Ahh taht was wonderfully helpful.
"You promote exploration of new and better ways of doing things, to uncover hidden potential in people, things or situations. You break new ground, and are often looking one step beyond the current situation to pursue unexplored avenues, until all the possibilities have been exhausted..."
Something about INTP just didn't seem right to me, I am so much more creative than the sort of science loving INTP profile, though I admit that the "knowledge" above all us rings very true for me. I am starting to realize that tying down what I am might be a sort of winding and endless passageway to follow so to grasp the best understanding of myself. No simple Q and A's are bound to truly suffice. boo...
I stumbled upon this book on the struggles of being an introvert in an extrovert world, i was curious to what your responses to it might be...
THE INTROVERT is preoccupied with his inner thoughts, and feeling, and phantasies. This is his private life. It is very important to him, and it is very important to him that it be private. Anything which threatens this privacy of his mind, or his person, or his place of living, disturbs him, so that he reacts with anxiety.
INTROVERSION IN THE GIRL (before was “in general” I suppose)
There are other factors which apply more particularly to the introvert girl. … She is wistful, she yearns, but she does not know what it is that her soul desires. … Her dormant eroticism provokes ideas of wanting to know. “If only I could know, if only I could understand things.” This is a product of her subjectivity. It is more than a thirst for sexual knowledge; it is a hunger for the Great Understanding. It concerns more than knowledge of sex, of life, of creation, of God. It is an abstract which embraces all understanding. … She is wistful, and with it she is pensive. Her thoughts prove the depths of uncertainties, and her feelings flow this way and that. Now it all seems imponderable, and a wistful melancholy overtakes her. Now, there is a glimpse of the great truth, and her heart burns with an inner ecstasy. … With her thoughts searching for the Great Understanding, mundane matters of everyday living recede in importance. … This wistful sadness, this apparent melancholy which so often surrounds the introvert, is not the cloud of true psychiatric depression. It is that vague mistiness which comes between the introvert and the things around her. The world is seen only in shades of grey and the colour that would stir the emotions is lost in the enveloping mist. … The mist between herself and the rest of the world takes the colour from it. It also takes the sharpness out of it. It cushions her feelings, as it were. That which was mistaken for sadness is really indifference of apathy.
(back to the "in general" part again...)
He has a rather greater awareness than others of the forces which are pulling him this way and that. However, these forces are usually vague and ill defined. The introvert has no clear goals. There is no plan of life, such as others envisage, with its immediate and remote objectives, all to be attained in turn. The adolescent introvert is inclined to drift, but among the host of currents which bear upon him, there are two fairly constant forces. There is the positive force of his idealism, which tends to drive him forward; and there is the negative force of his inner tension, which tends to turn him back. He swerves away from any course of action, or mode of behaviour, which threatens to increase his state of tension. The general inhibition of his introvert personality damps down the effect of both these forces, and provides an inertia which works against change of any kind. … He has a special interest for the abstruse, particularly metaphysics, the occult, the supernatural, and unorthodox religious writings. … He is inclined to read philosophy, especially modern philosophy. … Existentialism is a favourite topic…. The introvert is aware of his lack of emotional warmth, and he is also aware that others notice it. … There are the times when he just sits, when he just sits and dreams, and phantasy takes him far away. … In the first place, it means that he grows into his early twenties without having had the usual experience of boy and girl friendships. As a result of this lack, he enters young manghood without having had sufficient experience to develop normal emotional responses to situations with girls. ... He meets others who are interested in the same hobby. They discuss matters of common interest. The exchange of ideas is really of little importance, but the situation provides the introvert with the all-important emotional contacts. …
About three quarters of our population is extroverted and tends not to understand introversion. … Introverts respond to, but seldom initiate, contact with others.
