Mal12345
Permabanned
- Joined
- Apr 19, 2011
- Messages
- 14,532
- MBTI Type
- IxTP
- Enneagram
- 5w4
- Instinctual Variant
- sx/sp
I've seen a lot of these 'no types fit' thread. And I think, for the most part, the problem isn't with the types but with either a person's diffuse sense of identity or an undeveloped, undifferentiated personality in which no group of traits stand out primarily.
These people tend to be INFPs, meaning that they do have an identity but they can't decide or determine what it is for themselves.
By analogy, I know this guy who is searching for a religion in order to help find an identity for himself. Over the past few years he has gone from Catholic to Wiccan to Islam. This is because in order to find an external identity such as a religion one must first have an internal identity. An external identity can help you harden the identity you already have inside; but sometimes there is just nothing substantial there and so searching outside oneself won't help.
People (not necessarily just INFPs but any people) do different things with this lack of identity. Instead of seeking one, they may simply use it to develop a talent for chameleonism in which external personality refashions itself according to circumstances. It could show itself in something as innocuous as walking up to a group having a conversation, finding out immediately what the topic of conversation is simply by listening in, and then joining in as smoothly as silk no matter the topic. Or it can, in a less innocuous sense, have a sociopathic or psychopathic manifestation, as with a serial killer who joins the search for the missing person he killed in an attempt to off-set suspicion.
Instead of becoming chameleons, people who don't have a strong sense of identity and who are seeking one tend to feel chronically empty inside (they may call it boredom or depression). At least they understand that the problem is internal.
These people tend to be INFPs, meaning that they do have an identity but they can't decide or determine what it is for themselves.
By analogy, I know this guy who is searching for a religion in order to help find an identity for himself. Over the past few years he has gone from Catholic to Wiccan to Islam. This is because in order to find an external identity such as a religion one must first have an internal identity. An external identity can help you harden the identity you already have inside; but sometimes there is just nothing substantial there and so searching outside oneself won't help.
People (not necessarily just INFPs but any people) do different things with this lack of identity. Instead of seeking one, they may simply use it to develop a talent for chameleonism in which external personality refashions itself according to circumstances. It could show itself in something as innocuous as walking up to a group having a conversation, finding out immediately what the topic of conversation is simply by listening in, and then joining in as smoothly as silk no matter the topic. Or it can, in a less innocuous sense, have a sociopathic or psychopathic manifestation, as with a serial killer who joins the search for the missing person he killed in an attempt to off-set suspicion.
Instead of becoming chameleons, people who don't have a strong sense of identity and who are seeking one tend to feel chronically empty inside (they may call it boredom or depression). At least they understand that the problem is internal.