SimulatedWorld's Profiles

ESTP, or Extroverted Sensing Thinking Perceiver, is a label borrowed from MBTI nomenclature and now applied to the Jungian Cognitive Function set {Se, Ti, Fe, Ni}.

Dominant: Extroverted Sensation (Se)

"As much as I can, I try to keep moving at all times. I have to be involved in something exciting and I get bored easily if there's not some kind of challenge to conquer or new area to explore and figure out. When I see an opportunity to try something new, I tend to jump in with both eyes open and just deal with whatever happens. I'm really good at adjusting to whatever is going on around me--I know how to impress people and I like it when I'm able to show off my skills and gain recognition for my abilities. I'm really competitive and I'll usually put a lot of energy into whatever I'm doing. I get annoyed with silly or pointless rules and I tend to ignore them when they get in the way of whatever I'm trying to do. Sometimes I can be so directly aggressive that my bluntness and high energy level can even offend people, but I'm usually not really trying to upset anyone (although I'm not above occasionally prodding people for reactions--it's all in good fun.) I just need a lot of freedom to get involved in a lot of things and interact with a lot of people, and if I can't feel the level of energy and excitement that I need, I'll just move on to something else. I have a kind of natural way with reading people, too--I can just look and listen and figure out what they're doing. I don't like spending a lot of time talking about or planning things when I could be experiencing them instead--whatever problems may come up, I can always figure them out when I get there. I just have to get moving! I respect people who can back up their words with real actions--nothing gets the point across better than getting out there and doing it. If you're not willing to go out and show the world what you're made of, how can you ever expect to have any real impact on anything?"

As Se dominants, ESTPs are, of all types, among the most directly engaged with their external sensory environments. Constantly scanning their surroundings for sensory information and opportunities to respond, adjust to, or interact with it, ESTPs tend to be easily recognizable by virtue of the fact that their primary value system makes a point of making itself obviously and tangibly apparent to others through direct sensory stimuli and universally understandable direct impact. The stereotypes commonly associated with ESTPs--that they need constant stimulation and action--are not, in most cases, far from the truth. Characteristically disinterested in that which is not immediately applicable to the situation at hand, the ESTP's aggressively confrontational demeanor and emphasis on objectivity may result in some difficulty with distinguishing him from the similarly aggressive ENTJ. The primary difference, of course, is that ESTPs are motivated by different primary goals and mindsets than ENTJs--while the latter is more intently focused on long term strategic planning, seeking to control his environment and promote efficient resource distribution for deliberately planned ends, the former is inspired primarily by a desire to feel connected to and in tune with the sensations of his surroundings.

ESTPs want to feel actively engaged as often as they can--and while they may superficially resemble ENTJs in terms of their blunt interpersonal style and desire for tangible action and measurable impact, their approach is, on the whole, far less methodical and substantially more focused on the experience itself than on its long term strategic implications. ENTJs think, plan, focus, deconstruct, and evaluate--ESTPs simply act when the external conditions of the moment call for it. While ENTJs tend to insist on planning for every contingency, ESTPs trust their natural adaptability and instinct for opportunity to guide them toward the right action when the right time comes. Unlike ENTJs, they often cannot explain how or why they choose the right moment for action--they simply see it when it happens and act on it before the window of opportunity closes. They live not in the world of abstraction and organizational efficiency, but in that of bold actions and instantaneous reactions. They are the ultimate tactical responders, and they show little patience for procedural standards or regard for what they see as unreasonable rules or restrictions on their freedom to act and respond in whatever way makes the most sense at the moment.

Like their ESFP cousins, ESTPs know how to impact the senses of others around them. They're often seen as the go-to people when their friends and family want to know what's fun and interesting, and they tend to have an unusual flair for the nuances of presentation and visual style. Less scrupulous ESTPs may not be above saying whatever they know their audiences want to hear in order to get to whatever it is that they want. Their constant high-stimulation lifestyles and characteristic personal charm and charisma may often make them the life of the party, true purveyors of "the good life." ESTPs will rarely shy away from a challenge, and they're typically willing to take substantial risks in favor of pushing toward whatever they've set their sights on. Often, it's not so much the goal itself as the thrill and challenge of its pursuit that attracts the ESTP persona. As life-long high-wire dwellers, most ESTPs try their best to live life without boundaries: life is a high-risk, high-reward proposition, and they play to go broke or win big.

Auxiliary: Introverted Thinking (Ti)

"A little more moderation would be good. Of course, my life hasn't exactly been one of moderation."
--Donald Trump, ESTP

As an auxiliary function, Ti serves the primary purpose of balancing out dominant Se's prodigious appetite for new and exciting experiences by lending the ESTP a greater sense of the depth involved in true mastery of the skills and hobbies he tends to center his life around. It's easy for the young ESTP to fall into the trap of becoming a "jack of all trades, but a master of none"--naturally talented in a wide variety of different areas, and heavily invested in competing and besting his competition, early life may find ESTPs having difficulty choosing any particular area of focus. Because they tend to operate most effectively in situations where their quick instincts and on-the-spot resourcefulness lead to success, the time and dedication required to develop serious long-term skills on a deep level may strike them as boring, uninteresting, or simply not worth the time investment. As Ti introduces itself into the ESTP's cognitive system, she gradually begins to reach two key realizations: one, that real success requires the development of genuine expertise in specific areas, and two, that a sense of universal fairness and consistency is vital to her ability to look at herself in the mirror and feel comfortable with the way she deals with life on a day to day basis.

Unfortunately, less balanced ESTPs tend to create a negative reputation for the whole type in terms of impulsive/aggressive behavior, brash arrogance, and poor self-control. While these qualities certainly tend to characterize the more immature end of the ESTP spectrum, it's important to note that development of auxiliary Ti tends to balance out and rectify these issues in most cases. Many new or less experienced typologists may have never even met a truly well-rounded ESTP, and may hold inaccurate impressions of the entire type as unscrupulous pleasure-seekers with little regard for much beyond their own immediate gratification and desire to explore, conquer, and indulge. As Ti develops, ESTPs will see in themselves a gradual increase in their sense of personal integrity--they will begin to realize that their talents carry great responsibilities, and that if they wish to criticize others for failure to maintain personal consistency, they must uphold a certain code of honor for themselves as well as others around them. Despite the common stereotypes, the balanced ESTP is capable of discerning which situations warrant personal restraint, which people are worthy of his respect, and which opportunities are truly worth taking advantage of without forcing himself into roles and habits that he cannot truly respect himself for. Sometimes, the wisest move is to back down, to walk away, to retreat into oneself and reflect on a sense of universal truth and innate human values. Via Ti, the ESTP discovers himself and defines his personal boundaries and limitations.

It's worth noting that, unlike the NTP types, ESTPs do not tend to apply Ti toward formal logic or hypothetical argumentation. While they do enjoy a good competition, they may grow irritated and impatient quickly with what they see as irrelevant hypothetical discussion and continual argumentative posturing. (In this way they are easily distinguishable from ENTPs, who will play devil's advocate and dance conversational circles around both friends and foes purely as a means of exploration and entertainment.) When ESTPs do engage in arguments, it's generally a function of removing whatever obstacle (most often another party in disagreement) is preventing them from getting back into the action where they feel most at home. In most cases they'd much rather get back to doing something that makes a tangible and objectively obvious difference to something in the outwardly observable world. Some may even use argumentation as an outlet for their natural competitive drives, but this may confound other types who can't seem to find any rhyme or reason in the argument itself--for the ESTP, it's just another form of generating external stimulation, of directing the external world toward a more actively engaging scenario in which dominant Se can do what it does best. There's rarely any intention of proving any particular theoretical point, because theoretical points are rarely the point. In lesser moments of clarity, excessive Se may use argumentation as a means of proving its bravado or physical presence, its immediate influence on the perceptions of the surrounding audience. Talk is cheap--actions will always speak louder than words.

Nonetheless, ESTPs with strongly developed Ti may display somewhat unexpected command of dense technical and theoretical material when they can see its direct application to one of their areas of interest. It's important to recognize that, while they may tend to avoid by-the-book approaches and theoretical rhetoric in most cases, they're not fundamentally against abstract conceptual approaches--they just need to see a realistic application for them, some sort of obviously apparent reason that such abstruse language need be applied. The typically action-oriented ESTP may surprise and even astound friends and colleagues with unexpected mastery of technical jargon or conceptual ideas--as long as she can see how they relate directly to the activities she's constantly immersed in. Once an idea on paper is given realistic and tangible context, the connection between external sensory response (Se) and internal logical modeling (Ti) grants an all new level of meaning and completeness to the ESTP's mastery of the hands-on skills at which she finds herself most naturally adept.

Tertiary: Extroverted Feeling (Fe)

Most commonly, tertiary Fe seems to manifest itself in the ESTP through a gradual replacement of self-centered hedonistic tendencies with a deeply felt sense of loyalty toward one's familial responsibilities, friendships, and cultural heritage. This sudden burst of interest in sticking up for the virtues of "my people" may seem bizarre and out of place to outsiders, as the ESTP (typically in early adulthood) begins to recognize, and perhaps even feel guilty over, his obligations to the people that keep his life moving in the exciting direction to which he's become accustomed. It's not uncommon to see young ESTPs in the process of Fe development show unprecedented (and often quite unexpected) displays of affection and warmth for their loved ones--while those loved ones look on in bemused but pleasant surprise as the brash and competitive ESTP they're used to begins to turn over a new leaf and display his more caring and compassionate side.

It's quite common for ESTPs to be utterly oblivious to how little positive feedback and appreciation they show overtly for the people they care about. They may simply assume that those close to them know how important they are, and their insistence on a constantly active lifestyle may preclude them from providing the sort of emotional support that most people require higher doses of than they do. Indeed, others may wonder if their ESTP friend or family member even cares about them at all--the sudden introduction of Fe is often marked by confused or exaggerated emotional outbursts that lack context or nuance, as most ESTPs possess at least a rudimentary awareness of their emotional shortcomings, and are more than a bit insecure about their ability to show the true depth of their appreciation for the people that matter to them. They may end up filtering Fe through their preferred Se perspective, showing their appreciation through powerful displays of visual or other sensory flash and showmanship. While these responses may appear on the surface to be simple attempts to garner attention, there's often a less pronounced (but very real) desire to express and validate interpersonal camaraderie wrapped up in the ESTP's grand displays and gestures. Especially among male ESTPs, there may exist a certain anxiousness that more straightforward explanations of emotion may produce an undesirable appearance of weakness or excess sensitivity, which tertiary Fe fears may lead to social isolation and lack of any real companionship. The resultant behaviors can be confusing, to say the least.

When Fe is granted too powerful a position in the ESTP's cognitive hierarchy, she may overreact to perceived displays of disloyalty, and feel especially inclined to aggressively counteract this perceived betrayal through an increasingly disturbing series of oneupmanship games. Without a strong Ti perspective to balance out the subjective world, the SeFe loop ESTP can become entirely too wrapped up in the opinions of others, struggling constantly to balance her social image as cool and exciting (Se) against the moral and ethical expectations of her peers (Fe). When the two meet head on without the aid of auxiliary Ti, often the only solution that occurs to the beleaguered ESTP is to further increase her externalized displays of status and power, indulging in aimless hedonism and overreacting to the slightest loss of approval among her peer group. Trapped between her role as trend-setting entertainer and the increasingly uncomfortable realization that her life requires more externalized ethical structure, the SeFe ESTP may experience substantial difficulty in finding any cohesive balance between these disparate sides of her personality.

When developed properly, tertiary Fe should balance itself against auxiliary Ti to provide more than an additional tool for persuading and manipulating others into doing the ESTP's bidding. It adds a sense of genuine affection, of legitimate responsibility and selflessness, to the ESTP's total cognitive worldview. With a better defined sense of context for defining his social and interpersonal roles, the ESTP will learn to identify situations in which making the maximum sensory impact is not always the most important priority--he'll learn to introduce practical responsibilities and a sense of structure into an otherwise hectic and unpredictable lifestyle. In touch with the needs and expectations of his closest allies, the Fe-savvy ESTP will proudly symbolize all the best characteristics of his culture and community (and still keep an eye on stylistic impact in the process.)

Inferior: Introverted iNtuition (Ni)

The infamous inferior function of the ESTP cognitive makeup comes in the form of introverted iNtuition--that mysterious and elusive world of internalized perception of symbolic meaning and privatized significance. While the world of immediate literal meaning and split-second instinctive responses comes as naturally as breathing, that of deceptive or hidden significance strikes the ESTP as so foreign, so uninviting, so irrelevant and esoteric as to be completely avoided at all costs. In Se's world, that which is directly observable speaks volumes--while that which is implied or subtly suggested is rarely worthy of immediate attention. The Ni approach seems to conflict with all discernible standards by which the ESTP conducts himself and his associations with the world surrounding him: when he wants recognition, he draws attention to himself. When he wants to convey a message, he says outright what he means. Anything less seems puzzling at best, and utterly illogical at worst.

In practice, inferior Ni tends to manifest itself in the form of inexplicable claims of seemingly supernatural insight into areas in which the ESTP clearly has no direct knowledge or evidence. When confronted with a threatening situation which forces him to call upon his inferior attitude, the gradual realization that his preferred direct and straightforward approach will no longer serve him adequately accompanies an increasing nervousness and mounting insecurity. Forced to adopt an intuitive approach with which he is uncomfortable and compete in an arena in which he is brutally outclassed, the ESTP may conclude that, in order to remain genuinely competitive, he must do what he perceives Ni types to be doing--what is actually a relatively systematic and predictable process of pattern perception and anticipation appears to him as a totally haphazard and unsubstantiated system of random guesswork and logical non sequitirs. Missing the central point of the Ni dominant's approach, he will respond to threatening situations by assuming he must "start over" and eliminate all perceptual assumptions, giving rise to all sorts of absurd and nonsensical perceptions about the secret motivations and hidden implications in everything and everyone around him.

Worse yet, dominant Se's desire to continually adapt to changing external conditions may result in a woeful inability to maintain depth of focus on one area long enough to intuit its true significance. In his attempts to imitate what he sees as irrational leaps in reasoning, he himself may become irrationally suspicious of the motives and intentions of everyone around him, entrenched in self-indulgent cynicism, increasingly isolated from the world of sensory call and response where his cognition finds itself most comfortable. The gut feelings upon which he bases his reactions--normally rooted in concrete sensory data continually updated in real time--will give way to bizarre and unsubstantiated intuitive hunches: when his trusted gut instincts continually turn out wrong, utter perceptual disorientation is unavoidable. Detached from the constant stream of concrete external information upon which his preferred outlook depends so heavily, the ESTP in the grip of inferior Ni may feel as if none of the information upon which he normally relies can any longer be trusted to provide any real sense of context or valuable input. He descends into paranoia and dreaded inaction, convinced that any attempt at a rational response will result in predetermined and unavoidable failure.

In time, inferior Ni can eventually approach the other function attitudes in terms of its application in a positive and useful light. The most balanced ESTPs will eventually learn to appreciate the internal world of symbolic imagery, and may even learn to enjoy its profound subconscious effects on their perception as the unconscious gradually moves toward the realm of conscious control. While this level of development is unusual and often inordinately difficult, the ESTP who commands it will surpass her peers in terms of cognitive balance and total perspective. Gradually building awareness of the unstated meaning, the perceptual road less traveled, the fully self-actualized ESTP ceases to be a slave to the perceptual expectations of her surroundings. Fully capable of realizing and completely understanding her own potential and the far-reaching implications of her words and actions, she will leave her mark on the world in a far more long-lasting and significant manner than she ever believed realistically possible.












ESFP, or Extroverted Sensing Feeling Perceiver, is a label borrowed from MBTI nomenclature and now applied to the Jungian Cognitive Function set {Se, Fi, Te, Ni}.

Dominant: Extroverted Sensation (Se)

"I'm the kind of person that feels most at home when I can get involved in a lot of different things, in a really hands-on way that connects me to lots of new people and situations and opportunities to explore. I tend to make a lot of friends wherever I go; somehow, people always seem to appreciate my charisma and my natural talents in lots of different areas. If I can get my hands on it and make a real impact or observable difference, it's probably something I'll be good at. I have to be engaged with my surroundings nearly all of the time--I think it's really important to be aware of what's going on around you, because something unexpected could happen at any time, and often that something will demand an immediate response. I don't tend to spend a lot of time on calculated preparation, but nonetheless I feel prepared to deal with anything because I'm so naturally adaptable and ready to respond to anything and everything as it happens. I think it's important not to take life too seriously or let anything slow you down--if I stop actively engaging the world around me, I'll lose my drive and enthusiasm, and I really dislike getting bored or running out of projects to work on. Some people need to learn to relax and just take life one day at a time--to pay attention to what's really happening, instead of trying to read too much into things. If you don't have real people and real connections to involve yourself in, how can you really live life to the fullest?"

Let's begin by dispelling some stereotypes, by explaining what ESFPs are not: ESFPs are not mindless party-mongers. While they are known for their vaunted people skills and personal charm, their psychological motivations run deeper than most type profiles and common renderings of the SeFi function hierarchy give them credit for. As Se dominants, ESFPs are extremely aware of the value of first impressions. Since their dominant attitude encourages emphasis on the immediate sensory impact of the physical world surrounding them, they're generally aware more than most of the inherent assumptions and interpretations the human mind tends to make based on the first sensory impression it's exposed to in any given situation. Continually vigilant of these impressions and the way they impact people and interpersonal interactions, ESFPs tend to place high value on presentation and style.

As with all extroverted functions, dominant Se depends upon objective, externally derived information (frequently involving other people) to orient its perceptions according to the collective perceptions of others. Who exactly those others are will depend on the particular ESFP and his idea of what groups of people are worth making an impression upon. It's worth noting that the common stereotype that ESFPs are always "trendy" is somewhat misleading: while this idea would imply that all ESFPs always keep up with the collective trends of popular culture at large, many do not. The only constant for dominant Se is a concerted effort to keep up with whatever will produce the most memorable and effective sensory impact: it just so happens that, in many cases, popular culture serves as a useful way to accomplish this goal in reference to large groups of people. But it's also important to realize that many ESFPs do not pay attention to or value popular culture in general, at least not for its own sake--their perceptual standards simply reference those of whatever groups of people they happen to consider interesting or worthwhile. One ESFP may find another ESFP's approach utterly boring and ineffective, based on differences in the perceptual preferences of their respective social and personal groups.

Even though ESFPs are often stereotyped as "performers", dominant Se may lead to all sorts of different "performances" even well outside the commonly expected manifestations of that practice or idea. Everything depends on the audience and what it wants to see, hear, or feel: Se is the soul of the audience, its perceptual expectations and responses, and our responses to them. ESFPs tend to see the world as a continually unfolding set of constant opportunities to take action and create observable change. They look around, they see an opportunity, and they act as soon as that opportunity presents itself. If nothing else, ESFPs know how to play to a crowd, adjusting their appearances and perceptual approaches to whatever it is that that crowd expects.

It's difficult to overstate how important continual action is to the ESFP's psychological needs. They frequently reference body language--especially eye contact--as a vital benchmark upon which honesty and integrity are won and lost. The ESFP must be interacting with her physical environments as often as possible, because she must collect as many different variants of new sensory information as she can find. Remarkable hands-on resourcefulness gives rise early on to boredom and routine's life-long branding as hated enemies of dominant Se's overwhelming desire for constant and consistent new experience. To restate a cliché (which is actually true to a certain extent), no one lives in moment--truly in the moment--more than an Se dominant. In Se's philosophy, the more we distract ourselves with imaginary second-guessing and time-consuming hypothetical analysis, the more we hinder our ability to direct our full attention to the imminent reality of the present moment. And if we're not paying attention to the reality of the present moment, we're surely missing whatever new information should be granting us the cues and hints that will lead us to stumble upon our next move--ESFPs rarely prefer to stay in any one place for too long.

Auxiliary: Introverted Feeling (Fi)

"The image is one thing and the human being is another. It's very hard to live up to an image--I'll put it that way."
--Elvis Presley, ESFP

As with all EP types, auxiliary Ji (in this case Fi) imbues the ESFP's character with a sense of personal purpose and integrity, with a conscientious concern for the well-being of others, and a sense of purpose and identity amidst the chaos of constant change and exploration. Most at home in the heat of the moment, young ESFPs may have difficulty slowing down and soul-searching long enough to show any meaningful degree of self-reflection or evaluation. When they do, they almost invariably describe a sense of heartfelt empathy with the needs and feelings of others. Development of Fi allows the ESFP's natural ability to adjust to the expectations of his audiences to be uplifted and stabilized by a personalized vision and unique understanding of the universal needs of all living creatures, spanning the physical, spiritual, and emotional. ESFPs who command Fi will know where they're coming from, where they're going, and why--the personalized ethical, spiritual, and aesthetic vision granted by the auxiliary function will remind dominant Se of the real purpose of its endless search for new experiences: personal growth and development.

It's easy to see how many ESFPs become involved in creative pursuits--and that's not limited to just the arts. Any method by which they can involve themselves directly in the creation of something that reflects the reality around them, and interacts with and affects their perceptions and the perceptions of others, will likely be viewed in a positive light. The key is finding a personalized representation (Fi) of real events occurring in real life, affecting real people in tangible ways (Se). In art, ESFPs find both an immediately stimulating sensory impression and a hint of the weightier and more important personal values by which they will eventually learn to navigate their own sense of virtue and self-evaluation. Fi should ideally lead ESFPs to hold themselves up to the light of the truth, to keep themselves grounded by an unerring sense of private moral rectitude and widespread good will toward life in general: ESFPs will tend to treat most people as good friends until given an explicit reason not to, and it's difficult for most to resist their upbeat attitudes and straightforward, earnest openness.

If developed poorly, it can be difficult for the ESFP to harness Fi in a genuinely empathetic way. He may neglect concern for the emotional and spiritual needs of others in favor of ensuring that he fills his own quota for new experiential input: more than one ESFP has justified his constant (and potentially excessive) need for high stimulation as a simple expression of his individuality, insisting that others respect his right to behave as he pleases or risk threatening his self-experience. This can and does cause a variety of arguments with the ESFP's close friends and family: Where does my right to individual freedom end, and my obligation to the needs of others begin? While it is true that ESFPs must continue engaging themselves with new experiences in order to feel fulfilled, too much emphasis on dominant Se with not enough on auxiliary Fi can result in crude, directionless hedonism. With so much new information of so many different varieties constantly entering the cognitive sphere, ESFPs (much like all EP types) must be cognizant of taking time out to analyze their experiences in depth (via Fi) in order to grant coherent meaning or value to any of them. Left to its own devices, dominant Se will explore to the ends of the Earth, but never retain the importance of the many life lessons it happens upon in the process.

When balanced properly, Fi should provide the ESFP with a sense of personal vision and deeper understanding of her mission and purpose in life. Although her externalized creations often seek to represent physical reality in her own subjective terms, they never quite match the internalized sense of aesthetic and spiritual perfection that Fi leads her to continue seeking throughout her entire life. The more Fi is able to provide subjective ideals for Se to translate into tangible representations of the ESFP's identity, the more it will strike him that he must reflect and further and refine his own sense of self, his own idea of value and hierarchy of priorities. Fi provides, above all, a personalized counterweight to Se's constant attention to the outward expectations of whoever the ESFP may find himself "performing" for nearly every day of his life.

Tertiary: Extroverted Thinking (Te)

Much like in their ENFP cousins, tertiary Te will ideally enter the cognitive picture to take on the role of adding externalized order and structure to the oft-disjointed and hectic world of the active ESFP. When balanced in order (assuming Se and Fi are differentiated and performing optimally), Te should strike the healthy ESFP as a somewhat difficult but necessary mindset to be able to access when the time comes for decisive direction, for the setting aside of personal sentiments in favor of the completion of a grander and more important goal. Contrary to popular stereotypes, tertiary Te actually assists in granting ESFPs their status as one of the most empirically-oriented types. Since Se and Te are the function attitudes most focused on direct action, the combination of the two can show outsiders a surprisingly aggressive driving force in the process of goal-setting and completion: while Se demands directly observable action, Te insists on consistent and predictable measures of progress and development. When Te is integrated effectively, the ESFP will not hesitate to take whatever action he needs to get the project back on schedule, nose to the grindstone. His desire for continual navigation of new challenges never subsides; however, proper development of the tertiary function will grant a sense of urgency and attention to objective detail that may seem to utterly contradict his usual disregard for formal rules and regulations.

Unfortunately, premature reliance on Te to the exclusion of the natural auxiliary Fi will result in some peculiar problems for the young ESFP. Already heavily focused on the objective expectations of others in terms of perceptual impact, the SeTe loop ESFP may become overly stressed and unable to genuinely relax. Because his only way of taking a "break" from the constant high stimulation of Se is to indulge in the constant high-priority organizing and correcting of Te, he may forget almost entirely to spend time reconsidering any of his decisions. The more Se demands immediate action and stimulation, the less patience Te maintains for anything deemed off topic or not imminently useful. Torn between the sensory expectations of those he finds interesting and the procedural expectations of those he finds knowledgeable and effective, the ESFP lacking Fi may become so lost in aggressive pursuit of his desires that he loses sight of why he really desires them in the first place.

Unable to satisfy all of the objective expectations he sees coming at him from all angles, the ESFP may wear himself out working too hard to ensure that everyone likes him, or considers his contributions worthwhile. If threatened or convinced that he is being ignored or undervalued, the ESFP in Te mode may even occasionally become territorially aggressive, insistent that every detail of every one of his preferred methods be followed to the letter--or else. The healthy presence of auxiliary Fi seems to be the primary mitigating factor in drawing the fine line between healthy and unhealthy Te use in the ESFP. Given time for the more important functions to develop first, tertiary Te should serve as a helpful reminder that some form of externalized structure must be had at some point, and that some attention must eventually be paid to the knowledge of people who know the subject in question.

As Te grows and develops into an important and regularly consulted part of the ESFP's cognition, her tendency to lose herself entirely in the immediately pleasurable sensations of reality will be tempered by a focus on dutiful consistency and objective reliability. Her personal ethics will come to balance themselves against the impending sense of immediacy that something measurable and empirically valid be done--drawn to the sensory stimulant properties of the object, the ESFP will learn to apply to his desire for exploration to measurable completion of legitimate, working objectives. He will find that he can apply his abilities to impact others toward useful and meaningful career goals, that his natural talents are valuable for many reasons beyond their inherent accessibility and sensory enjoyment. As much as Se would love to learn everything purely through hands-on experimentation, Te provides a vital balancing focus on the established methodology and evaluative standards of authoritative knowledge.

Inferior: Introverted iNtuition (Ni)

The peculiar effects of Ni as an inferior function provide one of (in my opinion) the more fascinating parts of the ESFP's cognition. Directly at odds with dominant Se's broad focus on the vast quantity of different sensory information immediately available around us, inferior Ni seems to flood the ESFP's cognition with all manner of esoteric (and often incoherent) symbols of unstated and covert interpretations. First encounters with this poorly developed inferior attitude can be unsettling at best: forced to reconsider the true meaning of everything they've always seen as most obviously important, ESFPs in the grip of inferior Ni may feel everything they know is slipping out from under them. The unconscious world of subjective perceptual significance threatens the sense of empirical observability by which dominant Se defines its primary worldview.

