#typing

@charliebradburyismyspirit-animal im exposing you and ur inability to type on computers

Anon wrote: How are you? Could you type assess me? Hope I followed the instructions correctly. My conclusion was INTP with immature Ne-Si, however, I’d like to submit to you the reasoning behind my conclusion. Hope I did my homework correctly.

Ti – my decisionmaking process is to think “what is x? if x means y, what does that entail?”. For example, if I am confronted with a situation I think about what possible outcomes can I have? Do I desire those outcomes? How can I act on each of those possible scenarios? And then I analyze which one has the outcome I am more prepared to face. I do not like to be rushed into taking a decison too quick or without knowing all the variables necessary to decide what to do. It’s easy in theory, but in real life we never know if we know all the variables and there isn’t always time to investigate them. I like to formulate hypothesis and analyze them. Usually, I ask “what”, “who”, “how”, “why”, “where”, and “when” questions to do this. Or I think step by step, trying my best to break down the tasks into small chunks (I have executive dysfunction due to ADHD so it’s not always the easiest think ever). I

Te – That’d be similar to the way I described Ti. However, I must admit that I don’t have the best Te doms interest in changing the outside world if it’s not something that caught my attention.

Ne – I’ve read a lot of asked questions on your blog and I have no doubt I have underveloped but high Ne. Signs of unhealthy Ne – I am very willy nilly as you say, I frequently want to change my life or everything I am doing and I expect progress to come in quick leaps. I am not patient to put in the hard work to actualize things I really want. I have learnt a bit late that rules that apply to others also apply to me, in the best way possible. I jump from one thing to the next very often, and it’s very hard for me to learn consistency, but I am trying my best.Why? I think I just find it very challenging to focus on something for too long, something else always become the next new

I also have underdeveloped Ne because due to trauma and hardships I became too afraid to dream of a better life, a bit of a “should I try if there’s the change I am going to fail?” because I have failed many times, only to learn that I should confront my anxiety and try whatever I think it’s worth trying. It’s harder to practice though. But I don’t want my mental pictures to be just pictures, I want to live them in the real world, otherwise it’d be a wasted life. Nowadays I think of the job I want, learn skills to adapt to it, to complete my master’s degree and go after another, and also graduate in philosophy at some point. I’m also very impulsive. It may be a stereotype but I am also very prone to joke around the most uncomfortable situations, as a way to lighten up - sometimes I have this silly fear of not being taken seriously because of that.

Si – I find it very difficult to follow instructions or do things the proper way, this is a constant pattern in my life. Also whenever I am stressed, I keep googling illnesses, medicines I could take to feel better. When stressed, I also ruminate about the past and what I should’ve done or I keep trying to “fix” the past by getting fixated on it. The sense of doom never lasts because I am very prone to think “ok, now I am going to do things differently, I am still 27, I am not old”. Age has also creeped in – ever since I turned 27, I keep thinking I am too old to do the things I wanna do, even though I rationally know this is bullshit. On a positive light, I am not very ambitious, I just want to have a stable life in which I can provide for myself and a future family. My physical space is not ordely nor I care if it is ordely as long I can have a personal system to find the things I use the most (ordering by utility) and makes sense to me. I am also in a comfort zone because I am materially privileged and in my country this means I can study whilst my parents support me and that’s a lot in my home country, argentina. I don’t have to worry about getting a job I don’t want and suck it up, so I usually don’t challenge myself – and this bothers me, because it may be a way of self-handcapping. I have been resisting to challenge my comfort position in life even though my head always tells me to do so because I have built nothing in my life, and I really want to. It’s like I am resisting to expose myself to the world beyond my comfort zone (some of it because of anxiety and catastrophizing multiple bad results), so I get stuck in a rut. I’ve been making some progress though, but I am not there yet and as I said on the Ne description, I expect things to happen quickly, almost like a miracle. So far I am convinced I have an unhealthy Ne-Si dynamics and that Ne is calling but I don’t know how to answer to it.

Fe – It’s not that I want to avoid being emotionally involved, it’s just hard. It’s not default for me put emotional investment on doing mundane tasks. It’s hard. I have social anxiety but I connect well with others online. I am not averse to people, I like to have fun just as much as the next person. I worry about being hated by others or if people will use my intimacy against me if we get too close. Like the Si description, it’s something I’ve been working on because it’s also a reaction to trauma.

