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[ISFJ] ISFJ lacking extraverted feeling??

michL87

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One of my close friends is clearly an ISFJ. She is strong in each of the individual letters. However, an ISFJ is supposed to have Fe as their secondary function, and she doesn't have that at all. I've tried thinking of other types she could be, but she's clearly an ISFJ.

Does anyone have any ideas of why an ISFJ can lack Fe as much as my friend does? If anything I would say that her feeling side is Fi, but she's an extreme J -- there's no way that girl could be a P.

I would love to hear your opinions :)


EDIT:

She could be a very polite ISTJ or a very opinionated ISFP.

Could you please describe her, and describe why you think she's an ISFJ? If it seems more like she has Fi and you definitely think she's a feeler, she very well may be an ISFP. Fi can be rigid and critical when it comes to it's deeply felt core values, which might seem J to some people in certain circumstances. I mean, is she scheduled? Is she a planner? Is she methodical? What is it about her that makes you certain she's a J, or even an F?


She is ridiculously scheduled. We have a class together and I looked over at her planner. I nearly went into shock when looking at it -- it was organized, highlighted, coded, etc. I just wondered who carried around so many pens/highlighters to make their schedule as organized as that! Apparently she does. She always gets her homework done when she says she's going to. (Meanwhile, I say I'm going to do homework and it doesn't get done until last minute.) She's also president of her sorority, and does everything according to the rules. She's a huge fan of the traditions of the sorority (something I didn't get very into.)

She's also not outwardly rigid and critical. Her feelings get hurt so easily -- I have to watch everything I say around to to make sure not to say something inadvertently offensive, and even when she's wrong about something she talks about, I have to find something good to say to boost her ego so she doesn't get hurt. Like when someone criticizes what she's doing as president of the sorority, I can't say that they make a good point (even if they do.) Instead, I find a good quality about her -- such as her organization -- and have her look at the positive aspects of herself so she doesn't get depressed over the criticisms of others.



I would say either she's ISTJ like others have mentioned, or she's really introverted and has low self esteem or afraid of being 'used'/stepped on, so she's walling herself off and becoming more 'cold' to protect herself. In cognitive function terms, bypassing/turning off the Fe, so to speak, and going straight to a more detached, self-protective level that could turn her into more of a cynic.

This sounds very like her. She grew up in a difficult environment, with no one around to boost her self-esteem. She's dated controlling/possibly abusive guys in college. She only broke up with the first one after she was positive that she had someone to replace him -- since she always needs to be in a relationship. And the one she replaced him with was mentally abusive and ended up cheating on her a year later. Of course she had another boyfriend soon after that.

She believes that "true friends are the ones who care enough to see the walls and break them down" -- or something to that nature.

She never really cares about what her friends are going through or about helping them deal with their problems. It's always about her and her problems -- if she's even willing to talk about them. Otherwise, she just likes talking about other people, shopping, or stuff to do with the sorority.
 
Last edited:

Magic Poriferan

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I don't know how to answer this because such a thing doesn't make sense by definition.

The closest thing to an ISFJ that doesn't have Fe is called an ISTJ. If the individual is still Feeling, then it's an ESFP or an ISFP. But the fact is, there are about three things that really make a type. One cognitive process, another cognitive process, and the order they are in. No Fe means no ISFJ.

How could you be so sure someone is an ISFJ if she lacks Fe? :huh:
 

entropie

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Maybe her mojo isnt in sync with her framatory sync functions or the phase coil is more introverted than we accelerated ?!
 

Snow Turtle

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What makes you identify her as an ISFJ?

An ISFJ can have underdeveloped Fe but technically it should always be in the background motivating the individuals actions.
 

nanook

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all true isfj (introverted people with "strong letter J", who dont fake their tests results) lack Fe. their functions are FiSe. simple as that. my congratulations for having a good enough understanding of Fe to tell the difference from Fi. you might be smart. or its just coincidental.
 

cascadeco

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I would say either she's ISTJ like others have mentioned, or she's really introverted and has low self esteem or afraid of being 'used'/stepped on, so she's walling herself off and becoming more 'cold' to protect herself. In cognitive function terms, bypassing/turning off the Fe, so to speak, and going straight to a more detached, self-protective level that could turn her into more of a cynic.
 

Ozz

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all true isfj (introverted people with "strong letter J", who dont fake their tests results) lack Fe. their functions are FiSe. simple as that. my congratulations for having a good enough understanding of Fe to tell the difference from Fi. you might be smart.

Are you talking Socionics?
 

nanook

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the truth, ozz. mbti is not based on functions, but "four letters". the mbti function order is a lie. its not the fundament of how most tests work, or how archetypes work (how our intuitive theory of mind comes to an understanding of what letters like J or P mean). the mbti function order has been poetized into mbti afterwards.
(this is me, not caring about people who disagree: --
i have heard it all.)
 

Thalassa

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She could be a very polite ISTJ or a very opinionated ISFP.

Edit: Could you please describe her, and describe why you think she's an ISFJ? If it seems more like she has Fi and you definitely think she's a feeler, she very well may be an ISFP. Fi can be rigid and critical when it comes to it's deeply felt core values, which might seem J to some people in certain circumstances. I mean, is she scheduled? Is she a planner? Is she methodical? What is it about her that makes you certain she's a J, or even an F?
 

Habba

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One of my close friends is clearly an ISFJ. She is strong in each of the individual letters.

It's easy to confuse female ISTJ into an ISFJ, and male ISFJ into an ISTJ.

What makes you think she's F in the first place?
 

