SolitaryWalker
Tenured roisterer
- Joined
- Apr 23, 2007
- Messages
- 3,504
- MBTI Type
- INTP
- Enneagram
- 5w6
- Instinctual Variant
- so/sx
But what I really started this thread over is the actual theory--that all types are created equal. Is that too radical for human beings to accept? That an overarching framework might not be a hierarchy?
This notion is incompatible with the fundamental assumption of MBTI and the Keirsey Theorem. The system defines an Extrovert for example, as an outgoing person and an Intuitive as an imaginative individual. You may approach the issue from the perspective of temperament or define typological entities as mere cognitive tendencies and then claim that all types are created equal. This assertion would be perfectly plausible as a type merely defines how an individual's mind tends to work rather than how he necessarily acts or thinks.
However, as an MBTI supporter, this isn't an option as doing so repudiates the majority of the literature on the subject that is concerned with personality profiles. A personality profile by definition describes an individual's fundamental qualities. Some of the qualities in MBTI are opposed to one another, hence, an individual cannot have all of them. That is why we often see an NT type description which says for example xNTx is exceptionally creative and analytical! Yet, we never see ESFJ profiles that bestow such lavish praise on the people of this type solely on the basis of their personality code. MBTI creates dichotomies where a certain four characteristics are by definition opposed to the other four.
If all types were indeed created equal, no personality profile would be possible as all 16 of them would be saying the same thing. In summary, in a study of temperament all types could be equal, but not in MBTI.