Ni – I have a tendency of getting stuck in my own head and talk to myself a lot there. Sometimes it is a representation of this world but slightly different, as some sort of internal dialogue. At the same time, this picture can change as I live reality and form new pictures, as I discover the pleasures of the outside world. The pictures changes according to the current moment of my life, according to the phase of life I am in. I don’t think I am a Ni user because there are loads of pictures – ie the job picture, the friends picture, intellectual hypothesis – that can quickly change according to evidence or good arguments – and a lot of those pictures are actually daydreams, as if I want reality to conform to whatever I am daydreaming. The content of those daydreams are usually scenarios I wish were real at the moment. I daydream to shape reality but also to avoid it.

Fi – I don’t like to open up about feelings. My feelings are mine. However, I am not a Fi user, even if sometimes I pursue random interests just because I just feel like doing it. Whenever I give advice to others, I usually tell them how I would solve a situation and I can emphatize more if it’s something I experienced myself. I did benefit every time I took care of myself by thinking on doing uncomfortable things (getting out of my comfort zone as a privileged person) for my personal growth.

Se – I sometimes overindulge sensory pleasures, especially when I am anxious, however I am not exactly pragmatic as a Se type would be. I can be really impatient as I mentioned on the Ne description though. Evidence for Se is really weak.

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You didn’t follow the instructions properly. You’re supposed to contrast at least two entire functional stacks, but you only did the INTP stack. You’re supposed to respond, in detail, to every point in the guide for every function of the stack, but you didn’t, so the examples remain too vague to be useful and mostly just reveal your misconceptions about the functions. It’s also unclear why you included your random thoughts about the other functions without specifying the type and the stack position. You say you have difficulty following instructions, but it is a basic requirement here. I don’t like to guess. The reason I’m very insistent that people follow the instructions and structure their profile properly is because I don’t have time to sort out everyone’s details for them, and I can’t achieve certainty without the info I ask for.

I can only offer the following comments:

1) You seem to be lagging in ego development, which means that you suffer from low self-awareness. It’s likely that you’re merely presenting a version of yourself that isn’t close enough to the truth.

2) I don’t think you have a good enough handle on your mental health problems. They obscure the truth by causing you to conflate their symptoms with the functions. Almost all the patterns/behaviors you describe are compensatory or defensive in nature, i.e., not natural or inherent to personality type and thus inadequate for determining type. I hope you’re getting therapy for the trauma and adhd.

3) INTP seems unlikely. You exhibit too many characteristics that contradict the type. Most importantly, I don’t think using this functional stack for personal development is going to lead you in the right direction.

Anon wrote: Hi. I was typed as INTJ but recently I’ve been thinking about the possibility of being INFJ instead. I’m 19 and struggling with a bad childhood. Your insight would be really useful, thank you in advance.

So, for INTJ:

Ni: My whole life revolves around looking for meaning. Even the simplest life events can make me look at my inner self and think “what it’s the true meaning of this?”. I rarely care only about the surface, I believe there’s a reason behind every action and decision, so I can obsess about it and become stagnated if I’m not careful. My mind works in imagery and imagination. I visualize myself in a certain way in my head and I know I have to get there. The idea of not achieving my ideal self makes me anxious, because I don’t see any other way of not being my best.

Te: I go through situations using external measurements. I care a lot about time because I see it as a tool to make my life easier. I value myself through achievements, like grades and good results. If I have a problem, I’m most likely to find a quick and long term way to fix it. I don’t want to let any other options open because it demands time to plan over again, but I can adapt fine as long as the result is still possible. I prioritize the results over the how, because the result is what is going to last. I want to assure my decisions are the most efficient possible.

Fi: My feelings are like a needle poking a numb arm. The arm is there, though numbed, but if you poke in the right place I will feel it deeply. I’m not always conscious of them, they just happen. I don’t like when they happen because it means I will have to do something about it, and I’m uncomfortable in making decisions based on them. I don’t know how long they will last, for example, so I don’t know how to trust their results.

