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[Jungian Cognitive Functions] Using your inferior function well

á´…eparted

passages
Joined
Jan 25, 2014
Messages
8,265
Almost all the talk around here on the inferior functions is negative. How it's difficult, how it causes pain. Yet, if all we did was use it badly, we wouldn't function as people. We all make use of our inferior function in a postive and constructive way, just not all the time.

How has your inferior function worked well for you? How has it been positive? How do you make use of it where it helps and makes you a more wholesome good person? How does it feel and work naturally?

Discuss.
 

Virtual ghost

Complex paradigm
Joined
Jun 6, 2008
Messages
19,769
Fi

1. It "forced" me to drag others out of problems.
2. It helped me to maintain my course when times where hard
3. It provides at least some meaning to my life
4. It helps me to at least somewhat understand others
5. Provides ambition
 

Verona

New member
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May 9, 2016
Messages
590
MBTI Type
INFP
Enneagram
6w5
Instinctual Variant
sp
This is a subject that has always interested me. In my younger years I was frequently in a Te grip so I feel like I have gained some useful skills from it but now I know how to make it work with my Fi included. Instead of implementing impersonal structure and systems I have gained enough knowledge about planning to use it to make sure that my goals and passions are being reached in a timely manner. I can create plans and organize things so they are personalized to me and the people in my family so that our lives will be easier. It is one of the things I have struggled about with my type because so many of the stereotypes do not allow for decisiveness and planning for an INFP. I am a bit older though so maybe that is why I am able to do this?
 

Virtual ghost

Complex paradigm
Joined
Jun 6, 2008
Messages
19,769
This is a subject that has always interested me. In my younger years I was frequently in a Te grip so I feel like I have gained some useful skills from it but now I know how to make it work with my Fi included. Instead of implementing impersonal structure and systems I have gained enough knowledge about planning to use it to make sure that my goals and passions are being reached in a timely manner. I can create plans and organize things so they are personalized to me and the people in my family so that our lives will be easier. It is one of the things I have struggled about with my type because so many of the stereotypes do not allow for decisiveness and planning for an INFP. I am a bit older though so maybe that is why I am able to do this?


Yes, functions lower on the list develope with time.

On the other hand you are 9 instead of 4 and 9s are more practical than 4s. (Stereotypical INFP is a e4)
 

Yama

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Dec 1, 2014
Messages
7,684
MBTI Type
ESFJ
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6w7
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so/sx
Inferior Ne is really fun to play with when it's not being a butthead.
 

Hawthorne

corona
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Jan 8, 2015
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so/sp
I think the pain of the inferior is constructive. It "hurts" because people are conditioned to neglect it.
When it "hurts" it's a sign that things are too far out of balance. That the reigns are too loose and the lead dog needs to be reeled back in a bit.
I've read it called the "doorway to the unconscious". From that I think, "self-preserving", "instinctive", and "ever-present though never-known".

It's positive edge is that it forces one to wake up to their unraveling. The psychological fail-safe you never knew you had or needed.
 

Ghost of the dead horse

filling some space
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Sep 7, 2007
Messages
3,553
MBTI Type
ENTJ
I don't even know what my inferior function is. First of all, I don't believe fully in the MBTI theory which dictates functions appear in a certain order, even the function 3,4, 5.. all up to 8. Second of all, I don't know which type I am, ENTP or ENTJ, or perhaps some other.

I would guess some kind of sensing is weak for me, most probably Si. Using stuff described as Si as sometimes really hateful and loathsome to me.
Parts of feeling are hard to me, but not really.

So if I went according to the theory, my primary must be NE, as Si as hardest for me. My secondary must be Tx, as Fx is somewhat hard but not that hard for me.

So, how I use my inferior? I Collect papers on some issues like taxes, sales and such, store them and use them whenever I need to remember how some financial transaction happened. I store information and retrieve it.
 

Forever

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Aug 30, 2013
Messages
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NiFi
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3w4
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sx/so
I don't think I need to explain for mine. I kind of just show it, kind of neat huh? :blush:
 

ceecee

Coolatta® Enjoyer
Joined
Apr 22, 2008
Messages
15,908
MBTI Type
INTJ
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8w9
Almost all the talk around here on the inferior functions is negative. How it's difficult, how it causes pain. Yet, if all we did was use it badly, we wouldn't function as people. We all make use of our inferior function in a postive and constructive way, just not all the time.

How has your inferior function worked well for you? How has it been positive? How do you make use of it where it helps and makes you a more wholesome good person? How does it feel and work naturally?

Discuss.

As far as I know my inferior function is Se but I've never seen it as a negative at all. When I was younger, yes it was undeveloped but I've always liked physical activity, sports and things like that, so I was a little ahead. I love cooking/baking and I see that as a relaxing activity that has an artistic element. I'm not holed up in the house all the time - I like being outside. I have a couple more spontaneous friends, this likely helps me experience what Se had to offer even more.
 

