• You are currently viewing our forum as a guest, which gives you limited access to view most discussions and access our other features. By joining our free community, you will have access to additional post topics, communicate privately with other members (PM), view blogs, respond to polls, upload content, and access many other special features. Registration is fast, simple and absolutely free, so please join our community today! Just click here to register. You should turn your Ad Blocker off for this site or certain features may not work properly. If you have any problems with the registration process or your account login, please contact us by clicking here.

[Jungian Cognitive Functions] How Does Your Inferior Function Affect Your Thinking?

Mal12345

Permabanned
Joined
Apr 19, 2011
Messages
14,532
MBTI Type
IxTP
Enneagram
5w4
Instinctual Variant
sx/sp
Your Inferior function is a source of stress, anxiety, or unwanted anger. These feelings produce negative thoughts such as desire for revenge, irrational judgmentalism, and defense mechanisms such as projection and displacement.

Fe when in the inferior position, if active at all, works in the background of consciousness to project blame onto society and to other people in general. For the INTP, the dominant function serves to hold other people with their irrational feelings, ideals, and arbitrary social rules at bay. Intellectualization, a defense mechanism that the INTP is particularly proud of because of its results, is primarily a reaction to social anxiety.
Intellectualization - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
"Intellectualization is one of Freud's original defense mechanisms. Freud believed that memories have both conscious and unconscious aspects, and that intellectualization allows for the conscious analysis of an event in a way that does not provoke anxiety."

Si is one of the two functions (including Ni) which anthropomorphize objects. Si-tertiary plays the unconscious role of demonizing society. Society becomes symbolical of Si distrust. Fe rationalizes ways for the INTP (or ISTP) to avoid society altogether. This produces a personality disorder known, interestingly enough, as Avoidance. When Fe becomes completely paralyzed and non-functional, even worse disorders arise, such as Schizoid Personality Disorder and various psychoses.

The first time I read Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance, I thought that the author's character was a little bit like me - except I don't believe in the kind of irrational nonsense he obviously believes in. The author's character (Phaedrus) eventually fell into complete psychic withdrawal, both from society and from the external world, in a kind of suicide of the mind. He was brought back to reality through EST. So I don't feel like I have the same personality as this Phaedrus, having never come close to experiencing such a thing. Perhaps he is an INTJ.

I think some people's functions cause them to feel God-like at times, but that's not me either.

The solution to the INTP's social anxiety is to learn to relate to other people, not intellectually but on a personal level. The job I've held since Dec 2012 requires me to talk to people on the phone while I provide them remote PC tech support. I eventually grew into the job, and I feel more comfortable and spontaneous around people than ever before compared to a time when I could only relate to others if we shared the same beliefs.

For 35 years I hated it when anybody tried to help me with things. But when the internet came into my life, I found that there is great benefit to me in cooperative learning.

Fe still provokes stress in me, while Si provides stability (or stoic dogmatism) to my intellectual beliefs and intellectualizing in general. Ne in itself is an
anti-authoritarian function because authority provides no outlet for Ne to spontaneously channel creativity. So after spending 40 hours a week living under someone else's rigid rules, my Ne function begins to sow its wild oats. I know those rules serve a rational work purpose, but I can't help but feel stifled and suffocated by them, probably because I have to constantly keep in check Ne's desire to circumvent and bend those rules which I feel are unfair or too rigid to be practical.

People who are unfair or too rigid are also very disturbing to me. Although I intellectually grasp G. I. Gurdjieff's observation that most people in the world are walking around in a dream state, completely unconscious of who they are, Fe-inferior does not understand reasons. It is thoughtlessly provoked and reacts instinctively because it is still not a well-developed function for me.
 

Mal12345

Permabanned
Joined
Apr 19, 2011
Messages
14,532
MBTI Type
IxTP
Enneagram
5w4
Instinctual Variant
sx/sp
This thread could probably be merged with an existing thread or two on the same subject.
 

Jaguar

Active member
Joined
May 5, 2007
Messages
20,647
Fe when in the inferior position, if active at all, works in the background of consciousness to project blame onto society and to other people in general.

That's what you do. Shall I go find the post(s) where you blame people for ruining your life? Just because you do that doesn't mean anyone else does.

