i have an enfj friend tho and she seems to make up all these scenarios about other peoples motivations like to the point of actually thinking they're proven facts.
I need to preface this by saying "motivations" can be a fuzzy grey area, one of those emotionally charged (at least, in this forum) words that sometimes seems to have it's own distinct meaning to the person using it. I've been in conversations around here that feel like nonsensical bickering, all because the meaning of the term "motivations" wasn't adequately calibrated.
That being said, I think this is kind of what I meant when I described how it takes effort to back up and see the isolated thing that's firing off a bigger thing. There's an emotional reaction to some future consequence of something being the way it is- like we don't react to a thing, we react to the probable consequences of it being that way- (if only for NFJs) that includes people, of people being the way they are with what seems to be their (often largely unconscious) motivations. It takes conscious effort to back up and figure out what objective trigger is giving that impression.
I'm somewhat reluctant to make this post because I don't want to get into bickering about how 'wrong' it is to focus on anyone else's 'motivations' and make any assumptions about other people. It is my belief that no one is always completely aware of their own motivations, that it's not even really possible- there's always more self-awareness to uncover when we go looking for it, no matter how much we've already found. Additionally, there's a whole thing to be said here about the value of being able to anticipate the actions/behavior of other people. From both a survival standpoint and as a matter of improving the quality of one's connections to another person, there is a value in being able to make the connections in one's own head about someone else's POV.
Anyway, the point I'm getting at is: I do find myself having emotional reactions to what it seems like someone else's motivation is, and I think it's (more or less) an NFJ thing. So much so, that when I see people here who reacts strongly to someone else's motivations- I can't help but suspect they're actually NFJ, mistyped because of the whole 'Fi needs authenticity' shtick (which I believe is misguided). It's not exactly about "future orientation", and it is what makes us look paranoid- I don't know how to describe it except to say it's a hyperawareness of probable (assuming our perception isn't significantly warped) consequences? We can't *not* see it. I will concede that it can be
incredibly aggravating to deal with an NFJ who isn't aware of the extent to which their leaps aren't irrefutable objective truths (I can't emphasize this enough,
incredibly aggravating). But we can't *not* see it. Best case scenario is- when the emotional reaction hits- we're careful/able to trace it back to the observable cue that gave us the impression. But with Ni, it's like our unconscious that picks up on this stuff and our limbic system reacts to it before we consciously know what's going on.
[It's possible some of the thoughts here seem disjointed- I'm not at my computer, it's hard to write out a longer thing on a foreign device. And it's going to be a couple of days before I can respond well. But I'm posting this now nonetheless.]