It annoys me greatly when people try to tell me I'm one thing or another.
I know me, okay.
MBTI is based on a self-reporting system.
No one can know another person quite like they know themselves.
That's why I distrust people that claim I've been 'mistyped' or whatever.
THAT HAVING BEEN SAID.
I say I'm an INTP when I'm around other INTP's.
I say I'm an INFP when I'm around other INFP's.
(Most of my friends are one or the other. No, I don't have a lot of friends, and no, I don't keep in daily contact with a whole lot of them.)
I feel like I switch back and forth, really.
But recently someone informed me through a Youtube comment that this was impossible.
Here's the entire forth-and-back:
(I'm Cardinal Cora and the other person is greYelABLE. If you happen to be or know who this is, please be my friend :) Thx.)
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Cardinal Cora
Cardinal Cora3 months ago
Haha I'm INFP/INTP (F and T are almost 50/50) and I love how familiar this is. You use words I use and your phrasing/ editing breaks are similar. Cool beans
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greYelABLE
greYelABLE1 month ago
I suggest you study the functions; INFP and INTP, despite having only one letter, prefer different functions to process information.
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Cardinal Cora
Cardinal Cora1 month ago
+greYelABLE That's an interesting suggestion, but that is pretty much what I have been doing for the past 8 years. I re-take the MBTI every six months and I go from INTP to INFP and bacn again on an almost regular basis. I know my Te and Ti have a hard time reconciling with my Fe and Fi, and I myself struggle with the seeming incongruities on a daily basis. Everyone has their own unique variation of the types in their inner landscape, and it's not really as clear-cut as the system might initially imply. Then again, this may be my INFP esque Introverted intiition talking. Actually, it probably is. I use the MBTI system for introspection more than anything. :)
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greYelABLE
greYelABLE1 month ago
+Cardinal Cora +Cardinal Cora that's very strange... I know it took me a decade to finally identify myself as an INTP, but once I did, everything clicked into place. You can't use both sets of thoughts at the same time; you prefer one over the other. And it trips people up because your dominant function is something you use so commonly that you aren't even aware of it. For example, Ti will use people as data points for their own understanding. I would do this and not even know I was doing it. So that's how blindsided one can get with their dominant function. Ironic, since dominant function is the one you have the most conscious connection to.
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Cardinal Cora
Cardinal Cora1 month ago
+greYelABLE Yeah, my Ti does exactly that with people -- use them as data points, collect my ideas of/ analyses and observations of them like samples -- but then my very strong Fi and Ni will kick in simultaneously and start getting intensely involved, extrapolating emotions and imagined symbolic significance, seeing elements of myself in other people (=collected samples), digging into my own psychology and seeing how others resonate with me at times. Meanwhile, my tertiary Si recreates these observed and expanded-upon datasets within my internal landscape. Then my at-times inferior Fe, much like that of the archetypal INTP, will attempt half-heartedly to keep the lid on everything in a socially unobtrusive way. It confused me for a really long time. Still does, sometimes. :/
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greYelABLE
greYelABLE1 month ago
+Cardinal Cora you have strong Ni?? But Ni isn't a preferred choice for neither types... I'm getting confused with your identification method. I can see Ti and Fe screwing each other over, and being in a Ti-Si loop, even... and I used to think I used up all those functions in a confusing way, but I guarantee you use one over another or you'd have a pretty screwed up brain.
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Cardinal Cora
Cardinal Cora1 month ago
+greYelABLE you're right in that, in terms of blunt analysis, Ni as a cognitive function isn't originally either the INTP or INFP's preferred function, at least not usually. But the INFP is also pretty infamous for being stubborn about felt convictions, just like the INTP is a stickler for the truth rather than conventional wisdom, and that actually works a lot like it would in an archetypal INFJ, which prefers Ni. It's like the Fi (feeling that orients itself inwards, values authentic self being)and Ne (expansive, synchronizing intuition) combine with the introversion and perception to carve out a little negative vortex in which Ni (kind of like introspection) takes front and center eventually. Lots of INFP's mistype themselves as INFJ's, and vice versa, for this reason.
