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Intro- and extraverted function pairings - help!

Geonat

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May 2, 2014
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134
Hello, I came in contact with MBTI about a year ago and mistyped as INTP for about half a year because of a well-used Ti. Having skimmed through all sixteen types it became obvious that the INFJ description fit me like a glove. The Beebe description of the eight functions and their role is scaringly accurate for me as well. I however wonder how to interpret the four "faces" - as I have found them to be called at another site: Can someone help me expand on the parings Ni-Ti, Fe-Se, Ne-Te and Fi-Si? Or this construct in general. Does this mean that I am consciously cold on the inside and warm on the outside but unconsciously warm on the inside and cold on the outside? Is it correct at all to designate cold to thinking and intuiting? I would really appreciate any help on this! Thanks in advance :)
 

yeghor

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Dec 21, 2013
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Ni = zeroing on concise patterns, symbols, essence and core of a comprehensive issue... Singularity... works on information accumulated\collected on the inside from the external world...

Ne = reverse of Ni...

Fe = external information layer about social behaviour on individual and societal scale... Attunement (i.e. giving more priority) and ability to manipulate\work with this layer of external information...

Fi = reverse of Fe

Ti = Step by step "causal" analysis of information accumulated\collected on the inside from the external world...

Te = Reverse of Ti

Se = external information layer about physical living and non-living objects (like body language, sensory details etc)... Attunement and ability to manipulate\work with this layer of external information...

Si = Reverse of Se

Ni-Ti = Ni unconsciously notices patterns in or essence of things internalized and Ti nitpicks and consciously makes sense of the patterns...

Fe-Se = Inlets to gather external information from Fe and Se layers...

Don't know about others...
 

five sounds

MyPeeSmellsLikeCoffee247
Joined
Jul 17, 2013
Messages
5,393
MBTI Type
ENFP
Enneagram
729
Instinctual Variant
sx/sp
I've been able to get the best understanding of this concept through interacting with others. If you are actually INFJ, then ENFPs would have your functions inverted, but in the same order. So that's a good way to observe the opposite relative to your own.

Also, to 'highlight' specific functions to better understand them, look at people who have that as their dominant function (like look at ESTPs and ESFPs for Se). That supplemented by reading, and discussing the functions has been the best way for me.
 

Geonat

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May 2, 2014
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Thank you yeghor for this succinct and high-density material. I'll come back to this often. One thing that struck me personally was the conscious input-combo Fe-Se that would explain why I tend to get really overwhelmed and drained by lively social gatherings no matter how friendly and nice they may be. Not to mention those open plan offices - they are cryptonite to me when trying to use that tertiary Ti
 

Geonat

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May 2, 2014
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134
I've been able to get the best understanding of this concept through interacting with others. If you are actually INFJ, then ENFPs would have your functions inverted, but in the same order. So that's a good way to observe the opposite relative to your own.

Also, to 'highlight' specific functions to better understand them, look at people who have that as their dominant function (like look at ESTPs and ESFPs for Se). That supplemented by reading, and discussing the functions has been the best way for me.

Thank you five sounds for these hands-on strategies!
I very much appreciate the company of ESTPs and ENFPs - I often feel that they complete me, cover my back and help me in the outside world and vice versa! ESFPs I don't know - I'll think about that.
Now regarding "If you are actually INFJ" I can't help my Don Quixote-tendencies from surfacing :)
Beebe stack for INFJ (Ni-Fe-Ti-Se-Ne-Fi-Te-Si):
Hero Ni:
I love (become obsessed with) coming to closure and getting to the botton with problem solving even if I constantly feel very insecure of what I'm actually doing. Understanding the logic (Ti) is very strenouos to me but juggling with the symbolics usually brings me up from the basement with some gems in the end :)
Good parent Fe:
I am a coward when it comes to giving critique and I put the harmony of the group above everything else, unless there is something really important (from my view) at stake.
Eternal child Ti:
I love designing those little (overly-)simplifed mathematical toys (using well-established physical laws such as Newton's and energy conservation - no true innovation there) to help my fellow colleagues and clients at work. In that respect I probably spent my entire career (applied research and engineering consultancy) playing innocent games in that sense :)
Animus Se:
This is very much my Achilles heel - when under stress I completely ignore my bodily needs in terms of sleep etc. I smoke, drink, eat whatever my instinct urges me to. Dancing and music (EBM and crossover such as Slayer, Nine Inch Nails, Front 242 etc - but due to obvious age-related pathetical reasons not any longer :)) can put me in some sort of trance-like state. The same goes for down-hill skiing (not yet embarrasing :)) and, yes I admit, sex.
Opposing personality / opposite gender Ne:
I can get really annoyed (probably visibly) when people are brain-storming endlessly around me when I just want to come to closure on a subject. In new social settings i probably come off as pretty stereotypelike-feminine, gossiping and chatting about mundane matters that usually holds no particular interest to me otherwise.
Senex / bad parent Fi:
I quit work twice because of extreme dislike of a narrow-minded profit-driven agenda high up in the hierarchy (I hope they didn't read my work assessment form for my own sake :)). I can be very rigid and blaming on my children when they behave selfishly, bringing up topics such as "consider the children in Africa" when they don't want to finish their meals etc. Only to feel bad and guilty afterwards. For good reasons.
Trickster / bad child Te:
I can become furious (in written correspondence) when banks etc try to bind me with fine print text where they as usual put all responsibility and all risk on the customer and double-bind them with their own formulations, usually in combination with harsh moral passages a-la Fi above.
Demon / daimon Si: When under (extreme) stress I become obsessed with organizing, sorting and throwing items from the past. Interior decoration, optimising furniture placement. Isolation. Just to transform the environment to something familiar and predictable. Minimising external input from Se and Fe just to be able to sort things out in my head and get a new fresh start and put things behind me.