SearchingforPeace

Well-known member
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Jun 9, 2015
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ENFJ
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sx/so
According to some JCF theorists, we actually develop our inferior before our tert. The logic is simple: in the late teens before our frontal lobes are fully developed, our inferior challenges our dominant function for control. Then, eventually, around 25, we have a quarter life crisis and the inferior is subsumed into the dominant. It no longer really exists independently, but we use it as we use the dominant function.

Periods in the grip can therefore be profound periods of growth. We use these functions and develop them to become a more well rounded person, actualized.

In my case, the pattern was a bit messed up. In a defensive measure, I not only lived in my Ti, I never consciously realized I lived an entirely different manner than I believed I did. I lived as the Fe dom, outgoing, connected to everything and everyone, finding meaning behind the surface, but I believed myself to be a cold thinker, imprevious to everyone else and logical as Spock. The long battle led to a ton of problems, finally coming to a head last year at midlife.

So, while I am clearly a ENFJ based upon my life and such, I have been told I sometimes wield Ti very strongly.
 

Cowardly

deactivated
Joined
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Messages
412
I just hope my inferior function* doesn't lead me to an early grave. But it does make me relax at times, and I'm grateful for that.



*Or at least what I perceive as my inferior function
 

magpie

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Sometimes I organize my socks. Thanks, Te.
 

cascadeco

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sp/sx
Yeah, I don't think I see cognitive functions and type theory as super set in stone, but generally speaking I've never been in the camp that thinks something lesser used or less preferred is inherently bad, nor that it only comes out when less healthy or stressed. I think the more balanced we are, the more we use a variety of functions in a positive way. The less healthy, the more we sit in just one or two. imo. (also I don't see functions as super concrete 'real' things, I think they are just shorthand for describing something really intangible-- and it'll be awesome in a kind of funny way if in a hundred years all of this function stuff is viewed in the light of medieval medicine, haha)

But re Te -- efficiency, getting stuff done, execution, 90/10 rule (or 80/20, whatever... getting things mostly right and finetuning later, not needing 100% perfection to get something going ), making things happen. :shrug: - combined with Se. All potentially very positive.
 

Forever

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NiFi
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sx/so
In accordance with Se it can give me a visual on how to better implement my goals via Te or Fe.

As in starting to do hand movements or working with what I got. Drawing things better and so forth are things that I may work on.
 

Laxton

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Fi:
  • Prevents me from acting like an insensitive, overbearing narcissist
  • Gives me some insight on how other people feel
  • Helps me communicate with my significant other and wrap my head around her feelings, making my relationships healthier than they were when I was younger
  • I can apply it to other people in a way that allows me to understand how they feel in a given situation
  • I have some kind of validation that I'm not a sociopath
 

Norrsken

self murderer
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sx/so
My inferior Se function:
  1. While my Ni-dom makes me appear outwardly lazy and immobile, with my inferior function, when I know its time to hustle, I REALLY know how to throw down and give it my 150% of myself to get important tasks done. This has surprised many people, and in a good way.
  2. Can make me a bit pushy and 'gogogo' at work, but better that than letting work build up with myself and my coworkers.
  3. When I give in to my artistic pursuits (ie. writing), I let myself get in the zone and try to write as much as possible in one day so that I will complete it.
  4. I love engaging Se through exercise, dancing, going out on long walks, getting professional massages, inhaling scented candles, eating really good food that I carefully prepare myself, enjoying the colors in natural sceneries, and I especially immerse myself in good music.
  5. Helps me check off things to do on a daily, weekly, monthly, and yearly basis.

It is strange that the biggest challenge of my life is to connect my Ni with my Se, by living outside of my head, so to speak. It is so hard but when I do it in a pleasant and healthy manner, it gives me immense pleasure.
 

Cowardly

deactivated
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412
Fi:
  • Prevents me from acting like an insensitive, overbearing narcissist
  • Gives me some insight on how other people feel
  • Helps me communicate with my significant other and wrap my head around her feelings, making my relationships healthier than they were when I was younger
  • I can apply it to other people in a way that allows me to understand how they feel in a given situation
  • I have some kind of validation that I'm not a sociopath

Who ENTJ'd you?
 

RobinSkye

What Is Life?
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sp/sx
Well, I think this would be the case for any thinking dominant, since feelings are what ultimately motivate living creatures, the need for love or recognition, so on, and ultimately happiness. Ti works to feed Fe, compensating for the natural understanding of group, extraverted feelings I don't inhibit. By using Ti for exactness and accuracy of communication, as well as my need to be individualistic, I can live for something. I want to be viewed internally and externally as competent and special. Only through Fe can this be fully possible, but when I fully engage in Fe it's typically through hysteric or angered bursts. Instead, I try to make sense of things and present them to others with Ne, or I can just get innebriated and my Fe comes naturally haha. (Only around specific people)
 
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