In terms of practical manifestations, inferior Ni tends to lend itself to bizarre and unfounded suspicions of others, even close friends and family. Since all possible perceptual angles are now on the table, dominant Se must stay aware and responsive to its surroundings, even if that means taking on and connecting with the most outlandish or improbable suggestions and possibilities regarding the intentions and motivations of the people around him. It's not entirely uncommon to see unfounded accusations, perceptions of disloyalty, delusions of grand significance, and occasionally even conspiracy theories (see Glenn Beck) pour out from the stressed ESFP as he becomes increasingly convinced he possesses some sort of supernatural insight, one which renders the directly observable and quantitative evidence upon which he normally relies entirely obsolete. As inferior Ni takes over, the ESFP will feel compelled to peer into every nook and cranny for something he's missed--some secret interpretive value that will change the way he sees everything around him. Unfortunately, this is typically done in such a juvenile and unrefined manner that it tends to result in assumptions that are implausible at best (and paranoid at worst.)

Like all inferior functions, inferior Ni is most commonly forced out by situations in which the dominant function finds itself unable to handle the problem or complete the task at hand. It tends to surface when ESFPs lose faith in their ability to adapt to and handle their surroundings using their instinctive understanding of physical reality and literal surface impressions. Naturally distrustful of unspoken (and thus unobservable) information, they may become convinced that the only solution involves some sort of nefarious plot to obscure the truth or the real significance from themselves or their loved ones. Convinced that the truth can't be empirically observed but simultaneously painfully aware of his own inability to process information outside an empirically observable context, the ESFP may be forced to confront outlandish, cynical, and even totally unsubstantiated hunches or "gut feelings" about the true reality of the events unfolding around him. Determined to uncover the secret meaning that has been deliberately withheld from him (which is almost invariably perceived as a personal attack), the ESFP struggling with inferior Ni may seize onto strange and improbable accusations and implications, convinced that he must ignore the world of physical reality in which he most naturally thrives in order to see any genuine significance in it.

On the other hand, inferior Ni may be gradually developed and applied positively as the ESFP matures. While most internal reflection will be handled by Fi, occasionally the self-awareness of subjective perceptual expectations provided by inferior Ni will help grant the ESFP a more balanced impression of the world and a more reasoned organizational hierarchy of his priorities. It should help to produce the realization that sometimes there actually is some value in withholding judgment, in reconsidering the reliability of surface impressions, and even in looking for meaning that isn't even directly suggested by the concrete information available. Development of inferior Ni (in conjunction with the higher functions) should lead ESFPs toward more fulfilling lives, replete with the excited energy of continual active exploration, but offset and harmonized by the occasional ability to trust gut feelings about the intangibles in life with which we cannot directly interact. As this balance improves and gains consistency, the ESFP will bring himself both the capability to build and maintain the high volume of personal contact and activity upon which he thrives, and the wisdom to know when to back off and reconsider--the difference this can make will be subtle, but powerful and influential for years to come.












ISTP, or Introverted Sensing Thinking Perceiver, is a label borrowed from MBTI nomenclature and now applied to the Jungian Cognitive Function set {Ti, Se, Ni, Fe}.

Dominant: Introverted Thinking (Ti)

"Above all, I like to maintain a consistent outlook that fits well with the things I like to do and the way I like to do them. I'll stay out of your way and, as long as I offer you that courtesy, I expect the same in return. I like to work with things where I can figure out the best approach myself and then tweak and adjust the pieces and see or hear or smell an immediate change or improvement. If something isn't doing what I want it to, I need to be able to get my hands on it, figure out what makes it tick, and rebuild it how I want to without having to worry about it making sense to anyone else or getting approval from how they'd do it. More than anything, it's important that we let each other have the freedom to do what we want, when we want to--if I don't see that it's going to have any real impact or I don't think it makes any practical sense, I'm not going to do it."

ISTP is an often poorly understood type that embodies a number of seemingly contradictory characteristics and seems to confuse a lot of people. It's been suggested by some that ISTPs are so different from INTPs that they should not be seen as even having the same dominant function at all--but I contend that there quite a number of similarities between the two in principle, even if the outward expressions of these principles are approached in very different ways.

Above all, dominant Ti values a highly refined sense of universal correctness, fairness, and internal consistency. While ISTPs may not make this belief as overtly obvious as their oft-argumentative INTP cousins, they ultimately believe that fair is fair and there's no getting around the idea that some things are inherently more fair, more consistent, and more reasonable than others. The thing that makes this difficult to discern is that ISTPs are, by far, the least interested in debate of all four xxTP types. They'd much rather actively demonstrate their principles and ideals through concrete action than spend time sitting around trying to convince other people that they're right. While they may easily grasp the reasoning behind various abstract representations of logical reasoning (especially when tertiary Ni is developed), they simply don't see any reason to talk about it when they could be creating, building, or participating in something that generates realistically tangible representations of the structural and symmetrical relationships that fascinate their sense of global systemic consistency.

Inconsistent reasoning and poor logic irritate the ISTP just as much as they do the INTP; the ISTP is simply much less concerned with using abstracted hypothetical explanation to demonstrate why. Actions speak louder than words. Why should he bother with empty words and arguments when he can simply show you demonstrably what it is that represents the personal sense of structural completeness around which his values are centered?

Fiercely independent, resourceful, and self-reliant, ISTPs will tend to disregard or ignore outright any rule, law, or external expectation that doesn't fit their internal set of principles regarding what's inherently fair and reasonable. They are characteristically skeptical of any external attempt to compel them to behave in any particular way, as they feel that often the people designing and imposing these rules are neither logically-minded nor genuinely experienced in the areas of life that their frivolous rules and laws will impact most. Very few things upset the ISTP's core sense of fairness more than unreasonable attempts to restrict his freedom of action or impose the will of others upon his own.

Like most Ti types, ISTPs tend to have an interest in systems and the relationships and frameworks that make them fit together the way they do. They will pour extraordinary amounts of time into the study of these systems, but rarely through book study, never without hands-on experience, and not necessarily because they accomplish any particular goals--mostly just because internalizing and possessing complete understanding of all the variables that make up a complete system is inherently satisfying on its own.

Auxiliary: Extroverted Sensation (Se)

While INTPs will tend to apply Ti's structural curiosity to more hypothetical or theoretical systems like higher mathematics, philosophy, or programming, the ISTP's dominant Ti tends to filter through Se to produce an interest in physical and mechanical systems that can be observed, experienced, and demonstrated through tangible physical processes. ISTPs are fascinated by how things work, and they want to be able to hurl themselves head-on into the full experience of how those things work by getting their hands on them and associating present-moment physical sensations (Se) with an ever-growing sense of universal truth (Ti) about how the pieces of the puzzle fit together. They tend to specialize in areas where they can use their keen present-tense awareness of sensory cues to bolster their natural ability to deconstruct and solve structural puzzles: ISTPs are often involved with auto mechanics, building/repairing electronics, designing and building architecture, performing or recording music, and so on--anything where they can get their hands on it and figure out for themselves how it works, then use that to make it do something interesting or exciting.

In addition to this, Se tends to promote an interest in the physically thrilling, high-adrenaline activities often recognized as a calling card of SP types. Indeed, ISTPs seem to take great satisfaction in understanding the variables that relate their quick sensory responsiveness to the underlying structure of the tangible, physical world around them, to the art of kinetic movement itself and how it creates reactions from the external sensory environment. It's easy to see why so many of them enjoy building and working on cars/motorcycles/aircraft, audio/visual equipment, guns/swords and other weapons, or musical instruments--these are the very objects that grant them the exciting experiences (and accompanying opportunities to practice their sensory responsiveness) that make them feel most excited and imminently alive.

But Se also serves another very important purpose: Connecting the ISTP to a real sense of what will impact other people's tastes and impressions in an immediately recognizable and universally understandable way. Well-balanced ISTPs are almost invariably "the cool guy/girl" in their social groups--they know where to be, what to wear, what to say, and how to say it; more importantly, they are confident enough in their natural talent and adaptability in these areas that, unlike ESTPs, they are keenly aware of how little they actually have to say in order to maintain that impression.

The peculiar relationship between Ti's desire for obscure systemic knowledge and Se's desire to maintain an image of smooth, nonchalant, effortless awareness of what's current and desirable leads to a rather fascinating conflict for many ISTPs: Constantly caught between "Ti nerdy" and "Se cool", they straddle the line between different worlds.

One of my favorite of examples of this phenomenon comes from the short-lived TV series Freaks and Geeks, where James Franco's ISTP character, Daniel Desario, is forced to join his high school's AV Club as punishment for pulling the fire alarm to get out of taking a test. At first he is angry about the news: AV Club? Isn't that a bunch of nerds? Oh God, nobody can possibly keep thinking I'm cool if I'm stuck doing this kind of boring crap (Se)! But later in the episode, another character sneaks into the AV room after hours and discovers Daniel in the back with the movie projector, poring over a schematic diagram of its functions and experimenting (hands-on, of course) with how it works. No matter how uncool Se may say AV Club is, he can't escape Ti's fascination with the inner workings of a complex mechanical system.

As ISTPs develop increasingly stronger Se, their awareness of others' immediate impressions of them combines with an uncanny knack for reading body language to grant them a surprisingly proficient awareness of the motivations of others. While they may not be able to expressly articulate what another person is thinking or planning, they often show exceptional talent with "gut feelings" that someone is not genuine, or is dishonest, or not confident, or hiding something. As a case in point, Doyle Brunson (that old guy with the cowboy hat you see playing poker on TV), often credited as "The Godfather of Poker", seems almost certainly ISTP in his exceptional command of body language and the astounding accuracy of his instinctive assessments of opponents at the live poker table.

On the downside, ISTPs can suffer anger issues with people they see as illogical or wrong-headed, and Se may lead them to physically demonstrate this anger through direct threats of physical violence, or worse--actually following through with them. Because the ISTP needs to be building his own understanding in order to continue with an activity, once he feels he is no longer learning or experiencing anything of value, he may become highly unreliable and abruptly drop out of projects or leave important obligations unfulfilled. The ISTP's polarized energy level may shift wildly from extreme excitement/frenzied action over a new and exciting activity to lengthy periods of non-productive burnout and back again, which can make her seem totally inert to outsiders who have not yet witnessed her in the active, excited phase.

This may lead to a tendency to drop people, things, groups, and interests as soon as they cease to generate immediate fulfillment--and as the ISTP is fundamentally introverted, he may not care at all how others perceive this inconsistent dedication/difficulty with commitment and may seem to abruptly disappear from all areas of life for weeks or months at a time, before randomly showing up and jumping back in as if nothing had ever happened. Most of my ISTP acquaintances are people that I see frequently for several months, and then not at all for several more--I've come to realize they don't mean any offense; it's just the way their cycle works.

Tertiary: Introverted iNtuition (Ni)

Interestingly, despite their (somewhat accurate) reputation as apathetic loners, ISTPs typically feel strongly enough about their principles that they may even resort to vigilante justice in order to set things right with the world when legitimate establishments of law enforcement have failed to produce a just or consistent result. They're typically quite mindful of not stepping on other people's toes, but if you step on theirs, be prepared for a swift and unexpected backlash. Somewhat like INFJs, who share all of the same function attitudes, ISTPs in the grip of Ti+Ni may fantasize about using their superior strength and physical prowess (Se) to take revenge on people who unjustly bring harm to the innocent. "Eye for an eye" is often seen as the purest and most physically real affirmation of the sense of justice that factors so heavily into the ISTP's personal value judgments.

When undeveloped, tertiary Ni most frequently manifests itself in terms of semi-paranoid distrust of "the man" or of authority figures or anyone who may have the power to force the ISTP into any situation or role from which he does not have the option to escape when he wants to. This kind of cynicism may even lead the ISTP to claim some sort of supernatural foresight; he may doggedly insist that he "just knows" something to be the case despite total inability to explain why or display any physical evidence thereof. He may come to believe anything he does is simply playing into exactly what some unseen, evil "puppet master" of sorts wants him to do, and thus may insist that the situation is hopeless because he already knows how it's all going to end up.

When applied more positively in a more developed state, tertiary Ni should bolster the ISTP's natural fluency with sensory cues by giving him deeper insight into the symbolic or suggestive meaning of the constant flow of outward sensory information he is normally attuned to. Rather than simply note what is and move on to noting something else that is, he will begin to consider the assumptions inherent in the set of rules he assumes must govern the way he interprets and evaluates that information, which, in time, will grant his "gut instincts" far more substantial meaning and accuracy by linking them to a deliberate purpose with much more far-reaching implications.

Ni should ideally help the ISTP to feel even more completely free: she will realize she can adapt not only her present actions, but also her entire outlook and attitude according to whatever the immediacy of the moment demands: nothing can ever shake her composure because she can simply change her mindset to fit her surroundings.

When Se is poorly developed, and a TiNi loop results, the ISTP loses all desire to connect or exchange information with others in any meaningful way. He becomes extraordinarily self-centered, acting out his subconscious Se desires through increasingly impulsive (and possibly even dangerous or violent) outbursts, insistent that he is the only one who "has it all figured out", that all the small-minded fools surrounding him are running a pointless rat race for nothing, and that he does not and should not ever have anything to prove to such unworthy and insignificant creatures.

He may delve further and further into bitter cynicism and conspiracy theorist behavior, as Ni develops increasingly outlandish interpretations to justify Ti's all-important desire to view the self as the only remaining bastion of consistency and truth in a purposeless world that cares for neither. Nihilism and hopelessness invariably result.

Ultimately, tertiary Ni should grant the well-balanced ISTP a unique sense of worldly wisdom. Already generally subdued by nature, his calm, quiet confidence will be nearly unshakable, as he will find the ability to separate himself from the tribulations of everyday problems enough to realize that eventually, everything is going to be fine, so we may as well just focus on dealing with what's in front of us and trust that everything else will fall into place the way it's supposed to. Development of tertiary Ni often coincides with a time in the ISTP's life where he retreats into a period of serious self-reflection and emerges with a far more calm and stable sense of philosophic purpose and global awareness.

Inferior: Extroverted Feeling (Fe)

As the weakest point in the ISTP's cognitive hierarchy, Fe presents some substantial issues for the "lone wolf" persona in which he so often finds himself entrenched. Insistent on figuring things out for himself and living life his own way, the ISTP is prone to ignoring his emotional and interpersonal needs as long as he can possibly get away with it. He may become increasingly stressed as he realizes that without some form of permanency or obligation, some sense of connectedness to a group or purpose larger than himself and his own personal needs and desires, he feels as though his life is simply running in circles and never reaching any meaningful conclusions.

Inferior F types (IxTP, ExTJ) tend, by nature, to be utterly clueless when it comes to expressing or even acknowledging their emotional needs, and may resort to displaying them through rather bizarre, confusing, and even childish behaviors. For most ISTPs, Se serves as the only comfortable link to the external world, the only way they understand how to bridge the gap between their internal ideals and the expectations and aesthetics of others. Thus, Fe is often expressed in a way that becomes slanted by Se's tendencies: ISTPs care a lot more about their family and friends than they are able to express verbally, and since actions speak louder than words, in moments of extreme stress, they may demonstrate their cultural and familial obligations by physically attacking or forcibly removing anyone or anything which threatens the sense of moral fiber upon which their families, social groups, or communities are founded.

This may simultaneously impress and disturb others, as friends and family are often surprised to see that the ISTP even cares enough about them to do anything protective in the first place, but also upset that s/he chooses such directly physical means of expressing the importance of his relationship to them. The ISTP may often be seen as emotionally unaware and even incapable of emotional expression, and while she may resent this suggestion, she often does little to nothing to counteract it until the perfect moment arises: in a flash of daring bravado, a selfless act of unexpected chivalry or intense but unexpressed loyalty will allow the ISTP to release the build-up of subconscious tension and guilt over her insensitivity to the collective needs and ethical expectations of her loved ones. She simply cannot respond to or consciously acknowledge these needs easily because they seem to threaten the sense of individually-defined identity and freedom that she holds so dearly.

The central conflict for ISTPs struggling with inferior Fe is their insistence upon absolute personal freedom at all times, and the seemingly disingenuous nature of participating in familial or cultural ritual when dominant Ti can't see any reasonable or logical purpose for it. Accepting objectively derived concepts of morality or interpersonal obligation threatens the prized ability to change or escape any undesired situation on a moment's notice. The ISTP feels threatened by expectations of others upon him to behave in ways he does not find reasonable; however, he must confront the fact that he does require some relationships with others to feel completely fulfilled, and that eventually most people will tire of his simultaneous expectations to be accommodated and refusal to accommodate their needs in return.

Again, it's most important to remember that for ISTPs, actions speak louder than words. Expecting them to verbalize their feelings on a regular basis is likely to meet with condescension and resentment; however, leaving them enough space to do as they please will almost invariably produce enough appreciation that, in time, their occasional shows of good faith will develop into a more complete awareness of the needs of their friends and family, as they will gradually realize that coming to collective moral agreements for defining and strengthening interpersonal bonds actually makes all the logical sense in the world.

Learning to accept and embrace some degree of cultural expectations will grant the ISTP both a more objective method of self-evaluation, and a much more balanced sense of consistent reliability. (It also doesn't hurt that, as they get older and social expectations change, accepting more responsibility actually makes them look a lot cooler and more aware of external reality!)












ISFP, or Introverted Sensing Feeling Perceiver, is a label borrowed from MBTI nomenclature and now applied to the Jungian Cognitive Function set {Fi, Se, Ni, Te}.

Dominant: Introverted Feeling (Fi)

"I think it's important not to overthink things. I guess I know generally how I feel about things, but I often don't really consciously think about it until a situation comes up, and then I just respond in whatever way feels right at the time. I don't think you can really prepare for the most important moments in life because you never really know what things are going to be like until you get there and feel for yourself how it affects you, emotionally and physically. I'm usually pretty good at figuring out how other people feel, too--just from watching them and thinking about how I'd feel if I were in their shoes. It's really important to treat people in a caring and understanding way--I know that's how I'd want them to treat me. More than anything, I guess, I just want to be who I am and not try to overanalyze or define things more heavily than I need to. Just feel it out, do what seems moral and feels right to you in that moment and you'll know what to do when the time comes."

ISFPs, more than just about any other type, need to feel that they have the freedom to spread out and be themselves, to do whatever it takes to find the kind of life and the kind of friends and the kind of job and the kind of hobbies that really feel like "home" and make them feel balanced and at peace with themselves and their values. While they are equally as focused on personal values and an individualistic sense of morality as INFPs, the major difference in the application of dominant Fi is that ISFPs do not analyze and reanalyze their values through hypothetical or theoretical extensions of their imaginations. Unless they are directly contributing to solving a real moral dilemma that affects them or a friend or loved one personally, they see little value in hashing and rehashing all the different possible applications of their values when there is so much immediately available information to deal with in the real world of tangible sensations and emotions.

For this reason, among others, ISFPs epitomize the sort of "go with the flow and let your heart be your guide" sort of mentality that's often attributed to P types; however, unlike the EP types, who react to their environments in a way that's designed to appeal to the demands and expectations of their perceptual surroundings, ISFPs begin by consulting their subjective internal values and then support and assist their private judgments with the information immediately surrounding them. What makes this process unique is that ISFPs don't necessarily know how a given idea or moral concept will affect their sense of ethics until a realistically tangible scenario arises in which they can react in the way that feels most natural. It just doesn't strike them as a worthwhile investment of time to worry about things that don't directly impact the immediacy of the situation in front of them. While INFPs may know substantially in advance how all sorts of different situations would impact their ideals and the resultant emotional evaluations, ISFPs often can't assign any real meaning to a theoretical ideal until they're right in the middle of an actual situation that makes it real for them. When asked, "How would you feel if xyz happened?", often the ISFP answer is, "I don't know--it's never happened and it's not happening now. So who cares?"

Introverted feeling for ISFPs often prompts the assimilation and support of various ethical causes and crusades, ranging from basic, everyday human kindness to grand-sweeping visions for idealistic change and promotion of universal harmony (especially as tertiary Ni develops and grants the ISFP a deeper range of interpretive possibilities for the application of his values toward global alignment with what he sees as "the greater good.") These ideals represent more than just optimistic hopes and daydreams; they serve as a window into the ISFP's uniquely personal vision for a better world tomorrow than we have today. The development of this vision can take an ISFP the better part of his life to mold into something coherent enough that it can be explained or shared concretely with others--but ISFPs spend the better part of their lives filling themselves with real experiences precisely so that they will understand themselves and their relationship to the world fully and completely enough to share this vision in a way that combines the fire of their passions with raw, genuine empathy for the needs and feelings that unite humanity on a universal level.

You can find these developing visions in the artistic works ISFPs tend to spend substantial amounts of time perfecting--often credited as "artists", ISFPs may display this affinity for aesthetic quality through music, graphic design, acting, fashion, arts and crafts, woodwork or other concrete artistic creations--but they need not show it through traditional artistic outlets, and it's important to realize that while many ISFPs are involved in artistic pursuits, many are not. Some may go their entire lives without ever finding the right medium to express exactly what they feel inside, but rest assured they're always searching. Some may find it through something as simple as feeding the homeless, adopting stray animals, or mentoring young children--anything that makes them feel as if they've had some sort of positive, tangible impact on another person's life. ISFPs almost always practice what they preach--if they advocate something, you can bet they're out there doing it themselves.

Auxiliary: Extroverted Sensation (Se)

"Notice that the stiffest tree is most easily cracked, while the bamboo or willow survives by bending with the wind."
--Bruce Lee, ISFP

Alert and ready to react on a split second's notice, auxiliary Se serves as Fi's liaison to the exciting world of sensations and sensory responses. It's the combination of Se's natural command of visual/auditory appeal and Fi's sense of aesthetic value and significance that grants ISFPs their oft-stereotyped position as purveyors of all things artistic and expressive. While this reputation may be somewhat exaggerated, it is true that ISFPs often feel a need to express and display their personal identities through visually engaging media--their homes and personal dress are often a little offbeat and uniquely decorated, aimed at creating a sense of calmness and tranquility that connects us to our spiritual and emotional needs while avoiding social expectations and pretense. ISFPs need things to be real, and they need to show their convictions, tastes, and preferences through real demonstrations of the sensory properties thereof. As with all SP types, it's important to remember that actions speak louder than words: Se puts the ISFP in touch with the sensory expectations of his surroundings and the natural audiences those surroundings create. This lends itself not only to their vaunted sense of improvisational spontaneity, but also a clear idea of what "plays" and what doesn't--some ISFPs even make it their business to be keenly aware of what trends and fashions in visual and aesthetic design are currently making the greatest impact on the greatest number of people, and to make a conscious effort to stay ahead of the curve. (Some even become what you might call "hipsters"--effortlessly grasping the essence of "cool" but quietly comfortable with the status it conveys, and silently amused at the failed attempts of others to imitate it.)

Unlike ESPs, who often fill their time with exciting and physically thrilling activities largely for the immediate excitement involved in losing themselves in their sensory reactions, ISFPs engage in similar surface behaviors for a somewhat different purpose: they need these sorts of experiences not only because they appreciate the face value of sensory impression for its own sake, but more importantly because putting themselves into unfamiliar situations forces them to define their own values and identities through the means they choose to find their way out. ISFPs often feel they must prove that they have what it takes to find their way out of dangerous situations as a means of confirming the value and moral worth of their own character to themselves.

ISFPs have a reputation for dropping everything and leaving to embark on some sort of journey or expedition with little to no preparation and no apparent reason for doing so beyond a momentary whim. Variety is the spice of life, and if they do the same thing for too long, ISFPs may feel trapped and locked in to one course of action--they need to change their surroundings every so often just to make sure they aren't losing touch with what's really important to them by becoming too entrenched in one approach or one way of living life. While this may confuse other types (except EPs, who do the same things purely to stave off boredom, as is a constant concern for them), ISFPs have more reason for doing this than simple enjoyment of the experience itself. Since they often see little to no value in hypothetical self-analysis, they may find it difficult to get in touch with their true selves until they've forced themselves into difficult or unexpected situations that require immediate and instinctive responses. People show their true colors most completely when a crisis arises, and as dominant Fi types, it's of the utmost importance to discover and nurture their individual identities: what better way for Fi to accomplish this than to involve oneself directly in real life, and see how we respond? Paradoxically for a type often characterized as so calm and serene, it's often during moments of acute crisis that ISFPs find the experiences that come to define the overall meaning of their lives.

On the other hand, Se may result in some negative tendencies for the ISFP who applies it in excess. When an ISFP sees a situation she perceives as patently wrong or immoral, she may throw herself headlong into the fray with little regard for the long-term implications of this behavior. While her resourcefulness and tactile adaptability are valuable gifts, it is possible for her to misjudge or overestimate her own on-the-spot problem solving ability and to actually make problems worse by getting involved in situations where her presence exacerbates the problem and then fails to introduce any genuinely useful solution. As long as Fi feels it is sticking up for what's right, Se may misrepresent the ISFP's generally good intentions through arrogant displays of physical bravado, or excessively grand gestures of love, or some bizarre combination of the two. I've known male ISFPs who, due to upbringing in an environment unfriendly to their fundamentally sensitive nature, have grown to overcompensate for this perceived "weakness" by exaggerating their Se in order to show their friends and families that they can be "manly" too--they may hit on every woman in a 20 mile radius, start fights at the drop of a hat, or constantly feel pressure to "perform" and impress their "audiences" at every juncture.

While Se does tend to lend itself to a certain flair for performance and its impact on an audience, constantly living in this mode of interaction is an approach better left to Se dominants--when an Se auxiliary type attempts it, he may wear himself too thin and block out the more important internal identity that defines his sense of self. While development of Se is certainly a useful and necessary component of the ISFP's total cognitive balance, forcing too much of it too quickly will almost invariably result in a feeling of squelched identity. "Who am I really?", Fi may rightly ask. It's vital for the young ISFP to remember that, while it's healthy to experiment with new sorts of situations and approaches to life, he needs to spend more time reflecting on the significance of these events to himself, in order to carve out their part in his total self-understanding and sense of internal balance.

Tertiary: Introverted iNtuition (Ni)

As time and maturity set in, ISFPs often begin to feel that something is missing in their perspectives. They know how to judge right from wrong, and they know how to respond instinctively and make an impact on others, but they may still feel as though something is missing--something they can't quite identify or articulate. It's tertiary Ni that fills this gap--by adding a sense of intuitive depth to their range of cognitive options, ISFPs can begin to see beyond the immediacy of the moment consider the implications of their values and actions on a grander scale.

I have one ISFP friend who, seemingly on a whim, left home to hike the entire ~2,200 miles of the Appalachian Trail on a personal mission to prove to himself that he could endure the challenges involved. This is classic ISFP behavior: when he returned, my social group could scarcely believe he was the same person. Where before he had been angry, impulsive, and dissatisfied with his life, now he radiated a sense of calmness, of comfortable acceptance of his own identity--a master of his own destiny. When asked what had changed, he simply replied that after hiking 2,200 miles and staring death in the face on numerous occasions, living purely off the land and finding his own way to his own end, the ordinary challenges of everyday life just didn't really seem significant in the grand scheme of things anymore.

What my friend had done was developed his tertiary Ni: no longer content to consider only the immediate implications of the interaction between his values and his present surroundings, he had become able to reconsider the assumptions his mindset would naturally make regarding the overall significance of everything surrounding him. He had developed an entirely new level of perspective and the effect was obvious and inspirational to everyone around him.

When ISFPs apply Ni is a less productive way, typically by neglecting Se development and slipping into an FiNi loop, the result is generally a combination of bitter cynicism toward the intentions of everyone around them, and feelings of hopeless isolation and detachment from the real and concrete experiences by which they discover their sense of meaning and purpose. Burdened with too much Ni too soon, the ISFP may decide to simply "drop out" of life in general--convinced that nothing will ever grant him the sense of personal fulfillment he desires because nothing is truly significant in a global sense, he may resign himself to cynical commentary on the hopelessness of it all. "Why even bother? Nothing is ever going to change. Nothing I do is ever going to make any serious difference to anybody--so what's the point? Why should I even bother? I already know what's going to happen, and it's not anything I want to be a part of--so I quit."

