Doctor Cringelord
Well-known member
- Joined
- Aug 27, 2013
- Messages
- 20,617
- MBTI Type
- I
- Enneagram
- 9w8
- Instinctual Variant
- sp/sx
Actually, I think communication style may be a very valid indicator. Like you, I'm from the south, but I almost always use the directing style. I have four close INFP friends [none of them like or hang out with each other, but they all like me] and ALL of them use the informative style most often.
My personal impression of INFs is that you have to be careful about judging and categorizing them based on external behaviors. Perhaps this goes for all types. I do know that INFs can be very inward and complex. In my mind I like to focus on the inward processing for evaluating personality type. I think externally most anyone would consider me an INFP these days, except that I have an organizational streak in me. I have also wrestled over figuring out which type I am. I think that MBTI has identified some core aspects of personality, but I don't take a rigid approach with function order or genetically wired types based on its 16. That is a bit low-res. I probably am a Ni-dom, but I feel like my inner world is driven by Ni, but organizes information with a combination of Ti and Fi depending on the type of data involved. Externally Se is weak, but I do feel like it pours into me. I more feel a combination of Ne and Fe. The only two functions that feel alien to me are Si and Te.
If a person has a really strong dominant function, I think there could be ways it pairs with its equivalent. For me I feel Ni so strongly that it reflects into Ne. I've seen Ti-doms who are so strong that their thinking spills over into Te. I think someone like Joan Baez who is typed as a Fi-dom (and her facial cues do strongly resonate with this), is so strong that she spills over into Fe. I've known some Ni-doms that spill over into Si as another type of close pairing. Also, there are Ti-doms that spill over into Fi because of their stronger need for a holistic, yet still logical reasoning. I would love to see many more shades of MBTI than just the 16. I think it would clear up a great deal of confusion and feelings or rigidity in trying to force people into categories.
I think if I had to declare a different type, I would probably be an ENFP who is withdrawn. I have found that socially I identify strongly with both ENFPs and INFJs, and sometimes INFPs. I kind of think that the functions are like shape/color elements in a kaleidoscope.
Well said.
There is a danger with MBTI or any other personality/temperament identification system to pigeonhole people and ultimately to oversimplify the human mind. As I said earlier, I think I have a strong rationalist inside of me, as I tend to look at situations in a scientific manner, but that doesn't necessarily make me an INTP. Ultimately typology is a fun hobby for me, although I admit I would very much like to be able to type myself as one concrete type. Ultimately I think it depends on what mood I'm in on any given day of the week.
The MBTI is a starting point for understanding humans, but it shouldn't be accepted as the be-all and end-all of understanding personality, but rather as an entry point into learning more about what makes people think and act a certain way.
Also, you mention being a withdrawn ENFP. That wouldn't be at all unreasonable. I've read ENFPs are the most introverted of all the extroverted types, if that makes any sense. I'm pretty sure my sister is an ENFP. She feeds on her interactions with others and is often the life of a party, but there is a side to her that periodically needs to shut out the world and have solitude to "recharge her batteries"
On the same token, I think INFP/J types, while very much introverted, can occasionally come off as extroverts. We just have to work a little harder at it, and it takes its toll on us much faster than it would on any of the Exxx types.