violet_crown
Active member
- Joined
- Jun 18, 2009
- Messages
- 4,959
- MBTI Type
- ENTJ
- Enneagram
- 853
- Instinctual Variant
- sx/sp
The INF Mannerisms on Video thread got me thinking first about INFPs I've known, and then more broadly about how FPs operate. For the past few years, I've been trying to work on being more open/aware/expressive of/whatever is the appropriate verbiage my own introverted feeling. I've been blessed to have FPs (and even an INTJ or two) in my life willing and patient enough to help me develop my understanding. This post was originally supposed to just be about INFPs, but I'm curious now if there's any accuracy to my observations of them and other FP types I mention. I'm eager to learn, so feel free to demolish any of what follows if it's not true to your own experience.
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I've always found the stillness of INFPs to be interesting. Everything except their eyes. It's as if the physical gestures that might accompany their words are carried out in their imagination, and what you see get externally are the residual emotions of the not-there movements.
Thinking about how feeling is related through mannerisms creates an interesting comparison when you think about INFPs relative to their FP near cousins. Tertiary Si in INFPs not only points to the stillness I just described, but it's larger consequence, which is their ability to foster a certain emotional atmosphere around their internal state. This is distinct from ISFPs who seem to be more about personal embodiment of those states. If an ISFP exhibits their emotions, then an INFP exudes them.
The INFPs talent for emotional atmosphere is to an extent shared by ENFPs, but approached inversely. An INFP desires to convey something genuine to their internal state, their true self, their being as it came to be at that moment, and leverages Ne to guide the listener's own sense of empathy. A lot goes unsaid, allowing the listener to infer what ought to be in those gaps based on their own experiences and feelings, and in investing that emotional equity the listener suddenly finds themselves with a stake in whatever comes next. A connection has been made that makes a shared experience out of the INFPs personal, subjective state. Conversely, the connection between inference and feeling seems to be less linear for ENFPs. It's not so clear as to say their focus is purely the creation of that space made by inference, though that seems to be significant to how they operate. More accurate is probably to say that the auxiliary use of Fi in ENFPs makes conveying their own internal state a less overwhelming focus, and places the emphasis more on respect for the other individual as such, and the ability to connect--Fi to Fi--with those around them. The ability to create a mood is more about bringing something forth than putting something forward, enabling the discovery of infinite and hereto unknown points of convergence.
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I've always found the stillness of INFPs to be interesting. Everything except their eyes. It's as if the physical gestures that might accompany their words are carried out in their imagination, and what you see get externally are the residual emotions of the not-there movements.
Thinking about how feeling is related through mannerisms creates an interesting comparison when you think about INFPs relative to their FP near cousins. Tertiary Si in INFPs not only points to the stillness I just described, but it's larger consequence, which is their ability to foster a certain emotional atmosphere around their internal state. This is distinct from ISFPs who seem to be more about personal embodiment of those states. If an ISFP exhibits their emotions, then an INFP exudes them.
The INFPs talent for emotional atmosphere is to an extent shared by ENFPs, but approached inversely. An INFP desires to convey something genuine to their internal state, their true self, their being as it came to be at that moment, and leverages Ne to guide the listener's own sense of empathy. A lot goes unsaid, allowing the listener to infer what ought to be in those gaps based on their own experiences and feelings, and in investing that emotional equity the listener suddenly finds themselves with a stake in whatever comes next. A connection has been made that makes a shared experience out of the INFPs personal, subjective state. Conversely, the connection between inference and feeling seems to be less linear for ENFPs. It's not so clear as to say their focus is purely the creation of that space made by inference, though that seems to be significant to how they operate. More accurate is probably to say that the auxiliary use of Fi in ENFPs makes conveying their own internal state a less overwhelming focus, and places the emphasis more on respect for the other individual as such, and the ability to connect--Fi to Fi--with those around them. The ability to create a mood is more about bringing something forth than putting something forward, enabling the discovery of infinite and hereto unknown points of convergence.