself best. Writing poetic fantastical literature is my dream, romanticism in words, but I'm not quite sure what market there is for that...

But hey, if you're doing it for yourself, who cares? I guess my best bet is just to hope for tenure, and do other stuff on the side. I'd be very, very happy with that. :) But even getting a job in Academia isn't so easy, and I just don't know what else I'm suited for (copywriting maybe?)...:S
 

Eldanen

Arcesso pulli gingerios!
Joined
Apr 26, 2007
Messages
697
MBTI Type
INTP
Enneagram
5w4
Good to hear there are others out there:).

Yeah...that's the thing...I'm really not good with technology. So I can't really do the standard "computer job" that INTP's seem to gravitate towards. If I can manage to slg it out through school I could land a job as a liberal arts professor...that's what I'm hoping for right now at least.

No, I don't really have no artistic talent, but I'm not very good at painting or drawing, which is best for this type of abstract, impressionistic release. I am a talented pianist (just by ear but I'm good enough to pass as someone who finished Conservatory...and I have), and do express myself that way, but I wish I could do so visually as well. I have a deep appreciation for the beauty of words and write poetry occasionally...I even have ideas for novels swirling around in my head. I've even produced the odd beautiful creative writing piece (I've been an "author" since the age of 5...I still remember writing an alternate ending to "The Giver" in middle school which got the best mark in the class...everyone was moved by it and the teacher actually asked to keep it). But that was more of a fluke. I get the feeling INTP's aren't usually very good at writing fiction in general (except science fiction, which bores me...mind you I think we can do really dark, whimsical stuff well), even though this is where I think I could express myself best. Writing poetic fantastical literature is my dream, romanticism in words, but I'm not quite sure what market there is for that...

But hey, if you're doing it for yourself, who cares? I guess my best bet is just to hope for tenure, and do other stuff on the side. I'd be very, very happy with that. :) But even getting a job in Academia isn't so easy, and I just don't know what else I'm suited for (copywriting maybe?)...:S

Yeah, I have daydreamed about becoming a "famous" author at times, but the point of art I think is to do it for yourself foremost. Words can actually be very good at expressing impressionistic ideas; I feel more relation to them than pictures myself. It's easy to see the descriptive power of language if you read one of the works of the masters of the English language such as Finnegan's Wake by James Joyce. He breaks a lot of the rules but does it so masterfully that he really manages to "tweak" language and get every bit of juice out of it that's possible. Poetry also has the advantage of not only relying on words to tell a story through imagery, but it has structures, forms, and modes, which rather than hindering the would-be author, provide a rather good framework for expressing emotion and imagination in ways that capture the mind. Science fiction usually bores me as well; I think of myself as a writer of experimental fiction willing to break some of the conventional techniques for writing stories while still retaining a certain amount of intellectual rigor in whatever I do.

If you don't feel like you have any talent in drawing or painting, which, neither do I, then perhaps you could be interested in photography. With the right lenses, filters, effects, you could probably produce some rather original works. Bonus points if you don't use a digital camera.
 

auriel

New member
Joined
Jun 5, 2010
Messages
30
Yeah, I have daydreamed about becoming a "famous" author at times, but the point of art I think is to do it for yourself foremost. Words can actually be very good at expressing impressionistic ideas; I feel more relation to them than pictures myself. It's easy to see the descriptive power of language if you read one of the works of the masters of the English language such as Finnegan's Wake by James Joyce. He breaks a lot of the rules but does it so masterfully that he really manages to "tweak" language and get every bit of juice out of it that's possible. Poetry also has the advantage of not only relying on words to tell a story through imagery, but it has structures, forms, and modes, which rather than hindering the would-be author, provide a rather good framework for expressing emotion and imagination in ways that capture the mind. Science fiction usually bores me as well; I think of myself as a writer of experimental fiction willing to break some of the conventional techniques for writing stories while still retaining a certain amount of intellectual rigor in whatever I do.

If you don't feel like you have any talent in drawing or painting, which, neither do I, then perhaps you could be interested in photography. With the right lenses, filters, effects, you could probably produce some rather original works. Bonus points if you don't use a digital camera.

Thanks for the ideas...abstract photography sounds very interesting. I think my imagination is a bit too vivid for it to capture everything I want it to (I've done a lot of very lavish pieces of fantasy art in my head I'm just dying to get out), but who knows? I might just take up a new hobby.:)
 

equanimity

New member
Joined
Jan 10, 2010
Messages
9
MBTI Type
INTP
Enneagram
5W4
*waves* 5w4 here too... I'm not into the whole computer stuff even though it's supposedly the quintessential INTP career... and I can hardly paint to save my life.... though I do make interesting little art pieces (abstract) that is meant to evoke the minds of observers. Writing? I wrote stories since I was six but It never really got anywhere because I get bored of it soon after, moving on to the next idea for a new stoooory... so I get nothing done there.

I'm interested in the humanities too... Had plans on becoming a psychologist but being surrounded by SJs in my family, they object to that. Not that I would care really but I'm not the one who has the money. They wanted me to be an accountant, but I knew that it would be a fate worse than ... not death (to me, death would actually seem much better than living.) ... than being stuck with a room filled with religious extremists.

Anyway I digressed. So my next and only option left, would be occupational therapy. I am still not quite sure whether that's the right path (for reasons that you have stated)... ^ ^ I'm curious to see what others have to say about an INTP Occupational therapist too.
 

Aleksei

Yeah, I can fly.
Joined
Mar 10, 2010
Messages
3,626
MBTI Type
ENTJ
Enneagram
7w6
Instinctual Variant
sx/sp
I think you could be an INFP with an overactive inferior Te, or even an INFP with a strong Ti. You definitely seem to have a clear Fi preference over any Thinking function.
 

auriel

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Joined
Jun 5, 2010
Messages
30
You think so? I would be less insecure if I knew for sure I was, since I seem to be attracted to more to NF stuff and relate to them better.

Still...I'm not positive. I don't think I have Te...but I might, since I tend to "get my logic from accepted tradition". I'm dreadfully disorganized, but I'm still capable of thinking logically. I have Fe, but my Fi is much, much stronger. I think I'm definately either an INFP with high Ti or INTP with high Fi...
 

Aleksei

Yeah, I can fly.
Joined
Mar 10, 2010
Messages
3,626
MBTI Type
ENTJ
Enneagram
7w6
Instinctual Variant
sx/sp
Rule of thumb: if you're torturing yourself with the question of whether you're NFP or NTP, you're probalby NFP. ;) I was caught in the NFP/NTP dilemma once as well. :)
 

auriel

New member
Joined
Jun 5, 2010
Messages
30

Sorry...I've been in thee wilderness without internet for two weeks!;)

What I meant by that is that extraverted judging functions (Fe, Te) are means to ends usually...dispassionate reasoning is normally more of a means to an end than an end in itself for me. Unless you can dislike using your dominant function???

Anyway, I put myself down as an INfP for now...a bit if a cheat I know but I just feel better with a little letter in there.:) I might change it to a capital or a T later when I'm more sure...
 
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