The solution generally involves learning to get wrapped up in the excitement of the moment, in finding some activity that not only brings the ISFP closer to her idealized sense of internal harmony, but that will remind her that things can always change on a moment's notice, and we should always be ready to respond and adapt our approach to the external world in kind. When a proficient Ni combines with this properly developed Se, it grants the ISFP a newfound sense of the long-term significance of her actions: rather than indulge in self-pity and doubt the value in anything she does, as FiNi would encourage on its own, a balanced handle on Ni will create the realization that every day of her life, the ISFP has a chance to change the world for the better. Even the smallest act of kindness, compassion, or personal expression can impact someone's life--or even many people's lives--on a much grander scale than we may ever directly know.

Inferior: Extroverted Thinking (Te)

Rounding out the weaker end of the ISFP cognitive hierarchy, we come to Te. Directly at odds with Fi's sense of individual freedom, undeveloped Te threatens everything the ISFP considers central to the core of his values: personal ethics, freedom to change or remove external structure abruptly, and ability to express oneself freely and redefine (or completely ignore) convention. In short, when the ISFP has not yet integrated Te, it seems to put a damper on everything he considers important about himself and his way of life.

It's not uncommon to see young ISFPs, especially, using the concept of Te itself as a general scapegoat for all that's wrong with the world. This happens most frequently when something is getting in the way of their sense of spontaneity and they start to feel trapped or locked into one particular methodology or way of seeing things. Many ISFPs would do well to remember that the purpose of this attitude is efficiency and organization, not necessarily the personal attack or deliberate blow to their identities that they may often perceive it as. When an external source of Te threatens her own subconscious identification with it, the ISFP would generally prefer do anything she can to escape the situation rather than resorting to full-on confrontation. Unless they (or their loved ones) have been deeply and deliberately attacked or injured, ISFPs rarely hold grudges for long periods of time; however, when they are irritated, we can expect occasional small measures of minor revenge, ranging from not showing up for obligations ("You don't care about my contributions? Fine, have fun doing the work without me!") to passive-aggressive needling at the suggestion that she be forced to do anything against her will that doesn't feel like the right course of action at the moment.

When inferior Te explodes, it tends to result in the ISFP temporarily indulging in all the behaviors he normally hates and thus works hard to keep locked away in his subconscious. As with INFPs, this often surfaces in the midst of creative projects that the ISFP finds important, and it happens most often when creative partners are not deemed to be holding up their weight in terms of contribution to the project, or are trying to steer the creative flow in a direction that strikes Fi as clearly "wrong", or not in the spirit or essence of the feeling or mood he's trying to convey. Here is where we find the nitpicking perfectionist hiding inside the otherwise easy-going, friendly observer: strike at something too close to her heart, and you may quickly find an unexpected blowup when the normally quiet and compassionate ISFP is forced to assume a decision-making leadership role that, truth be told, she'd prefer would never have to occur because people should know how to conduct themselves in a reasonable and compassionate way.

"I don't want to be the bad guy, but if you keep pushing me I'm going to have to set things straight." Well aware of the uses of Se in terms of aggression and intimidation, most ISFPs tend to hide that side of themselves away except in situations where they believe it's necessary to protect their internal selves from similarly aggressive behavior from others. Nonetheless, when a situation becomes seriously threatening, if something is just too obscenely wrong or cruel or indecent to allow, Se's anger may trigger an even worse response from the far less comfortable Te. When the situation has gotten so bad that he's no longer content to respond to it through his normal instinctive sensory reaction, he must actually stop to deliberately plan and strategize an effective response for rearranging resources (mostly human resources, since that is what he prefers to work with) according to some external law or measurable standard that may stomp all over whatever others feel as individuals is important to the situation at hand. If you force Te out of an ISFP, it typically means you've done something he finds so unacceptable that he has to disrupt his natural flow of harmonious action and reaction in order to get something extremely threatening under control--and that's really not something he wants to do often.

Since this response is something he normally despises in others, seeing it from himself creates feelings of hypocrisy and the resultant guilt tends to generate a very negative association with any sort of Te usage at all. It takes a long time and a lot of experience for the ISFP to learn to communicate his grievances calmly and productively enough to lead a group effectively while balancing the competing goals of respecting everyone's individuality and simultaneously generating measurable results. Sometimes the two goals conflict and a decision has to be made--the generally idealistic and amiable ISFP may have serious difficulty putting his foot down on anything or standing up for his own viewpoint, even when others are actually taking advantage of his natural kindness and patience. Since they know they tend to be unable to control themselves when this sort of situation arises, they do their best to simply avoid confrontations until they've learned to develop a sort of detached diplomacy, by which they can comfortably voice their concerns--and even criticisms--without sounding too harsh for their own standards or letting their feelings boil over and exaggerate the criticisms being offered.

Eventually Fi, Se, Ni and Te should balance out into a very calm and understanding individual who knows how to apply just the right touch of administrative control without stepping on anyone's toes or allowing any disputes to turn from productive exchanges of ideas into hostile personal attacks. As he learns that sometimes personal feelings have to be sacrificed--or at least delayed temporarily--for the sake of moving forward with more widespread goals, his worldview will naturally right itself and come to broaden its understanding of harmonious, fair and balanced decision-making. Armed with a healthy sense of skepticism and concern for practicality, the well-balanced ISFP will find his goals and ideals aligning more closely with the immediacy of physical reality than he ever thought possible.












ESTJ, or Extroverted Sensing Thinking Judger, is a label borrowed from MBTI nomenclature and now applied to the Jungian Cognitive Function set {Te, Si, Ne, Fi}.

Dominant: Extroverted Thinking (Te)

"More than anything I want to be seen as a competent leader, a strong organizer capable of taking charge and getting results. I think there are good reasons for the commonly accepted and proven methods of getting things done: they work! People come to me when they need help setting up their plans or moving their projects forward because they know I'm consistently dependable, and they trust me to take on the important responsibilities because they know I'll work as hard as I can to make sure things are done right. I will take full responsibility if something I'm in charge of doesn't go well, so I need to work with people I can count on to meet expectations and respect schedules and deadlines. Sometimes others see me as too much of a stickler for rules and structure, but I'm not sure they realize how important it is to have a concrete plan of action and a central focus for everything you do. I don't like to waste time or energy and it bothers me when people don't bother with the research and preparation to make sure they're using the most effective methods. Work ethic is something I place a lot of importance on--it's important to do your fair share, and to be self-sufficient enough that you can stand up on your own and support your own needs. If you ever want to feel like you've accomplished anything in life, shouldn't you work hard to ensure that you're doing things the right way?"

ESTJs at their best are driven, focused, and productive--and those are the qualities by which they typically define their identities and self-images. As Te dominants, they have little patience for inefficiency, and they trust in the collective knowledge of whichever external groups they see as knowledgeable and worthwhile authorities. They are singularly aware that for any given job or task, there exists a most effective methodology, and they will bend over backwards to make sure they know what it is and that the project gets moving in the right direction. While others may complain about or disregard formal rules systems or regulations, ESTJs will generally stick up for them. There's a reason for the right method, a logic to the system and the way the different steps in a process interconnect. ESTJs, in most cases, seem to naturally understand this kind of causality on a deeper level than most other people do.

Nonetheless, ESTJs are often misunderstood and misrepresented in the media as tyrannical control freaks, overbearing bosses, or blind traditionalists. Since they are typically aggressive and confident in the pursuit of their goals, and since concern for the emotional states of others is not generally the first thing they look for when assessing a situation, it's easy to mistake their desire for progress and success as selfish insistence on absolute self-authority. But while ESTJs do insist on a clearly defined chain of command and organizational structure, it's not generally because they have any overwhelming desire to make the lives of others miserable--it's because they understand the significance of the consequences of the absence of recognizable logical structure and continuity of process. They may often find themselves the only organizationally competent member of an entire team. Because they value planning and tangible progress to such a high degree, ESTJs often feel personally responsible for the success or failure of any given job or initiative. If they haven't done everything they can to ensure the best result, they will be unable to live with themselves if the effort falls through. They may often see others as so unable to handle the administrative relationships they grasp so naturally that they fear the entire project will collapse around them (negatively impacting everyone involved) if they don't put forth their best efforts to keep things afloat.

Naturally, this can (and does) cause friction with a variety of other types. It's hard to browse any typology forum without hearing a disgruntled xNxP complain about his overbearing ESTJ father, boss, or public leader. What most people (especially disgruntled NPs) don't realize about ESTJs, though, is that they are the people who keep life running smoothly when everything is falling apart and no one else knows what to do. While they may sometimes become frustrated or angry with people they perceive as ineffectual or insubordinate, they're often surprisingly calm and confident in the face of crisis (assuming it's a crisis they've anticipated and prepared for.) Te as a dominant function is most satisfied when a situation arises where all of its knowledge and preparation apply directly to achieving the best solution, where they're able to prove their skills and competence directly by producing measurable results for their tireless efforts. When logical and empirical evaluations are standardized according to a universal rubric, no one can argue with the real-life results of hard work, preparation, and execution. The ability to maintain focus on these all-important goals leads almost invariably to a sense of pride in self-sufficiency that nearly all xxTJ types share--ESTJs loathe depending on others for resources, and they build a lot of their self-images on their ability to look out for themselves and provide concrete direction for their own lives as well as the lives of those around them.

A common ESTJ misconception is that they care only about the end result and not about the people involved in the process. This is generally much less true than it may seem on the surface: often, especially in the context of groups where the ESTJ is personally connected to the people she's working with, the impending possibility of failure (and its associated negative impact on the group) may very well be the entire reason she feels compelled to lend direction and efficient leadership to the situation in the first place. The ESTJ is not out to annoy others--she simply recognizes their logical mistakes and infrastructure inefficiencies to a much higher degree than they do, and she can't stand by and watch while others (especially those important to her on a personal basis) waste their time and effort on a system or process that's bound to fail due to simple, common sense planning errors. If she sees something that could be improved or brought up to "industry standards", the ESTJ may have great difficulty restraining her natural desire to correct it. While she may not always do so in the manner most palatable to those around her, her commitment to achievement (and to helping those around her achieve) is undeniable.

Auxiliary: Introverted Sensation (Si)

As an auxiliary function, Si is responsible for providing a balancing effect between the external logic and facts of Te's world (where ESTJs feel most at home) and the private perceptual associations they come to develop as they build more skills and experiences. Si is primarily related to connections of information with personalized meaning and expectations--as the ESTJ learns and develops, he discovers gradually that not everything in life can be fully explained or understood using standardized measurements and fact-based assessments. While the very concept of subjectivity is, in itself, annoying and inconvenient for Te--ESTJs love being able to decisively and objectively prove the value of their ideas and methodologies--the influence of Si introduces them to a deeper world of internal sensory information processing, where only extensive collections of deeply personalized experiences can produce the level of competence and thorough understanding they desire most.

Earlier in life, ESTJs may find it difficult to place any genuine value on anything that cannot be clearly marked, measured, and evaluated according to an objective hierarchy. Dominant Te reasons that all worthwhile knowledge is collected, stored, and represented by the outwardly observable laws and logical relationships between externally verifiable processes and concepts--the beauty of which rests in the fact that no one individual's experience or opinion can taint the collective objectivity of knowledge as a general body. The role of Si begins to integrate into the ESTJ's cognition as he discovers that not everything he needs to know can be found in books or learned through study of the methods of others--he will learn that certain parts of life can only be understood by directly experiencing them for oneself, by discovering significance through internalization of actual sensory experience and association of perceptual expectations created therein.

In practice, this tends to lead to a gradual shift from overconfidence in the absolute correctness of logical authorities toward an emphasis on individual understanding and a more open-minded attitude toward the possibility that the subjective perceptions of others (and indeed, of themselves) may hold as much validity as the objective rules by which ESTJs structure their lives. One cannot truly grasp the subtleties of life's experiences without many years of hard-fought trial and error, and there is room for interpretive difference even within the confines of a well-defined schedule or working method. As they build more skills and collect more information from various areas, ESTJs will learn to develop their own interpretive paradigms--and they may be surprised to discover that their own experiences don't always align perfectly with the standards that their prized objective expectations might suggest.

It's worth noting that, as a perceptive function, Si makes no evaluation or judgment upon the sensory information it internalizes and ultimately builds into the ESTJ's comfort zone and sense of perceptual continuity. Like their ISTJ cousins but to a lesser extent, ESTJs must be careful to avoid situations in which too many negative or unrealistic associations may be generated between their private, experiential reactions and the measurable realities of the world around them. They are generally careful to stay within contexts where they know what they're doing, lest their subjective hunches generate too large a schism between their problem-solving abilities and the objective expectations of the people on whom they depend for personal interaction and structural boundaries. Left to its own devices, Si can lead ESTJs down potentially destructive roads--as creatures of habit who need to keep things under control in order to feel comfortable, they must take care to avoid letting themselves become too comfortable with uncontrollable situations.

As Si grows stronger and generates stronger cognitive balance, the ESTJ will develop her own perceptual set, and the more sensory information she internalizes relating to her areas of interest, the more she will "normalize" new sensations by adjusting her perceptions of them to the expectations her individual experiences have come to generate. Interestingly, though ESTJs are often seen as naturally detail-oriented, it's actually the development of auxiliary Si that facilitates this attention to detail more than anything else--Te on its own may very well overlook important details in favor of expediency and progress. Introduction of Si into the system will grant the ESTJ a mental "map" of information, a sort of "sixth sense" in terms of what "feels right" and what doesn't. That which matches expectations built on prior successes and failures will, ideally, match up with that which external laws and obligations suggest is fair and accurate. Nonetheless, the well-balanced ESTJ is capable of discerning the difference between the two, and of using her own experiential knowledge to correct the error when the outer world's expectations conflict with it.

Tertiary: Extroverted iNtuition (Ne)

As life carries on, ESTJs will inevitably be confronted with a side of their personalities that doesn't seem to fit within the structural expectations of their preferred cognitive attitudes. Tertiary Ne enters the picture as an agent of creative exploration--but also as an element of unpredictability and potentially chaotic influence. It's responsible for several different adjustments that may confuse and possibly even alienate others, at least until the ESTJ learns to understand this part of himself thoroughly enough to incorporate it into his cognitive approach in a healthy and productive way.

While dominant Te's chief desire is to be judged as a competent arbitrator in line with the categorical expectations of those considered knowledgeable, Ne contributes to the extroverted side of the ESTJ personality by adding an accompanying desire to be perceived as unique and creative. The accompanying tendency to throw caution to the wind and think outside the box may alarm or frighten close associates and even the ESTJ himself--ignoring accepted evaluative norms and forging into the unknown solely in search of novel or unexpected results is virtually antithetical to the way most ESTJs tend to handle themselves and define their place in the world. They may rightly wonder, as Ne develops, where this sudden desire to tear down established expectations and wander into something different is coming from, and they may fear that it threatens all that they've worked so hard their entire lives to establish. Nonetheless, the introduction of Ne should provide a useful alternative perspective when situations invariably arise where the tried and true methods that have proven successful in the past cease, for whatever reason, to continue living up to expectations.

Most ESTJs seem to funnel tertiary Ne into some sort of creative outlet, which may or may not ever relate concretely to their career goals. Since they so often choose careers primarily on the basis that they will provide stable and consistent financial support, they find themselves unable to inject much personal individuality into their everyday working lives, and thus one common solution is to join some sort of creative endeavor where they can feel free to let Ne roam and explore without having to worry whether their inner creative spirit conflicts with any contractual obligations. Other ESTJs express their Ne by surrounding themselves with friends and associates involved in creative fields--often such people can provide them with feedback on their own work, and help them feel inspired to continue working toward new frontiers when others in their professional lives seem to lack interest or inspiration.

If auxiliary Si is poorly developed, granting Ne a stronger role in the ESTJ's cognition than she is naturally comfortable with, the "TeNe loop" ESTJ may find herself in an impossible situation: torn between preserving the old guard and promoting the new wave of the future, her conflicting desires to be seen as both rationally level-headed and wildly revolutionary may circumvent legitimate progress, ultimately resulting in high stress and burnout. She may find that even though her approach is working, it's become too dull and uninteresting to continue with--and then, intent on finding something new, may branch out too far and experiment with too many new possibilities with no real direction, sabotaging herself as she loses focus and indulges ever further into mindless experimentation for nothing but its own sake. She may struggle with the fear that everything she's learned will become useless, that she may wake up one day and discover that she herself has become obsolete overnight. Lost in the expansive world of change for change's sake, TeNe has the potential to make the ESTJ into a slave to the expectations of others. Uncertain of what will bring her personal satisfaction and stuck with the exhausting task of constantly satisfying conflicting expectations from vastly different worlds, she may find herself feeling utterly dissatisfied, yet clueless as to how to progress.

When integrated correctly, tertiary Ne should provide an additional balancing influence by reminding the ESTJ that change can be a good thing, that new direction is sometimes the very thing that will ultimately result in the greatest amount of progress and the best results. Strong and confident ESTJs will often manage to work their intuitive tendencies into their careers: by introducing Ne into their cognitive approaches but still allowing it to remain subservient to Te and Si, the well-rounded ESTJ will work to promote optimal efficiency, while still maintaining the ability to change or rework areas which no longer seem to produce the consistent results which create the satisfaction she's become used to. Life will, ideally, remain fundamentally predictable and controlled, but open to occasional change and reinvention when necessary.

Inferior: Introverted Feeling (Fi)

As the weakest and least controllable force in the ESTJ's cognitive hierarchy, inferior Fi can present a number of issues which create substantial difficulty for most ESTJs throughout the majority of their lives. Since they spend the majority of their time dealing with impersonal and objective evaluations on a large-scale, and since these evaluations tend to apply to large numbers of people in many different contexts, taking time to sit down and reflect on their own private ethical values may strike ESTJs as an inefficient use of time, at best--or a hypocritical and illogical mistake, at worst. Often naturally distrustful of the very concept of introverted judgment, ESTJs may find themselves grappling with the ethical implications of their working lives, struggling to balance their organizational talents against their personal feelings about the greater value and inherent worth of the work they involve themselves in.

In their weaker moments, ESTJs in the grip of inferior Fi may become uncharacteristically offended when others don't see or immediately accept the value in their preferred methodologies. As they often feel genuinely responsible for the well-being of those around them, they may take it quite personally when they feel that their advice--their primary contribution to the improvement of their surroundings--is being ignored or rejected. They may struggle with feelings of hypocrisy or personal inadequacy when their emotions tell them to react negatively to this sort of perceived rejection, conflicting with their stronger and more conscious Thinking objectives. Since they normally expect others to be able to set aside their personal feelings in favor of accomplishing more important goals, the sudden inability to do this themselves may strike them as a form of weakness of which they must absolve themselves at all costs. They may not only feel guilty, but also guilty about feeling guilty in the first place. (This last part is especially true of male ESTJs, who often consider it their responsibility to maintain a dispassionately logical outlook at all times.)

Some ESTJs may even be so painfully aware of their own natural difficulties in this area that they overcompensate (whether consciously or not) by pushing specific moral agendas to the point of exaggerated emphasis on seemingly random or insignificant ethical dilemmas or problems with society at large. In these situations it's not uncommon to see them applying Fi in service of Te's awareness of its own talents--feeling legitimately distressed by the ethical problems with a given situation, but much less confident in their ability to express these feelings than in their known areas of strength, they may take up projects or causes in service of their private moral values, but under the guise of simple improvements to efficiency of process. ESTJs rarely expect thanks or appreciation for performing what Fi sees as their moral duty. Somewhat counterintuitively, the driving unconscious force behind Fi ("I must be a Good Person and I must contribute to Good Causes") may have much more to do with the ESTJ's motivations in many situations than his characteristically impersonal demeanor suggests. Usually, ESTJs are not entirely unaware of their own tendency toward bluntness and direct criticism, but are confused and uncertain as to how to express their private feelings more openly or connect emotionally with others. The resultant confusion can create a variety of difficulties in terms of structuring and maintaining interpersonal relationships (though ESTJs are typically reliable and devoted enough friends and family members that loved ones can forgive or simply overlook their shortcomings in this area.)

With time and experience, inferior Fi should ultimately lead to a more well-rounded personality as the unconscious side of the TeFi duality blends more smoothly with the conscious side, leading to a more complete personality capable of balancing the importance of scheduled progress against the private moral tenets of the internal self. This is often a long and arduous process, however--to ESTJs, it may often seem like halting the development of their projects to deal with every little emotional or moral quandary of every individual involved would be so time-consuming and inefficient as to prevent any real results from ever being created, or any useful goals from ever reaching completion. As he becomes more in touch with his own emotional needs and personal values, however, the ESTJ will naturally develop more empathy for the similar needs of those surrounding him. As he learns to keep an eye (even if only in the back of his mind) on his own humanistic moral responsibilities, he treads ever closer to completing the all-important project that is his own personal growth--and he'll feel all the more satisfied when he gets there.











ESFJ, or Extroverted Sensing Feeling Judger, is a label borrowed from MBTI nomenclature and now applied to the Jungian Cognitive Function set {Fe, Si, Ne, Ti}.

Dominant: Extroverted Feeling (Fe)

"I'd say that I focus primarily on my responsibilities and obligations to others, to the people around me. It's not just the people that are directly involved with my life--although they are the most important ones--it's just that I really feel I'm at my best when I'm getting directly involved and doing something that's immediately useful to someone else. I'm good at just looking at the facts, figuring out a practical way to help people get what they need, and then getting it done. I think a lot of people have a tendency to needlessly complicate things, so they often come to me for advice because I'm good at simplifying their problems into concrete, realistic steps that will make a genuine difference today. And what I'm really best at is doing this in a way that makes me a lot of friends--I don't like to step on people's toes, and I feel I'm pretty good at moving things forward in a way that makes most everybody happy. I have a gift for bringing out the best in people--I know how to encourage them because I can just tell what they need to hear in order to motivate them to do their best. It's hard to express just how important it is to have a strong network of people that you can count on, and to always, always reciprocate that need by being the person others can count on at all costs. There's really nothing worse to me than letting down the people who depend on me--they need me and I feel most fulfilled when I can be there to assist them in any way necessary. If I don't know how, I'll do the research and find out what real steps are needed to bring important goals into reality. I also think it's really important to be as prepared as you can, but also to take life one step at a time! Just figure out what needs to be done next, and then focus on that one thing until it's done. If you get too caught up in daydreaming and trying to figure out everything before you even start, how can you ever really make a difference in anyone else's life?"

Like all SJ types, ESFJs are, unfortunately, often inaccurately stereotyped as busy bodies who have nothing to better to do than enforce arbitrary tradition and social courtesy on those around them. In reality, this is simply not the case for most ESFJs and the idea that this is representative of their behavior is rooted in a number of fundamental misunderstandings about the nature of their function attitudes.

First of all, Fe dominants do not change their moral attitudes with the wind, and they don't automatically blend into whatever cultural milieu happens to surround them. Although they're typically very skilled at deliberately doing this when they want to, it's important to remember that Fe dominants define their positions and directions in life according to their interpersonal obligations--and that means their relationships are defined by sets of common values and implied understanding due to similar cultural and moral backgrounds. Because their interpersonal strategy depends primarily on finding common ground by which to relate to others and form complex networks of personal, familial, and societal loyalties, ESFJs at their best can find something in common with just about anyone. This is often misinterpreted (especially by Fi types) as a deliberate attempt at manipulation for personal gain--and while it's true that less savory ESFJs are not above abusing their gifts for such nefarious purposes, to assume that this is their standard MO is to completely miss the central point of their value system. Developing common ethical viewpoints with others is, of course, the ESFJ's way of checking his own viewpoint against a collectivized standard that transcends the limitations on his own personal experiences, like a system of moral checks and balances. But more than that, it's also his primary method of relating to and dealing effectively with his external surroundings: ESFJs feel most at home when constantly in contact with a lot of different people, because it gives them the greatest number of opportunities to both stay in touch with the consensus among their peers about what is the "right" way to feel, and to offer their heartfelt help and support at every turn.

It's often hard to explain to Fi types how this sort of mentality constitutes a genuine expression of real feeling--but in order to fully understand the Fe mindset we need to step outside the assumption that everyone experiences the idea of moral virtue in terms of an individual or subjective standard. Even Ti dominant/auxiliary types, while they are themselves Fe types as well, may have great difficulty reconciling their strong individual principles with the philosophy most central to the Fe outlook: that the actual content of moral beliefs themselves pales in comparison to the importance of the relationships and support networks they represent. When faced with an ethical dilemma, the ESFJ's natural conclusion is that she cannot make any objectively reasonable evaluation of the situation until she understands how the people in the relationships by which she defines her entire existence will feel about the issue in question. If it becomes evident that her first conclusion is roundly rejected by the people she views as peers, she will, in characteristic Fe fashion, tend to push aside her own personal misgivings and adjust her outlook to whatever appears most likely to promote the overall well-being of the larger group while avoiding unnecessary conflict and keeping everyone as happy as possible. For this reason, it's not at all uncommon to see ESFJs in leadership positions--much like their ENFJ cousins, they naturally gravitate toward situations where they can utilize their people skills to balance productive delegation of tasks against diplomatic cooperation in order to build toward lasting, long-term relationships. In Fe's world, if you don't have clearly structured relationships through objectively observable declarations of mutual responsibility, you have no coherent means of navigating life itself.

The classic irony of the ESFJ archetype serves to highlight what is both one of the type's greatest strengths and simultaneously one of its most glaring weaknesses: self-sacrificial insistence on setting aside one's own needs and feelings as long as the broader needs of the larger group are met. While this can result in some extraordinarily selfless behavior when applied positively, it can also become a serious issue if not kept in check, as the ESFJ retains the ability to view himself as a "good person" only when he feels he is doing something that serves a practical need or purpose for others--and if that means trying as hard as he can to block out the reality of his own misgivings or reservations, he may forge on down this dangerous path with little regard for the long-term consequences of continually squelching his own best interests. Worse yet, due to this causal association between (and, at times, even total inability to separate) "what's best for everyone else" and "what's best for me", exceptionally unhealthy ESFJs may sometimes find themselves abusing Fe's awareness of collectivized moral values in order to justify behavior that is ultimately self-serving by convincing themselves that everything they do is "what's best for my people" in the end. Of course, this sort of behavior is relatively uncommon in most ESFJs--the worst thing you'll generally see from most of them is the occasional unintentional step on someone else's idea of personal freedom or expression (though such mishaps are generally well-intentioned) in favor of helping everyone else. The Fe dominant mindset is, in itself, almost utilitarian: the needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few.

Auxiliary: Introverted Sensation (Si)

As an auxiliary function, Si serves an important purpose as a sort of life raft back to the inner self, a balancing force against the constant demands and expectations of the external world and its objective Feeling requirements. Unlike ISFJs, who are more inclined to (privately) disregard external cultural or familial traditions if their own experiences and insights lead them to believe some other approach will be more comfortable or more effective, ESFJs often have a difficult time breaking from the social fabric of their peers and companions. Like all Pi functions, auxiliary Si serves as a reminder that, no matter what external data may say, there are some things we "just know" from experience, often welling up apparently out of nowhere and providing strong hunches and instincts that something simply doesn't feel familiar enough to be right.