Snow Turtle

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the truth, ozz. mbti is not based on functions, but "four letters". the mbti function order is a lie. its not the fundament of how most tests work, or how archetypes work (how our intuitive theory of mind comes to an understanding of what letters like J or P mean). the mbti function order has been poetized into mbti afterwards.
(this is me, not caring about people who disagree: --
i have heard it all.)

OK. But we're talking about the MBTI description of Fe which at the end of the day is similar to that of socionics Fi.

It doens't matter whether she tests as ISFP or ISFJ, but whether she's similar to other ISFPs/ISFJs in that model framework. So even if she's an ISFJ with Fi, technically all other ISFJs should share that similarity where as the OP poster suggested that she had a different sort of interaction.
 

Tewt

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One of my close friends is clearly an ISFJ. She is strong in each of the individual letters. However, an ISFJ is supposed to have Fe as their secondary function, and she doesn't have that at all. I've tried thinking of other types she could be, but she's clearly an ISFJ.

Does anyone have any ideas of why an ISFJ can lack Fe as much as my friend does? If anything I would say that her feeling side is Fi, but she's an extreme J -- there's no way that girl could be a P.

I would love to hear your opinions :)

My stepmother is an ISFJ with very weak Fe imo. I think it is a symptom of some of her mental health issues as her personality is not fully rounded. When I first started learning about the different personalities I had her pegged as an ISTJ but the descriptions never quite fit. When I read in depth and the weaker side of not fully developed personalities she fit ISFJ descriptions to a t.

She is definitely an F, but the feeling function is all hers in that everything she feels, she assumes that everyone else feels the same way. It comes across very T like in a sense because it is very cut and dry. She feels X, everyone should feel X...if they don't they are either stupid or they are doing it on purpose to her. But if they feel the same way about X, they are great in her book and she will bend over backwards to support them...as long as she personally approves of it.
 

BlackCat

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Some ISFJs do lack Fe. If the Auxillary function isn't used or the person is going through tertiary temptation (relying on dominant-tertiary over dominant-auxillary), then they will appear to not have Fe. The secondary is more of a responsive thing, not a default mode of seeing things. It depends on the person and the situation if they want to respond with the auxillary, that's why it can be underdeveloped.

But yeah, they can be in an SiTi mode and not really do Fe. Or they could just be less responsive with Fe than a normal ISFJ.
 

Lambchop

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I am an ISFJ to the core (my husband heartily backs that up) and on the Socionomics, I did not test as an Fe. In fact, all of my functions were introverted and my Ti was the highest function, followed by Fi I believe.

I think ISFJs can share the same general personality type, but have developed some functions differently than others. Giggly is an ISFJ and her functions and mine were different.

I am very in touch with my feelings and base decisions in large part on how I feel, but most people wouldn't know how feeling based I am unless they know me...at least somewhat. The first time someone saw me crying at work, it freaked them out and my boss was shocked to discover how "sensitive" I am.
 

Giggly

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One of my close friends is clearly an ISFJ. She is strong in each of the individual letters. However, an ISFJ is supposed to have Fe as their secondary function, and she doesn't have that at all. I've tried thinking of other types she could be, but she's clearly an ISFJ.

Does anyone have any ideas of why an ISFJ can lack Fe as much as my friend does? If anything I would say that her feeling side is Fi, but she's an extreme J -- there's no way that girl could be a P.

I would love to hear your opinions :)

Fe often cares about others, but J is sometimes inflexible so those two things are in direct contrast with each other and that confuses people.
 

NewEra

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One of my close friends is clearly an ISFJ. She is strong in each of the individual letters. However, an ISFJ is supposed to have Fe as their secondary function, and she doesn't have that at all. I've tried thinking of other types she could be, but she's clearly an ISFJ.

Does anyone have any ideas of why an ISFJ can lack Fe as much as my friend does? If anything I would say that her feeling side is Fi, but she's an extreme J -- there's no way that girl could be a P.

You seem to be describing a supposed ISFJ I know. I asked posters on this forum to type her in 'What's My Type' and they said she was ISFJ. I thin cascadeco has pretty good reasoning to your question:

or she's really introverted and has low self esteem or afraid of being 'used'/stepped on, so she's walling herself off and becoming more 'cold' to protect herself.

This is a very good point, and I think is the case for the ISFJ I know, who doesn't seem to be displaying any visible Fe, and is fairly grumpy almost all the time. That's why I say she's an unhealthy ISFJ.


Also, just to add, I don't think that if Fe isn't one of the top two functions that it rules out ISFJ. She could be an ISFJ who just does not visibly use her Fe as much as two other functions (say Si and Ti for example).
 

nanook

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everyone has to develop theory of mind on his own. however it's a logical must, to compare your understanding of functions of introverted people with extroverted people. it's no problem to look at genuine 4 letter code isfj and find some complex in their traits, that seems effie in a way, and somehow extroverted in some way. you can call that Fe, and you can believe that this confirms the so called mbti function assignment. but look at this complex of theory of yours, and try to apply it to exfj and exfp. if your understanding of Fe would be correct, it would have to match exfj. but i predict: if your theoretical complex was actually based on theory of mind, then it can not possibly match exfj and it will match exfp. you can only find arbitrary superficial things in common of both exfj and ixfj. they have no complex of theory of mind in common. nothing that explains the 'how' and 'why' of motives and emotional 'reasoning'. but isfj and exfp have a lot of theory of mind in common. btw, genuine 4 letter istj have a genuine Fe mind complex, opperating as big time raving shadow. (genuine isfj have a raving Te shadow)
 
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