:)
 

Geonat

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May 2, 2014
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Not to mention first stages of dating when I probably come of as an ESTP or ENFP. After a while when things settle a little, I fall back to my usual INFJ (disguised as an INTP because of fear of confrontation and habit) to much surprise to my girlfriend. And then it starts all over again. It's hopeless :)
 

Alea_iacta_est

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Dec 3, 2013
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So you want to know about the mechanisms? (J function paired with P function)*

Ni - Ti (where Ni and Ti are valued and conscious), Information is absorbed passively (unconsciously) through Se and deconstructed/analyzed by Ni to synthesize meanings behind factual/observable information. Meanings realized by Ni are then refined by the Tertiary Ti, which bases whether or not Ni's construct is logically valid according to one's own logical principles or logical worldview. Once refined by Ti, which projects logical value onto Ni's construct, the meaning can then be extroverted through Fe (the Je function), meaning that Ni's construct is then geared toward the objective emotionalism that is Fe and outputted to provide comfort to others (one particular directive of Fe) and for other various uses. (Ni's constructs are usually tempered toward the emotional realm already in the Ni-Ti system, due to the fact that Se's information is oriented toward emotional information through the Fe-Se aux-inf mechanism). When the tertiary is undeveloped, Ni will often simply go unrefined without being checked for personal veracity either through individually composed ethics (Fi) or logical understandings (Ti) when it is outputted to the environment.

*Mechanism - Judging Function-Perceiving Function or Perceiving Function-Judging Function (Ni-Ti, Fe-Se)
Axis - Perceiving Function/Opposite Attitude Perceiving Function (Ni/Se, Si/Ne) or Judging Function/Opposite Attitude Judging Function (Te/Fi, Fe/Ti)
 

Geonat

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May 2, 2014
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So you want to know about the mechanisms? (J function paired with P function)*

Ni - Ti (where Ni and Ti are valued and conscious), Information is absorbed passively (unconsciously) through Se and deconstructed/analyzed by Ni to synthesize meanings behind factual/observable information. Meanings realized by Ni are then refined by the Tertiary Ti, which bases whether or not Ni's construct is logically valid according to one's own logical principles or logical worldview. Once refined by Ti, which projects logical value onto Ni's construct, the meaning can then be extroverted through Fe (the Je function), [...]

Thank you Alea_iacta_est for sharing your knowledge, and hi again Yeghor.
I understood parts of it on an superficial level I think, but please help me refine.

From your reply, partially quoted above, I get the impression that you view it as Se is the input channel to the Ni-Ti construct and, naively put it, that that information is bounced and refined between Ni and Ti until (for INFJs) it is finally expressed via the conscious output channel Fe.

Now, from the two propositions by yeghor (hi) above,

"Ni-Ti = Ni unconsciously notices patterns in or essence of things internalized and Ti nitpicks and consciously makes sense of the patterns...
Fe-Se = Inlets to gather external information from Fe and Se layers..."

there seems to be a difference in how it is viewed. From the latter both Fe and Se seem to be viewed equally valid input channels (but no mentioning of their output abilities) while in yours Se is more of an input channel and Fe is more of an output channel in this setting?

From a more directly observable view, I have a hunch that what is not on the outside, you will find on the inside. So when for example you interact with INFJs, do you see an primarily sensing and feeling person (Fe-Se? And can you see my supposedly unconscious extraverted pair Ne-Te, which might be less obvious to me personally? And can you from that deduce my introverted pairs Ni-Ti and Fi-Si?

Is it true that we all are composed of four, more or less healthy, different persons? I mean, do you consider the two introverted and two extroverted pairs and entities of their own or is it more fruitful to refrain from that and only study the interactions of the eight separate functions?

And yet another way of combining them:
Is there a "master-slave" relationship between the dominant and the auxiliary pair, the tertiary and inferior pair, and so on?
For INFJ for example, is it useful to think of it as Fe feeding Ni with information, and that Ni directly tells Fe what to do (or forbids it to)? And that Se feeds Ti with information and that Ti tells Se what to do (or forbids it to). In the latter case alea_iacta_est, if I understand it right, rather has it that normally the Se input instead goes straight up to Ni. Can there be such simple processes sometimes?

Sorry for all the questions, but this is really fascinating at the moment. Sorry also for coming off as a little naive, but I really want to understand this and trying to appear more enlightened on the subject than I am won't help me.
 

Geonat

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May 2, 2014
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And oh, wouldn't it, from there four faces view, be more relevant to speak of INFJs being more of SF- and NT-personalities rather than NF-personalities? And analogously for the other 15 types? Sorry also for the small grammatical errors ("an" instead of "a" etc).
 
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