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Cardinal Cora
Cardinal Cora1 month ago
+Cardinal Cora Nowadays I have also started to think that being multilingual was a big part in forcing me to develop different "modes of being" to switch back and forth to and from. I tend to be more of an INTP in English/ in academic or formal situations, more INFP in my native language/ playful or intimate situations. Not just in terms of how I appear, but also in terms of how I process information and relate to people/ data/ patterns. I can feel myself switching gears, literally.
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greYelABLE
greYelABLE1 month ago
+Cardinal Cora well... Ni can be easily explained like this: the ability to be removed from the body, sort of floating up top, as they assess the situation, which gives them a whole view of the situation at hand. Fi+Ne and Ni aren't the same thing. Fi+Ne creates a very specific and personal interpretation from information presented, while Ni gives its user objective 3rd view of the information, albeit subjective to the person's own experience. It's very interesting to see from a third person pov. As for being multilingual... even that... Well, I am also multilingual (2 comfortable, and 2 uncomfortable), and I have to say that i may reach for Fe and Si instead of Ti and Ne in hopes to better convey my message or in panic, but I don't switch type completely just because I'm learning a new language. BTW, I'm not doing this to be antagonistic; I merely want to help you set some new data points because at least for me, not being able to figure out a comfortable result was maddening.
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greYelABLE
greYelABLE1 month ago
+Cardinal Cora one of those things will be less comfortable than the other; like a suit that's a bit tight on the sleeves or chest, or loose zipper, etc. for me, that was a dead giveaway. There is a weakness; because if you function under "two" types, you have two weaknesses. Under your current paradigm, it's both Fe and Te, which... sucks for you. But you know in your own heart which you're better at. There is always a desire to overcompensate for that inferior function, and depending on what area of life that is, that's probably your correct code. Tests whether paid or not, aren't useful if they don't help you become better your actual life; as in theory has no use if it doesn't give you satisfaction in knowledge or gives you real life results. I've tested as every single type depending on my mood, and have tried to act like every type, only to realize they didn't fit my natural mode of existence. One fits better. Let go of any hangups or personal biases and experiment. Develop Ne!
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Cardinal Cora
Cardinal Cora1 month ago (edited)
+greYelABLE See, that's the thing -- I've tried to be one over the other, but that doesn't work for me. In fact I've more often than not ended up hurting myself each time I tried to negate or deny a certain facet of myself. I've since come to terms with the fact that duality and plurality are at the core of who I am, in a way. I can't give up my mother tongue and function mainly in English, but I can't give up English (which symbolizes my INTP side, largely) and function mainly in another language either. I've tried -- I live in a pretty nationalistic and volatile region, so I actually went without speaking or reading English for a full two years and became severely depressed to the point of attempting suicide. Both aspects of myself are equally and exactly important to me. The test is one of many ways I've been trying to sound myself out and monitor my internal self. Most of my friends are either INTP or INFP -- when I am with INTP friends, I enjoy sharing wry humor and heated analytical debates that get to the bottom of things, but feel they lack a certain depth or warmth; when speaking with INFP friends, I find they tend to drown in their own emotions, which is actually something I find comfort in because they can resonate with me, but they lack logical stability, which makes me nervous and agitated. This, of course, tells me more about myself than my friends as objective beings. Then again, typology isn't an exact science, and neither is psychology. So :)
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greYelABLE
greYelABLE4 weeks ago
+Cardinal Cora I've done some research, and unless you have a mental disorder, you can't use both function sets as you've described (language). INTP and INFP only share Ne-Si; Their judging functions are totally opposite; you CAN'T PREFER Ti and Te at the same time; it's not possible. You know this. Also, INTP types can get very warm and excited when it's about a topic they care about; if you met me in real life, there's no way you'd have thought I preferred INTP, because INTP extraverts intuition and feeling.
Also, INFP's may drown in feeling, but they don't show that, so I don't know how you would have known it if you weren't also an INFP preferrer yourself. From what you've said, I'd say you prefer INFP. One of my good (perhaps best?) friends is an INFP preferrer, and I rarely knew what she was feeling. But then she told me years later she was having trouble with emotions and feeling depressed and whatnot. That genuinely caught me by surprise. Also, the fact that an INFP person's inability to show logic making you nervous and anxious shows a form of mirroring, where you're stressed because you're seeing your own weakness in others (Te).
For example, I also cringe when a character or someone with lower preference for Fe is obviously not being group-conscious for the sake of being logical, because it is my weakness, and I've suffered much for that tendency.
