Everything INFJ-y

[Motor Jax]

Interesting side note. ('cuse the thought got into my mind and I HAD to figure it out)

There are aprox. 6,786,401,135 in the world right now.
with only 1% being INFJ, that leaves 67,894,011.35 people that are INFJ
The total surface of land on the planet is 148,940,000 km

 

[AUM]

Interesting side note. ('cuse the thought got into my mind and I HAD to figure it out)

There are aprox. 6,786,401,135 in the world right now.
with only 1% being INFJ, that leaves 67,894,011.35 people that are INFJ
The total surface of land on the planet is 148,940,000 km

 

[lydia]

Hi. I know how you feel. I feel very not understood. I know who I am, but I feel very alone with it.

 

[elysium]

"Abstract thoughts. Loves reality and abstract. Intelligent and clever. Changing personality. Attractive. Temperamental. Quiet, shy and humble. Honest and loyal. Determined to reach goals. Loves freedom. Rebellious when restricted. Loves aggressiveness. Too sensitive and easily hurt. Gets angry really easily but does not show it. Dislikes unnecessary things. Loves making friends but rarely shows it. Daring and stubborn. Ambitious. Realizing dreams and hopes. Sharp. Loves entertainment and leisure. Romantic on the inside not outside. Superstitious and ludicrous. Spendthrift. Tries to learn to show emotions."

I've never read anything that's summed me up so perfectly! This forum is absolutely amazing. I never realised that a few letters could describe me like this! Not everything is 100% accurate...but as a general description, it's spot-on.

Anyway, knowing that INFJs are so rare explains a lot, too. Like how I feel "misunderstood" a most of the time. Hehe

 

[Vince]

INFJs often have, without formal training, skills in group dynamics. Almost psychically, they are aware of various levels of interaction between and among people. However, such awareness remains largely their own, and efforts to make these observations known to others can be frustrating to INFJs. Though they may maneuver themselves to receive affection, INFJs may be quite sparing in dispensing it to others because of their naturally Introverted manner.

I find myself doing this often! I've been pretty fascinated at how this functionally happens, and I didn't have the complete realization of identifying this phenomenon until I read this. I did note that not everyone has the intuition to do this, but it is a bit more than fascinating to say the least.

I have to partially disagree with the communication part though. As I get a tad bit older I find that communication is far more freed up and open than what it once was for me. I do recognize that I am not able to fully communicate this to those I confide in about group settings, but I can see how one could come to that end.

Overall I feel as though I do make an attempt to define the world I live in through introspection. It seems as though selfish, the introspection I use is genuinely not self seeking, but rather the "test" media for the improvement of others. This I find to be more of the "self sacrificing" trait found in the Hippocratic base "melancholic" temperament.

I'll need some time to learn and acquire the proper MBTI etiquette, for future discussion. My instruction has been established in the Hippocratic style, however I do find the MBTI much more thorough, and accurate.

 

[Vince]

Im a total INFJ and I hate it. I've taken the test 34832489 times sense I was 16 (now 24) and its always been the same. Im constantly hurt, confused at peoples mean-ness and often feel like SHUTTING DOWN. Im glad to find this forum though, I need a few people who are on my wave length to reaffirm that I am not insane.

Embrace it, It's who you are. What you hate is your inability to relate to others. You are different, created that way on purpose, and it's up to you to identify and establish that purpose.

My initial intent in responding to your post was not to pick apart your statement, but rather to identify with your comment of "shutting down". I can totally relate to this. When backed into a corner, socially or otherwise, That is exactly the behavior I exhibited. after recognizing and identifying this, I overcame it by taking time to calm down and re-balance my feelings. over time, this can become routine.

Balance is a KEY theme for the life of an INFJ.

I assure you, you are not only not insane, but your not alone.

 

[TipsyToes]

Well I don't believe I have ever felt 'misunderstood', except when I go around beating myself up for everything and tell myself I'll never really fit in anywhere, but I think that's just my problem of being extremely sensitive about most things...

But oh well. I find that I make friends very easily, but I don't think there are many people with whom I would ever tell my deepest darkest thoughts to. I doubt there would be that many people who would really understand the significance of those things that I feel, or get why I think the things I do.

