This is an old thread but this might be a nice place for my first post.
I have an old ISTP friend who lives in a different country now. Still, he's like a brother to me and when we see each other it's always the same meeting of minds it ever was.
I'll summarise the data first and let it get more personal as I go, just in case any ISTPs S(e)e this! I think we represent great balance and growth for each other. We have each other's dominant as our tertiary so we both have to reach beyond our auxillary for communication. We also have an inverse relationship with our auxillary and inferiors so we have a mutual sensitivity to each other's weaknessnes and energy. This sequence and orientation means that not only can we both respect each other's faculties, but recognise them in ourselves too, and can learn to use them from one another. And both types love new ideas so it's an addictive process. But - and I dare say this might be why the theme here seems to be friends/silblings yay, partners nay - it's strenuous brain excercise.
We had that joke when we were younger that it would have been easier had we been gay or one of us a girl but when I think about it it might be exhausting. And energy is very important for INFJs and ISTPs who are fiercely independent and perfectionistic. I lived with him for a year or more in college and while we got to procrastinate together and analyse everything from varying perspectives, we both came to a point that we were exhausted with one another. We began to have fights that neither of us understood or wanted to have. I became very put down by his empirical thinking and I upset him with my withdrawal and short fuse. I feel that in a partnership both parties would have to make an effort to ensure that auxiliary and inferior interaction is managed very carefully.
Now the feely bit, which is very important to me at the moment because I've recently discovered that I might be
'in the grip'. I've had a strange few years with a very tempestuous relationship with an ENFP that ended while I was studying for quite a technical masters degree. I think this has landed me in a sensory/thinking trap that's been marked with a cooling of my response to art, an obsession with economics and politics, a distrust in my intuition, a disconnection from my feelings and others, and a self-doubt that I'm desperately trying to over-compensate for with the tone of this spiel!
I learned recently, from
that abstract, that after extended periods of sensory exhaustion INFJs will actually turn to over-sensing. Indulging without enjoyment and unhappily trying to find factual data that will explain their plight to them. The irony wasn't lost on me when MBTI obsessing led me to this. INFJs and our stupid need to trap ourselves in paradoxes and contradictions! So, apparently the way back to intuition is to feel your way. So tonight, I miss my absent ISTP brother and I want to F(e) it at the world!
We both had fetishes for ideas when we were teens. We would naturally spend hours throwing concepts and theories around approaching them from as many angles as we could, sharing our tastes and views. It was mentioned about getting the same answers but working it out a different way. This is very true of us and we like to hear each other's methods. We would go to concerts together and have different but equally jolting experiences; we played in a band together which was a space of mutual learning and expression where I think we were in many ways each other's blind spots; he's a great chef and when we eat together I can indulge my senses while listening to his vivid explanations of why it's good or bad or where it came from, I admire his passion for food and data and he admires my love of music and abstract ideas; and maybe most importantly at times when we have something we need to get through we can map it out together in ways that clear the fog away for both of us.
He's an incredibly bright, thoughtful and loyal friend who shares the world of the mind with me. He never judges and works to understand me, I him, and he's probably the only person who gives me advice that actually lands with me. I love him to tiny pieces and I think I'll have to copy and paste this to him!