I know who I am and I don’t need confirmation from other people. I believe everyone is their own person, so I don’t get into people’s lives. I don’t try to influence them because I wouldn’t like people trying to influence me. I can’t not be honest about my feelings, so I’d rather not to be prompted to in casual conversation. I care a lot about not hurting the people I love, and whenever I do it accidentally, I feel extremely guilty about it because it feels like I’m betraying myself. I can be judgy of people that express their feelings openly. For example, when I see someone cry or complain about their life, my first thought is “…why they’re not doing something about it? just create something and actually get you out of the situation, instead of crying!“

Se: I never know how to experience the sensory world. Two things are more likely to happen: I get underwhelmed by it – I go out and think "is this all?”, because raw reality is not like I want to. It’s predictable and boring, because I played it off a million times in my head already, I know what will happen. Or I get overwhelmed by it – too much movement, too much food and color and smells, not enough time for me to analyze it. I developed an eating disorder because of this push and pull in my head, I didn’t know how to balance who I want to be with where I was at the present. I can be impulsive because of this.

For INFJ:

Fe: I care about harmony within a small group of people that I care about. I don’t want connection with every single person in the world or people that I don’t see any potential on, that wouldn’t be realistic. But I hesitate to take decisions that might hurt those people, it makes me uncomfortable to break that harmony even if it’s for a good cause. I struggled in the past about standing up for myself because I used to think that me being me was an offense to the people that raised me. Being naturally tuned to people’s moods around me was a must strategy of survival.

Ti: I used to manipulate people by taking charge of them, which I think it might be a sign of Ti loop. I was little and I used to purposefully cause conflict between my friends and make them obey me because I thought I knew what was the best of them, kind of like my mother (ESFJ) did to me. I don’t know it if was to achieve power, because while I’m healthy now, I don’t care about having power over people. But it was a competition, nevertheless.

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I think the INFJ stack is a better fit. Functions need a lot of development, though.

Anon wrote:Hello mbti-notes! I’ve typed as an INFJ for a long time, but recently I’ve been debating as to whether or not I’m actually an INFP. I tried to follow your instructions as best as I could - if you could provide any insight, I’d really appreciate it.

I’ll start off by saying that I’m 19, and I’m diagnosed with dysthymia and social anxiety disorder. My past therapists have also suggested that I’m dealing with unresolved trauma from childhood bullying. I would say that my function usage is probably quite immature and/or unhealthy, as I still have a very difficult time managing my symptoms. This isn’t something that I’m used to, so I apologise in advance if what I say doesn’t make sense.

INFJ:

Dominant Ni:

My inner world is essentially the lens I look through to view the world itself. The main thing I look for within my life is meaning and purpose. I want nothing more than to find what brings me peace, and provides clarity for my existence. I see my whole life as a search for meaning, regardless of how meaningless my general activities may look on the outside. Everything I do and observe has to fit into my personal narrative and worldview - because of this, I am naturally attuned to making connections, particularly between people and relationships.

I also search for patterns within fictional media, such as stories - this is my main method of discovering and thinking about philosophy and meaning. As I engage, I regularly ask myself “What’s the meaning behind all this? What is the story trying to tell us? What do these characters represent?” However, as I view everything through a highly abstract and subjective lens, my conclusions are difficult to put into words or manifest in reality.

My need for closure and structure is prominent within my life. Sometimes the thought of no closure brings me great anxiety - I will often spoil myself for shows or games because of this. I have an insatiable need to know how things will turn out. I am generally slow to react and need to focus on one thing at a time, leading to a lot of pre-planning, particularly if this involves outside engagement.

Inferior Se:

Due to the intricacies of my inner world, I feel a constant sense of detachment from reality itself. My metaphorical viewpoints stem from avoidance of the harsh concrete. This leads to inaction and constant ruminating, as I don’t feel capable of engaging fully. I struggle to remain fully present within my body, I never feel truly “whole”. Because of this, I sometimes hyper-focus on the sensory world in short bouts, even within my own home, and this leads to chronic discomfort. I have developed a deep fear of the outside world itself, often resisting engagement due to this fear. Because of my views on the concrete, I often narrow my lens to only see the negative consequences of whatever the world throws at us. I can’t see the outside world for what it is, only what it represents - danger.

When entering a grip, I lose touch with my mind and develop terrible brain fog, and thus, I lose my search for purpose. Due to my loss of direction, I overindulge in sensory pleasures, particularly eating and video games, in order to fill the “void”, only to feel even more empty afterwards. I can only focus on things in small bursts, however, this leads to my focusing heavily on minor details that I would typically gloss over. I do this to disprove my personal narrative, further fuelling my nihilistic mindset. If my narrative isn’t true, nothing is, and life itself is meaningless.

