Am I an INFP? (thought myself as an INFJ once)

[ABluePlanetian]

To be honest, I even doubted my NF-ness. Some people, including my friend, said I was an INTJ minus economic credits and plus poetic license. These statement could also be put in question: although I can come across as very distant and opinionated, but that sort of assertion is actually coming from the prejudice and emotional unbalance rather than actual observation. There was quiet lots of events happened in the past that set me into this passive-aggressive phase. If I do actual observation, I will show no judgment and be very accepting to the situation, in a refreshing way. Besides, I want to have the gift of "over-feeling" rather than "over-thinking, over-analyzing" - I could endure a broken heart, but felt irritated when dealing with a distorted mind.

A broken heart sounds much more romantic than a mentally-weak and worrying distorted mind.

But I truly have no clue about this. At one point I just decided, "Alright, I'm an INFP then." I would be happy-go-lucky, never-plan-anything and absorb every bit of my emotions and irrationalities into heart, few weeks later my friend tapped on my shoulder and said, "You are INTJ/INFJ." What's the difference anyway between these types, as long as I can be happy.

I was pretty sure that I was Enneagram 4 (Tritype 4-5-9), which related to lots of nostalgia, dreams and rich inner life and made me wondered if I was using Fi or Fe. But I didn't know whether I possessed Ni-dom or Fi-dom.

 

[LucieCat]

Overthinking things could be a manifestation of Ne instead of Fe or Fi. Ne, as a perceiving function, is about absorbing information. Ne can sometimes be like a tsunami of ideas, information, and possibilities hitting you at once. You might tend to overthink because it's hard to sort through all of the potential ideas, answers, and outcomes there are.

Not that other types cannot overthink, they can, but the route to it is different based on the functions.

I can't say for certain whether you are an INFP, but it's definitely a possibility.

It's also important to avoid getting swept up in stereotypes. INFPs are very reflective individuals, and they can exhibit very little or none at all of a carefree, happy go lucky attitude. Many can actually seem very serious. I'd say this can also give them a streak of melancholy, but I feel that is veering too much down the stereotype route of INFPs.

For Fe and Fi, it's a difference based on how you make decisions. Fe looks to the outer world and people. In esscense, "How is what I'm doing going to impact others?". Fi looks inside for value judgements as in "Is this true to me."

A tendency towards nostalgia is often attributed to individuals in the Ne/Si axis— so the INxPs, ENxP, ISxJs, and ESxJs. This probably has something to do with Si being a reflective process that gathers information and forms connections based on what one has experienced in the past. I don't think it's sufficient to call it "learning from the past" though. It's a bit different. Besides, all types can learn from the past just like people without Si in their stack can be nostalgic and sentimental.

 

[ABluePlanetian]

But how can you exactly know if a person is using Ni or Ne then? The overwhelming thinking is supposed to be because of Ti, weak Ti perhaps since Ni/Ti loop seemed to suffer this a lot.

I have seen a few description of Ni and Ne but rarely see the difference between them. I mean, I used both. If I go to extreme to Ne by having fun with many possible ideas as I can, then I will automatically switched back to Ni and having an overview about what I have thought. It's like being in a laboratory of heart and mind. You combine to produce many crazy patterns from the resources obtained from everyday life experiences, then take another time to conceptualize these theories/ideas into one unique system and put them into your work. Anything useful or could be transformed into useful materials, and anything spontaneously/naturally occuring to you at the time you were writing, random details or ultimate scales and structures - you can all bring to you writing process.

It seemed that Si is my weaker functions. Although I'd like to make it useful, Si function frequently betrays me in my own head. It can replay any piece of melodies I have heard while I was studying -which made me distracted from schoolwork. Also, because there were lots of events happened in the past, I tend to only remember only the portion of selected memories when I was happy and cheerful. I hate to remind or bring any negative experiences I have been through.

 

[phoenix31]

For Fe and Fi, it's a difference based on how you make decisions. Fe looks to the outer world and people. In esscense, "How is what I'm doing going to impact others?". Fi looks inside for value judgements as in "Is this true to me."

This is a difficult distinction that always confuses me because I feel like I do both, but people will say that it's an INFJ thing to consider impact on others.

 

[Stepan]

I always thought of an Fe-user as someone who likes to care for others. Like if your Fe is high up in your stack you always want to care for people. Imagine an fe user invited you for dinner at their home. Then you want to help with the dishes but the Fe-user feels a little annoyed because he/she can't take care of the guest anymore. Fe-users seem more active in that regards than Fi users. They also might easily feel guilty or feel like they are taking advantage of someone.
Fi strongly know how they feel about things, I think Fe users struggle a bit more with that. They need others in order to feel good about themselves, to get a sense of self-worth.

Between Ni and Ne, I think Ne is more focused on the direction society can take, they know what other people want. Ne-users would probably be good at foreseeing trends, etc. Ni is more about their individual path forward, what they want. At least that is how I understood the distinction by reading up descriptions.

 

[ABluePlanetian]

@phoenix31, not really, I believed that people of any type, with good intention, can be empathetic individuals who want to become good influence to other people. I don't see any difference in here though.

