So you think the aptitude (or dare I say potential?) for each function to be developed just as well as in a Fx-dominant person is there all the time? Ready to be developed in spite of our developed preferences? Or do you think there is a limit to it?
I think we all use all the functions, pretty well all of the time, but we don't have awareness, conscious control or proficiency in many of them - according to our type. A reasonable analogy is handedness. I'm right handed but still use my left hand for a lot of things, but it doesn't work as well as my right and works best when both are engaged together in a common task, like driving or playing a musical instrument, or typing on the keyboard I'm using now for example. If I try writing with my left hand, I can just about make it legible, but it looks awful and takes ages, and does my head in
. I did persist once in my teens out of curiosity and got fairly ok at writing but it wasn't fun and I've lost that now.
It might be useful to look at this interview with Katherine Myers who is Isabel Myers' daughter in law - Topic 8 is the most relevant to this discussion, but the whole interview is very useful.
http://tap3x.net/EMBTI/j4kmyers.html
Sorry
, I feel like I am close to understanding, combined with being tired means I am getting jumpy. Time to go to bed.
It's a bit obvious by the way you write that you lean more on the side of infj rather than intj.
If I were you, I'd read through this thread again one more time, refresh your understanding of the description of infj from an mbti text book if you have one, or one of the main mbti websites, then let it alone for a few days. You will go round in circles otherwise - so let your Ni do its work without flooding it with too much thinking - I've been there and done that
. You may find the answer just jumps out at you in a few days time.
Am I right that you mentioned you are in your late 40s? Jung was always very clear that people start developing away from their main type in the second half of their lives and this can confuse the way you complete type questionnaires, or experience your preferences. You need to be aware of this, but your primary and secondary should still be clear because they will feel the most easy and natural to use once you have grasped what they are.
Just one more thought - the way you shut out your brother and sister is very typical of infjs. We are so sensitive to the negative feelings from major inter-relational difficulties that we may terminate contact as a self-preservation thing. There's a lot in the mbti literature about the infj "doorslam".
By the way, I scored a 5 in the enneagram. Slightly towards wing 4, so 5w4.
As you can see from my personal details, I'm Enneagram 5 with 4 too, with 9 in the 3rd place of the enneagram trigram - this is consistent over several tests over some period of time.
@Wyote , I seem to remember seeing a comment from yourself some months ago about this being unusual for infjs. It certainly puts us firmly on the intellectual end of the mbti spectrum. I think this could be why you are getting cross talk with the F v T thing because I've had the same issue in the past