While Si dominant types typically have little to no problem placing their own experiential perceptions and the resultant expectations of meaning ("I know it's this way because I've done it and I know how it's supposed to feel") above externally imposed methodology, the Si auxiliary types (ESxJ) may struggle to a substantially greater degree to integrate their own personal experiences and assumptions into the framework of externalized expectations by which they govern their lives and define their sense of purpose. In seeking to grow and develop on a personal level, it's vital for the ESFJ to recognize that not all experiences in life can be related completely to others, and that some of the most important personal developments must come from the inside.

As Je dominant types, ESFJs need to depend on some externally verifiable standard by which to "prove" the merit and validity of their belief systems and approaches to problem-solving. If the only evidence she can provide for the value of her ideas is that "it just feels wrong if I don't" or "somehow I just know this is the best way", the ESFJ may simply ignore her instincts despite knowing deep down that something is being handled less than ideally--anything to avoid being branded an "outsider" or accused of selfishly placing her own needs above the all-encompassing needs of a greater (and therefore more important) majority. While she may often become accustomed to handling life primarily through habit, routine, and clear instructions, being forced to learn to interpret meaning according to whatever her gut instincts tell her may seem, at first, to fly in the face of dominant Fe's overwhelming prerogatives. All too often Si is relegated to the background--its suggestions and cognitive influence may make themselves internally evident, but when they conflict with external expectations, the beleaguered ESFJ may find herself at a loss for how to explain them in any way that resonates with her peers or team members.

In general, ESFJs do not appreciate having to completely remap an experience or skill set they've internalized before, and in most cases they're able (via Si's highly specified database of sensation and associated meaning) to recognize their own natural limitations and avoid wandering too far out into the wild without a clear map. If they find that their established interpretations are continually generating inaccurate or useless results, they may be left wondering whether they can really count on the consistent outcomes around which they tend to structure their happiness and personal comfort. When their personal preferences, obligations, responsibilities, and relationships cease to provide consistently positive feedback, something must be terribly wrong--and ESFJs see it as their personal duty to find out what that is and fill in the gaps, in order to get things running smoothly again as soon as possible. Not only do they need to feel that others depend on them (Fe), they also need to feel secure in the knowledge that they can depend on others (Si)--lest their expectations be let down, sabotaging their ability to predict the outcomes of their actions and thus leaving them at the mercy of random chaos.

Of course, on the positive side, ESFJs who understand how to tap into and express Si in a way that their peers find palatable will vastly increase their skill sets while simultaneously setting themselves apart and injecting their own personal experiences and interpretations into whatever they find themselves engaged in. There's a lot to be said for knowing when to keep things simple and just stick with what's already known to work, and Si provides a way for ESFJs to conceptualize ways of doing this while still staying within a framework that is predictable and comfortable to the personal sensory expectations they've come to internalize. Like all Pi functions, auxiliary Si has a certain perceptual comfort zone where it feels most useful and applicable, but unlike Ni, its information is based on direct sensory data, and the red flags go up the second something violates its expectations for "normal" assessments of meaning and interpretation. This may even result in seemingly irrational superstitious beliefs--Si, perhaps moreso than any other function attitude, epitomizes the idea that "if it ain't broke, don't fix it." If we've done it a particular way before and we know it worked, why risk changing anything about our approach until it stops working? After all, we can never be quite sure what "minor" details will end up making a big difference to the outcome, and to Si, it just doesn't make good sense to destroy a winning formula in pursuit of some idealistic pipe dream.

Tertiary: Extroverted iNtuition (Ne)

Rounding out the ESFJ's personality in the tertiary position, Ne can perhaps best be described as a "wild card" in the ESFJ cognitive style. While they will rarely throw caution to the wind and leap into the unknown as easily as, say, Ne dominants, they will often find smaller ways to change things up and attempt new and different directions in life solely for the purpose of experimentation. Some ESFJs express tertiary Ne by assuming the "class clown" or other entertainer role among their peer groups. (In this regard, it's not unreasonable to confuse them with Se dominants, although their motivations are not quite the same.)

Continuing in this vein, many ESFJs enjoy planning and hosting parties and social events--their reputations as the world's hosts and hostesses, while somewhat overemphasized in most ESFJ profiles, is not entirely undeserved. Instead of completely changing the idea or purpose of these gatherings, however, as an Ne dominant might, tertiary Ne will step in and lead to smaller (but still often adventurous) changes within the context of the more important and consistently maintained ritual. For example, one ESFJ that I know makes a point of trying every Chinese restaurant she can find--she maintains Si's enjoyment of the consistent expectation that her love of Chinese food demands, but she's constantly looking for new variations within that consistent theme, just in case something unexpectedly positive and novel happens. This "Ne experimentation within the context of Si's comfort zone" becomes a running theme for not only for ESFJs, but also for many SJ types in the process of developing their tertiary or inferior Ne: Ne represents a desire for change, exploration, and immediate response to all sorts of different information and new stimuli. It's the undying optimism present in the hope for a better future, and it's a large part of what gives many ESFJs their characteristic upbeat attitude: when they're able to combine a realistic, task-oriented handle on day-to-day goals with an open-minded willingness to experiment with new and creative approaches to those goals, they seamlessly integrate practical productivity with a healthy level of personal growth and innovation.

Of course, not all Ne use is positive in nature. When Si is neglected, leaving FeNe to fend for themselves with no substantial introverted perspective, ESFJs may become far too caught up in the impressions they make on others, resulting in strange and confusing behavior that seems to waver between exaggerated displays of loyalty (and oversensitivity to perceived failure of others to reciprocate it) and outlandish attempts to garner attention and be viewed as interesting or noteworthy. Unfortunately for the FeNe loop ESFJ, these two goals can easily conflict, and when Si fails to provide the subjective perception required to mitigate such circumstances, many stereotypically negative ESFJ traits can arise, precluding the successful bonding and interpersonal exchanges of loyalty upon which the ESFJ builds his self-image. When dealing with more unbalanced ESFJs, expect emotional manipulation, extreme neediness, and even unwarranted intrusion into the private affairs of others--all "for their own good", of course.

It's also worth noting that the common assumptions about ESFJ demeanor and surface behavior are misguided at best, and sharply counterproductive at worst. By virtue of its spontaneous and improvisational nature, tertiary Ne may occasionally lead the ESFJ into a role or persona that no one--not even himself--expects from him, and since Ne left to its own devices takes so little time to reflect internally, the resultant changes (albeit mostly temporary) may not always reflect the kind and giving attitude to which ESFJs typically aspire. While they may tend to present a friendly, sunny face to most outsiders most of the time, it's during a crisis (preferably one they've had time to thoroughly prepare for) when the true strength of their resolve, determination, and organizational abilities comes to light. Even when they are decidedly uncomfortable due to abrupt and unwelcome change, ESFJs will rarely reduce themselves to states of outright panic--they don't have time for that, because they're too busy focusing on making sure everyone else stays calm in moving toward a resolution that both accomplishes something meaningful and makes every member feel like a crucial part of a cohesive team or unit. Ask an ESFJ what's most important in a work situation, and you'll surely find camaraderie, teamwork, cooperation, and mutual respect at the top of the list--but it's important to recognize that even these ideals, while they are the first line of defense for ESFJs, can be temporarily set aside if circumstances becomes dire enough. When everything is falling apart, ESFJs will do whatever it takes to protect their own--and while they'd prefer to do it diplomatically in most cases, they will not shy away from confrontation if an unexpected situation truly leaves no other options.

Inferior: Introverted Thinking (Ti)

When applied as an inferior function attitude, Ti tends to serve the somewhat peculiar purpose of providing that little voice in the back of the ESFJ's head that says, "Wait a minute--I don't care how well this binds my people together; it just doesn't make any sense!" As Je dominant types, ESFJs often have trouble finding any purpose in the idea of introverted judgment at all. After all, from an Fe standpoint, judgment serves primarily to connect people through an objectively observable rubric that can settle disputes through mutual adherence to a common set of moral prerogatives. When Ti comes along and begins insisting on extremely subjective and personalized principles, its presence may often feel not just foreign, but outright counterproductive. Fe operates primarily through generalized moral precepts that operate most effectively when used to govern and unite large groups--the idea of judgment-based principles that only make sense subjectively seems to subvert the obvious group-oriented nature of this prime directive, leaving the ESFJ to wonder why he should ever bother listening to such seemingly selfish impulses in the first place.

The aforementioned conflict between personal needs and the needs of the larger group is closely related to the conflict between dominant Fe and undifferentiated inferior Ti. While ultimately these two attitudes should work together to produce a more complete and well-rounded worldview, the development process along the way is almost invariably more than a little rocky. As unconscious Ti influences flood his consciousness in moments of stress, the ESFJ will often take out his confusing feelings on himself by redoubling his efforts to ignore these "selfish" impulses. One common method of attempting to cope with the resultant stress and personal guilt involves the reaffirmation of Fe's collective principles by self-reference back to Ti's own belief that "everything my group believes clearly makes the most inherent sense (by virtue of the fact that my group is better than yours.)" Dogmatic insistence upon the self-evident nature of her own cultural values may often characterize the ESFJ in the grip of inferior Ti--once her mind is made up that something is inherently true or correct, she may have great difficulty opening up to the possibility that other methods of reasoning and evaluation are worth any consideration at all.

Furthermore, this form of circular reasoning may go completely unnoticed and seem perfectly natural to the generally weak and incomplete Thinking function represented by inferior Ti. Refusal to consider other possibilities grants both a convenient excuse to remain in one's comfort zone and to reinforce the superiority of one's own familial or social body. Inferior Ti has a tendency to produce a nagging feeling that there's no purely structural reason that any one group's values should be objectively superior to any other's, but this difficult realization can all too easily be swept up in the current of Fe's powerful loyalist sympathies and brushed under the rug for convenience's sake. Ultimately, dominant Fe must confront the idea that foreign value systems exist and that it's impractical and parochial to go through life excluding virtually everyone who doesn't fit the arbitrary constraints of the ESFJ's own personal background and time-tested methods.

As two sides of the same coin, Fe and Ti will eventually reconcile with each other enough to recognize their own symbiotic relationship: the stronger Ti becomes, the more the ESFJ develops his own sense of personalized integrity and universal principles, and the less Ti will serve to simply parrot the group-oriented values ingrained by Fe's relationships to others and reinforced by Si's penchant for ritual. The result: a well-rounded, dependable individual who's loyal to a fault, but knows where to draw the line and set out on his own when his life path veers off in a different direction.












ISTJ, or Introverted Sensing Thinking Judger, is a label borrowed from MBTI nomenclature and now applied to the Jungian Cognitive Function set {Si, Te, Fi, Ne}.

Dominant: Introverted Sensation (Si)

"I'm a realistic, no-nonsense kind of person. Some people think that makes me old-fashioned--and I guess sometimes I am--but it's not because I think older ideas or approaches are inherently better. I just see a lot of wisdom in being prepared and knowing how you're going to approach any given problem and get the result you want. I figure, if you've been there and done it yourself, you don't need anyone else's advice because you know for yourself how to get the job done. That's the only way to keep things under control, really. People sometimes think all I do is work--but that's not true. I like to have fun, too--I just like to make sure my work is done first so that I can relax and enjoy myself comfortably. I enjoy building real knowledge and useful skills that relate to the things I find myself naturally good at. There's simply no sense in wandering around trying to jump into a million different areas--it's important to know what you do well and stick to it reliably. I've got to have a sense of direction--usually guided by what I've learned through my own experiences--and it's very important to me to keep my word and dependably do what I say I'm going to do, when I say I'm going to do it. If I don't help make life stable for others, how can I expect it to stay that way for me?"

Often stereotyped for their sense of duty and reliability, ISTJs are most often perceived by others as practical-minded people who like to structure things just right to stay within realistic limits and keep things within their comfort zones. It's not that they have no interest in play, as others may incorrectly assume from their oft-stoic demeanor--indeed, ISTJs lend themselves to a very particular brand of subtle and esoteric humor that others may often miss entirely--it's just that they know exactly how they like their surroundings to be, and they do everything they can to maximize the stability of the conditions and experiences in which they prefer to immerse themselves.

As a dominant Pi type, it's extremely evident to the ISTJ that he needs to be careful what sorts of information and experiences he allows himself prolonged exposure to. Often especially impressionable as children, ISTJs discover quickly that they have an unconscious tendency to concentrate both their work and play time toward highly specified areas in which they can amass the greatest amount of raw data possible. Unlike INTJs, who may spend years of their lives trying to determine what exactly it is they are passionate about and what role they want to fulfill, ISTJs tend to learn early on that they have very specific tastes and preferences and that life goes much better for them when they design and structure it around maximizing their exposure to the particular kinds of sensory information that bring them the most consistent success--and from that consistent success springs the life-long sense of fulfillment they derive from routinized structure and repetition of the activities they know from experience that they can perform proficiently.

It's hard to articulate exactly what it is that ISTJs will describe as what they enjoy about their life's work, but it tends to relate to the feeling of familiarity related to the repetition of certain "rituals" involved in the process of working with things that bring them sensory enjoyment. An ISTJ into literature might describe the smell of an old book as one opens its pages for the first time in years, or the texture of the worn paper rubbing against his fingers as he carefully turns them. An ISTJ who's passionate about fine wine might extol the virtues of that first sharp taste of alcohol when the liquid makes contact with his tongue. ISTJs may surprise friends and family with the depth of knowledge and experience they build in relation to their often esoteric and unexpected hobbies and interests. Every time they experience a familiar sensation, the more pleasing and complete and comforting that sensation becomes--and the more their internal database becomes aligned toward desire for more sensations of a similar nature.

There's a scene in the short-lived TV show Freaks and Geeks where a (presumably ISFP) girl is describing her love for the Grateful Dead album American Beauty--"I wish I could forget I'd ever heard it, just so I could hear it for the first time again!" This attitude would likely strike an ISTJ as peculiar and even downright nonsensical. Experiencing something new just for its own sake is like making the first paintbrush stroke on a new, blank canvas. It's not totally worthless, but the best things in life get better with time--every time we listen to our favorite record, or watch our favorite movie, or bond with a friend or loved one, all of our compiled experiences with the familiarity of those sensations come together to produce an even more complete communion with the sensory enjoyment of that specific kind of experience. The more we build sensory data related to that which we already know we enjoy and understand, the more richly and deeply we appreciate everything it has to offer, and the more we can internalize the fundamental nature of this sensation and mark its place more clearly on our private maps of previous impressions. New things are fine, and they have their place, but they simply don't compare to the depth with which we can appreciate that which we've come to know intimately over years of attachment and connection.

This taste for depth of understanding through sensory familiarity leads ISTJs to, often unintentionally, build extraordinary internal banks of knowledge, facts, possessions, and skill sets related directly to the flavors of experience by which they come to define not only their areas of interest and life's work, but by extension their entire identities. Outsiders may be totally unaware of the rich world of internal experiences the ISTJ is constantly busy building and reinforcing--if seen and understood only through Te, their preferred means of interacting and organizing their external world connections, one may have no idea what personal pursuits and interests truly define the ISTJ's (typically very private) sense of self.

Auxiliary: Extroverted Thinking (Te)

"You only have to do a very few things right in your life so long as you don't do too many things wrong."
--Warren Buffett, ISTJ

Unfortunately, dominant Si on its own does very little to grant the ISTJ any form of meaningful communication with others. Since its method of comprehension and its means of interpreting experiences are so inherently personalized, so dependent upon the individual's private reactions and the idiosyncrasies of his own worldview, some form of objective judgment, evaluation and organization becomes a necessary tool in the formation of relationships to people and institutions outside the self, and thus aids in the eventual acquisition of more of the highly specified sensory input upon which the dominant function thrives.

Here the ISTJ carves out a place for the attitude by which most outsiders--even close friends and family, in many cases--come to define and understand his nature. Te enters the mix as a much-needed universal metric by which to categorize, organize, evaluate, measure, and test for consistency. Painfully aware that his own impressions, in most cases, are too subjective to even communicate meaningfully to others, the ISTJ must master a secondary language and form of communication by which he can establish the sort of structure and order by which his relationships to the external world can be conducted meaningfully and depended upon to continue bringing him the sorts of experience to which he is accustomed. Through strong Te, the ISTJ supports Si's need for routinized sensory input by aligning himself with an objectively observable and empirically demonstrable construct for standardizing the way we as a group understand and enforce logical categorization and evaluation.

Often, Te as an auxiliary function may be applied as a sort of bureaucratic "mask" for dealing with people the ISTJ neither likes nor has any interest in communicating with on a legitimately personal basis. (Indeed, she may enjoy a private laugh at the ironic contrast between her private self and her "public face", and the entertaining realization that the outsider believes this Te "mask" actually constitutes the totality of her personal identity.) ISTJs are not unaware that others may view them, due to their Te handling of virtually all external interactions, as uptight sticklers for regulation--and they're not above playing into this image, both because they do see a lot of value in keeping things structured and regulated, and because they often find it immensely funny when others completely misinterpret their private selves based on the public masks they display for purposes of cooperative productivity. (This particular brand of dual-identity humor also seems to strike INTJs in a similar way.)

In terms of practical application, Te promotes an overarching concern for making sure things are done right. The ISTJ will go to painstaking detail to make sure that which she's responsible for is performed correctly and thoroughly, and that it meets the expectations and standards of the people who know how to do it the right way. "Measure twice, cut once." Chronically cautious and eternally vigilant, ISTJs will not stand by and watch a job be done incorrectly when they know how to do it themselves. If no one else can be counted on to do things the right way, ISTJs will step in and shoulder all of the responsibility themselves. When they have a job to do, very little can distract them or get in the way of timely completion of their goals.

As with all TJ types, Te also creates a high sense of accountability and responsibility for one's own situation and well-being. Te balks at the idea of inefficient distribution of resources, and ISTJs are no exception. Strong-willed and determined to make ends meet purely through their own individual hard work and perseverance, ISTJs may even go so far as to reject charity or free resources from others when they see no reason they can't simply redouble their efforts and work harder to generate their own means of financial support. They won't stop until the quota is met, the deadline satisfied, the standards upheld. All of this ties directly back into Si's desire for stability: Te represents a universal set of logical standards and evaluations from which no one is exempt. Nobody gets exceptions to the rules, because the rules represent the lifeblood of the system under which all interactions with others are governed: if we can't count on the rules to be enforced uniformly and consistently, we can't count on anything, and if life can't be predictably structured and molded into useful constructs and interactions between parties, Si can't expect to receive the specific kinds of sensory input to which it's become accustomed. Then we're lost without a map--up the creek without a paddle. And that's the last place in the world an ISTJ wants to be.

Tertiary: Introverted Feeling (Fi)

Buried deep within the private realms of the ISTJ's psyche, we find the tertiary function, Fi. Of great interest is the fact that most ISTJs are far more aware of their own Feeling functions than the people surrounding them--often, even some close friends and family may describe the ISTJ as cold and unsympathetic, descriptions which, unfortunately, both hurt the ISTJ's very private feelings and reinforce his desire to keep those feelings further isolated from the world around him.

Nevertheless, Fi in ISTJs seems to often produce a sort of romantic, chivalrous attachment to what they see as all the best things about the various ways things have been in the past. Again, it's important to note that they don't value older methods or ideals purely for the sake of tradition; they simply recognize that few methods or approaches would have any lasting impact if there were not some clear utility or wisdom in them. Traditions would likely not have become traditions in the first place if there were not some inherent value in the sort of universal virtues and common sense right-and-wrong that they represent so succinctly. Through Fi, ISTJs find a sense of personalized aesthetic value and moral fiber: transient goals, objectives, and even laws may come and go; however, the deeply held personal values by which they can hold themselves accountable to the timeless nature of virtue and Goodness itself can always be counted on to remain the same. That which is right shall always be right, and that which is wrong shall always stay that way. Fi grants the ISTJ the power to break from and object to man-made rules and laws which conflict with the very fiber of his inner being. It reminds him that sometimes, the right thing to do is simply the right thing to do, regardless of what any official authorities may have to say about it. Fi expects no reward or recognition for its observation of these moral precepts inherent in the fabric of the human condition: it simply calls a spade a spade, and it expects that any good and decent human being should understand the obvious value in that sentiment.

When Fi takes too strong a role in cognition and overtakes Te, forming an "SiFi loop", the ISTJ may completely and totally withdraw from virtually all surroundings and circumstances which are not immediately familiar and comforting to his sense of stable interpretive meaning. All forms of external interaction seems to involve uncertainty, which makes them inherently unsafe--avoidant behavior becomes the norm, as the ISTJ with poor Te finds himself both unable to confidently take command of any situation or assert his organizational abilities toward any productive end, and irrationally sensitive to any form of experiential input which does not align with the sense of dependable routine which defines the boundaries of his comfort zone. The SiFi loop ISTJ will continue to narrow his perceptual intake further and further, convinced that anything he doesn't already know completely will only attack and further corrupt or damage his easily impressionable sense of personal ethics and ideals. Inferior Ne--as we will see in the next section--leads to a flood of dangerous and threatening external possibilities which must be contained and avoided at all costs.

Ideally, tertiary Fi should assist Te in providing the ISTJ a sense of grounding in that which she knows to be right and just. The two may combine and manifest together in ways others find unfair or overly controlling; however, the ISTJ remains resolute in that which she knows has always been and will always be the way that a virtuous person conducts herself. Imagine, if you will, the friend who forcibly obtains her drunken cohort's car keys--she may not technically have a legal right to do so, but Fi understands that sometimes the objectively measurable law is not enough. You may hate her for it now, but in time you'll see that it's for your own good, and the ISTJ's willingness to put up with your unpleasant response in the mean time serves only as a sign of reinforcement to Fi's certainty that it's setting aside petty desires for popularity in order to stick up for what true friends know is genuinely important--and there's a lot to be said for that.

Inferior: Extroverted iNtuition (Ne)

Lastly, we find the feared and hidden iNtuitive function, seemingly at odds with everything by which Si defines its sense of personal and perceptual limitations. While Si would lead us to seek information in the vein of that which we already know we are comfortable with, and to build more depth of experience in those areas, Ne comes along and suggests the exact opposite: that we explore as much new and unfamiliar territory as we can find, and that as soon as we begin to develop any sort of familiarity with it, we abandon it and move on to another new train of untapped information. Ne creates that nagging sense of incompleteness in the back of the ISTJ's mind: when undeveloped, it's responsible for the feeling that no matter how much we think we've mapped out, there's always an infinite number of unexplored pathways that will ultimately change the meaning and significance of everything we think we've learned thus far. While Si is most at home extending its depth of understanding in a few specific comfort zones, Ne seems to strike at the very heart of this approach by insisting that we change course as often as possible, just in case we happen upon something interesting and unexpected.

To the young ISTJ, this attitude comes off as reckless, hedonistic, and outright frightening. In the midst of such apparent chaos, Si can find no sense of purpose, no tangible objective or clear direction, and no apparent rhyme or reason among anything it already knows. Ne represents the subconscious desire to throw out the map and be glad it's gone, to get lost just for the sake of forcing ourselves to explore and find the way back through experimentation and guesswork. In the grip of the inferior function, the ISTJ may feel his entire world is collapsing around him: nothing is certain, and all manner of terrifying possible future scenarios may be lurking just around the corner. This can manifest itself in the form of a number of uncharacteristic impulsive behaviors: the ISTJ may feel he must abandon everything he has worked to build his life toward, to start over elsewhere with a completely clean slate, to throw out the masses of extensive impressions Si has spent years building and start again from nothing. Few things could be more intimidating.

As the ISTJ gains wisdom and experience, he will gradually learn to integrate Ne into his preferred Si mindset by recognizing it as a part of his cognition which he can, in time, learn to predict and anticipate. I've known ISTJs who, much to the surprise of their friends and family, will occasionally disappear for a (meticulously planned) weekend in Atlantic City, indulging in one big burst of all the things they normally work so tirelessly to block from their experiential palates. The key for IJs dealing with inferior Pe functions seems to be finding controlled outlets in which they can grant themselves measured doses of the sort of "off the rails" experiences their subconscious desires point toward while staying within a structured framework that prevents total ruination in the event that things get out of control.

As this process continues to mature and refine itself over time, the ISTJ will eventually find herself increasingly more comfortable with more risk and more exposure to the new and unfamiliar experiences her inferior function desires. Because occasional indulgence in unfamiliarity will result in the internalization of new kinds of experiences, the unfamiliar will slowly become familiar as she increases the breadth of her taste for different kinds of impressions and ideas. The more this continues, the more it will naturally occur to the ISTJ that all areas of life are somehow interconnected in terms of a larger picture she does not yet fully understand--and the more this picture and the interconnectedness it represents become an area of interest, the more she will naturally satisfy dominant Si's needs by absorbing ever more information related to that singular subject area--and by extension through inferior Ne, all subject areas.

By forcing herself occasionally out of her comfort zone, the ISTJ will find that the more she seeks out new areas of study, the more the entire world will assimilate itself into her comfort zone. The very thing she fears most will become her greatest strength: the more the unknown becomes the known, the more the concept of "unknown" will, in itself, disappear and ultimately become unknown! The well-balanced ISTJ becomes something of an accidental polymath: well-versed in many areas, yet blissfully unaware of the separation between them. The resultant individuals almost invariably strike their communities as people of vast wisdom and experience--fair-minded and venerable, worthy of the utmost respect and admiration.












ISFJ, or Introverted Sensing Feeling Judger, is a label borrowed from MBTI nomenclature and now applied to the Jungian Cognitive Function set {Si, Fe, Ti, Ne}.

Dominant: Introverted Sensation (Si)

"It seems so obvious that it's kind of silly I even have to say it, but things just always seem to go more smoothly when you know exactly what you're doing. There's really nothing quite like having your own private map for how to do things--the more I study and work on the areas I'm interested in, the more I develop this ability to connect my experiences to everything else I've done, and the process just builds and builds. I don't even mean for it to happen that way--I guess I just know what kinds of things I like, and I know what makes me comfortable and what doesn't, and I know that the more I plan my life around setting myself up to work in areas I know I'm confident in, the more I'm going to succeed and the more in-depth information I'm going to have about the skills I specialize most in. I think one of my greatest strengths is that I know what I'm good at, and, perhaps even more importantly, I know what I'm not good at, and I have the good sense to know when to avoid the latter. I don't understand why people insist on haphazardly jumping into things they don't have any idea how to handle properly. What's the point? If you don't know what you're doing, aren't you just bound to fail?"

ISFJ is one of the most poorly understood types in the entire Jungian Cognitive Function canon. The fact that they're often misunderstood and inaccurately stereotyped as groveling doormats who live to serve others and let people walk all over them serves only as a testament to the true extent of their humility in terms of how private they keep their true selves and their real passions and interests.

While they do prefer to conduct the bulk of their interactions with the external world through auxiliary Fe (which I'll get to in the next section), that is not at all the primary focus of an ISFJ's cognitive hierarchy or preferred lifestyle. To understand the significance of Si, we need to touch for a moment on the overall nature of introverted perception (Pi) in general, and to compare and contrast it with the extroverted perception attitudes by which most people who have written about ISFJs have gathered their information and totally missed the point of what these people and their dominant attitudes are really all about.

There's a scene in the film Across the Universe where two characters argue over the dinner table about the nature of experience and identity. While one of them, a young P type, argues that, "Who you are determines what you do", the older character (presumably a J type) insists on exactly the opposite: "What you do determines who you are." This latter attitude is a great way to introduce oneself to the philosophy central to Si: we build our identities on the experiences we've internalized. This is fundamentally why Si dominants go to such great lengths to control their experiential intake: they're not turning down unfamiliar experiences just to annoy their ExxP friends; they simply understand that the comfort in perceptual familiarity is such a powerful force in their own lives that they have to be extremely careful not to fill themselves up with too many experiences that might not end up being healthy or productive for them in the long run.

