Personally, I think INFJs are more similar to those with Williams Syndrome.
I agree. Autism tends to be those who are super T. Williams Syndrome are super F. Gross overgeneralization, but whatever.
Personally, I think INFJs are more similar to those with Williams Syndrome.
I relate very much with the first 2 paragraphs of your post! Thank you!This. I tend to be very much a stickler for the social norms and morality. I tend to believe the best in people no matter what, to the point where I can't really understand how anyone can't hold to the same standards of behavior.
However I can also be very empathetic, but not know how to approach someone to help. I hate it. Or, I see that someone is having trouble but I don't have a relationship with them so I don't feel I can step in and help. Making friends is very difficult for me but I truly value the relationships I have and would do anything for my friends (I have two, not counting my husband, all male.) One of my good friends is several states away and I know when he's not doing well without having read or heard that he isn't, but when I check in with him I discover he wasn't doing well.
But mostly I am empathetic with animals. I understand them much better than human relationships.
By the way I have typed on the official MBTI as INFJ several times; admittedly however the preference for N is somewhat weak. But the F is fairly strong.
Not all autistics or Aspies are thinking oriented; part of it has to do with any other learning disabilities they might have. Myself, I feel stuck as I'm neither logical nor artistically inclined. I prefer art to logic but have an innate inability for both.
Autism is a disorder of empathy development. People who are autistic have an aberration of the brain that messes with their socialisation instinct. They are unable to empathise and mix with others (depending on the severity of the autism). High-functioning autistic people learn how to socialise in a patterned way (if their brain is not too damaged this is very possible). They learn by observation of other people that when a joke is told they should laugh, when others smile they should too. Etc. There is a misconception that autistic people don't feel. I can't see any reason why they wouldn't, their disorder is not one of emotional development, it is of empathy, which is very different. As such, a high-functioning autistic could test as an INFJ or ISFJ because they learn rules such as politeness = importance. But the part of development they are lacking in is the ability to understand others, feel as they do, understand how they must feel - anything to do with empathy. As such, they may not use Fi as such (my values) because they do need to be taught social rules. But they also do not use Fe (the rules) because their motive to use it is entirely conscious. They think about it and do it because they know the answer. So it may test like Fe but really it's just that someone has taught them socially acceptable rules that Fe bases itself on. Because these are cognitive processes and autistic people's brains and minds work in a very different way, they kind of use cognitive function x - it's a different cognitive function to the rest of us.
I'm an INFJ with Asperger's Syndrome and I suspect Thomas Jefferson and Ludwig Wittgenstein were INFJ Aspies.
Fe is about social norms and rules, not the "empathic" nonverbal communication those of us on the autism spectrum have trouble with. In fact, FJ autistics, I would guess, would tend to become strongly and obsessively observant of social norms and rules and standards of behavior. Or they would have a naively optimistic view of human nature, assuming that just because he or she holds to norms of "good behavior" then all people have those norms within them and are inherently good.
There has been a widely held belief that people with autism spectrum disorders lack empathy. This article examines the empathy imbalance hypothesis (EIH) of autism. According to this account, people with autism have a deficit of cognitive empathy but a surfeit of emotional empathy. The behavioral characteristics of autism might be generated by this imbalance and a susceptibility to empathic overarousal. The EIH builds on the theory of mind account and provides an alternative to the extreme-male-brain theory of autism. Empathy surfeit is a recurrent theme in autistic narratives, and empirical evidence for the EIH is growing. A modification of the pictorial emotional Stroop paradigm could facilitate an experimental test of the EIH.
I'm not sure what type Temple Grandine could be, but she is definitely someone who has a high functioning autism and has show feeling preferences, imo.
Feeling? I think she is an ISTJ. I've read a couple of her books and she definitely seems Si dominant, IMO.
Hello, it’s a pleasure to meet all of you. My name is Colin Newman, and I would like to say that your MBTI does not determine whether your autistic or not simply because autism is a spectrum. ASD has a wide range of symptoms and traits that it shares with many other disorders. I myself was diagnosed with both high functioning autism and ADHD, yet I am for sure an INFJ. As a child fitting in was never easy I had a fascination with things that my peers were not interested in, such as space, dinosaurs and other scientific things. However I also had high levels of empathy, so much so that I was highly sensitive to the pain of others. What I’m trying to say is that like most things autism is a spectrum. If you met one Autistic person only means you have met that kind of person, not the group.I was wondering how an INFJ autist would function considering that Autism, especially high functionning autism, is often associated with an extreme thinking preference due to a different developmental pattern.
However, my guess would be that while Autists would tend score as thinkers, many of them could actually be feelers and not know it because they would look more like someone in a loop than the usual person of one type.
What do you think ? Does anyone have Autism here to help me understand ? Or just an opinion.
Hello, it’s a pleasure to meet all of you. My name is Colin Newman, and I would like to say that your MBTI does not determine whether your autistic or not simply because autism is a spectrum[...] I myself was diagnosed with both high functioning autism and ADHD, yet I am for sure an INFJ[...] I also had high levels of empathy, so much so that I was highly sensitive to the pain of others.
Kamila and Henry Markram's work on Intense World Theory and the notion of different types of empathy is useful for understanding how this might manifest, which also helps redress a lot of the nonsense about people on the spectrum sharing traits with sociopaths.
your MBTI does not determine whether your autistic or not simply because autism is a spectrum. ASD has a wide range of symptoms and traits that it shares with many other disorders. I myself was diagnosed with both high functioning autism and ADHD, yet I am for sure an INFJ.
This article is highly informative. Thank you very much, NiennaLadyOfTears.
I fit the Empathy Imbalance theory. Other people's feelings come through strongly to me, but I misinterpret them, and I am easily distressed by them.
Colin, your'e sure you're an INFJ. Did you read the article?
I'm not sure I'm an INFJ. According to what it theorizes, I strongly feel the presence of people's emotions; therefore, I have Emotional Empathy; but I misinterpret them, so I lack Cognitive Empathy.
I register emotions going on around me, but I'm ill-equipped to deal with them in a socially appropriate manner without analyzing them intellectually. It's a learned response, which takes effort and energy.
Raw emotions overwhelm me. For example, if an animal is suffering pain, I will immediately rescue it. If a person becomes angry at me, it will trigger my "fight or flight" response.
I need time to think about my response, to write it down, analyze it, and rehearse it. I prefer to cite laws and use the power structure to win an argument. In an emotional conflict, I find it hard to defend values. I hate it when people invalidate my feelings.
I'm high-functioning on the autism scale, and I do think that autism could affect the outcome of a personality type test.
Is it Cognitive Empathy that makes an INFJ? Or Emotional Empathy? My F and T scores were unremarkable, but my N and J scores were high. Perhaps I function as an INTJ, but I don't screen out stimulus in the form of emotions.
I am more than positive I am an INFJ. When you look at the cognitive functions of each personality type and how they are placed you come to realize that each individual uses them differently.
So, what happens if I am typed as INFJ, but I use Fe poorly? Because I do. Fe feels like swimming in a turbulent ocean, being thrown this way and that. When I use it, people get the impression that I am inconsistent (at best) or a liar (at worst). Fi feels more secure to me. I feel centered, even if other people accuse me of being unjustified in my feelings.
So, am I just mistyped?
What I mean to say is, I'm pervious to emotions in a way that autistic people are also pervious to light or sound or texture. Is that really Fe? Or is it just poor abilit to screen out?
How I feel about Fe? I feel uncomfortable trying to make people happy. I don't like that function. I think people feel the way they feel, and I can't change that....all that matters is how you feel about it.