I've used the whole, "You made that decision because you're an F" against people, or "I can't stand you because you're an extravert," but a lot of it I just take in stride. I have been reading a lot about MBTI, but I know that it is only the tip of the iceberg. It's helped with understanding myself and others. At times, I do think of it as a cult, and I get uneasy about learning more about it. The only thing that really keeps me into it is knowing it is actually theoretical psychology.
I'm not sure if I know enough about it to make this statement, but from what I've learned, the biggest benefit came from learning the difference between extraversion/introversion and the cognitive processes. Using those, I was able to actually make sense of other people's behavior. All my life, I've done things I just deemed as "weird" but were natural for me. I couldn't explain it. It helps a great amount just to have this theory that might explain why someone has been acting more 'introverted" their entire life or they're not quite as creative as some of their peers.
I haven't learned much about psychology, aside from the bits and pieces I've taken from what I have read about MBTI. It's actually because of the MBTI, that I chose to take my intro to psychology course in college this Spring, instead of a later date. I want to see what it's like. I'm well aware that there is much more out there to explain human behavior than the MBTI. I'm actually a little intimidated by taking such a class after focusing so much on the MBTI. I'm afraid of becoming too biased toward one theory.
I've had enough experiences the last month to prove to me that not all people of one type are the same. However, I've learned through the preferences, temperaments, and cognitive processes, that people are likely to have similar motivations, but it will manifest in the practical world in different ways. That's where it starts getting shady and unreliable.
One thing I've noticed about this forum is that the majority of discussions are among people that don't have much experience or knowledge on the topic, so you're likely trying to find an answer within a group of people with limited knowledge that you could just go find in a book. I guess I started looking at it from the point of view of, "if everyone actually knew the MBTI pretty damn well, what would we be talking about here?" The only thing is hearing about how you've used it to help you in your life, which you do hear about from time to time.
One person in the INTJ forum described the MBTI as being half "furor effect" and half "confirmation bias." So, basically the whole thing is just too general to not be false, and you're going to overlook the signs in someone's behavior that point away from their "type." I agree with that, to an extent. Like I said earlier, a lot of what you get from the MBTI is from acknowledgement of the preferences, temperaments and cognitive processes. I mean, sure, there are other things like the Enneagram or Socionics. Who's to say other people aren't taking those things too seriously?
You can't just box people into a type and say, "you're only supposed to act like this description of you in a book." That's not realistic. However, the underlying motivations are always worth looking at. But, really, what's the difference in this and just....getting to know the person? Is it just more for acceptance? If you can label what they're doing, you can accept them more easily? I'll admit, that's happened to me.
When you say, though, that people are taking it too far, are you referring to this forum only, or anything else? What about all of the other type forums? Have you been to intjforum.com? That place is much worse than this, although I really enjoy reading it.
I think the thing is, though, that this forum is just 90% random chatting and 10% actual MBTI theoretical talk. I will just say, though, that I make a lot of the comments regarding justifications based on type in lighthearted fun. I mean, if I can disregard someone's personality as them just being victims of their own desires, I'm one step closer to my empire!
I could be going way off-topic.