They know themselves well enough to realize that, above all, their natural tendency to seek out very specific kinds of informational and experiential input depends directly on the kinds of input they've become accustomed to through their prior life experiences. Like their Ni dominant cousins, Si dominants are most concerned with how their individual cognitive tendencies associate meaning with various kinds of signs and information; however, since they assign this meaning based on direct association with highly detailed sensory information imprinted on their consciousness from previous associations, they know that if they start spending a lot of time involving themselves in a certain kind of experience, the fact that it becomes familiar and slowly works its way into their experiential comfort zone means they may start to like it. And then they may never stop doing it.

While Pe dominants are constantly on the search for all sorts of new information and new experiences of as many different kinds as they can get their hands on, there's not as much of a threat of becoming attached to any one specific sort of experience or information. They'll just tire of it and look for something new the next day anyway, but not so for Pi dominants: since they have to focus their attention fully and completely on whatever kind of information they're seeking out, they can't just shut off this focus and switch to a different kind of input on a whim. Once they allow themselves to become immersed in the absorption of an experience, they know they won't stop until they've built a completely internalized map of every detail of every piece of meaning this experience has for them. Their choices of experiences literally create their identities--so how can they not be constantly wary of what sorts of experiences they let in?

ISFJs are, above all, highly cognizant of their own impressionable nature. They like to figure out what areas interest them, and then maximize the absorption of all sorts of information, data, skill sets, and experiences related to "mapping" as much of that terrain as humanly possible. I've known ISFJs who sit up all night on Wikipedia reading about their favorite subjects. Note that they don't prefer hopping around to as many different unrelated articles as they can find--they have a focus, a taste for certain particular flavors of input, and they want to know everything they can about those specific areas. If you've ever watched Antiques Road Show, well over half of the expert analysts who appear on that show are likely ISxJ types. They didn't necessarily set out to become experts in their fields--they just found that they so enjoyed internalizing sensory information related to, say, World War II-era Confederate rifles, or Kandinsky paintings from the 1920s, that after focusing their lives on these fascinating pursuits for so long, they eventually found that they'd become certifiable experts. Given enough time to learn, absorb, and practice all the established information, methodology, and techniques in a given area, Si dominants will outperform virtually everyone in terms of consistency and thorough attention to detail.

Auxiliary: Extroverted Feeling (Fe)

"Govern a family as you would cook a small fish--very gently."
--Chinese proverb

Once we move past the dominant and start to focus on the auxiliary, we start to see where the general misunderstandings and assumptions about the ISFJ type originate. Given only knowledge of their public faces, it's relatively easy to assume ISFJs have no internal lives and exist as sort of less effective versions of ESFJs, using Fe as a public interaction method but not commanding it as fluently as their ESFJ brethren.

This is, of course, due to the fact that Fe is only a secondary concern for ISFJs--an important part of their lives but ultimately subservient to their personal quests for experiences associated with the familiar sensations they find most pleasing. In order to form meaningful connections with others and establish any sort of communal framework, it's vital that ISFJs master the objectively verifiable language and methodology of externalized Feeling judgment. As Fe develops, ISFJs will develop important interpersonal skills, along with consistent attention to the needs of their friends, family, and other individuals to whom their connective obligations suggest they share mutual responsibility. This is where the commonly understood impressions of ISFJs as loyal and conscientious group supporters come from: and indeed, when Fe is strongly in place, this awareness will absolutely form a vital component of their total selves. They will work tirelessly to promote the best interests of their loved ones, developing fluency not only with practical day to day maintenance tasks, but with any skill which may contribute to the well-being of others that their culturally supported networks of interpersonal obligations suggest is their responsibility.

All the while, the healthy ISFJ manages to balance this network of familial responsibility against her own personal desire to continue her quest for absorption of ever more information and experiences related to the sorts of sensory input that, over time, come to define her comfort zone. Indeed, Si and Fe should ideally become intertwined and mutually beneficial to each other, as the experiences associated with organizing, encouraging, assisting, and bonding with loved ones help to grant more definite and outwardly observable shape and meaning to her internal mass of undifferentiated experiential input. Fe is vital to the formation of interpersonal networks upon which her fundamental need for consistency and routine (based on a desire for new information to relate concretely to that which has been internalized and understood before) can depend. It grants her not only a means of communicating and defining the significance of her relationships to others, but an ability to depend upon others and show them that she herself can be depended upon as well.

If Fe goes undeveloped and leaves SiTi to handle the majority of cognition, the ISFJ is prone to feelings of terror that his trusted support network will fall out from under him at any given moment. Trusting others to handle important tasks becomes an uneasy endeavor at best. Since the feeling of trust and security upon which Si depends so heavily is never connected in any meaningful way to the bonds and relationships defined by interaction with others, the SiTi loop ISFJ feels that no one but himself can ever be depended upon to bring him the sort of consistently reliable experience his dominant function necessitates that he have access to. Without a way to describe or objectively designate his feelings for others or theirs for him, no sense of faith in upholding mutual responsibilities can form--he must do everything for himself, or risk total ruination through the failure of other less reliable individuals to uphold their agreements and obligations. If you want something done right, you have to do it yourself--or risk facing the unknown, totally unprepared--which, of course, represents Si's worst fear of all.

Tertiary: Introverted Thinking (Ti)

As ISFJs find themselves so singularly focused on developing their internal maps of experiential impressions and defining their directions in life based on the kinds of experiences these maps point them toward, at some point in life it follows that they should begin to ask the question: What if the map is wrong?

Dealing with this possibility is, to Si, unfamiliar (and therefore frightening) enough that most ISFJs defer almost exclusively to Fe in determining the answer: If my impression of how something is has somehow misled me or given me wrong information, surely I can count on the people to whom I hold cultural and familial bonds to remind me that I've lost touch with what our community finds most important. Surely, by listening to the ethical consensus of those to whom I feel closest, I can discover and rectify the problem when my own desires conflict with the institutional customs and values by which my relationships to others are given objective meaning and definition. Unfortunately, however, the savvy ISFJ will invariably notice situations in which neither Si nor Fe seems to offer any reasonable solution. Despite Si's inherent preference for that which has come to define its comfort zone ("If it ain't broke, don't fix it!"), at some point the ISFJ will be forced to evaluate situations in which her community's collectivized ethical norms will strike some part of her being as somehow fundamentally flawed, even if these norms are consistent with the kind of experience she has built into Si's vast internal database as the familiar and consistent standard she has come to trust.

When this happens, the involvement of tertiary Ti enters the picture primarily to serve as a sort of corrective force in the event that something has been written onto the map that may come into conflict with the ISFJ's own innate sense of logical reasoning. "This is what I've always done, and it's what everyone I find important says I should be doing, and yet something about it simply doesn't make sense." This can be doubly disconcerting as it represents not only a break from the unconditional trust the ISFJ normally places in her own self-referential experience, but also a deliberate separation from the outward judgments upon which her relationships to others are most directly verified through external reinforcement. The introduction of Ti into the mix seems to poke holes in the very fabric of everything by which the ISFJ has come to define her own existence--and yet she still can't ignore it. It's only through this vital corrective process, however, that the ISFJ is able to rewrite segments of her own sensory maps to align more closely with a sense of universal fairness and consistency in principle which extends beyond that which her own limited personal experiences with the evaluative standards of her communities have the context or precedent to grasp or define completely.

When applied negatively in a poorly developed state, Ti may cause counterproductive changes as its insistence on "just knowing" that something is (or is not) inherently fair or reasonable can reinforce all of Si's worst tendencies in terms of subjective self-reference as the ideal solution to any and all problems or disagreements. Convinced beyond all doubt that only he has the true depth of experience to understand the problem in realistic terms, the SiTi loop ISFJ may reject any and all outside opinions regardless of the status or relationship implied by the characteristics of the person offering them. "Listen, my wife doesn't know what's best for our children--I'm the one who's been there looking after them from day one!" Neglecting Fe's vital external input can leave the ISFJ lacking any sort of meaningful outside standard against which to weigh his own subjective evaluations of the overall value of any given idea, practice, or methodology.

On the other hand, once Fe has been granted the necessary growth and development time, Ti may step in to assist it with the evaluation process and remind the ISFJ that yes, it is possible for our family and friends to be wrong, and sometimes we need to have the courage to stand up for our own beliefs when faced with decisions that will directly impact our own lives and personal needs. More importantly, Ti allows the aforementioned sort of retroactive "map correction" process by which internalized sensory experience can be questioned, devalued, and ultimately overwritten with more effective and consistent ideals. For the ISFJ, Ti is there primarily to serve as a reminder that his own experiences and impressions do not always equate directly with the mostly universally just or reasonable approach, and that, somewhat paradoxically, sometimes the only person who can make this distinction to the necessary degree is himself.

Inferior: Extroverted iNtuition (Ne)

Last but not least, the Achilles' Heel: many of the typical complaints others have about SJs (and especially ISJs) can be traced to manifestations of inferior Ne. On a surface level, Ne opposes everything Si holds dear and considers vital to maintaining a healthy outlook: while Si would encourage us to find exactly what we're looking for on our internal maps before setting out to find it, Ne takes a somewhat different approach: that the most interesting things in life are usually surprises.

It should be relatively obvious by now that Si doesn't like surprises. It wants complete information and it wants time to sort through every piece of the information given and compare it to the sense of static, internal consistencies by which everything in its worldview is granted stable meaning and significance. Until you can relate a given piece of information to something you already know, until you can show where it would fall on the map you already have, Si not only has no use for it, but is actually threatened by its imposing presence among the already-sorted information by which its identity and worldview are defined. Inferior Ne seems to throw a wrench into that identity itself: By encouraging the ISFJ to ignore what he knows and instead let loose and actually enjoy a constant influx of new and unfamiliar ideas from as many different unconnected sources as possible, Ne seems to attack everything the Si mindset holds as important or meaningful. Rather than carefully compare each nugget of data to every other piece of data we already hold, each new piece of information seems to suggest even more connections to even further-reaching outwardly defined patterns that continue to change the meaning and threaten stable interpretation the more we indulge them.

It's almost as if Ne would suggest that the more we know, the more we don't know; the more we discover, the more we find out is potentially wrong with the map we're reading now. Rather than contribute to a more complete understanding, inferior Ne frightens the ISFJ by telling him that the more he learns, the more he will be forced to deal with the unknown without a plan of action or the opportunity to educate himself on the possible responses. The result is often a form of stalled burn-out, trapped between the desire for knowledge/preparedness and the inevitable realization that the more knowledge he gains in his preferred areas, the more he will have to acknowledge new relationships and connections between that knowledge and other as-of-yet unknown areas. The resultant realization that he will never possess a complete map strikes the ISFJ as a terrifying reality: there will always be uncertainty and there will always be things he has to adapt to without preparation time.

In practice, inferior Ne often manifests itself in the form of outlandish insecurities and fears resulting from the inability to distinguish between the relative probabilities of the occurrence of various events: as the ISFJ becomes more and more stressed, he is forced to confront an uncontrollable flood of increasingly strange and unrealistic possibilities for the future--what if my spouse dies of a heart attack? What if my office is engulfed by a giant fireball? What if aliens enslave Earth and kidnap my children and I never see them again? What if the unrelenting flow of constant future possibilities totally ruins my confidence in any sort of stable or consistent lifestyle--what if I can never count on anything to stay the same again?

Of course, like all inferior functions, Ne can eventually be harnessed for positive use--but it takes a long time and a lot of personal development. When a very well-balanced ISFJ is able to stop viewing Ne as a disturbing threat to his sense of security and perceptive stability, it should actually assist and support dominant Si's desire for more information by granting him new paths and avenues by which to obtain more information of the specific types and categories which he finds so pleasing. He will continue to seek out information and experiences that seem related to that which he's already mapped--that doesn't change--but what does change is his ability to recognize the relationships between seemingly "unrelated" areas of knowledge. He may not even consciously realize he's doing it, but this expanded awareness of the interconnectedness of all knowledge will make the ISFJ feel more comfortable learning and adapting to new contexts than he ever thought possible. Areas in which he has relatively little experience will suddenly seem much more familiar (and therefore less daunting) than they ever have before--he will unconsciously find something in the new area that relates back to something he already knows; by making the unfamiliar seem familiar, he will "limit" his perceptual intake (and thus remain in his comfort zone) while expanding it into all sorts of new directions. He will unwittingly teach himself to improvise through the simple realization that, when we are able to see some form of abstract relationship between any combination of ideas we can imagine, everything seems related in some way or another, and thus all new information can be traced back to that with which he is already well-versed and comfortable.

Exploration in the name of expanding one's comfort zone, so that one never has to leave it--whether or not the self-actualized ISFJ realizes this is what he's doing, it makes his experiences that much more complete, and his life that much more well-rounded and fulfilling.












ENTP, or Extroverted iNtuitive Thinking Perceiver, is a label borrowed from MBTI nomenclature and now applied to the Jungian Cognitive Function set {Ne, Ti, Fe, Si}.

Dominant: Extroverted iNtuition (Ne)

"I need to be doing something interesting as often as I can possibly find something interesting to do. I need a lot of stimulation and I tend to get bored quickly with things that are repetitive or easy to figure out. I really like making up my own approaches to things, doing things my own way, figuring out how things work by experimenting on my own and putting different pieces together until they turn into something meaningful...or at least something novel. I can find humor in a lot of places other people wouldn't necessarily see it, and I enjoy being able to entertain people with my knowledge and various talents. I think I work best when I'm given an open-ended assignment where I can suggest a lot of different possibilities, or connect different ideas together to come up with something better than what was there before. Sometimes I'm so busy thinking about different ideas for changes that I lose sight of practical concerns--it's easy for me to get caught up in the moment and forget about the needs of others around me, although I do actually care about my friends and family a lot more than more than my behavior sometimes suggests. I can get distracted easily, because the most exciting thing for me is always pursuing some kind of new experience or project. I really dislike it when people insist on following traditions or rules that I can't see any good reason for. Occasionally I even upset people without meaning to--sometimes I have trouble understanding why people seem to get upset so easily. I just can't be content living with things as they are if I can think of a better way to approach them. Why accept mundane repetition when you can find ways to make life more interesting?"

Although their positive qualities are often grossly exaggerated by popular type profiles (you'll see them described as "unique", "clever", and "visionary"), ENTPs are characterized primarily by their desire to create this kind of impression on others. (Whether or not it's actually true will vary greatly from individual to individual, but apparently, it's worked well on most people who have written ENTP profiles.) The other primary aspect of their cognitive approach is one that's common to all four ExxP types: an exploratory attitude that focuses predominantly on taking in the greatest quantity of new external information possible. Learning and expanding takes priority over all else, often at the expense of important practical concerns. On typology forums, ENTPs often earn a well-deserved reputation as trolls, not because they want to hurt anyone (in most cases), but more often because their desire to experiment with their external environments in order to generate novel and interesting results outweighs their (often weak) concern for the feelings of others. Like ESTPs, they rarely take issue with poking and prodding others for reactions, especially when they think people are being too uptight, but Ne tends to focus more on putting people in unfamiliar situations in order to explore the patterns in their responses, as opposed to Se's focus on creating an immediate sensory spectacle. Needless to say, this tendency can result in some rather unfortunate social and interpersonal consequences, leading to the common difficulty xNxP types often face in deciding between introversion and extroversion. The more they experiment on people and receive negative results, the more ENTPs will learn to be more cautious in their early interactions with new people. Because dominant Ne can never really be sure if its peculiar brand of humor will entertain, upset, or simply confuse new people, Ne dominants (and especially ENTPs) often develop less immediate social ability than other extroverted types. In many cases, it can become a difficult chore to differentiate between ENTPs and INTPs in this regard, hence the ENTP reputation for being "the most introverted extrovert."

As with all Pe dominant types, many ENTPs face serious difficulty when it comes to accepting and dealing with anything they find boring or uninteresting. Most are not above cutting corners to avoid repetitive tasks, develop shortcuts to make practical responsibilities easier or less relevant, or simply experiment with methodology to look for new approaches. Whether or not these experiments produce any genuinely useful results is often a secondary concern behind whether they give the ENTP something new or otherwise novel to think about, some new system to toy around with and turn into something else. Dominant Ne operates most comfortably by casting a wide net out into the world and then sifting through whatever happens to come up. Like their ENFP brethren, ENTPs are typically most at home in environments where they can generate large numbers of new possible options, but they tend to falter and tire quickly when required to evaluate those options and select the most effective choice for moving forward. As long as something still exists primarily as an idea or concept, as long as it hasn't yet reached the concrete implementation stage, it's still open to any number of theoretical changes, rewrites, and unexpected positive developments. Often, the process of nailing down a precise course of action threatens dominant Ne's desire for infinite open-endedness and freedom to change its external approach abruptly on a whim. Young ENTPs, especially, may have chronic issues with the classic Ne dilemma: the real material world is rarely as exciting as the possibility of change contained in a theoretical problem that hasn't yet been nailed down. Once an idea takes concrete root in the real world of real things, its sense of infinite possibility for change is replaced by an impending sense of constrained creative freedom: the now-evident realistic limitations can quickly lead dominant Ne to lose interest and wander off to something less set in stone, where the promise of tackling something different still holds the allure of the unknown and unexpected.

It's important to remember that, despite relatively common social difficulties, ENTPs are still extroverts, and they still identify chiefly with the external object, thus leading them to require continual feedback and reassurace from others. While many ENTPs (especially the young ones) may fervently deny their dependence on using others as a springboard for their ideas, in truth they suffer the same problem that plagues many ENFPs: they often have no idea whether their ideas have any real merit until they receive feedback from others. On the plus side, this means ENTPs will rarely dismiss a problem until all possible avenues have been explored. ENTPs are often appreciated by others for their unusual approaches and refusal to do things the conventional way--this can have some incredible benefits in situations where creative freedom is rewarded, and it's important for most ENTPs to place themselves in situations where they can utilize this attitude for positive gain. They'll rarely dismiss potential approaches without at least trying them, and they often have a gift for helping others to explore the possibilities of their own new frontiers, which can often endear them to others and help to provide the continual positive feedback they thrive on. On the downside, the desire to explore every possibility for exploration's sake alone can often eclipse the more important goal of setting a concrete objective and determining the most effective methodology for completing it. It's no secret that many ENTPs have difficulty finishing things--the excitement of jumping into and intuitively exploring a new project often gets the better of them.

Auxiliary: Introverted Thinking (Ti)

It's easy for ENTPs to get caught up in the thrill of change and experimentation with no real clear objective besides binging on new information and imagining ways to create relationships between unrelated external information. When an experiment ceases to provide new or interesting results, it's all too often discarded in the ongoing search for the potential of something better. In this way, dominant Ne seems to epitomize the saying, "The grass is always greener on the other side." While dominant Ne may bestow many ENTPs with a number of creative gifts responsible for their reputation as exuberant innovators (not the least of which is the oft-vaunted ability to simplify complex ideas into much clearer terms by relating them to similar concepts), it's important to recognize the limitations on a mindset that depends essentially on throwing darts in random directions until something interesting happens. Without a clear structure, principle, or direction by which to derive meaning, the ENTP may lose himself in mindless wandering and neglect to complete the aspects of projects that don't excite his sense of possibility.

Here we enter the vital role of auxiliary Ti: a subjective, grounding sense of ordered meaning that grants form and conceptual purpose to Ne's insatiable taste for the unknown. On a basic level, Ti allows the ENTP to define and rationalize his own sense of causal reasoning, to decide upon the rules by which he will judge the presence of meaningful consistency in everything he attempts to grasp. As Ti develops its methodology and approach to systematizing and categorizing the constant inflow of information, Ne will begin to explore for a genuine purpose, to internalize the causality and implied meaning of its forays. Development of Ti is crucial to the ENTP's true self-actualization: though they may appear wildly confident (even overconfident) to outsiders, ENTPs develop most of their true self-confidence through Ti. It adds a sense of appreciation for grasping and fully categorizing the nature of self, creating an overarching sense of the reasoning and integrity of ideas and structural concepts. While it can suffer stubbornness when of its principles is violated, Ti serves the important purpose of reminding the ENTP that she can't always find every answer with another experiment. Continual analysis and correction of the "internal model" will occur as the ENTP gains more experience with an ever-growing number of new ideas and conceptual associations. Ti functions as an internal litmus test for the validity (and by extension, virtue) of any idea, person, design, or concept. Without it, the ENTP is utterly at the mercy of the opinions and perceptions of everyone on whom he depends for validation. He may cycle endlessly through different changes of environment only to find that the real change needed to come from within. With the development of Ti, the ENTP will develop a set of personal principles that, for once, do not depend on generating a reaction or response from the external environment. She will learn to do things for her own reasons instead of continually shifting with the tides of the approval and adulation of others.

On the downside, if auxiliary Ti is overapplied, the ENTP may begin to resemble a more outgoing and inflexible INTP, insisting on the correctness of his own reasoning and evaluation, but lacking the level of discernment and introspection that makes Ti a viable dominant function for INTPs. ENTPs who overestimate the objectivity of their own sense of logic may often find themselves alienating potential social contacts with an overwhelming sense of self-righteous insistence on the validity of their own values and reasoning. Their insistence on deriving causal principles from individual experience instead of objectively validated methodology is something of a double-edged sword: while they may avoid errors in framework-oriented reasoning derived from group-think, they sometimes end up spending tremendous amounts of time and resources exploring methods and forms of reasoning that, for good reason, have already been explored and dismissed by the greater community. The desire to form an unorthodox method derives as much from Ne's need to be viewed by others as unique and creative as it does from Ti's need to formulate frameworks of structural reasoning from an individualized perspective. Ironically, the harder he works to create the impression that his style is unique and unexpected (Ne), the more he shuts out established convention (Ti) in an effort to generate a perspective and approach which stands out from the crowd (Ne). Ideally, these two primary functions should inspire each other toward a balanced form of personalized developmental progress: Ne casts a net to find as much new information as possible, Ti arranges and organizes this data into meaningful blocks which follow its principles, and then Ne goes to work building new formations of the most recently created data blocks. Mastering the balance between these two processes is a vital component of the ENTP's fully actualized personality.

Tertiary: Extroverted Feeling (Fe)

When developed in a productive way, tertiary Fe allows ENTPs to begin learning to relate to others in terms of externalized moral judgment instead of simply in terms of creating interesting impressions and experimenting on others for reactions. With the development of Fe, the ENTP's characteristic blunt insensitivity will gradually give way to a more significant sense of familial and cultural responsibility. The people on whom the ENTP has depended for validation and feedback her entire life (often without realizing the extent of their importance) may suddenly strike her as far more meaningful and worthy of respect and admiration. Childish insistence on always being right and constantly seeking novelty will move aside in favor of a more realistic sense of the responsibilities of adult life as the needs, desires, and cultural beliefs of important people in the ENTP's life begin to strike him as genuinely meaningful and worthwhile. With Ti and Fe in place, a balance can be reached between living up to individual principles and fulfilling real-world expectations and obligations. The Fe-savvy ENTP understands how to integrate into the social and moral fabric of the people he values most--though reconciling his personal desires with the needs of others when he finds their beliefs unreasonable may be one of life's more difficult challenges.

Ideally, Fe development should occur once Ti recognizes that there is a valid and inherently consistent reason for collectivized moral judgment to arise and guide the structure of interpersonal relationships. Earlier in life, it's all too common for ENTPs to expect continual validation, encouragement, and attention from the people they find interesting, but without the balancing influence of Fe, they rarely recognize the imbalance between how much they take and how much they give to the people closest to them. When confronted with this disparity, it's not uncommon for tertiary Fe to spring into action and promote feelings of guilt and self-criticism, but the process of learning to correct this disparity is a vital part of developing adult relationships where ENTPs are willing and able to give as much as they often unconsciously take. Giving up the logical high ground may prove difficult for the young ENTP's ego to swallow, but it's a vital step toward personal balance that's responsible for a great deal of the gradual movement from pure hedonistic exploration toward a more well-rounded outlook and a serious understanding of and respect for the needs and sentiments of those close to them. Though they do tend to mature slowly in general, it's not uncommon to see abrupt and unexpected leaps in perspective in this area, especially when the ENTP admires or strives to emulate a close friend or family member with strong Fe. While most ENTPs tend to idolize other NPs in their search for identity, it's often useful for young adult ENTPs to develop close relationships with xxFJ types, as a number of important and growth-inspiring perspectives and interpersonal strategies can be garnered from this sort of interaction.

The emergence of tertiary Fe occurs at a pretty young age for most ENTPs; however, without the balancing influence of Ti (which may come much later for many), it tends to result in mostly negative applications. The NeFe loop ENTP exudes tremendous false confidence, but in reality has very few internal principles by which to check the opinions and perceptions of others against his own value system. He does lip service to a philosophy of integrity of independent thought, but in reality is a slave to the perceptions and expectations of others. He appears confident because he recognizes that confidence tends to favorably color the perceptions of others--or at the very least, provoke some sort of reaction, which will provide some form of feedback. This desire for novel reactions often combines with weak Fe's rudimentary awareness of what sorts of approaches will upset or offend people: the drive to experiment with people's reactions is there, but it lacks the nuance to grasp the real implications of what it's doing. The result is the classic ENTP question: "Why does everyone get upset so easily?" In reality, this is only partially true: often, it is the ENTP's own Fe mistakes that result in her interpersonal difficulties.

Of course, young ENTPs may also overestimate their own ability to avoid emotional influence, as is typical for many T types. Poor Fe may often result in the distortion of reasoning that occurs when someone the ENTP respects and admires comes into conflict with someone she doesn't: suddenly, unconscious interpersonal loyalties may override Ti's better judgment, resulting in a form of conformity the ENTP may not realize is intended to uphold her positive image with people she finds interesting and worthwhile. In many ways, Fe can contribute both positively and negatively to Ne's dependence on the approval of others. When applied in excess, this can undermine any sense of legitimate self-confidence; when applied in the right proportion, it grounds the ENTP with a much-needed awareness of interpersonal, moral, and social norms and standards.

Inferior: Introverted Sensation (Si)

A peculiar relationship seems to occur between ENTPs and their inferior attitude of introverted sensation. Si appears quite often during stressful periods and depressed burnouts, both brief and lengthy. As its attitude appears on the surface to completely contradict the doctrine of Ne, its insistence on preparedness and its dislike for unexpected surprises seem quite at odds with the way most ENTPs prefer to lead their lives. The idea that one should restrain oneself for the purpose of avoiding unexpected negative effects of change and experimentation strikes young ENTPs as bizarre and confusing. The wisdom in the phrase, "If it ain't broke, don't fix it" may take years to occur to the ENTP, who makes it his business to "fix" everything just to create more opportunities to discover something different, broken or not. The practical value in generating more certainty and focusing on more complete and specific sensory internalization can feel so repetitive and uninteresting that its actual value can seem nearly incomprehensible.

As with all types, the inferior function is most typically unconscious, poorly developed, and unable to operate on a competent adult level in most situations. One common manifestation involves the dreaded Ne dominant burnout: when too much exploration too fast results in a string of difficult failures, inferior Si may actually develop a painful aversion to dominant Ne's treasured sense of exploratory freedom. By overextending in too many different directions at once, the inferior function can actually step in as a defense mechanism against the negative experiences of trying new things and failing too many times in a row with not enough reassuring successes (note the general dependence on external validation) to balance it out. The effects on the depressed ENTP's worldview can be catastrophic: frozen in place by fear of failure, Si may push his entire lifestyle into a risk-averse and sedentary mindset that shuts off the area of cognition which makes him feel most fulfilled. Blocking out new external information as a result, so-called "blow-ups" of inferior Si may lead the ENTP to retreat into familiar experiences where she can avoid the sting of failure by dumbing down the external challenge until she knows it will fit within her drastically reduced comfort zone. It's not uncommon to see ENTPs engaging in repetitive and simplistic problem-solving of issues they've mastered years before: when the stress of consistent failure overwhelms Ne's desire for more experimentation, Si takes over and temporarily forces a return to the known and established, the consistency of certainty.