Victor Hugo was possibly an INFP (I think) and he wrote many novels which inspired and made people aware of humanism.

Here is the only distinction I have observed: I have an ESFJ friend and an ISFP cousin. People tend to draw to ESFJ and pay attention to them, but at the end they treat ESFJ quiet badly. They talked and gossiped about her nonstop, although my ESFJ friend has her limitations, she is still a good person no matter what and wants to make people happy. And for my ISFP cousin, while she was a bit of a wallflower, always silent and soft (a.k.a cute walking candy), thus nobody pay any attention to her - but she has this comfortable and easy air around her which everyone can draw to and sit with her all day. Treating her badly would be considered as a crime in my family.

 

[phoenix31]

@phoenix31, not really, I believed that people of any type, with good intention, can be empathetic individuals who want to become good influence to other people. I don't see any difference in here though.

I think in regards to personality type it just comes down to what your instinctual, go-to method is for processing, and I'm still trying to understand how that works for an INFP since considering others is very high up on my priority list. Of course any mature and developed person would consider others regardless of type.

 

[ABluePlanetian]

@Stepan. Then I must be very "unhealthy". I usually have this thought, "What I want is also what the others want. That's why I have to achieve this vision/dream in my head, because at the end, if succeeded it will produce good impact on society." Or probably it was Ne?

 

[Stepan]

@Stepan. Then I must be very "unhealthy". I usually have this thought, "What I want is also what the others want. That's why I have to achieve this vision/dream in my head, because at the end, if succeeded it will produce good impact on society." Or probably it was Ne?

That sounds like something both an INFJ or INFP would say. An INFJ would probably be more concerned with the execution of certain ideals. The INFP maybe more with the ideals themselves. They are two hands on one belly, the INFP provides the ideals the INFJ wants to execute them (of course it's not always so, we can do everything at a certain point; I'm talking what one would do primarily). An INFJ would be more direct, hands-on, they can manage themselves in chaos. The INFP will take their time, will be indirect (in speech, etc), probably have more patience.
I also did some research on shadow functions. From what I understand, the INFJ is more prone to think of themselves as a bad person because of Fi Critic (thus imposing a high moral standard on themselves); the INFP will worry that other people are bad persons because of Fe Nemesis. You might want to look in that too.

That being said, I think you might be an INFJ. I think you have stronger Ni. But again, this is all new to me, so it would be nice if more people could share their opinions.

 

[ABluePlanetian]

INFJ-wise: I don't have patience. If I have any idea I would want to put them in my writings and make it fit it into the "system" of my head right away. I also wanted to be a scientist and involved in educational career along with being a writer in order to get more reality check and materials from life.

I heard there were stereotypes which stated the majority of INFPs are more subconscious, poetic and dreamy (angel/muse-archetype) and INFJs are more conscious, philosophical and likes to play people-chess (prophet-archetype). But we had Vladimir Nabokov, who was an INFP En-5, he collected butterflies, categorized specimens and also played chess really well - so I guess it depended on each individual and these stereotypes were not worth-listening anyway.

I have some corrections. Prior to this I have stated that I was an En 4w5. But after some research I thought I could lean more to theatrical 4w3 - but E4 either way and usually E4 sounds like INFP the most (obvious Fi and Si, authentic, imaginative and nolstagic). I always thought I could live happier as an INFP than INFJ.

How does an INFJ use her Ne? To me, Ni sounds like a personal (delusional) vision, like when you watched a film or stories, these visions would show up uncontrollably in front of your eyes as if you were watching television - a lot of visual pictures and illusions. And Ne sounds like you are actually generated (random) ideas, like your head/heart is a laboratory and you putting random items into a test tube to see the reaction they would eventually result.

Ni is to become the imagination (was it reality or illusion?), while Ne is to live within that imaginative land (a network of dreams). At least that what I think.

 

[ABluePlanetian]

I think in regards to personality type it just comes down to what your instinctual, go-to method is for processing, and I'm still trying to understand how that works for an INFP since considering others is very high up on my priority list. Of course any mature and developed person would consider others regardless of type.

Do you know Socionics? If you want to see you use Ni-dom and Fi-dom, just check INFj and INFp. If you related with INFp then you're INFJ. Although people recommended not to intermingle these two systems, you can have one MBTI type and the other is different in Socionics... but meh, whatever I liked salad anyway. I just wanted to get over this stuff.

It's turned out I was an INFJ in MBTI after all. The difference turned out to be INFP is leaning towards "emotional strength" while INFJ is more of "mental complexity". Done.

 

[phoenix31]

Do you know Socionics? If you want to see you use Ni-dom and Fi-dom, just check INFj and INFp. If you related with INFp then you're INFJ. Although people recommended not to intermingle these two systems, you can have one MBTI type and the other is different in Socionics... but meh, whatever I liked salad anyway. I just wanted to get over this stuff.

It's turned out I was an INFJ in MBTI after all. The difference turned out to be INFP is leaning towards "emotional strength" while INFJ is more of "mental complexity". Done.

No, I don't know socionics.