 

[rawr]

Well, I've known I'm INFJ for quite a few years now. I want to say I took the test the first time when I was around 18 or 19 and am now 26, and it's resulted in INFJ every time except once, when it resulted in INTJ. However this is the first time I've ever actually pursued any real knowledge of the subject (which I guess, inevitably is me) and I'm a bit overwhelmed. It seems like everyone on this site so far has a vast awareness not only of their own MBTI type but of others as well, and to be honest I can barely understand my own.

I'm feeling a little behind.

ditto. exactly. same here. especially on the subject of the well, i have no idea what to call them, subtypes? the Se Ne Ni things? yeah, what's up with that??

although i did read Dr. David Keirsey's Please Understand Me , very interesting. I wish i could have checked it out longer . best of luck my friend.

 

[Peppermint]

I don't think I've seen this posted...

Introverted Intuition

Most types rely on Introverted Intuition to contend with ambiguities of meaning and perception - that is, to see that a situation can be interpreted in more than one way...It may seem peculiar, therefore, to depend on this function for one's primary understanding of reality...It should be emphasized that INJs are very much ENPs in this respect. Where Extroverted Intuitives see many behavioral options, INJs acknowledge many conceptual standpoints. They experience no need to declare one inherently better than another. Indeed these types have the disconcerting habit of solving a problem by shifting their perspective and defining the situation some other way.
[There is a] framework of beliefs and expectations that we maintain. Some are dictated by society; others are a matter of subjective experience - our gender, our name, our history, our vocation, our background. Knowledge is facilitated, limited and directed by boundary conditions.
INJs have an unusual awareness of how such conditions determine our conceptual vocabulary, and their Intuition leads them to discern aspects of reality that aren't being acknowledged. Thus, many INJs choose professions that allow them to work with questions of language and terminology - as editors, mathematicians, psychologists, theologians, poets and programmers. Any field that involves conceptual signs and categories is likely to interest these types. The difficulty, of course, is that an INJ's Intuition often takes the type beyond the reach of existing vocabulary....INJs are often frustrated by the limits of the language they are using to test the freight of their Intuitions - whether their means of expression involves the written word, mathematics, musical or scientific notation, meta psychology, or art. As they shift vantage points, they're obliged to invent new terms, reinterpret old ones or use words like "post-modern" to avail themselves of the categories their Intuitions are pointing beyond.

Because INJs can't develope their primary skils without analyzing the way things are generally described and understood, these types are likely to experience themselves as different from others. Constituting only two percent of the population, young INJs can feel isolated, unable to fit in even when they want to. Before their skills are well-developed, it's difficult for these types to justify the questions that occur to them. After all, Introverted Intuitions are not really ideas. They're like trains at the edge of articulated knowledge. You can't clain them or advocate them. You put on a hat, grab hold of a boxcar door, and see where they go.

INFJs in particular, who need others' encouragement and approval to establish a positive self-image, struggle with feelings of alienation, and they often develope an ironic sense of humor that protects them from self-revelation and assures them of positive relationships. INTJs do this also, but they're not as reluctant to ask questions ans summarily reject the answers.

INJs have no choice but to cup Intution's small flame against the hard wind of others' beliefs and opinions...Once INJs learn to do this, they have to learn to STOP doing it. Such types are never satisfied with what they know, and it takes a real effort for them to set limits and make use of the knowledge they already have. In fact, an INJ who feels well-informed is likely to have so much information that imposing order on it and sharing it with others is almost impossible.

[contrasting Ni & Ne]...ENPs are most visible in the first blush of discovery, when they're excited and optimistic. They aggressively seek feedback from the people around them, and they welcome others' involvement in formulating their Intuitions and carrying out their plans.
INJs are least accessible in the discovery process. Like the prince in the story of "Cinderella", they're solitary, sometimes obsessive, fitting Intuition to expressible terms like the glass slipper to potential brides. Until they've managed a good enough fit between their inner reality and an outward vocabulary, INJs may not even know what they're after, and they won't involve others in formulating their plans.

