I had different experiences with the Feelers and I can tell two things from my INTJ's perspective:
- When I'm fine, I'm scared of the Feelers due to their unpredictability. Because you can predict how the Thinker will behave and how he / she will treat you if you do something good / bad. You cannot say the same about the Feeler and their empathy can win even with common sense. This scares me. For example, if I had a Feeler boss, I wouldn't feel confident as my results at work can be overshadowed by the fact that he / she doesn't like me as a person.
- When I'm down, I seek for the Feelers. The thoughs are leading to introspection / scenarios and are crossing somewhere between Pink Floyd's The Wall or NIN's Downward Spiral / Fragile. I don't need a rational advise at this time (I can give a million of rational advices myself), just need someone to tell "poor you", "it doesn't matter", "people make mistakes", etc. Hugging is also appreciated Anything that can switch off my rationality because this is rationality, which makes me feel so miserable now.
I know this is an egoistic approach, so I try to remember those cases when someone cheered me up (luckily, they happen rarely) and even feel in debt to those people with big hearts. If later there is an opportunity to help them, I try to.
I dont find either Feelers or Thinkers predictable. Both thinkers and feelers van hold grudges, usually thinkers are harder to persuade than feelers, but it depends on the person, not the type. Moodswings are seen in every type, they might just be different in character.
CG Jung said:On the one hand, emotion is the alchemical fire whose warmth brings everything into existence and whose heat burns all superfluities to ashes (omnes superfluitates comburit). But on the other hand, emotion is the moment when steel meets flint and a spark is struck forth, for emotion is the chief source of consciousness. There is no change from darkness to light or from inertia to movement without emotion. ["Psychological Aspects of the Mother Archetype," CW 9i, par. 179.]
When we as thinkers use either Te or Ti it is because we have an emotional attachment to that particular process and because our Ego needs it to understand the world, sometimes even controlling the inner or outer world. As do those that use either Fe or Fi. Emotions are part of being human. My theory on empathy is that while I get surges in my body when I see people suffer, the way I rationalize those emotions is conditioned by my own ego.