Auxiliary Fe:

Fe has played a pretty large part in my life. I try my hardest to make everyone around me feel comfortable in order to maintain peace and emotional harmony. I struggle to cope with negative emotions or a hostile atmosphere, wanting any issues to be resolved as soon as possible. This can sometimes lead to me unknowingly pushing boundaries, such as inserting myself into arguments that don’t involve me, in order to make this happen. I believe that this stems from a fear of conflict, as well as having to prepare myself to take on the emotional burdens of others as my own.

I have always been very attuned to the feelings of others, to the point where it affects me on a deep level - more than my own emotional turmoils. Sometimes I even convince myself that I can’t feel unless someone else’s circumstances force me to. It has reached an unhealthy point where I’ve lost grasp of my identity, seeing myself as just a vessel made to absorb the traits of those around me. I’m very sensitive to how I’m perceived by others, and I’m willing to adjust my behaviour to fit in - this is my main way of avoiding judgment or standing out.

There are times where I resist Fe - this usually comes in the form of compassion fatigue and detachment from strong emotions. I become increasingly fearful of intimacy, and avoid social interaction to compensate for both this and my fear of judgment. I also develop a tendency to assume the worst about people I’m not close to, paranoid that they are secretly judging or mocking me. I will go to great lengths to avoid meeting new people in order to protect myself from their judgment.

Tertiary Ti:

I believe I use Ti to fuel my Ni, regarding my search for meaning. I am able to add depth to my insights using analysis, particularly of other people, and am always looking to fine-tune my inner frameworks. This also helps me rationalise others’ feelings as I absorb them, which provides a lot of help with my problem solving skills, particularly emotional conflicts.

However, I believe my usage of Ti is unhealthy - it is the main reason my thought process tends to become messy. During a Ti loop, I have a huge tendency to overthink, especially when it comes to things that will happen in the future. I end up overanalysing every choice that I make, questioning the same things constantly to make sure that I’m on the right track. The thought of being wrong and having to change course terrifies me. This analysis paralysis leads to chronic procrastination with any plans I make, believing that I will never be competent enough to get where I need to be.

INFP:

Dominant Fi:

I have a somewhat solid idea of the type of person I don’t want to be. I live in a rough area, and am no stranger to hostile people and environments that I have never been able to keep up with. I’ve never been able to adjust to it, and because of this, I can be quite inwardly critical of people who display undignified behaviour. I’m definitely guilty of considering myself as a “misfit”. When it comes to feelings themselves, I do have a tendency to be sensitive to criticism from others and I sometimes take things personally - the thought that I’ve let someone down is very difficult for me to deal with. When I sense that I’m under ridicule, I struggle to function normally, although I try to hide these feelings in fear of bothering people.

Inferior Te:

Due to my aforementioned pessimistic worldview, I have fallen into somewhat of a victim mentality numerous times, believing that I can’t keep up with the outside world and that I’m too weak to function properly. Because of this, I struggle to get out of my head and take meaningful action to resolve any issues in my life - I begin questioning what the point is, I’ll never reach my ideals anyway.

Auxilary Ne:

The prospect of auxilary Ne is the main factor that makes me doubt being an INFJ. This is mostly due to my frequent fantasising and daydreaming - I create intricate fantasy worlds and characters in my head to escape the harshness of reality. The stories I create tend to focus on gaining love and success in fantastical life endeavours that I know have no place in reality. However, I also tend to display Ne resistance at times. I am very prone to pessimism and only focus on the negatives for my future because of this. I often worry about how the negative aspects of life, such as losing close family members, will impact my future as well as those around me. This causes me to lose a lot of hope, knowing that more emotional trauma is to come and it can completely throw the future off course.

Tertiary Si:

Regarding the Si loop, under stress, I sometimes find myself longing for nostalgia, trying to relive some of the only good parts of my childhood (such as watching old DVDs) and wanting them back. This is mostly a way of coping with all of the bad things and people I had to deal with, I tell myself that things weren’t all bad. I also tend to resign myself to my comfort zone - I become pessimistic about future possibilities and long for the lack of responsibility a child has.