INJs understand context as a mental phenomenon, something that people bring to the outer world from within. Thus, they don't see "wholeness" as an integrated endpoint. Wholeness, for INJs, is the chaotic beginning - raw sensory (Ni) input without meaning...One might also suggest that the Internet is a pretty decent reflection of the way INJs think. Information is constantly proliferating in all different directions. One click of the mouse and your entire perspective shifts. You give away one idea and in return you get access to more data than you'll ever be able to look at.

by Lenore Thomson Benz

 

[Peppermint]

The INFJ Profile

Because INFJs use Se to relate to the outer would, they may seem more outgoing than they really are. Their personal approach and ability to find common ground with others combines with their intuitive need for innovation and alternative views, and they frequently find themselves in positions of authority. They may not seek leadership, but they are often elected by others to serve on boards and committees. People appreciate their ability to listen and to consider group feelings and values.

Thus, it should be recognized that INFJs and more like INTJs than they initially appear. Their primary relationship is to their inner world, and they are receptive to others only up to a point. Indeed, these types often find that their sympathy and perceptive listening have been mistaken for an overture of friendship, which they didn't intend.

Unlike INTJs however, their sense of the unexpressed is not impersonal an causal; it is intensely personal and oriented by emotional awareness. Their intuition takes them into psychological areas that other types are likely to keep at bay. Because they don't usually know right away the import of what they're intuiting, they may "go along" with a questionable situation until they can get a hold of how they actually feel about it. This tendency can be confusing to others, and it is often misinterpreted as reckless experimentation.

Like INTJs, INFJs have a penchant for abstraction and symbolic representation. If interested, they excel in the fields of science, math and medicine. However, they are not generally motivated by sheer intellectual challenge. INFJs require a sense of meaning in the work they do. They are more likely than INTJs to personalize their skills - as teachers, psychologists, consultants, ministers and family doctors. They are particularly sensitive to others' feelings of exclusion, and they may address or try to rectify inequities of status or opportunity within the context of their profession.

Such types can be quite tenacious in pointing out the discrepancies between stated beliefs and actual behavior. This is the arena in which their intuition is most evident. INFJs wrestle all their lives with the conflict they perceive maintaining harmonious relationships and expressing emotional truth, and it is a central issue in the books, novels, plays, and psychological articles that INFJs write. Their 1 percent representation in the population belies the tremendous influence these types have in shaping cultural ideas about identity and being true to oneself.

INFJs are exquisitely sensitive to nuance and suggestion - all the ways we unwittingly express how we feel, who we are, what we believe about ourselves and others. They are not interested in the precision of language, as INTJs are, but in its rich possibilities for metaphor and multiple layers of meaning. They often have a gift for verbal imagery or poetic expression, and they are sometimes capable of raising to consciousness something that others can only dimly sense.

INFJs frequently express themselves indirectly, depending on unstated implications to carry their meaning, and they can be put off by too direct a reference to something that is of great value to them.

Because INFJs are so alert to the unsaid, they may find it difficult to sort out their own emotions from the mood and feelings they discern in others. Young INFJs, in particular, are sometimes labeled hyper-sensitive or melodramatic, because their self-experience is tied to others emotional boundaries.

Optimally, they bring their emotional insights into the community as art, or they use them to help others come to terms with conflict in their own lives. INFJs are also capable of turning their inner experience into trenchant social commentary - by finding their truest voice and using it, perhaps in the ministry, or in the kind of edgy comedy of a Richard Pryor (I think also perhaps Dave Chapelle anyone?). Types who do this can become a potent focal point for others' unexpressed fears and yearnings. However, the pressure of speaking one's own truth in a public forum is ultimately taxing for most INFJs.

The INFJs sense of physical well-being is very much allied with their relationships and emotional investments. They want very much to be liked, buy they're afraid of being hurt, and they often develop a sense of humor that helps them to maintain a wide range of friendly contacts. Such types are by turns highly sociable and maddeningly inaccessible.

INFJs have to find some way to sort out their feelings from the feelings of others - in not in writing or art, then in an expression of religious faith, or the effort to help others to express themselves.

Like INTJs, INFJs have a tendency to use their secondary function for protection - for example, to distance themselves froma relationship that demands too much of them emotionally. They are entirely capable of meeting the expected surface demands of a situation, all the while nursing secret criticisms of a partner or a friend.

In general, these types do create their own reality, and it is one of great riches - a storehouse that artists, poets and writers draw from for their material. However, if their inner life is not balanced with reality, they may feel so different from others that they become self-conscious and defensive. They may be drawn to dysfunctional people, romanticizing their ability to see something in them that others cannot see.

