[MBTI General] Mental dualism caused by lack of P/J preference

[gandalf]

For quite a long time, I have been about to write about this. Now I finally did it

It's about the dualism caused by having no preference for J/P. I, for one, am an INTx and because of that, I often feel like I had two persons inside of me that have different motivations and no ability to co-appear. It's not about schizophrenia

In practice, I kind of have to modes I can be in and it's somewhat consuming to find the mode too often. In INTP mode, my main motivation is to understand, and in INTJ mode, my main motivation is to accomplish. Depending on the situation I am in, my actions may depend strongly on the mode I am in.

There has, for example, been cases that I have met a girl in INTJ mode, found her attractive and successfully approached her, just to a bit later find out that in addition to that girl being attractive, there has been something in that girl that has awakened the interest of my INTP side to learn or understand something new. Unfortunately, I may have at least once lost a girl because of my INTP side taking over at wrong moment and turning me more interested in something else than the girl herself.

The same goes for countless other situation that have varied based on their seriousness. The common fact for all of them is that I have had to choose whether I want to learn/understand or accomplish/gain and that I usually have to base that decision on rather limited information. Or, as in that girl's case, I may not be able to control to selection at all.

According to my reasoning, one can't use both introverted and extroverted side of a function (S, N, T or F) at the same time. They would contradict in a way that is not possible. For example, Ne is about observing patterns in the world around and Ni is about finding connections between various things that you have already discovered and what you are discovering. Ni needs it's time to take information in where as Ne works more or less in real time. Whatever Ne notices, it can't become part of the Ni information storage immediately, and letting Ni to work out something kind of prevents concentrating on the world around which would be required by Ne.

Assuming equal development of cognitive functions, having no preference for P/J means that one should have at least one or two out of S, N, T and F well developed regardless of their attitudes. In my case of being INTx or INTJ/INTP or NiTe/TiNe, that would be true for T and N and cognitive function test actually proves that.

I'd be very interested in hearing any comments or experiences.

 

[AphroditeGoneAwry]

For quite a long time, I have been about to write about this. Now I finally did it

It's about the dualism caused by having no preference for J/P. I, for one, am an INTx and because of that, I often feel like I had two persons inside of me that have different motivations and no ability to co-appear. It's not about schizophrenia

In practice, I kind of have to modes I can be in and it's somewhat consuming to find the mode too often. In INTP mode, my main motivation is to understand, and in INTJ mode, my main motivation is to accomplish. Depending on the situation I am in, my actions may depend strongly on the mode I am in.

There has, for example, been cases that I have met a girl in INTJ mode, found her attractive and successfully approached her, just to a bit later find out that in addition to that girl being attractive, there has been something in that girl that has awakened the interest of my INTP side to learn or understand something new. Unfortunately, I may have at least once lost a girl because of my INTP side taking over at wrong moment and turning me more interested in something else than the girl herself.

The same goes for countless other situation that have varied based on their seriousness. The common fact for all of them is that I have had to choose whether I want to learn/understand or accomplish/gain and that I usually have to base that decision on rather limited information. Or, as in that girl's case, I may not be able to control to selection at all.

According to my reasoning, one can't use both introverted and extroverted side of a function (S, N, T or F) at the same time. They would contradict in a way that is not possible. For example, Ne is about observing patterns in the world around and Ni is about finding connections between various things that you have already discovered and what you are discovering. Ni needs it's time to take information in where as Ne works more or less in real time. Whatever Ne notices, it can't become part of the Ni information storage immediately, and letting Ni to work out something kind of prevents concentrating on the world around which would be required by Ne.

Assuming equal development of cognitive functions, having no preference for P/J means that one should have at least one or two out of S, N, T and F well developed regardless of their attitudes. In my case of being INTx or INTJ/INTP or NiTe/TeNi, that would be true for T and N and cognitive function test actually proves that.

I'd be very interested in hearing any comments or experiences.

In your second to last paragraph, did you mean to say: "Ni/Te--Ti/Ne" instead?



I agree with you about the attitudes of functions and how they are used. I think it's much more likely someone either extraverts different functions, or introverts them, versus using both sides of the same function. I guess I think, therefore, that it is easier for someone to either stay in introverted mode, or extraverted mode, and for the functions to switch instead, because it's easier, and necessary, to use all functions in our daily lives, whereas a person is innately introverted or extraverted.


If you happen to flip-flop your attitudes easily with N and T, it is a bit unusual I'd say. And interesting. Let's assume you were born an INTJ. That means Ni would be your dom function, and you should want to use it by default, and it will begin working with the auxiliary function early on (all the functions will get played with, but I think a child's aux function plays with his dom function to see what fits and works best together)...So that means that your dom Ni would normally prefer to work with Te (based on genetics). But if you really feel like you identify as a hybrid INTJ/P, that means your dom Ni would have been happy to share places with Ti [intp] as dom, and then N would have reverted to Ne. I can see this being not so difficult from an introverted standpoint for the reason I mentioned in the previous paragraph, but to go from being a dom irrational to a dom rational is very intriguing....


What would make your brain want to do that? Why would it want to flip from being a gateway perceiver into a gateway judger. ?


This is assuming, of course, that you really are a true INTJ/INTP and can identify with both. Perhaps you are a thoughtful INTJ? I really saw not much in your description that couldn't be intj. But I know it was brief, and I also assume you know if you are both.

 

[gandalf]

Yeah, I had a typo in the last paragraph but it's fixed now. Thanks for mentioning

Well, what can I say... When I first tried the MBTI on the internet, I was INTJ with weak preference for J. One year later, every test I tried gave me INTP with weak preference for P. A cognitive functions test on the internet says, as I cite in my signature, that my Ni, Ti and Fi are excellent and almost equal and my Te and Ne are good and almost equal. And in some discussions on the internet, during which I have announced myself as an INTJ, I have been suspected to be wrong and suggested INTP or even INFP instead. Reading any type descriptions on the internet doesn't make it any clearer either as I do identify myself as both.

I would say I am an INTJ if I absolutely had to choose one. The descriptions fit me quite well and that's the type I relate myself to mostly but the difference as it appears to me is almost non-existing.

Also, considering the personal growth descriptions of INTP and INTJ at http://personalityjunkie.com/the-intj/ and http://personalityjunkie.com/the-intp/ (under topic Overview of INTXs’ Functional Stack & Type Development), I can totally relate to those of both types. I won't go into details but I can easily identify phases 1 and 2 of both INTJ and INTP in my life.

What would make my brain want to do that? Well, I have no idea. This is just what I am experiencing and I am wondering if it is what it seems to me or something else after all