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The INFJ stack fits quite perfectly, whereas evidence of the INFP stack is quite weak. You fantasize a lot, which only signifies N at best. I think what you haven’t grasped is that you use fantasy to fulfill the unmet needs of Ni and Fe (not Fi and Ne). It sounds like you believe fantasy is all you’ve got. But in the end it isn’t satisfying because it’s not real, so Ni and Fe remain starved.

It’s good that you’re seeing a therapist and trying to work through your issues. Yes, it is indeed very hard to live in an environment that is unsupportive of you, your strengths, and your sensitivities. But that is the point of developing Fe. Fe frees you from passivity by granting you the power to have an influence, to change the environment, and to create a space for yourself to be productive. The problem is that Ni is stuck on only one way of seeing everything…

Anon wrote:After years struggling with my mental health, now I want to take action and take the serious steps to improve myself and my life, so I can make it worth living while I am around. I find that I can use mbti as a tool for it.

So I thought I was an INTP for a long time, but now I come to realize that my T usage is not that primary, I thought I used TI because I am always strategizing even the simplest things, I want to make this as correct as possible so it will optimize my wellbeing, things always have to make sense for me, but I can observe in my lifetime that I haven’t been very consistent.

I thought I used aux Ne because I was scatterbrained and couldn’t hold many interests for a long time, but truthfully I’m not good at generating many ideas, even though I think I’m fairly good at making connections.

Tert Si because of my tendency of resigning to comfort zones when things get too hard or failure is in sign. I throw hands very easily when I see or think things are not going to work out the way I envisioned them. I can be very rigid in some mindsets when I believe I’m right, I can be very nostalgic and create narratives for myself so I can estabilize my identity of sorts.

Inf. Fe is a tough one, I’ve always had a hard time integrating with the world, I have very few friends now because I isolated myself after high school because of depression and anxiety, but deep down I have an enormous desire for connections and I just can’t put myself out there, I’m really afraid of being invalidated or hurt or shamed for being myself.

So I started speculating the possibility of being Ti tert, with my necessity of being logical and efficient just an introverted loop. I’m very sure I’ve been overusing my introverted functions too much, I’ve been terrified of putting myself out there in the world, literally and methaphorically, I’m terrified of even trying, because I don’t want to fail. I’m so deep in my own ruminations that I have trouble in acting.

So maybe I use Si or Ni as my dominant functions, conceptually I kind of understand Ni but I have a hard time visualizing it, so maybe I use too much that I don’t even realize like when I never take things people say at face value because obviously there must something undelying, or when I just can’t accept things as they are because it will probably hurt if all of these is meaningless. Because of my depression it’s really hard for me to make big plans for the future, but I envision how I’d like to be if I wasn’t so messed up in the head, I create strategies in my head to get in that good place or image of myself I created in my head, but I just can’t take it into action.

So I’ve been trying to figure out my type for a long time, always doubting my conclusions, so I’m between INTP, INFJ and ISFJ. I would really appreciate if you helped me, I really want to wake up, get up and start living a life I’m proud of.

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The points that you brought up for why you believed you were INTP are the same as every case I’ve seen of INFJs mistyping as INTP. Of the three types, the psychological issues/problems you’ve raised are better explained with the unhealthy INFJ stack. You haven’t presented compelling evidence of Si-Ne. If you suffer from serious anxiety or depression, it is a good idea to get some therapy.

Anon wrote: Hi, I hope you’re doing well. I thought I might’ve been an INFJ before, but now I’m considering to be a Fi-dom. I’ve always considered myself to be a Ti user, since i’m very analytical and I don’t consider only my personal feelings in my considerations and I do have the wrong perception of high Fi users of being too self righteous, lacking logical thinking in making decisions that will specially influence other people too.

I’m quite self absorbed myself too in making decisions I will make an analysis first and foremost from my perspective I like to believe I’m being impersonal, trying to figure out things on how they make most sense and will benefit myself first but I will consider how it will be better for everyone involved too. I feel like my moral and standards can be malleable too, if it will benefit me in the end or I see it as a sort of better path, is it possible for me to still be a Fi-dom?

I’m very individualistic, emotionally secretive and I choose my expressiveness very carefully I’m always trying to be mindful of other people’s feelings and expectations even if this awareness will not make me act in a way to conform. I’m deeply interested in understanding people’s character, motivation, psychology etc In a way to probably navigate better personal relationships or to just create a holistic comprehension of people. I’m considering taking a psychology course when I finish my first degree.