INFJs are a bit like Merlin, summoned by the voice of Nimue deep with the enchanted forest. The song they hear is calling them elsewhere, beyond the cultivated borders of common consensus. When they are able to use their Extroverted Feeling function well, they bring that song back into the public domain, find a way to integrate it into the fabric of the community. INFJs who don't do this can get trapped, like the great wizard of Camelot, in a kind of enchantment that robs them of their very genuine powers of discernment and insight.

by Lenore Thomson Benz

 

[Jana]

"They may be drawn to dysfunctional people, romanticizing their ability to see something in them that others cannot see."

How precise, it is story of my life!!! I am somehow obsesed with hidden qualities of others: strenght in weak person, weakness in strong ones etc.

 

[2understandme]

"They may be drawn to dysfunctional people, romanticizing their ability to see something in them that others cannot see."

Yup! Me too

 

[Ecton]

My twin brother is drawn to dysfunctional people, and he's an INTJ. I avoid his dysfunctional relationships and try to warn him, but he likes his women narcissistic and rejectiony.

 

[Ria]

first off, a link for the INFJ type:
http://www.mbticentral.com/forums/nf-idyllic/4629-infj-profile.html


so, the basics:

"Portrait of the Counselor Idealist (INFJ).

 

[Questingpoet]

I'm glad you finally see what we saw all along--the best qualities of the INFJ mirrored in you. Welcome back to the fold my friend!

 

[lux22]

i find that the more i read about infjs the more interesting it becomes to be one, i find it a relief to understand myself and use this understanding to grow as a person. I identify with that we are really conscious of our looks and have a hard time accepting compliments, because we over think whether they are genuine or superficial.

 

[jewel]

Balance is a KEY theme for the life of an INFJ.

I assure you, you are not only not insane, but your not alone.

That is deffinitely what i put most of my energy into.. finding balance. It's always been extremely important to me to find that and trying to working on the patience because we all know balance is an art and its takes a life-time to figure out and another even possibly to achieve. I am no SUPERHUMAN. Its going to take time and i need to belive in my abilities, relax and take it one step at a time. Life is meant to figure out and find the center of who you are, other are to you and what the world around you means. BALANCE is most certainly what we are here[especailly as INFJ's] to discover.

 

[jewel]

"They may be drawn to dysfunctional people, romanticizing their ability to see something in them that others cannot see."

How precise, it is story of my life!!! I am somehow obsesed with hidden qualities of others: strenght in weak person, weakness in strong ones etc.

i truely agree with your experiences. theres so much hidden inside of people at their core. human nature that in all of us ,that we don't always express or maybe not be even known to to that person. so much beauty, insight, thoughts, feelings, potential, chaos, pain, confusion inside their inner world that only they know. i constantly am trying to figure people out that way.

 

[jewel]

Im a total INFJ and I hate it. I've taken the test 34832489 times sense I was 16 (now 24) and its always been the same. Im constantly hurt, confused at peoples mean-ness and often feel like SHUTTING DOWN. Im glad to find this forum though, I need a few people who are on my wave length to reaffirm that I am not insane.

Sensitivity is a gift , but its not always an easy one to have. my question im wondering is.. do you just not like the sensitive , easily hurt, feeling side of yourself or are you lost or doubting yourself as whole? You seem like your questioning yourself and are not okay with who you are... (correct my if im wrong.) Do you resent those of other personality types like those who are more extroverted? Do you constantly wish you could be someone else.. or does that feeling ever come over you. i have often felt misunderstood by people and that has led to me feeling hurt by others and alone. I am 17 so my life experience is behind yours, but sounds to me like your over critical of yourself and your own ideals of who you should be.. that resonates a lot with my own self and im constantly questioning my own motives and intentions. being an INFJ is something you should imbrace. most people on here are older and have spends lot of time with themselves and have theired to accept and embrace who they are. i don't feel my INFJ strengths are as strong as they should be and think it will come in time. you have to learn to accept your your ways before you will ever enjoy being an INFJ and reach your full potential. theres qualities in us all we don't like but those are road blocks that give us the determination to want to be our best selves.

 

[Imightbecrazy]

I've never heard truer words than the profile above. Absolutely accurate, I feel like someone has been spying on my life, creepy. Maybe I'm not bipolar at all? Hmmm....