Let's contrast your comments with Marie-Louise von Franz's (self-typed Ti-Dom) who posits Inferior Fe may in fact be more authentic than one who has more control over it, consciously. With a high level of consciousness, can one not use X to control and manipulate, just as a surgeon can skillfully control and manipulate a scalpel? The more conscious one is of X, the more control one has of X. Control, doesn't necessarily mean it's used for anything positive. von Franz suggests that the expression of Fe in a Ti-Dom might actually be "stickier." In other words, hard to get rid of - like an undying love for another which they cannot control.

Btw, your comment of "if active at all" illustrates, again, your lack of understanding. Type= functions of consciousness. Just because you are not conscious of X, doesn't mean X is not in operation. What you are unconscious of can be so powerful, it's running the whole show while you remain oblivious.
 

Destiny

A wannabe dog
Joined
Aug 5, 2013
Messages
452
How inferior Se works for me: I often struggle between going after my dreams vs being practical. For example, there were a few times when I am stucked in jobs that I hate, but I am too afraid of quitting those jobs because the unknown scares me, and I am also afraid of financial instability. A part of me wants to go for my dreams, yet another part of me often worries that my dreams wouldn't be able to support myself. My ideal career must be something that is artistic and creative, but I don't know why I always end up getting stucked in office jobs. I am also prone to making impulsive decisions when stressed. I become ESTP whenever I am stressed. I basically start to live a lot in the present until I forget to consider the consequences of my actions. I am also prone to splurging my money away whenever I am in my stressed mode. For example, there was a period of time when I was working in this stressful job, and after I knocked off from work, I start splurging my hard-earned money away on ice-cream, and I even bought a perfume that costs almost $100 :shock:
This is so unlike me, I am usually very thrifty with my money and I don't like spending my money. After I left that stressful job, my splurging habits has also stopped and I am back to my usual thrifty self.


That's what you do. Shall I go find the post(s) where you blame people for ruining your life? Just because you do that doesn't mean anyone else does.

Wow, do you have to be so rude to the OP? This snide comments here is so rude and uncalled for.
 

Jaguar

Active member
Joined
May 5, 2007
Messages
20,647
For once, I agree with you!

At least you're consistent - no knowledge on a subject, so you troll.

Ask yourself why the title of this thread is a potential oxymoron for people.
If they could answer the question with certainty, "How does your inferior function affect your thinking?" How inferior in consciousness can their inferior function truly be?

Not very.

If that's the case, they should be able to control it. The state of inferior consciousness is gone.
 

Raffaella

bon vivant
Joined
Jan 25, 2014
Messages
945
Fe when in the inferior position, if active at all, works in the background of consciousness to project blame onto society and to other people in general.

This is consistent with every INTP I've ever known. I rarely get into arguments with INTPs because communication is easy and we don't misunderstand each other however when we're both in the grip of the inferior, it's quite amusing. I project my incompetencies onto them and they try to manipulate and blame me for their problems despite how rational they normally are. Try as they might, their manipulative tendencies in the grip of the inferior are as pathetic as my perception of others' competencies.

As for how Te impacts my thinking, it affects how much detail I put into my speech. Te (due to it's underdevelopment) nags at me to ram through everything (state but not explain) believing that other's will make the intuitive jumps themselves.
 

Mal12345

Permabanned
Joined
Apr 19, 2011
Messages
14,532
MBTI Type
IxTP
Enneagram
5w4
Instinctual Variant
sx/sp
This is consistent with every INTP I've ever known. I rarely get into arguments with INTPs because communication is easy and we don't misunderstand each other however when we're both in the grip of the inferior, it's quite amusing. I project my incompetencies onto them and they try to manipulate and blame me for their problems despite how rational they normally are. Try as they might, their manipulative tendencies in the grip of the inferior are as pathetic as my perception of others' competencies.

As for how Te impacts my thinking, it affects how much detail I put into my speech. Te (due to it's underdevelopment) nags at me to ram through everything (state but not explain) believing that other's will make the intuitive jumps themselves.

For most people this will be an unconscious effect because they haven't learned very much about the way their minds work. G.I. Gurdjieff stated something to the effect that 99% of the world is sleep-walking. Even when we've acquired the knowledge, our minds are still very difficult to control, especially the negative parts. Even when one's inferior is a Rational function it can spin out of control producing irrational thoughts and behaviors.
 

Pionart

Well-known member
Joined
Sep 17, 2014
Messages
4,039
MBTI Type
NiFe
[Ne inf] Conspiracy Theories < - > Moving on from the past

It makes me always start a new game in pokemon.
 
Top