I do have ingrained principles in myself, and I consider my well being first even tho I deal with severe self-loathing and shame for not being able to be the person I’ve always idealized I would be. I’m still figuring out what I really want and I very much struggle with it. I feel like I’m in a never ending path of figuring out myself and my life and all the practical issues of my life get sidetracked in this pursuit. I feel like I can’t start living until I figure it out.

I haven’t figure out my perception functions yet, I sometimes feel I’m realistic and grounded but I have strong difficulties in dealing with things as they are, I feel like I tend to complicate them and assume too much when actually it’s quite straightforward. When I was a teen I cared too much about other’s people validation and I probably seemed like a very conflicted fe-user, but the feeling after cutting myself to fit in was bad.

My T struggles often involve of getting my life together I feel safer with established procedures but I have a very hard time following them through. I related a lot to Ti, because I tend to create personal models of systems on how to deal with stuff, but they are very simplistic and often fail. When I’m stressed I can be very obsessive and compulsive, like trying however in my control to take control of situations whether dealing with people, myself or practical issues of my life.

I have many issues that are cited for Fi-doms, I can’t function when I’m going through too many negative emotions, I take how I’m feeling as the first measure to navigate things I can feel things very intensely and with complexity, but I honestly don’t have any strong passions or am stubborn about my ideals. I do crave for validation, even social, probably because I’m very insecure about my character and I’m worried about not measuring up in external standards, because I def am not measuring up.

I have a strong sentiment of not bringing anything to the table in relationships and this makes me isolative and distant with people (I don’t want to be shamed or judged, at the same time I want to be seenwholly and accepted but I can’t take the steps that are required, eg opening up, showing vulnerability etc). I have many contradicting traits and motivations and not being able to find common ground with them causes me distress.

Escapism is a problematic route I often take, when the real world, the practical aspects of my life are too much for me to deal, or they are not going as I intend and I’m dealing with disappointment and failure. In these moments I over indulge myself trying to applacate the emptiness I feel. These days I’m lacking direction, action and motivation because I can’t quite figure out what I really want. and I feel very disconnected from my life and end up too caught up in my subjectiveness.

I rather not live at all than live a life that I can’t see as valuable or right in my perceived standards that have to do with my personal visions and also from external measures of success because we do live in a society and it’s probably going to be easier to be in it if you’re measuring up to some of it. You think these descriptions are closer to a fi-dom? I ruled out being a thinking type because I let my emotions cloud my better judgements sometimes, and i’m still in doubt with Ne and Se.

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The Function Theory Guide already includes points for quickly ruling out certain dominant functions. You have brought up more than enough points to rule out dominant Fi. Generally speaking, if you have to stretch logic to try to make a dominant function fit you, you’re not that type, especially if you are incapable of understanding the function in anything but stereotypically negative terms. As far as I can tell, you are conflating your unhealthy introverted tendencies with Fi.

The problems and issues you raise are more consistent with the unhealthy INFJ stack than INFP stack. Developing Fi would require you to sink even further into your unhealthy and isolating feeling life, how would that be good? Developing Ne would exacerbate your aimlessness and escapism, how would that be good? You lack life direction -> the solution is Ni development in crafting and committing to a long term vision, isn’t it? You are “empty” and have low self-worth -> the solution is Fe development through emotional connection and belonging to something meaningfully larger than yourself, isn’t it?

Sometimes, when people are very resistant to function development, they try to convince themselves that they’re another type, usually picking a type that doesn’t really require them to change. Whether this is true of you, only you know.

Anon wrote:

hello! firstly, I’d like to thank you for making this blog. it’s been really helpful in understanding mbti theory and taking steps to improve myself. i do have 2 questions though:

I’m glad you find my blog helpful, thanks for saying so.

1) is it possible that a person still undergoes tertiary loop in their mid-40s? i have seen evidence of si-ti loop in my mother, but can’t really reconcile that with the fact that she should’ve probably dealt with this earlier. and i don’t think she’s always been in the loop (as far as i remember, anyways), but has only gotten into it within the last 2 years.

It is more common than uncommon for people to get developmentally stuck. Type development is a very personal or individual process, so, in that sense, there is no “should’ve”. This is explained in the Type Dev Guide, please review it. Every individual is at a different point in development based on their unique circumstances. Anyone can misuse their functions at any time of life for a variety of reasons. If she only started within the last two years, it would be important to understand what circumstances or stressors might have prompted it.