In other cases, inferior Si may undermine dominant Ne by gripping the ENTP with an overwhelming fear that his situation will become permanently and irreversibly static. If not enough opportunites for innovation and external stimulation are provided, Ne's predictive ability and eye for forward trends can sabotage themselves: suddenly, the worst case scenario--total absence of change and stimulation--becomes an impending fear. Ne's worst fear, of course, is simply the loss of creative freedom, of forced adherence to a repetitive and predictable set of non-stimulating information. The more the ENTP fails to create new and challenging situations for herself, the more she becomes bound to her own self-fulfilling prophecy of repetitive failure to progress, dooming herself to a life of mundanity and destroying the spontaneous inspiration under which she feels most fulfilled.

On the positive side, however, Si should eventually fall into place as a safe anchor for Ne's limitless explorations. It takes a long time for most ENTPs to accept their own limitations and find their niche in life, but when this occurs, it's almost certainly related to the difficult but important development of the inferior attitude. As cognition gradually centers around a coherent identity, the ENTP should eventually recognize that, somewhat counterintuitively, working to establish more permanance and predictability can actually help appease his desire for constant change and stimulation. Once he recognizes that his desire for constant change can actually be interpreted as a need for a consistent form of experience, he can begin to appreciate Si's role as a practical counterweight to the wild unpredictability of Ne as a constant lifestyle. If one fails to establish any predictable level of permanency in life, practical concerns ultimately circumvent Ne's ability to achieve the level of novel creation it most deeply desires: without at least some rudimentary attention to the world of consistent expectations and comfort in repetition, the ENTP sabotages his own ability to maintain the high-stimulation lifestyle in which he feels most at home. With a little more attention paid to preserving the good things about the experiences they're accustomed to, ENTPs will finally gain the one thing they need most: appreciation for the little things they take for granted, and all the genuine satisfaction and self-confidence that accompanies it.












ENFP, or Extroverted iNtuitive Feeling Perceiver, is a label borrowed from MBTI nomenclature and now applied to the Jungian Cognitive Function set {Ne, Fi, Te, Si}.

Dominant: Extroverted iNtuition (Ne)

"More than anything I need to feel like I'm working toward some kind of meaningful change or improvement in people's lives. I have a lot of big ideas for making things better, and I get really excited about new ideas that point toward some kind of new direction or idea I hadn't thought of before. I usually try to have a lot of people I like around, both because I like having them to bounce my ideas off of, and because it's really important to me to be able to connect with people on a personal level. Sometimes I feel I'm bursting with so many different ideas at once that I have trouble even remembering them all--I can get lost in my imagination. I tend to get involved in so many different interests that I have trouble focusing my attention on just one, and I often end up committing to more things than I really have the time or energy to complete. It's just really important that I be able to change direction and try something different when I hit a dead end and whatever I'm doing stops feeling interesting. I have to get excited about exploring the possibilities of something new before I can really work in my element and show off the full extent of my talents. I need to be doing something creative where I can put my own personal spin on whatever it is that I'm working on. Really, I just work best in a relaxed and open environment where I can have freedom to explore and find what feels right to me, and be appreciated and respected for my talents. What's the point of living life if you aren't pursuing something you're passionate about?"

Generally regarded as excited, enthusiastic people (albeit someone unfocused and more than a little bit idealistic), ENFPs are explorers who feel most alive when they can connect people and ideas in ways that will lead to more possibilities for future change and discovery. Dominant Ne prefers a new direction--any new direction--over repetition of anything that's been done before. Newness and novelty reign supreme as no stone goes unturned in the search for that which is different, special, or simply fascinating. Entrenched in a constant search for new varieties of experience and information, the ENFP is guided by equal parts curiosity about possibilities for change and desire to be perceived by others as on the cutting edge of pioneering creative spirit and unexpected new developments and connections. Fundamentally, Ne needs to feel appreciated by others for its unique approach, fascinating expertise, and inter-contextual understanding of the relationships between different ideas--if the audience hasn't considered those particular connections before, all the better for dominant Ne's image.

One thing many people often don't realize about ENFPs is that, despite the air of confident creativity they tend to project, dominant Ne often has no real idea of how valuable or meaningful its ideas are until they are validated by the feedback of other people the ENFP considers worthwhile or interesting. Because they operate primarily on a mindset that encourages exploring any and all possibilities just in case they happen to yield something interesting, they invariably come up with just as many (if not more) ideas that don't lead anywhere as ideas that do. As a Pe function, dominant Ne picks a random starting point and then explodes into as many different directions as possible--ENFPs are often not nearly as interested in the evaluation or elimination of options as they are in the ever-expansive creation of more as-of-yet unconsidered options. The world is an open-ended set of patterns that begs to be experimented with and discovered--the more we search and expand, the more we will realize that whatever we think now is probably going to change into something else soon enough. Permanency is frequently an issue: even if we enjoy something today, we might very well discover something even better tomorrow. Dominant Ne sees no reason to stop searching and testing out every combination--after all, any kind of unexpected event may happen at any time, and that might very well lead into a completely different direction that we hadn't even considered yet. (And that might very well be really interesting!)

Few types struggle more with the battle against boredom than ENFPs. As Pe dominants, they have high thresholds for external stimulation, and they may find themselves desperately in need of more experiences, more interests, more hobbies--anything that provides more options for different methods of exploration into new areas that might provide interesting connections to even newer areas we don't even know about yet. Dominant Ne tends to think in a sort of outwardly spiraling web of free association--casting a net out into the sea of all possibilities, no matter how seemingly trivial, and picking out broad, macro-level similarities between contexts never before considered similar. Indeed, ENFPs can pick out some sort of similarity or conceptual connection between virtually anything, and can often be spotted via their continual insistence on pointing out and describing these free associations to others. Since it depends on objective, external information, dominant Ne must have a core group of individuals against whom it can check the "interest level" and flow of its ideas. From an Ne standpoint, if I can't make others understand it, how can I expect to connect it to any other external application or development?

Often quite by accident, this tendency leads ENFPs to develop a fluency for "translation" of complex ideas into terms their audiences already understand. Because the Ne dominant learns new ideas through the same process--constructing conceptual metaphors that represent relationships between new ideas by observing similarities between them--he may find, much to his own surprise, that he's likely very good at finding similar conceptual relationships that will clarify ideas and concepts for others. His extroverted need to make others understand his ideas in order to understand them himself may become an unlikely strength: it facilitates a robust level of communication that grants ENFPs their reputation as teachers, innovators, and personal motivators. The natural ability to do so leads most ENFPs to develop their self-images around their creative, communicative, and interpersonal abilities--they need to be seen as forward-thinking and progressive, yet humanistic and empathetic. It's important that others perceive them as different and unique, yet similar enough to relate to.

Auxiliary: Introverted Feeling (Fi)

Behind the public face lies the more introspective side of the ENFP's character represented by auxiliary Fi. The importance of Fi for ENFPs is no different from the role of Ji in the cognitive hierarchy of all four ExxP types: it provides a sense of individualized identity and an internal compass by which to weigh external expectations against one's own private values. Most ENFPs have a certain sense of the theatrical--many find work in performance roles where their ability to play to the expectations of an audience (a generally common Pe characteristic) leads to a natural flair for entertainment ability (in these situations it's often easy to confuse them with ESFPs), as well as a sense of connectedness to that which affects the human soul, the sense of compassion and identification to that which people will find moving. While Fi tends to judge this sort of aesthetic on a purely personal basis, Ne connects the ENFP's own emotional and critical responses back to his awareness of the expectations of what his peer groups will perceive as attention-worthy and unique. In this way, Fi helps to balance artistic integrity and personal identity against the aesthetic expectations of the audience in question.

This may present both a gift and something of a difficult conundrum for the young ENFP: naturally more in tune with the perceptions and expectations of her friends and peer groups than with her own private identity, the ENFP seeking to appease auxiliary Fi may feel highly conflicted when her desire to lead the charge into the unknown contradicts her personal feeling that something isn't right, that someone is being treated unfairly, that something isn't being approached with complete integrity. In the process of developing Fi, it's not uncommon to see ENFPs loudly and bluntly declaring their moral opposition to situations they find unconscionable: as Fi builds an increasingly steady position in their cognitive hierarchies, ENFPs are forced to confront the fact that sometimes, standing up for what's right means subjecting themselves to the hatred and indiscretion of the people they'd normally want to impress and identify with.

Potentially even more importantly, Fi creates a connection to the ethical principles and static internal "universal truths" that guide the ENFP to a sense of confidence that what he's doing is consistent with the way he feels is his duty to contribute to a global sense of the greater good. It lends shape and direction to Ne's unchained creative explosions, allowing its need for constant change and redefinition to incorporate Worthy Causes and Good Deeds into its goals and ambitions. With a strong Ne/Fi balance in effect, the well-rounded ENFP will develop his peer groups around his sense of moral integrity: Fi is sure to surround itself with people who will reinforce the positive aspects of Ne's externally reflective properties. By choosing friends and associates that Fi deems worthwhile and respectable people, the ENFP can fulfill Ne's desire to appear progressive and original while ensuring that the people to whom he caters his appearance are individuals of integrity--ENFPs invariably hold high opinions of the people they call true friends.

To be fair, Fi is also responsible for the stereotype that ENFPs are, occasionally, a bit easily hurt. While this accusation is probably more applicable to Fi dominant types than Fi auxiliary, there's a crucial difference between Fi as a dominant function and Fi as an auxiliary: ENFPs are much less guarded with personal feelings and information than are their INFP counterparts. They tend to feel that most information should be given up front, so that all parties can be sure they know what they're getting into. But not only do they share information more readily than INFPs, they also depend more directly on the response or validation of people they've chosen as worthwhile role models or important equals. Fundamentally, ENFPs need to get others excited about their ideas, and they need to have the freedom to spread out and explore those ideas as much as possible. If they feel their contributions are being ignored or that they aren't being respected, they may temporarily forget their characteristic friendly demeanor. They invariably feel threatened by any attempt to restrict their freedom or unduly influence their moral character--they are characteristically distrustful of externalized directions ("the man" is not, under any circumstances, to be trusted) on how they should think, feel, or live their lives.

Tertiary: Extroverted Thinking (Te)

As time passes and maturity develops, the ENFP must come to terms with his need for constant freedom to change external conditions at any given time. Often, tertiary Te is responsible for helping the ENFP develop a sense of structure and organized progression to his life. As he thrives on exploring new contexts, the ENFP with poor Te may feel fulfilled while he is directly engaged in pursuits he enjoys, but he may also have difficulty building any high level of skill in any one particular area, and will likely lack the planning and organizational ability to develop his passions into productive or profitable pursuits. Because starting a new project is often so much more exciting (after all, it holds the optimistic hope of unknown possibilities, where Ne feels most at home) than following through and completing projects already begun, poor Te development may result in some rather blatant procrastination issues. While healthy ExxP types tend to maintain fairly high energy levels, poorly developed or depressed ExxPs will have extreme difficulty even starting on unpleasant or uninteresting tasks. Te development is responsible for a shift in perspective toward the value in objective measurement and evaluation, out of the scope of the personalized value judgments in which Fi specializes.

While young ENFPs may often lack direction or consistent attention to detail earlier in life, the introduction of tertiary Te begins to produce the realization that, simply put, not everything can be turned into play time--and although we should choose our careers around that which we find fulfilling, we also must learn to put up with some uninteresting activities and press forward in the name of realistic results. When applied tastefully and in balance with Ne and Fi, tertiary Te will grant the ENFP some unexpected leadership abilities: willing to experiment with different ideas, but with an eye on the creation and scheduled completion of realistic steps. Te should, ideally, assist Ne in the realization of its visions for the future: by thinking concretely about the necessary procedures and the (sometimes externally imposed!) judgments of those in positions of authority, the ENFP will find he can, occasionally, set aside his personal feelings aside in favor of getting more important matters under control. Bearing a realistic agenda with measurable checkpoints for tangible progress, Te creates a (sometimes sorely missed) sense of the realities of how business is handled in a self-interested world.

If Fi is, for some reason, poorly developed, NeTe may create an unpredictable and volatile personality torn between desire for admiration of his creative expressions and a need to uphold and enforce objective order on the world around him. One of the best examples of "NeTe loop" that I can think of is Steve Carrell's character on the American version of The Office--deathly desirous of the approval and adulation of his employees (Ne), he snaps abruptly into Te mode and begins barking orders and criticisms whenever his attempts to reach out for personal connections (Fi) are rejected. As a defense mechanism against feelings of being personally attacked, Te takes the opportunity to remind everyone of his objectively enforceable authority ("The Boss") in order to make others feel as belittled as he does by what he sees as their deliberate and inhumane rejection of the value of his personal identity. Later, Ne reminds him that he's not going to get anyone to like him with that sort of behavior, and Fi feels bad for upsetting people--it knows all too well what that feels like--but he's not getting the kind of validation that an ENFP thrives on, so his Fi is forced to hide behind an angry, exaggerated Te mask.

Inferior: Introverted Sensation (Si)

Most commonly, inferior Si seems responsible for throwing a wrench in dominant Ne's constant insistence on exploring the unknown. Si represents the comfort of the known, the total certainty of consistent interpretation of the sensory data associated with a familiar experience. Ironically, inferior Si actually embeds itself subconsciously in the way ENFPs develop a certain familiarity with finding comfort in the unfamiliar: when all parties begin with no information, inferior Si may actually promote a certain comfortable familiarity with "starting from scratch." Being forced to compete in a new, difficult area where substantial real experience is required may throw the ENFP out of her comfort zone as she is forced to intuit how to handle a new situation, but stay ahead of someone who already knows all the answers. As Pe dominant types, ENFPs may find themselves so good at "winging it" through everything with little to no preparation that they allow their improvisational talents to replace the development of legitimate work and study skills. This works up to a point, but eventually the ENFP will encounter challenges he cannot surpass purely with quick wit and Ne-ducated guessing.

Inferior Si also seems, in the ENFP's more stressful moments, to reinforce mounting fears of a static, always predictable world where we are locked into one course of action and no room for innovation or personal expression remains. This scenario is the ENFP's worst nightmare: forever locked into the same boring, repetitive, mind-numbing repetition of the same predictable and uninteresting events. In the grip of an Si attack, the ENFP may fear that none of his visions have any real value if they are not felt in a tangible and permanent manner, that wandering into new territory will always feel just like the territory we already know, and that we will never be able to fulfill our subconscious need for the consistent feeling (Si) of constant change and adaptation (Ne) because "nothing will ever really change." Mired in this feeling of failure to effect any sort of external change (something Ne tends to find intolerable), ENFPs in the grip of Si may lose their characteristic excited energy and resign themselves to harsh criticism and self-doubt. (In rare cases, this may even combine with Te to deliberately attack or demean others as a means of reestablishing the ENFP's own feeling of self-worth.)

The ultimate purpose of Si for an Ne dominant should be to provide a concrete balance in the real world, to weigh against Ne's constant discontent with the tangible realities of the present moment. Much like ENTPs, ENFPs at their worst will indulge in comfortable familiar experiences, but while these experiences usually center around rebuilding a feeling of technical competence for ENTPs, for ENFPs it's most often directed at rehabilitating the unique value of one's personal identity and sense of self-expression. They may retreat home and indulge in the consistently positive feedback of close friends and family that they know will encourage them when they need it. When the chips are down, creating a little familiarity, leaving a rope by which to climb back to where we started, begins to strike the ENFP as an increasingly prudent idea the more he grows and TeSi embeds itself further into his perspective.

When applied in balance with the other functions, Si should provide the ENFP with a sense of peace in the ability to be happy with what he has, to appreciate the value in that which is already established, to absorb the best things about that which already is, and to remember their value when the inevitable necessity of change eventually arises. Balanced Si provides Ne dominants with a realistic grounding in something worth holding onto for the sake of helping define our identities by the experiences we've had and the impressions we've created of them. As she begins to coalesce her divergent interests into specific areas with real, concrete applications, Si will provide the ENFP a safe place to return to in the event that exploratory efforts prove unsuccessful. The occasional pause for reflection on lessons past will serve as an anchor that holds the solemn duty of preventing Icarus from flying too close to the sun--a lesson every ENFP can likely find value in.












INTP, or Introverted iNtuitive Thinking Perceiver, is a label borrowed from MBTI nomenclature and now applied to the Jungian Cognitive Function set {Ti, Ne, Si, Fe}.

Dominant: Introverted Thinking (Ti)

"I guess more than anything I just want things to make sense. I frequently feel like most people around me make decisions based on totally irrational criteria and it's hard to see how they can miss the basic building blocks of common sense logical reasoning and decision-making. I like to work with systems, especially theoretical systems of ideas that represent concepts that interest me--the more complex and interrelated, the better. There's something aesthetically appealing about designing and reworking systems; creating symmetry that suggests a sense of total systemic completeness is something that brings me a lot of enjoyment. It's really important that things remain fair and consistent--if I don't feel I'm being treated fairly or reasonably, I will speak up and explain in detail exactly what's wrong with the flawed reasoning that's being used against me. I go to great pains to maximize clarity and conceptual precision when I'm dealing with others, and I expect them to do the same. If I can't establish a clear definition of an idea, then how can I connect it meaningfully to anything else?"

INTPs firmly believe that conceptual analysis and evaluation is not for the faint of heart. What they're after is no less than absolute correctness, definitional precision, and universal truth. Almost quixotic in this idealistic search to grasp the nature of everything, INTPs believe everything can ultimately be defined, categorized, and succinctly systematized into a single unified conceptual picture--even if that degree of completeness is not something humankind can ever expect to achieve.

Unlike INTJs, who resist strict conceptual definition until empirical evidence renders it indisputable, INTPs must categorize and define their ideas into clearly distinct blocks before they can even begin a discourse or exchange of information. Dominant Ti creates such a keen awareness of definitional specificity that INTPs often garner a reputation for nitpicking that borders on neurotic and may drive other types up the wall. (After all, you can't spell "nitpick" without "INTP".) And while they may sometimes abuse this ability in order to play games with others or establish their own intellectual superiority, more often than not, they simply recognize definitional differences to a much finer degree of detail than most other types are even capable of discerning. Until we know precisely what our words denote and connote, we can't even make any meaningful differentiations--which are, of course, the foundation for everything.

INTPs most often find work in areas where they can apply their sense of internal structural identity to complex systems of ideas where they can broaden the scope of a problem and discover a new area in which to work out all of the intricate relationships that make up the defining characteristics and total framework thereof. For Ti, practical application is rarely much of a concern; INTPs are in the business of idea development for the sake of learning and cerebral expansion. If they can map out an area of reality that as of yet lacks definition, INTPs may find a sense of purpose by feeling they've contributed to the development or clarification of humankind's understanding, demystifying something previously not understood.

It's hard to overstate the importance of fitting everything in the universe and the entire realm of existence into Ti's overarching sense of the total causality of all the relationships, properties, and axioms that make up the definition of everything involved in life as we know it. When a new piece of information contradicts Ti's previously understood rule set, there is no choice but to retreat into private introspection until the inevitable error in reasoning is discovered and the causal chain of deduction repaired, checked, and double checked for consistent flow of rhetorical integrity. Each piece of a system implies the necessity of other pieces filling counterbalancing but symmetrical roles: with enough If/Then statements and explanations of possible conditions and situational exceptions to them, literally everything can ultimately be mapped out and explained and shown to adhere to a global sense of logical predictability. The universe cannot function any other way. If we're still running into wrong conclusions, it's either because we started with bad premises or we haven't created enough subsections of systemic explanation yet: either way, the answer always lies in further analysis and reevaluation.

Like all Ji dominant (IxxP) types, INTPs are, above all, people of principle, and they will defend those principles to the death (especially if you try to debate them!) The search for truth outweighs any transient cultural values, transcends any perceptual bias or interpretive difference, renders irrelevant any lesser or arbitrarily chosen values, and represents the ultimate ideal to which all should feel privileged to have even the most fleeting encounter with. It is of vital importance to the INTP to seek knowledge purely for the sake of understanding, and to uphold his sense of logical integrity in the process. Anything less would be, well, illogical.

Auxiliary: Extroverted iNtuition (Ne)

"Overthinking, overanalyzing separates the body from the mind / Withering my intuition, leaving opportunities behind."
--Tool, "Lateralus" (lyrics by Maynard James Keenan, INTP)

Unfortunately, the INTP's primary interests and skill sets are often esoteric at best, frequently not lending themselves to much use in terms of connection and interaction with other human beings. While the INTP may spend tremendous time and effort developing incredibly thorough understanding of numerous multi-faceted concepts and ideas, he may find himself woefully unable to articulate their meaning or significance to others without some method by which to connect abstract concepts to that which his fellow man already understands.

When developed well, Ne will bestow the INTP with a number of positive balancing characteristics, ranging from awareness of and desire to play to the expectations and interests of her audience to cross-contextual perception of conceptual similarity and an accompanying (and somewhat unexpected) ability to teach these concepts to others who lack understanding. For many INTPs, this becomes one of the most valuable and far-reaching gifts that Ne has to offer--she may find, much to her surprise, that her natural talent for noting structural similarities between the seemingly unrelated allows her to rephrase the most abstruse hierarchies of ideas into surprisingly understandable unifying explanations with which her audience can readily identify. This ability marks one of the more substantial and notable differences between INTPs and INTJs: while Ni intuitively grasps conceptual symbolism quite readily, the INTJ's comparative inability (or simple disinterest in trying) to "translate" such abstractions results in a peculiar communicative disconnect which INTPs are frequently much more able to mitigate through Ne.

Perhaps most importantly of all, Ne grants the INTP not only a broader understanding of the vast interconnectedness of his various intellectual pursuits, but a sense of playful creativity and an excited enthusiasm for new possibilities for the future. When Ne is developed poorly, and the INTP is left with TiSi, his ever-looming sense of self-doubt and imminent awareness of the incompleteness of his own understanding may lead to extreme social isolation and dejected burnout from repeated failures at attempts to navigate the confusing and illogical world of external interaction. Ne encourages the INTP to remember that, no matter what the failures and inadequacies of today have wrought, tomorrow will be a new day full of new possibilities for different approaches, connections, and changes. If the current model doesn't feel consistent, we can always adjust it, rework it, or tweak its variables and turn it into something else tomorrow. The possibilities are endless--they're already out there, waiting to be found, and it's up to us to rearrange the pieces until we find them.

Ne, ideally, should serve to balance out Ti's insistence on deductive perfection through complete information by allowing the INTP to "fill in the blanks" and make rougher, more intuitive guesses at information he may not yet possess or fully understand. As Ti would prefer to work with If/Then statements which provide unifying explanations of wide ranges of theoretically absolute data, the failure to consult Ne may often result in an uncomfortable unwillingness to take action or make any attempt at something until the INTP feels he has complete enough information to solve for the entire causality of the system in his mind. Properly developed Ne leads the INTP to accept the reality that life is full of uncertainties, and that if we refuse to act without knowing all the variables, we never really learn or progress. When he gets stuck at a critical juncture, Ne reminds him to just veer off and try something different--even if it may not work every time or provide a complete explanation, it might lead him to just what he needs to see in order to discover the next step in the process. It allows him to break out of his shell and try new things just in case something unexpected happens, and it's this sort of vibrant curiosity that combines best with Ti's tireless thirst for truth and knowledge to produce a well-rounded and psychologically balanced INTP.

Tertiary: Introverted Sensation (Si)

As a tertiary function, Si can have a variety of balancing effects on the INTP's total cognition. It tends to work best when Ne has already been allowed to grow and develop as Ti's natural assistant and counterpart; however, it's worth noting that, like all tertiary functions, its effects can be potentially damaging if overused or interpreted out of context.

The most essential purpose of Si is to provide a sense of comfort in familiarity, in the idea that our internal maps of undifferentiated information work best when we're able to sustain them with a consistent flow of concrete sensory data, and that we should be wary of people, places, and situations that the map has not yet charted. For INTPs under the influence of tertiary Si, this can generate a certain degree of cynicism and potentially even irrational distrust of situations they've experienced before and associated a negative connotation with. INTPs may develop curious suspicions about the adverse effects of their surroundings on their physical health; they may select insignificant sensory details to use as scapegoats for their inability to produce consistent work. ("I'd be churning out fantastic material here if only these morons could get me some half decent coffee!")

Si's influence, in its infancy, may lead INTPs to avoid new experiences or block out possible new approaches or changes in methodology that may very well have improved the development of their ideas or increased the range of options available to them. "I've tried and it didn't work" can become something of a mantra that allows the INTP to both avoid the uncomfortable nature of leaping into the unknown with incomplete information, and build more support for the superiority of his personal convictions and subjective beliefs about the nature of fairness and reason.

Given enough negative reinforcement, as TiSi loop sets in, the INTP may even develop a habit of avoiding the very situations and mindsets that his personal growth requires most in order to move forward. Utterly convinced that the deck is stacked unfairly against him, he may devolve into bitter cynicism about the coldly inconsistent nature of the harsh, stupid, and illogical universe around him. Sensitive about his failures in the social arena, especially, he may convince himself that the only people worth interacting with are those who feel "safe" in that they espouse the same kinds of views with which he is already familiar: locked into a self-serving loop of subjective logic and subjective reinforcement of the kind of experiential data that supports it, he may simply resign himself to the fate of being alone and unappreciated, comforting himself with grandiose and romantic ideals of being "the only one with any real integrity" or "the only one who really cares about The Truth."

The problem with pouring on too much Si too quickly is that it may lead to a tendency to ignore Ne development. The INTP already has plenty of depth, and plenty of subjective perspective; what she needs to do first is develop a sense of the objectively observable effects her ideas have on others so that she can connect their perspectives to her own and learn to communicate the significance of her convictions meaningfully. Blocking this growth process with more encouragement to indulge in more of the same familiar experiences will only cause regressive development.

When granted a more balanced and positive role, Si should serve not as a mere excuse to remain forever entrenched in one's experiential comfort zone, but as a useful counterbalance to Ne's tendency to fly off the rails and become lost in its own excitement. While Ne teaches the INTP to let herself go and reach out to embrace the random, Si reins her back in and reminds her that, sometimes, there's a very good reason we've become familiar with a certain form of experience: it's what's best for us and it keeps us out of trouble. It reminds us to pay attention when things start to push too far out of our comfort zone for our own good, and helps us to avoid repeating mistakes that we've already made and (hopefully) learned from.

Lastly, Si should grant the INTP a sense of real connection to the actual experiences represented by the theoretical ideas he is constantly mulling over in his head, which will contribute to his slow-developing ability to concretely identify with where others are coming from. It's one thing to be able to explain to someone why an idea should work in theory and point out how clearly consistent and logical it is; it's quite another to be able to honestly say, "Because I've been there and I've tried it for myself, and I know from experience that it genuinely works." Being able to offer that kind of backup for their arguments can help INTPs transcend the theoretical basis from which they normally operate, endearing themselves to others in a way that only real world experience with real world issues can.

Inferior: Extroverted Feeling (Fe)

At the bottom of the barrel of the INTP's cognitive makeup lies the oft-unconscious and mostly neglected counterpart to Ti's personalized logic: the collectivized ethics and cultural expectations represented by inferior Fe. Right out of the gate, INTPs are naturally distrustful of extroverted judgment: they feel that decision-making is something that rightfully belongs to them and them alone, and that the idea of letting other people's expectations taint the depth and purity of their primary focus--for such questionable purposes as making people get along, no less--is, at least consciously, seen as a disturbing affront to their right to individualism and free thought.