I am always able to pick up an inconsistency in my friends' logic and can voice it out. I've ruined many friendships that way, as what I thought was obvious and should be pointed out offended some value of theirs. I'm sure that my comments will offend you. If it does, you're either undeveloped INTP who hates being wrong, OR you prefer INFP, as I've stepped on your values. I do this so naturally, that I didn't even realize I did this until I really looked at myself.
If you were an INTP, you wouldn't be thinking that the INTP person was being cold. You'd be too busy absorbing what they're saying (if it's interesting), being bored out of your mind (thus zoning out), and/or trying to see if there is any inconsistency in their thought process (I also do this like I breathe). Do you not see how you're judging based on how you feel about them? You're doing it so naturally, that you don't even see it.
A good way to figure out what you prefer (truly), is to figure out where you have or had have the most trouble in life. Is it Te or Fe? I bet it's Te, at least from what you've said so far.
Tests are at best 70% accurate and aren't exact science. Order matters, and so does what you prefer to use. Remember that this is a PREFERENCE. We ALL use all 8 functions, but we prefer to use 4 over the other 4. We can't prefer to use all 8, no matter how much we desire. Yes, I can use ENTJ (my shadow order) and have done so when I was very very unhealthy or needed to. But there's no joy derived from using it, and it shut down my INTP preference.
I'd say your desire to hold onto something (even if clearly erroneous) shows personal bias and attachment, where you've created an identity of being both and holding onto it despite the logical impossibility.
Also the comparison to the inability to speak English to your personal preference doesn't seem like a logical comparison. Language is learned. We eventually acknowledge it as personality because it is our primary way of communicating with the world, but it is a learned skill. Preference is something you naturally do to understand how you learn. Also, if being INFP is your mother tongue, then INTP is merely a persona or a mask you put on like English, which while you may be good at, isn't as close to fitting you as your mother language. Which means you prefer INFP and NOT INTP.
**Please do understand I'm not picking on you in any way, but if you studied this, you'd understand that while it's not exact science, certain combinations are impossible unless you've had severe mental/psychological trauma and are suffering from say, multiple personality disorder. Do not look at the outlier and forsake the standard curve. They're both part of the data. Could you possibly prefer INFP and INTP function? Maybe. Is it probable? Highly unlikely.
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Cardinal Cora
Cardinal Cora4 weeks ago
+greYelABLE Fascinating response, thanks. My computer is wonky so I'm on mobile, and I wasn't able to read the last part of your message so bear with me, but I appreciate your thoroughness and input. While I am a messed up individual, I don't know if I'm so atypical/disordered as to defy MBTI type-casting altogether. I've just identified so strongly as both INTP and INFP for such a long while, and this has been quite integral to my self-understanding, that I am hesitant to call it one way or another. (Recognizing, hating, or accepting a trait in myself or others doesn't necessitate or ensure its dominance/lack.) Your comment on how Ti and Te are mutually exclusive got me thinking.. in traditional Jungian theory, Carl Jung cordoned off a certain definition of the Thinking function as belonging more to Intuitive intelligence; maybe I am conflating how these work. I tested more as INTP in '09 and as INFP in '15, so there's always the 'change over time"argument too. will look more into it
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greYelABLE
greYelABLE4 weeks ago (edited)
+Cardinal Cora Heh, we're all messed up at some level. :)
I understand your hesitation; I myself also thought I was an INTJ for a very long time, before wondering if I was an ENFP (that desire to be a feeler sometimes...). Both INTP and INFP types are notorious for not being able to come to a firm conclusion. I question whether I truly prefer INTP almost every day, even though I've never seen my thought process and behavior be so completely fitting with an INTP! However, unlike other types, I also end up affirming that I am INTP every day, simply by observing what I do, what I pick up on, what annoys me, and what angers/frustrates me.
You are who you are. Type is merely a skeleton, a way to understand your core motivation for survival, and nothing else.
Don't trust the test result. Like I said, it has a high error rate, which is why Typology is considered a soft science. I recommend personalityjunkies.com, which covers INFP vs INTP pretty well, as well as "personality hacker," where they also have podcasts that provide in-depth analysis.
Ah, I'm not promoting either sites; I just got very good information from both. I don't know anyone from these websites personally.
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So that was long but here you go.
And have a great day everybody.
-K