2) i have noticed in myself (an infp) that i tend to re-read books/ re-watch movies that i liked in the past multiple times, usually when I’m feeling a bit out of sorts or stressed. a celebrity that i have been trying to type said the same thing about themself— that they like re-watching a specific movie when they’re tired/stressed. i thought that this was an obvious indication of si-tertiary, and that they were also an infp (using other clues about their type, too, of course). however, most other people say that that person is an enfp. (nobody else has typed them as infp). i just wanted to know if my understanding of that specific behaviour being an indication of si-tert was correct or not.

I should probably explain why i think that is si-tert. tertiary functions are usually used as a psychological defense to stress. fi-si tends to make a person look to previous sources of comfort in hopes of gaining the same comfort again, usually leading to the person staying in stale comfort zones. what i think is, basically, that a person can also seek comfort in fictional stories (books and movies) that they liked in the past. again, I’m not 100% sure about this, it’s just what I’ve noticed in myself. thank you in advance :)

It is incorrect. The problem is that you haven’t understood the difference between cognition and behavior (as well as the fact that the two do not have a perfect 1:1 relationship). Taking your example: Si prompts people to revisit things of their past. This is generally true of Si, so this fact alone is not enough information to tell you the stack position of Si. To identify stack position, you cannot only focus on the behavior (the “what”), you must go far deeper than that to understand the underlying cognitive reasons (the “whys”). The set of reasons for why tertiary Si revisits the past is different from inferior Si (… is different from dominant Si … is different from auxiliary Si). The functional stack positions are covered in the Function Theory Guide.

Until you’ve understood the exact underlying cognitive reasons behind the behavior, the most you can claim is that Si is probablyin there… somewhere. I say “probably” because this one detail alone isn’t even enough to prove Si, since other functions like Ni may also prompt someone to revisit the past, but for very different reasons. You would also need to accumulate more evidence of Si cognition that specifically rules out Ni cognition.

In short: Don’t judge a book by its cover. You have to understand exactly why someone is doing what they’re doing, rather than just assuming that they’re doing it for the same reason as you.

Anon wrote: Hi MBTI-notes, thank you for such informative and helpful blog! Im still new to mbti and struggle to type myself, so Id like to ask for your insight, if possible. Im pretty sure I can narrow down to IxFJ - Im people-oriented, sometimes dependent on others` opinions, easily become critical/stubborn and believe only what makes sense to me. I also tend to closure, chaotic during stress and feel unnerved by incompleteness. The problem is Im not sure about my perceiving functions, one of which is supposed to be my dominant. Thus, Ill provide arguments for both ISFJ and INFJ.

ISFJ (Si-Ne): 1) risk aversion, fear of new possibly dangerous experiences. For example, Id never skydive unless I did something similar before and know for sure Ill endure it. 2) I`m uncomfortable with deviating from my plans and in unexpected situations need someone to guide me. 3) I feel like Im wasting my life while being stuck in my comfort zone and missing great opportunities open for me right now. 4) I have a relatively set routine and live my daily life. 5) I want some positive changes, yet Im not sure how I can implement them.

INFJ (Ni-Se): 1) Im often told by others that I “expect too much” or “dont see things as they are”. 2) Feel inspired and optimistic when thinking about future (however, I only imagine abstract future and not how I can achieve it). 3) “Sudden realization” moments, which I cannot instantly explain by logic.(e.g. during long lectures I often know that a certain topic or concept will be pronounced) 4) chaotic thinking process: one idea leads to association with another, etc., so I come to some conclusions without thinking through something properly. 5) feel kinda low after my expectations have not been met and still can`t find my place in life.

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The case for Ni-Se is far more convincing. A lot of what you wrote for Si-Ne is likely better explained by Fe+Se problems.

typing stims !!! ⌨️

lucas baker !!!

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Day 1 of making stimboards of the N.E.R.D.S: Jackson “Braceface” Jones!!!!

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Green 1010 (aka Eloni) stimboard with assorted stims for @bitbitbitbitbit!!!!

THIS ONE TOOK A WHILE BUT IT WAS SO MUCH FUN TO MAKE!!! If ya want anything changed let me know!!!