"Why should I be expected to get along with anyone whose beliefs clearly represent incorrect logic and poor reasoning? It's not my fault people are too stupid to realize their beliefs are ridiculous!" Earlier in life, dominant Ti may have an exceptionally difficult time even understanding why getting along with others is desirable in the first place. If those people can't be trusted to make rational decisions according to the indisputable reality of The Truth, it can't see any value in associating with them at all. The way angry, adolescent INTPs develop social circles around this common belief represents one of the great ironies of the Jungian world.

Insistent that emotion is, by nature, a fundamentally invalid form of reasoning, INTPs may actually become emotionally attached to the idea that their decision-making is unemotional and therefore perfectly rational and "objectively superior" to other competing value systems. By asserting that Ti's subjective logic represents absolute or objective truth, they conveniently avoid both having to confront their own emotional needs and having to accept that their preferred method of reasoning does not represent absolute dogmatic truth. They will continue to cite "facts" and "scientific evidence" based on their own subjective sense of truth, using Ti's own axioms as proof of its ultimate correctness, never realizing the ultimately circular nature of their own declarations of self-superiority. When they meet other INTPs who feel the same way they do, the fact that someone else identifies both feeds Ti's conscious desire to be The Most Correct and Fe's subconscious desire to share a collectively derived ethical viewpoint with a larger group.

Try as they might to deny it, beneath the surface of the unconscious, inferior Fe (aided by auxiliary Ne) does drive INTPs to seek social acceptance and emotional connection; however, they often find themselves so hopelessly clueless at understanding and adjusting to social cues that they quickly develop intensely negative associations with the whole process of attempting to share themselves with others, content to interact only with those whose beliefs are consistent with their own, and thus non-threatening. In this way, INTPs may actually act out inferior Fe by seeking out like-minded friends and acquaintances who dislike the idea of having Fe standards forced on them, thus forming Fe-oriented bonds based, ironically, around the idea of disliking the very social expectations that end up creating the common ground on which they identify. "Don't conform to society--be a nonconformist like us!"

By attacking the systems of collective ethical expectations they so despise on a conscious level, they fulfill their own subconscious needs for cultural and familial camaraderie by replacing "I'm right" with "We're right"--but good luck to any member of that group who disagrees with the precepts of correctness by which it defines its membership!

Eventually, once Ne and Si have fallen into their rightful places and developed properly, inferior Fe should grant the INTP the much-needed realization that sometimes family and friends should come before theoretical correctness. Even if it's wrong or illogical or unfounded in science, if he wants to keep friends and family around, or hold a consistent job, or participate in social situations with any degree of discernible success, he must develop a desire to adjust to their emotional and ethical needs and preferences, even if he cannot see an imminently "logical" reason to agree with them.

This duality of thought ("I think it's illogical" + "I can still see the value in it and respect it as an equally valid form of reasoning") is something that takes many INTPs a long time and a lot of soul-searching to grow into. It requires, above all, the realization that even if absolute truth exists, it's not really possible or logically plausible to believe any single human being can access or understand it directly--the addition of competent Fe into his cognitive hierarchy will allow the INTP to admit that yes, even he is subject to emotional bias, and even he has practical reasons to adjust his ethical outlook according to the feelings and needs of those he holds dear.

Once the INTP is able to simultaneously value the idea of truth and admit to himself that his own opinion cannot constitute the entirety of it, he will begin to realize that balancing his personal convictions against collective moral evaluations can actually move him even closer to the transcendent vision of universal truth and integrity around which his entire life is centered--and who knows? He may even develop some deeply meaningful personal connections along the way!












INFP, or Introverted iNtuitive Feeling Perceiver, is a label borrowed from MBTI nomenclature and now applied to the Jungian Cognitive Function set {Fi, Ne, Si, Te}.

Dominant: Introverted Feeling (Fi)

"I know just how you feel--I've felt just the same way when that happened to me, and it really hurt. You should be able to say how you feel even if others don't always necessarily think it's appropriate--as long as it's truly from the heart. You should never go against what your personal moral compass says, even if that goes against the commonly accepted morality of all of your close family and friends and anyone you respect. I don't want to know what you should feel--I want to know what you do feel."

The INFP's dominant Fi is an introverted judgment (Ji) function, meaning the top priority for INFPs is full, deep, robust, profound definition of precisely what values the user finds instrumental to the essence of his personal identity and that which he finds to be fundamentally "good" or "bad" at its root core. But it's more than just good or bad; on a grander scale, the INFP is concerned with the very essence of Good and Evil, Meaningful and Not Meaningful, Sacred and Not Sacred. This duality becomes central to the moral philosophy of many Fi dominant types.

Fi users believe there is a definite moral order to the universe (meaning that it is inescapably true that some things and some ideas are inherently more valuable, more virtuous, and more worthy of positive evaluation than others), and that the only way we may catch a glimpse of this sacred ideal is by allowing ourselves complete and total connection and understanding with our emotional responses and the way they reflect that which upholds the internal "essence" of moral goodness as we understand it subjectively and individually. One INFP friend calls it "The uh oh feeling" when his Fi (bolstered by Si) somehow "senses" almost immediately that a new person is up to no good.

For Fi, standardizing ethics collectively misses the point by blunting the individual's unique identity and influence so much that the real significance is lost.

Morality for Fi is not something that anyone else can tell you how to approach: it's something you just have to look inside and feel for yourself. Morality is too complex and nuanced, reasons Fi, to be marginalized by approaching it from a collective standpoint. It's too dependent upon the essence of the individual and his personal impressions, too subject to that individual's experiences and understanding to even be approached (or worse, insisted upon) by anyone else. As soon as you try to design moral philosophy that works the same way for more than one person, you've ruined its inherently individualistic nature.

INFPs often have a distinct habit of letting resentment and negativity build up toward someone until they're so incredibly upset that they can't help exploding into a Te-rundown of precisely everything you are doing wrong and why it's simply not acceptable in moral terms they can justify (Fi.) At least two INFP friends have told me that when they focus on explaining and resolving their grievances routinely and calmly before they have time to bottle up and fester into huge issues, they find themselves much more able to maintain the deep one-on-one connections they invariably must form with others, and to reach even greater personal understanding and empathy as a result.

Auxiliary: Extroverted iNtuition (Ne)

As an auxiliary function, Ne grants INFPs both an awareness of and concern for how others perceive them, and the ability to explore, create, experiment, and play with new combinations and possibilities for different approaches and ways to change and recreate what they see around them, with an eye on how these exploratory outings will affect the perceptions and emotional states of others.

This is a crucial factor in the INFP's ability to apply Fi's uniquely individualistic values to an externally observable context in a way that both captures the attention and admiration of others and allows him to translate his inner passions into forms that others can understand, identify with, and appreciate. The INFP needs Ne in order to spread the message of his ideals to an audience that will listen: Ne is the bridge by which Fi's vision can be forged into the creations that serve as external representations of the INFP's identity.

"No need for greed or hunger / A brotherhood of man / Imagine all the people / Sharing all the world."
--John Lennon, "Imagine"

Ne often ends up expressing itself through artistic and creative endeavors: This penchant for interpreting and rearranging patterns of external phenomena frequently results in a particular knack for manipulation of language and its ability to say just the right thing to convey precisely the value or feeling the INFP wants to express, in a way that makes that feeling real for others. Indeed, INFPs are quite often found among novelists, musicians, graphic artists, screen writers, and all other forms of widely recognized creative expression by which the purity of their internal worlds (Fi) can be expressed externally (Ne).

At their best, INFPs are principled, idealistic, playful, creative, and deeply empathetic. Without the aid of auxiliary Ne, the INFP may become frustrated at the conflict between her intense desire for self-expression and her inability to translate the ideals she strives to live by into a medium that will touch the souls of others in the same way they define the meaning and purpose of her own life.

INFPs, because they show the outer world their flexible Ne side more readily, will appear much more open and accepting on the surface, and indeed they will remain that way as long as their interactions with you remain relaxed and enjoyable and do not require getting into serious ethical analysis or put them in any uncomfortable situations which might make them feel morally conflicted. They will appear flexible now (Ne), and steadfast later (Fi). They are generally open to all sorts of new experiences and connections between different experiences--they love to get at the heart of the people's true character by finding and comparing the ways in which different individuals have different unique "flavors", each offering its own special kind of meaning, and they love to observe the connections between different individuals in this regard. They may come off as rather reserved at first, but it doesn't take too long before they will at least open up Ne to you and relate to you on a surface level--this usually happens in terms of discussion about some common interest, such as art, philosophy, music, etc...anything that will seem interesting and noteworthy to the collective of people the INFP deems worthy.

Inside, however, they are far more rigid and unyielding in terms of the extraordinarily high ethical standards they place on themselves and anyone they consider close enough to be a trusted friend. When you become close to an INFP, you are accepting a responsibility to uphold the high personal standards that define the INFP's entire self-image and existential philosophy. INFPs will offer only the very best ethical treatment of their friends and loved ones, and they expect no less in return--if you cannot fulfill this sacred bond to the same level they hold themselves to, you should not commit to such a close relationship in the first place.

Tertiary: Introverted Sensation (Si)

For INFPs, the tertiary relief function Si is consulted in order to provide them quick reference to the real feelings and experiences that have affected them profoundly in their past experiences. Fi+Si doesn't consciously say, "Ok, the last time this happened it caused a negative emotional reaction for me; therefore I will avoid it now"; Fi simply instinctively begins to experience the terrible emotional state Si has associated with whatever negative experience, and panic and dread take over, forcing the INFP to escape this situation at all costs, for fear of being forced into that state again. Fool me once, shame on you--fool me twice, shame on me.

I have seen INFPs who, once they begin to develop Si, start to pay very close attention to possible contaminants which could taint the purity of their physical bodies in the environment around them. They'll become extra careful to check food to make sure it hasn't gone bad, has the right nutritional content, etc. Some of them either insist on seeing a doctor more often than necessary, or become distrustful of doctors in general and avoid the experience, if they've had some negative past experience with doctors or medication (as, unfortunately, a fair number of INFPs have.) When applied positively though, it gives them a grounding into something real, something they can hold on to that they know will always be there for them because it always has been--this can be instrumental in leading the INFP into the spiritually aware and comfortable state she desires.

Development of tertiary Si helps the INFP connect her physical health and the needs of her body to the emotional and spiritual health upon which Fi is so heavily focused. As INFPs learn to pay more attention to Si, they will learn what conditions and surroundings are likely to lead them to better physical health, and recognize the enormous effect this will have on their emotional and spiritual health. As Si improves, they will appear to take a page from ISJs in their refusal to work under conditions that "don't feel right" in that they aren't conducive to promoting the calm, relaxed, and emotionally aware state under which their creative juices can flow most freely.

Most importantly, however, Si serves as a voice of caution and experience to help avoid the Ne trap of getting so lost in creative exploration that the INFP forgets where his comfort zone is and repeats the same painful mistakes again and again. INFPs with strongly pronounced Si will appear less naive, more world-weary, and perhaps a little bit more cynical--but it's generally for the best, as repeated negative experiences with being too trusting too quickly will teach them.

Inferior: Extroverted Thinking (Te)

For INFPs, Te ideally provides an objective counterpart to Fi's value judgments by allowing them to consider the importance of accomplishing real goals through real functional external world systems. This is very difficult for many INFPs to process because forcing any sort of cooperation on others for the good of a larger system (Te) is often seen as tantamount to destroying the right to express one's personal individuality at all costs (Fi.) This moral dilemma plagues many INFPs.

Te will, on occasion, pop out and result in the INFP blowing up and telling everyone in painstakingly objective detail how poorly they are living up the expected standards of their responsibilities. It kills the INFP to do this, because she wants so badly to respect others' right to personal individuality and self-expression, but ultimately she must recognize that some people will not voluntarily cooperate and must be forced to change for the good of society as a whole--nay, for the Good of Good itself!

As far as I can tell the line of reasoning goes something like this: "You are not performing your moral duty to me as a friend (Fi), and every time I have been in a positive working relationship in the past (Si) it has followed certain standards (Te), and while I hate to do this, you are threatening my right to personal identity here (Fi) and thus I must explain to you objectively and very, very bluntly how your behavior cannot be tolerated (Te)."

The real issue for INFPs struggling with inferior Te is the conflict between Fi's idealistic, highly personalized individualism and Te's somewhat Machiavellian ends-justify-the-means, get-it-done-at-all-costs attitude. Ultimately, once Fi, Ne, and Si are satisfied, an INFP nearing total maturity should be able to recognize the value in the idea that sometimes, unconditional promotion of individual freedom of expression is simply not practical from a resource management standpoint, and that in order for society (or any other organization) to function meaningfully as a unit, some degree of personal individuality must, at times, be sacrificed.

Nonetheless, INFPs remain distrustful of any suggestion that people be "forced into boxes" or otherwise compelled to conform in any way that violates their sense of freedom of choice or private identity. As Te begins to balance this attitude, INFPs will gradually realize that actually creating the ideal utopian world they envision so naturally will require paying some attention to practical considerations, namely some form of objectively impersonal evaluation, and that this doesn't have to conflict with their ideals--it can, in fact, support and assist them in their quest to set all things right with the world.

And even if they never really find perfection, at least they'll have some degree of measurable success to point to--and that may be the only way to feel content in a world which will never truly live up to the perfectly harmonious ideals that Fi lives for.












ENTJ, or Extroverted iNtuitive Thinking Judger, is a label borrowed from MBTI nomenclature and now applied to the Jungian Cognitive Function set {Te, Ni, Se, Fi}.

Dominant: Extroverted Thinking (Te)

"Frankly, I work best when I can be in charge, when I'm given the autonomy and resources necessary to get something done. I'm good at handling problems and making tough decisions on a macro level, and I'm able to see potential in a lot of places people might not expect. It's important to know how to define and establish clear objectives--but also to keep your mind open to new possibilities that might work even better. Somehow I'm able to look at the different areas of a problem and compartmentalize them into tangible wholes and sequential steps--and from there it's just a matter of having the confidence, preparation, and skill sets necessary to follow through with your ambitions. I'm good at taking charge of a situation and optimizing its utility, which is something I take pride in my ability to do. It's important to me to organize and promote efficiency wherever I can, and I think sometimes people need to learn that there are times when their personal sentiments should be set aside if they're getting in the way of important progress. I often feel that people don't really understand or appreciate the full extent of my ambitions--but I stand up for my ideas and I support them with empirical facts. It's just a matter of visualizing a solution and implementing the steps necessary--if you're capable of doing something worthwhile, why shouldn't you?"

Sometimes mistaken for ESTPs for their aggressive confidence, often competitive nature, and emphasis on tangible action, ENTJs feel most at home when they:

A) Have the knowledge and skills necessary to perform efficiently,
B) Can visualize unique solutions to large-scale problems, and
C) Be given the administrative power to implement their ideas in practice.

The above list is, in itself, a nod to the concepts behind dominant Te: the way to get things done is to find out what the most successful people in the field are doing and break down that approach into concrete objectives, to cohesive steps and defined methodology. No burden of proof can match that of empirical evidence, the objectively measurable manifestation of the consensus of observable phenomena and the interpretations of the people who can show evidence that they understand it best. ENTJs are often much more ready to accept an idea when it's been quantified and systematized, and granted credibility by some manner of official recognition--presumably from the people who make it their business to know about whatever that area is, and who generate obviously tangible results from it. Numbers don't lie, and it's of the utmost importance to educate oneself about the standards and expectations by which logical and categorical evaluations are approached and granted collective value.

Most ENTJs will admit that they occasionally have some difficulty with people who seem to block or otherwise hinder the development of their pet projects. They often have little patience for what they see as pointless or non-productive, and they may show little restraint in making this view clear to others. It's this sort of issue--generally born of a desire to avoid wasting resources, but often misunderstood as a deliberate attempt to exert excessive control--that grants ENTJs their somewhat exaggerated reputation for aggressive handling of situations with little regard for the practical implications of the effects of their behavior on others.

Nevertheless, they tend to see difficult tasks as challenges that need to be studied, considered, planned carefully for, and strategically conquered. In this way, the structured nature of their dominant attitude illuminates the real difference from ESTP here: ENTJs are, above all, deliberate. They don't mince words and they don't like to waste time or energy. Given clear objectives and the necessary tools, ENTJs will finish what they start, and you can bet their work will meet all relevant regulations and industry standards. They may even feel like most (or worse, all) of the people around them lack the knowledge, confidence, or leadership ability to keep things running smoothly. It's no secret that they sometimes garner a reputation for being domineering and controlling, although this is not their intention: they simply feel a responsibility to take a leadership role when no one else around them can be trusted to do things right.

Like most Je dominant types, ENTJs tend to excel in management positions where they can be directly responsible for the coordination of various different departments or areas into larger and more cohesive functional wholes. This natural ability to control and govern resources gives rise to the characteristic Te desire for autonomy and self-sufficiency: the competence and self-restraint required to do achieve these ideals become points of pride for the ENTJ. There's a certain way the universe functions most effectively, they reason, and if you can't align yourself with the way things work on a globally objective level, you have no one to blame but yourself. If he cannot maintain autonomy, the ENTJ will be forced to make himself subservient to other (potentially far less efficient) methods of resource distribution. If there's one thing ENTJs dislike, it's being stuck working in a system or framework that could be improved or redesigned for better functionality, but having no authority or position from which to institute such improvements. They feel trapped, like they've solved the problem but its application is being blocked by nothing more than pointless bureaucratic red tape.

Auxiliary: Introverted iNtuition (Ni)

On a more private level that isn't often fully exposed or even completely understood by the ENTJ himself, auxiliary Ni grants the well-balanced ENTJ his characteristic interest in the reinterpretation and redesign of processes and systems which he sees could be approached more efficiently if only conceptualized through different base assumptions--assumptions which may lie outside of the currently accepted framework and may not be predictable or fully explainable. While dominant Te leads the ENTJ to place a high value on the wisdom and expertise of those who have shown tangible results, auxiliary Ni may contradict this insistence on outwardly measurable observation and prompt the ENTJ to introspect and indulge a seemingly irrational or unverifiable hunch or feeling about the next step toward completing a goal. While Te is busy comparing and evaluating different preexisting external structural approaches and methodologies, Ni works behind the scenes to compile them all into internalized conceptual representations which should ultimately assist the ENTJ in carving out his own personal approach to a given sort of problem--he's on the right track when he can strike a balance between what collective scientific knowledge tells him is an effective approach, and what his own interpretation predicts may change or redesign that approach in the future--possibly the far distant future. ENTJs are macro-level thinkers, and they work best when they can look at everything on an expansive scale.

As she is in the process of becoming more comfortable with auxiliary Ni, the ENTJ may display somewhat perplexing behavior in terms of the conflict between what the evidence says she should do and what her gut is telling her is, in fact, misleading evidence. Ni's perceptual depth may be difficult to handle at first, as it's often responsible for misgivings and uncertainty regarding the ENTJ's understanding of any given process or system, and that sort of second-guessing leads to less progress and thus, a less favorable distribution of resources. Putting in this level of time and determined introspection over the significance of a problem and the way we choose to conceptualize it may strike dominant Te as an inefficient usage of time that would be better spent actually planning and executing the goals we've already defined thus far. Nevertheless, the well-balanced ENTJ recognizes that these sorts of conceptual hunches are necessary to the development of any truly effective approach to solving any sort of problem at all--just getting more done doesn't necessarily mean any of it is substantial or genuinely useful in conjunction with other processes and methods.

Ideally Ni should also grant the ENTJ a more distinct sense of individuality--without it, one may rightly wonder how he may show any measure of personal style or creativity to the world, or bring any of his own experiences and the accompanying set of perceptions and assumptions with him into any problem he agrees to apply himself to. Ni should grant a sense of depth to Te's expansive plans and objectives--it should show the ENTJ the more significant long-term implications of his ideas, and grant him the wisdom to consider all the available information deeply before insisting on a speedy decision and immediate execution. Expediency is key, but Ni provides a reminder that productivity towards an ill-defined or poorly chosen goal may not really constitute genuine productivity at all.

At its best, Ni will support and assist Te's desire for organization and progress by changing the way the ENTJ views and interprets various kinds of resources and their potential for productive use. This contributes to their vaunted ability to see a profitable opportunity in something that doesn't strike anyone else as worthy of any investment of time or substantial consideration. They may sometimes feel, much like INTJs, that they are ahead of their time in terms of their ability to foresee the next wave of opportunity, to plan and structure their approach around maximizing the benefit and utility they can garner from it.

When auxiliary Ni is poorly developed, the ENTJ may find himself lacking in long-term strategic ability or insight into the real significance or symbolic value of the goals he is pursuing. He may become so caught up in maximizing active productivity that he may lose sight of the real purpose of his mission, which threatens the total productivity of the entire effort on a larger scale. Unable to find the unstated meaning that connects his command of process to his visions and ideas, the TeSe loop ENTJ is forced to indulge in the immediately tangible and physically expressive world of literal surface value.

Tertiary: Extroverted Sensation (Se)

Largely responsible for the common confusion between ESTPs and ENTJs is the ENTJ's tertiary function, Se (the ESTP's dominant.) People are usually able to quickly recognize an extrovert with Thinking as one of his two strongest attitudes, and the similarly aggressive and in-charge interaction styles between ESTPs and ENTJs can make them hard to distinguish for the casual observer. Though Te's desire to promote calculated action in favor of a specified and measurable goal can combine with Se's accompanying desire to impress the audience with tangible displays of bravado and immediate sensory impact to mislead the casual observer into mistaking Se for the dominant function, there are quite a lot of substantial differences between the goals and mindsets of these two types that, once we examine them more deeply, it's hard to confuse them further. Tertiary Se is, however, especially visible in situations where the ENTJ realizes he's more likely to accomplish his goals if he dazzles his audience with a little bit of flair: Se gives ENTJs a desire to impress, to display their knowledge and skills in order to impress others and, hopefully, create more useful business opportunities as a result.

In some cases ENTJs may even consciously notice the effectiveness of Se as a social strategy (often by watching ESPs in social situations) and understand through TeNi that it can be reverse engineered and applied in a more structured and purposeful environment as well. Since it's already a natural part of themselves, it's not a difficult leap to consider Se's applications in places and situations where most people might not expect it. This process feeds back into auxiliary Ni's ability to see an opportunity for improvement where others may see nothing of any particular value. When positively applied, tertiary Se connects the ENTJ to a real, physical awareness of the impressions and immediate sensations her words and actions create on the people around her. Rather than seeing the world simply as a set of causal relationships that combine and interact to form plans and complete objectives, Se prompts her to recognize the more direct relationships between her own stylistic approach and the expectations and desires of the people she seeks to influence and direct.

Of course, too much indulgence in Se can lead to a number of disconcerting behavioral issues and a long term trend toward failure to generate the level of productivity and autonomy which makes the ENTJ feel most at home. If Ni is blocked out or underdeveloped, the ENTJ's cognitive patterns begin to shift toward TeSe--too much indulgence in immediately enjoyable play time can combine with the already aggressive Te to produce controlling and territorial behaviors that don't serve to endear the ENTJ too much to the people surrounding him. Insistent upon controlling and regulating (Te) every aspect of his physical environment and the immediate impact it creates (Se), the TeSe ENTJ will find himself aggressively pushing out of the way anyone who doesn't fit his plans or desires, or simply irritates or annoys him on a personal basis. He will feel dominant Te's drive to push for progress and growth, but he may lack the intuitive depth necessary to understand the long term implications of his actions or put any of his ambitions into a context that will promote legitimate forward movement. Self-conscious over his own slow development and unsure of how to make the next step forward, he may indulge further and further in the immediately pleasing world of external sensations, becoming increasingly difficult to confront or criticize as his own poorly understood emotional side is expressed through simple anger and Se's territorial behavior. The tiniest sense of inefficiency or disorganization may drive him up the wall--convinced that his own failure to organize and follow through is responsible for his difficulties, he may go to extreme lengths micromanaging and reorganizing the same irrelevant details, and angrily confronting anyone who gets in the way or suggests any conflicting approach. Stuck in a corner and at his wit's end, indulgence in the immediate pleasures of sensory enjoyment may strike the ENTJ as the only way to (even temporarily) escape his mounting problems.

On the other hand, once Ni is in place and performing its duties, Se will provide a helpful balancing perspective that connects the ENTJ to the tastes and preferences of the real people surrounding her. It will remind her to keep an eye on appearances, aware of the substantial implications of having the right look and feel in her sense of presentation, to be sure that she's up to date, and to occasionally provide a subtle hint of forceful aggression when it contributes to accomplishing her goals expediently.

Inferior: Introverted Feeling (Fi)

By far the least comfortable function attitude in the ENTJ hierarchy is the point at which most ENTJs are aware they are weak and thus tend to avoid whenever possible: inferior Fi. For the ENTJ struggling to integrate the inferior attitude into his perspective, it may be very difficult to balance the personal ethical ideals of the individual against the broader objectives that represent the progression of his interests into tangible processes and measurable progress toward completing them. It may seem impossible to get anything meaningful done without stepping on anyone's toes--a problem most ENTJs solve by simply not worrying much about whether anyone will feel his toes have been stepped on (unless creating such a feeling directly conflicts with the completion of his goals, of course.) Respect for the individual's sense of personal integrity and moral goodness may come as a threatening and confusing shock to dominant Te's ordered and methodical systems of deliberate planning and execution.

When inferior Fi is forced out, generally by a stressful situation, the ENTJ's oft-neglected emotional side may suddenly and unexpectedly force itself into public view. In my experience, one such Fi outlet for many Te dominants (and this includes both ENTJs and ESTJs) involves latching onto seemingly insignificant or irrelevant moral crusades or perceived injustices and waxing poetic about what deplorable tragedies they represent. (I know one Te dominant who, when started on the subject of Native Americans, insists that it's a travesty that their country was stolen from them, and makes it clear that if he were in charge, they would at least have the national parks back!)

Along the way, the ENTJ may have a difficult path ahead of him in terms of connecting his personal sense of moral integrity to the agendas and approaches of the projects and objectives by which he defines his relationship to the world. Unexpected emotional outbursts (often masked with Se anger, which serves to cover up the other more nuanced and less familiar emotions that inferior F types are wont to block out or ignore) may surprise and alarm family and friends when the ENTJ feels personally slighted, or feels his ideas have been disregarded or not given fair consideration. Since the ENTJ, at his core, needs to feel that he is contributing to an increase in efficiency in nearly everything he does, any time his suggestions are not heeded, he may become irrationally upset, taking others' rejections of his advice (his most valued form of input) as an implication that the core value of his personality is not worthy of respect or consideration. Strange and misplaced accusations of personal disloyalty or failure to respect the ENTJ's feelings and desires may crop up at unusual and inappropriate moments as Fi bubbles over and forces out the unfamiliar realm of subjective value judgment.

While the Fi integration process may result in some temporary discomfort and emotional confusion, as the line between "things should be run efficiently" (Te) and "I should be good and do the right thing" (Fi) can begin to blur and lead the ENTJ to believe that he can never actually accomplish enough to feel like he is a legitimately useful or admirable person. He may struggle with the underlying fear of losing touch with the collective standards by which knowledgeable people evaluate things, and thus he may block out his own feelings and emotional needs in favor of adjusting himself to whatever the people he views as knowledgeable and respectable insist is the correct method. Development of Fi helps to balance the weight given to each of these conflicting value systems: it helps the ENTJ to stand up for what he knows is right even if it's more convenient or more efficient not to.

