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What type of metaphor is MBTI?

Mole

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Mar 20, 2008
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20,284
If a metaphor is a bridge from the known to the unknown, what type of metaphor is MBTI?

Is it a reliable bridge?

Has it been built by qualified engineers?

Why was it built?

Has it been checked for safety?

Who uses the bridge?

And where does it take us?
 

Nicodemus

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I am afraid that is a simile.

I think a metaphor, like every picture, is a particular form of expressing information, mostly thoughts. I found this essay to be very interesting in that regard.
 

Synapse

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Dec 29, 2007
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MBTI Type
INFP
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4
MBTI-Mousepad.gif

MBTI metaphors?

MixedMetaphorWeb.gif

Mixed metaphors?
 

Thalassa

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6w7
Instinctual Variant
sx
A metaphor isn't just a comparison of two unlike things, it's using an unlike thing to symbolically describe another thing through a quality that the two seemingly unrelated things share.

A really easy metaphor would be to say that MBTI is the major arcana in a tarot deck. Why? Because they both deal in human archetypes. Of course that would be a really bad metaphor, seeing as that tarot cards are usually used for a metaphysical or fortune-telling purpose.

MBTI is a map. MBTI is the extra light above the mirror you switch on so that you can see yourself a little more clearly.

Those are metaphors.
 

Mole

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Signs and Signals

I am afraid that is a simile.

And yes, I am afraid you are right.

So we are both afraid. Of course we are afraid of each other, but most of all, we are afraid of ourselves.

On the other hand, our fear shows there is a self there. A self waiting to be discovered; a self waiting to be shared; a self waiting to be understood and helped.

Our fear is a signpost, as pointed out to us by signalman Freud. And all we have to do is follow the sign and attend to the signal.
 

Mole

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Actually, I was merely being polite.

I am grateful for your mere politeness, Nicodemus, for it could be worse. Who knows, you might launch an ad hominem attack followed up by threats, but instead you beat me with politeness.

However, Nicodemus, you could be Australian, for the more we dislike someone, the more polite we become.
 

Nicodemus

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Then I am not Australian, for the more I dislike someone, the less polite I become.
 

Mole

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You are being rather polite as well, though.

That's true, as I am still a little wary of you. But this could be merely cultural differences. Who knows what you are like. But I am here to find out.
 
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