Eventually, the ENTJ's private moral values should gain enough context to be molded into real projects that can do something to help the ENTJ feel she is contributing to the greater good through her continuing efforts to progress and refine the processes she best understands. By intertwining a personal moral value with the assurance that they could make things run more efficiently if given the chance, ENTJs may actually find a way to connect with and provide mutual support for both Te and Fi. By allowing their personal moral values to grant direction to manageable and realistic projects for improvement of process or design, they can give voice to a side of themselves most people don't see--and without necessarily having to compromise the strong and confident image on which they pride themselves. When they can feel they are both achieving on a high level and doing it for the right personal reasons, ENTJs will soar.












ENFJ, or Extroverted iNtuitive Feeling Judger, is a label borrowed from MBTI nomenclature and now applied to the Jungian Cognitive Function set {Fe, Ni, Se, Ti}.

Dominant: Extroverted Feeling (Fe)

"I think I would say that my most valuable gift is that I understand people. I know what their needs are, and I know how they relate to other people's needs, and I'm good at connecting different kinds of people in a way that helps them help each other. I think it's really important to know who your friends are, and to remember to stay loyal to the people you're close to. I'm a really good listener, and I try my best to take people's concerns seriously and respond in a way that I know will make them feel more comfortable, more at ease with whatever problem they're having. I'm good at figuring out what people think is important, and then fitting in with their expectations and making a positive, lasting impression when I interact with them. I like to be seen as confident and capable, but also sympathetic to people's feelings and ideas. I don't generally have any problem organizing people and leading them toward a common goal--since I can identify so well with most people, I can be pretty persuasive; often I can see very easily the middle ground between opposing perspectives, and from there it's just a matter of explaining people's differences in a way that makes both parties happy. I really like it when I can make a positive difference to someone in a meaningful way--I try to show the world my best side as often as I can. More than anything, though, it's important to be there for the people that matter to you--if you can't do that, how can you expect anyone else to be there for you?"

Often mistaken for a variety of other types due to their renowned interpersonal abilities, ENFJs may very well be the one type least in need of typological methodology. As type theory itself is intended primarily to increase understanding of foreign value systems in order to improve ability to interact effectively with others--something healthy ENFJs tend to do so naturally they can scarcely turn it off--they may often find themselves so naturally adept at accommodating and outwardly validating the values of others that they can appear almost chameleon-like in how their behavior may change from one group to the next. As dominant extroverted feelers, ENFJs are champions of the values espoused by their communities, and they make concerted efforts to make themselves into living examples of those values, both for their own benefit and for that of those around them.

When discussing Fe dominants, it's important to note that the collectivized moral ideals by which they define their identities are not limited to traditional family or community groups. It's a common mistake to assume that ENFJs will automatically change their values to fit whatever group happens to physically surround them at the moment--and while they may do this when they wish to make a particular impression, or when the group immediately surrounding them holds values that don't conflict substantially with those they find important, their primary focus in life is aligning themselves with groups of other people with whom they can develop a common moral viewpoint and thus establish an objective system of ethical expectations by which everyone can be held accountable. Unlike Fi types, who develop highly individualized, internal moral compasses, ENFJs may often wonder how they can make any meaningful moral decision without knowing how the people they find important (i.e., those with whom their relationships create the fabric of their public identities) feel about the issue in question. This is not to say ENFJs don't have any moral ideas of their own; they simply conceptualize morality as a concept that should be discussed and agreed upon by the groups of people who intend to define their relationships to each other through common adherence to them.

As Fe dominants, ENFJs strive to make themselves into paragons of the ideals and values represented by their connections to others. They're generally very aware of the implications of who they choose to associate themselves with, and they tend to know just how to say whatever it is that they need to say to get others on board with their causes and goals. It's not uncommon to see them championing the causes of the weak and downtrodden--in many cases, their rare ability to "translate" between competing value systems combines with their natural interpersonal organizational skills to produce an unusually powerful, charismatic presence. The skills commonly associated with this mindset may be applied toward both positive and very negative ends. While few can unite a crowd under a common goal with the ENFJ's unique balance of personal charm and decisive vision, not all of them are above abusing this gift for purposes of ousting or defaming an enemy--no one can an appeal to an entire group's collective sentiments and convince them to brand someone "an outsider" faster than an ENFJ.

Another major issue that often arises for both Fe dominant types (ENFJ, ESFJ) is the tendency to spend so much time focusing on the feelings and needs of others that one's own emotional necessities may become neglected or, worse, completely ignored. Intent on adjusting the way they feel to the way the people close to them feel, Fe dominants may run into substantial conflicts of interest when their own private assessments of people or situations fly in the face of the cultural and social expectations espoused by the people they love and respect. Conflict avoidance and mediation become major points of interest--since conflict between members of the same party suggests discord among the values that create the bond between the members thereof (which threatens the fabric of cultural connection upon which interpersonal groupings are founded), ENFJs view ability to set aside one's own misgivings in favor of that which will benefit their associates to be the ultimate sign of selflessness and maturity. Manifestations of this outlook may be something of a double-edged sword: while this leads many ENFJs to develop their natural talents at conflict resolution and caregiving, it may result in a confusing disconnect between what the ENFJ really does want, and that which he is expected to want--that which the others to whom he holds obligations desire. Overemphasis on dominant Fe may result in difficulty with defining any sort of clear sense of self at all!

Auxiliary: Introverted iNtuition (Ni)

In most cases, ENFJs seem to describe the function of auxiliary Ni in their own cognitive hierarchies as providing a sense of direction and/or spiritual connection to something greater than themselves. They rarely feel it necessary to define or "box in" this connection in directly explicit terms--doing so would violate the spirit of personalized, subjective definitional freedom upon which the Ni attitude thrives--but rather, it seems to represent finding that which impresses upon them a sense of global significance (especially the recurring theme that "everything happens for a reason"), that there is something much more important than ourselves and our immediate needs and everyday struggles going on beneath the surface of our outwards selves. I've heard ENFJs describe Ni's role--even those who don't know typology and don't realize this is what they're describing--by focusing on the development of their own self-awareness, especially in terms of the social and interpersonal situations where they feel most comfortable and in control. ENFJs are known for their strong communicative abilities, but only as auxiliary Ni develops do they begin to develop total awareness of the inner workings of the effects of their own cognitive tendencies on their outlooks and approaches to life.

For ENFJs, development of auxiliary Ni seems to coincide with a revelatory (and somewhat sudden) increase in total perspective. Priorities are rearranged, unhealthy or counterproductive relationships are severed or restructured, while new and more fulfilling ones replace them as the ENFJ begins to develop an idea of what she wants the long-term implications of her life and actions to signify. "What does it all mean?" Life may strike them as a random series of meaningless events that can only be granted value and structure through the cultural and moral approval of others they feel close to--and while these sorts of personal connections are and always will be the central focus of their lives, the development of Ni will create a sense of individual perspective by which the normative values promoted by Fe can be put into context and understood more completely, in a way that operates outside the confines of the assumptions by which dominant Fe would normally lead the ENFJ to define her entire outlook. In short, Ni grants the ENFJ a much-needed self-analytical disposition, an ability to rethink, redefine, and (hopefully) improve the boundaries of the obligations by which she creates her relationships to others and the outside world. The balanced ENFJ recognizes that even though her cultural values and the relationships she builds upon them are the driving forces in her own life, there are many other possible value systems and many other ways of interpreting them. To be truly happy and satisfied, she must keep an open mind toward new possibilities and potential epistemic viewpoints--or risk becoming lost and entrenched in a misguided set of collective values, associating with all the wrong people and not even realizing it.

Earlier in life, ENFJs may find themselves so naturally adept at telling people what they want to hear that they become accustomed to auto-piloting through social interaction and emotional support of others. Without substantial Ni, they may neglect the deeper implications of the social "scripts" they find themselves effortlessly repeating day in and day out. If, on the other hand, Ni is applied in excess, the ENFJ may end up isolating himself to a much greater degree than he's truly comfortable with, primarily out of fear of being unprepared to deal with interpersonal problems and situations. With every problem solved, he will see only further problems with more implications, each requiring tremendous investments of time and personal consideration before any real action can be taken. He may find himself reading much further into the words and actions of others than practical considerations dictate--he may struggle with the fear that no one truly respects him, that everyone is hiding a secret desire to force him out of the group dynamic and leave him alone to fend for himself. While the proper dosage of Ni provides a balancing effect and a refreshing sense of perspective, excess focus on unstated and implied meaning may lead to some degree of paranoia, short-circuiting the interpersonal skills upon which the ENFJ builds his self-confidence.

Tertiary: Extroverted Sensation (Se)

Often serving as a distraction in times of stress and disorder, tertiary Se can have a variety of both helpful and harmful effects on the ENFJ's cognition. On one hand, Se can support and improve Fe's interpersonal dynamics by increasing understanding of their immediate sensory impact: wielded skilfully, FeSe can actually make doing the right thing (according to the standards associated with the family or organization in question) seem "cool." Surely, in addition to this, there is an Se component to the personable charm and charisma upon which ENFJs build their reputations: they can combine the serious sense of duty and obligation behind Fe with the impressive spectacle and guttural impact of Se--this unlikely combination, responsible for the enormous interpersonal influence on their peers that ENFJs tend to command, is matched by few other function combinations.

One of my favorite ENFJ tertiary Se examples comes from Vito Corleone, Marlon Brando's character in the classic Godfather films. It's a line that made its point so succinctly that it's embedded itself into modern popular culture. When asked how he intends to persuade an adversary to conform to his wishes, Vito delivers the classic line: "I'll make him an offer he can't refuse." On the surface, his answer seems to reflect the common courtesy and social propriety that Fe demands: the parties in question are simply bargaining, politely negotiating toward a solution that can mutually benefit everyone, and that all parties concerned will be happy with. By terming his approach an "offer", Vito implies that his adversary is free to turn down the offer and cease negotiations at any time he pleases--this is simply a friendly discussion, you see, as anything less would surely offend the opposing party and violate his culture's ethical standards regarding proper treatment of others. And by invoking the common figurative phrase "he can't refuse", Vito subtly promotes the impression that not only is he willing to negotiate, but that he's so generous that he's willing to offer conditions so favorable to the other party's interests that he would be foolish to turn them down. What a stand-up guy!

And yet, we all know that this isn't really an "offer" at all--that the only real choice the other party has is to comply with Vito's request or die. And this is where tertiary Se enters the picture: well-balanced ENFJs are socially savvy enough to recognize the problems with a directly and bluntly aggressive approach. Vito's strategy in this situation not only makes others more comfortable by using culturally familiar and socially acceptable phrasing (Fe), it also implies exactly what needs to be said ("You're going to do what I want, or I'm going to show you the kind of physical force you don't want to have to deal with"--Se) without ever having to lift a finger or break the ostensible air of polite negotiation. On the surface, "he can't refuse" implies that he can refuse, but that he would be missing out on a good opportunity if he did. Beneath the surface, Ni implies that the commonly accepted interpretation of this phrasing (in this case, a non-literal one) may not tell the whole story--and, in a brilliant twist on an old saying, Vito defies surface expectations (Ni) by using the phrase in a context where its meaning should, uncharacteristically, actually be taken quite literally (Se): the target literally can't refuse, on pain of death.

Applied negatively, tertiary Se tends to affect ENFJs in much the same way it affects their ENTJ cousins: with their natural interpersonal skills leading them into all sorts of different social contexts, it's all too easy for the FeSe loop ENFJ to become lost in the sensual pleasures that litter the party and entertainment scenes where their social adeptness will invariably lead them on numerous occasions. I've seen ENFJs develop serious substance abuse problems as a result--tragically, Fe can work against them by providing them with more contacts and more ability to procure the intoxicants that Ni should remind them will likely not lead to positive long-term results. Failure to support these increasingly unhealthy habits may lead to angry and aggressive outbursts (on these occasions it's actually not too hard to confuse them with poorly balanced ESTPs), manipulative behavior, and even unscrupulous abuse of their influence on others in order to get what they feel they rightfully deserve.

Ideally, the healthy integration of tertiary Se into the ENFJ's mindset should lead to more complete people skills and a balanced focus on the real meaning of immediate reality, which helps to round out the constant suspicion of missing or understated meaning for which Ni is characteristically on the lookout. The well-balanced ENFJ will recognize Se's ability to help him connect to others more directly and immediately, to keep up with their interests and desires as well as their emotional and cultural needs. When integrated in balanced degrees, Se should grant a sense of personal style that will, in time, bolster Fe's insistence on developing useful relationships with wide ranges of different kinds of people and cultural backgrounds.

Inferior: Introverted Thinking (Ti)

Recall the aforementioned conflict between the ENFJ's personal desires and those of his groups and associations with others: at the core of this conflict lies Fe's struggle against inferior Ti. When a situation arises in which the ENFJ's sense of personal logic and causal reasoning contradicts everything his external obligations suggest he should support, substantial psychological difficulties can arise. Torn between the objectively supported mutual responsibilities by which his conscious mind defines his identity and the unconscious personal/subjective desire for personal consistency, Ti manifests itself as an uncomfortable representation of his personal conscience, pestering him in the back of his mind: "Something here just doesn't make sense."

The real difficulty will occur when the ENFJ is forced to confront a disconnect between the needs of others and his own need to behave in a way he can feel consistent and fair to himself about--this will almost invariably shower him in feelings of guilt and selfishness for failure to set aside his own needs in favor of upholding the overall welfare of the larger group. Since dominant Fe sees the individual's well-being as near-unconditionally subservient to that of the larger group or preservation of group obligations, the process of rationalizing subjective, individual judgment and balancing it against his outwardly substantiated connections and responsibilities to others will certainly be an arduous process at best.

In practice, this tends to manifest itself in the form of self-denigrating behavior, and some rather disconcerting attempts to redouble the ENFJ's efforts to support the group's well-being in a (typically futile) attempt to squelch out the personal desires and private values that she views as the cause of her problems. In reality, it is not the simple presence of personalized judgment that is the source of the problem, but rather the inability to integrate its role in cognition into a cohesive worldview that balances personal needs and concerns against those of close family/friends/associates. Because the ENFJ's entire self-image rests on her ability to reliably care for and support the needs of her loved ones, and to provide a living example of the values she shares with them, indulging any personal whim or logical critique of the customs and moral values she sees as central to the group's ethos comes as a difficult challenge that may threaten the whole idea of that which her dominant attitude rests on. Only through the realization that her commitment to centralized ethical standards and placing the emotional needs of others above her own is in itself a personal value on her part will the ENFJ learn to equate and integrate the (seemingly) opposing forces represented by dominant Fe and inferior Ti.

ENFJs in the grip of inferior Ti may become harshly critical and uncharacteristically aggressive--especially when accompanied by issues with tertiary Se. The most common way for this sort of episode to occur tends to involve someone directly and brazenly attacking the values or culture by which dominant Fe defines its place in the world and grants itself meaning and purpose. When the opposing party cannot be persuaded by Fe (because s/he directly and openly opposes everything the ENFJ's group holds to be an important value), inferior Ti is thrust into the spotlight as the ENFJ is forced to support her beliefs purely through personal reasoning that can stand on its own without objective validation from relationships to others. This area is more than a bit uncomfortable for most ENFJs--as inferior Ti rises, they may find themselves insistent that, "The way we feel about it obviously just makes sense, and if you can't see why it works then there must just be something wrong with you!" Inevitably, Ti's internalized logic ties back into Fe's preferred method for confronting enemies: referring back to the group's standards as self-referential (and unfortunately circular) evidence for their own universal, "logical" validity.

As ENFJs grow and develop, they will eventually learn to accept that others can maintain value systems which are inconsistent with their own, yet still internally consistent with themselves. (The helping hand of auxiliary Ni may also step in to provide a fresh sense of perspective, and a new interpretation that helps the ENFJ avoid boxing himself into Fe's objective standards too completely.) When Ti is approached in a healthy manner, it grants the ENFJ an ability to take competing or opposing values on their own merits, to evaluate them purely for internal consistency without damning them from the start through the near-automatic assumption that their opposition to his own group's values must necessitate their inherent incorrectness.

In addition, developing a balance between Fe and Ti will help ENFJs to recognize and stand up for their own personal needs, and to inject pieces of their individual understandings into the continual recreation and molding of the collective values they rely on to connect with others. With a fully balanced functional hierarchy, ENFJs will find themselves not only increasingly able to connect, support, and identify with the needs of others, but to expand the borders of their own interpersonal groups and aid the development of those groups' values by bridging the gap between their collective ideals and their own subjective interpretations. From there, it's not long before they're able to achieve the respect and importance they desire, while still maintaining a sense of personal integrity--and with that in place, there's very little that's out of their range of possibilities.













INTJ, or Introverted iNtuitive Thinking Judger, is a label borrowed from MBTI nomenclature and now applied to the Jungian Cognitive Function set {Ni, Te, Fi, Se}.

Dominant: Introverted iNtuition (Ni)

"I feel like most people skip too many steps. They're locked into frameworks of meaning that I neither identify with nor see as necessary or useful in the process of developing understanding. Of course, the ability to imagine new interpretations and platforms for understanding is the most important thing for me, though it's often difficult to convince others to peel away their own perspectives enough to even notice the sorts of conceptual leaps that strike me on a near-constant basis. I like to solve problems by stepping back and adjusting the building blocks that the whole issue is founded on: if you're not willing to do this, you're inevitably going to miss something that might completely change everything. And where would you be then? When you really understand something thoroughly, the answers will jump out at you so clearly that the problem practically solves itself. If that hasn't happened yet, then you're still missing something or looking at the problem the wrong way."

As Ni dominants, INTJs are neither strictly "idea" people nor strictly "process" people: while ideas and processes both factor heavily into what they do, it's the synthesis between the two that really characterizes their unique brand of insight. Like their Si dominant cousins, Ni dominants are most preoccupied with the way their own cognition personalizes information and condenses it into internalized "maps" of past experience. The difference is that while Si uses more precise and specific sensory data to formulate these maps (and thus builds more absolute completion over time), Ni would rather intuit the skeletal framework of the map based on past experience with other ideas or symbols that are merely conceptually related. This is both an advantage and a disadvantage, in that Ni can often predict what one's personal conceptual imprint for an unfamiliar experience will feel like and thus explore uncharted perceptual territory purely in one's own mind, but is limited in the level of sensory precision it can internalize and must often start over and "re-map" the finer details of familiar experiences using the same form of conceptual pattern-jumping that it used to arrive there in the first place.

In other words, INTJs find themselves able to see "around corners" in terms of conceptual limitations of languages and systems of symbols and their associated meanings. They can often "predict" meanings and interpretations which may not yet exist in the current system of available symbols, but they don't do this by adding more information or complexity. On the contrary: Ni works by simplifying complex problems into their component parts and slowly turning each one over to see how it looks from a different angle. Sometimes, if you look for it long enough and thoroughly enough, there's an angle nobody else has thought to look at or make use of yet.

INTJs may turn up with ideas and suggestions which seem to utterly turn accepted convention on its head--although that is not really their intention; they simply recognize a problem that needs to be solved and then adjust their individual perceptions of it until they see a way around it. Sometimes this results in a very typical and conventional solution; other times it doesn't. As long as it completes the desired task, it doesn't really matter. INTJs never feel like they can really get a sense of the real scope of a problem until they are able to stop making the same unnecessary/misleading assumptions that everyone else makes without even realizing it.

"Back to basics" (or some variation thereof) is a phrase I hear often when requesting the advice of an INTJ, particularly in regards to problems I'm having trouble solving. Perpetually aware of the problem of interpretation, the more an INTJ explores the many facets of a given idea, the more he discovers there is to know about it and the less prepared he feels to react competently without spending the necessary time to break down every newly discovered piece into smaller, more digestible pieces. The more INTJs consciously practice this "break it down into simpler parts" process, the more they find themselves able to instantaneously visualize the all-encompassing solution they're after. Often that solution is far simpler than anyone expects: while everyone else is busy looking for more ways to jam a circular object into a triangular space, the INTJ is trying to conceptualize a triangular object which may not yet exist. The only reason the INTJ "knows" it exists is that the existence of a triangular space implies conceptually that it should be possible--even if it's not on the map most people are using right now.

Auxiliary: Extroverted Thinking (Te)

The problem, however, with relying exclusively on Ni, is that it grants the INTJ all the perceptual depth in the world, but no breadth of applicability by which to connect his ideas to any measurable or useful external context. Enter Te: it's vital for Pi dominants (IxxJ) to develop fluency in an objectively verifiable language by which they can structure, predict, and evaluate the way the world around them behaves (or, at the very least, however it seems to behave according to collective human understanding.) INTJs realize that, ultimately, all "objectivity" in the truest sense is impossible; however, since our perceptions are all we have to go on, we may as well agree on some standards for quantifying and measuring external phenomena so that we at least have some sort of common ground on which to move toward meaningful goals. This is why so many INTJs find work and enjoyment in the sciences: the scientific method provides as objective a measurement of any given phenomenon as can be realistically achieved, and it's widely credited and supported by virtually all of the people most INTJs consider intelligent and worth listening to. It works consistently for everybody in all sorts of different contexts, and the experts all agree it's the most efficient method = Te dream.

When it comes to logical structure, Te firmly believes in agreeing upon a consistent standard of measurement: We need a yardstick that can prove quantitatively and empirically what the experts all agree makes logical sense in terms of categorical organization. For INTJs, depth of analysis is best served through iNtuition in the form of Ni--trying to apply depth to the process of structured organization is a fruitless effort because logic's fundamental purpose is to apply to the widest possible range of different contexts in the same standardized, consistently predictable way. Thus, from a Te standpoint, individualized or subjective "logic" is neither useful nor consistent with the purpose of logic itself.

As the INTJ develops Te further, she finds herself increasingly able to delegate tasks and render her prodigious visions into real projects and processes that generate measurable progress on a realistic timetable. She learns to coordinate the various different disciplines and processes required to accomplish her goals, and she finds herself naturally talented at breaking down larger processes into small enough tasks that the entire project becomes a manageable reality. This vital objective factors into Te's continuing love affair with the concepts of personal independence, responsibility, and accountability. TJs want to show that they are capable of managing resources intelligently and efficiently, and that they can stand on their own two feet and say honestly that they depend only on themselves for sustenance and support. Society is, to Te, a large system of interrelated logical relationships, and the system won't function properly unless each member is ultimately responsible for himself. TJs hate being dependent upon or subservient to others, and they pride themselves on their ability to generate more resources than they consume.

It is of paramount importance to Te to consider the limitations upon available resources and ensure that they are distributed in the most efficient manner possible. INTJs often excel in management positions where they are free to envision optimally efficient working conditions and design, improve, or adjust real-world processes and methodologies accordingly. When they commit themselves to a project--which they will not do unless they either truly consider it worthwhile, or need the money--they will push themselves to fulfill their agreements to the greatest extent possible within the restraints of the resources allocated. They hold themselves to high standards in this regard, for if they do not uphold the collective standards by which Te governs the structural relationships between external world entities (i.e., laws, procedures, rules, measurements, quantitative standards), they are all too aware that they will have no recourse when the parties they work with fail to hold up their own ends of the bargain. If nothing else, INTJs can be counted on to reliably complete the tasks they've agreed to. This is a matter of not only personal pride but also of practical utility--if one establishes a reputation for disregarding the accepted Te methodology among the people he seeks to work with, he may very well find others unwilling to work with him in the future.

Tertiary: Introverted Feeling (Fi)

It's often difficult for other types to understand why INTJs can appear so cold and uncaring, so utterly disinterested in interpersonal matters and disconnected from the needs and feelings of others. Indeed, this poses a substantial problem for INTJs when it comes to one of their characteristic weak points: social interaction. The cause of this can be attributed to some combination of Te ("Engaging in small talk and pampering the feelings of people I dislike is not a productive use of anyone's time, and time is a valuable resource") and Fi ("If I don't actually like or empathize with this person, I don't see any reason I should have to connect emotionally with him when I don't want to.")

Often, the cultural expectations that suggest to INTJs that they should participate in social rituals strike them as unfair and arbitrary impositions upon their personal freedom. They are being offered a courtesy they didn't ask for, and then chastised when they don't return the favor. "If there's no law, no empirically standardized logical relationship requiring that I do this, why should I be judged negatively when I don't?", Te asks.

And unfortunately, this question can't really be answered fully in Te terms. The Te argument for participating in cultural ritual tends to point out that if you pretend to indulge meaningless rituals, you will create more opportunities to get your real goals completed because people will view you more favorably and thus be more willing to cooperate with your wishes. And that's the way many INTJs convince themselves to put up with it.

But in truth, that's only a half-hearted solution that doesn't even begin to hint at the full spectrum of perspectives available to a well-balanced INTJ who has learned to command tertiary Fi. This is a milestone that many INTJs take a long time to learn to place much value on: Fi allows them to judge and evaluate subjectively, according to an individual, personalized standard that won't bend for anyone else's opinions and provides an absolute moral compass connecting them directly to their true sense of value and higher purpose. For many INTJs, the ability to introvert judgment in the form of tertiary Fi provides a much-needed counterbalance to Te's coldly impersonal and objective evaluations. It grants a more refined sense of aesthetic taste and artistic value: Instead of merely measuring by numbers, Fi leads the INTJ to consider the emotional and moral impact that art and aesthetics have on him--he learns to empathize with the soul of the poet, the painter, the writer, the musician. He no longer simply understands conceptually; he identifies.

Fi grants the INTJ a connection to something greater than himself, more powerful than his worldly goals and aspirations, and ultimately more important in principle than the sum of everything he will ever accomplish in his lifetime. It connects him to a deeply personal sense of responsibility to uphold that which is Good and Just, to decide for himself what causes are worthwhile beyond the scope of his own prerogatives and benefits. In short, it allows him to set some definite barriers in terms of right and wrong.

The inability to do this can be a substantial problem for INTJs who ignore or fail to develop Fi. Since Ni can adjust its interpretation to anything that serves the goals Te deems efficient expenditures of resources, a lack of any substantial introverted judgment function can result in the justification of virtually any action or position--dominant Ni is all too aware that as long as you shift vantage points and look at it the right way, any interpretation can be potentially justified. This poses a major problem for the INTJ persona--as a case in point, consider the character Kurtz in the film Apocalypse Now: Obsessed with winning the Vietnam War at all costs (his objectively defined Te goal), Kurtz seeks to utterly eliminate any trace of human compassion from himself, believing that the only effective method for defeating the Vietcong is to beat them at their own game by indulging in unrestrained brutality and eliminating any and all regard for human life in the process.

In short, he tries to Ni the Fi out of his own cognition in order to fulfill Te's agenda. It ultimately doesn't work: after all the horror and bloodshed he inflicts upon the native people surrounding him, he still has a conscience, and he allows Willard to kill him, knowing that his experiment has failed and that he needs to be stopped for the sake of the greater good.

When Te is poorly developed, resulting in a so-called "NiFi loop", the INTJ becomes increasingly threatened by the pressures of conforming to any sort of externalized expectation or methodology whatsoever. By accepting or promoting any such objective information, the NiFi loop INTJ feels he is compromising the purity of Ni's insight by exposing it to potentially misleading bias, and he resents the expectations of others for him to change what he views as his personal moral identity (Fi.) He will withdraw further and further from all forms of interaction, convinced that the only way to develop pure and complete understanding is to block out any and all external sources of information. Deliberately distancing himself ever further from any link to objective reality, all manner of bizarre and irrational impressions are indulged as isolated (and objectively unsubstantiated) Fi value judgments color Ni's increasingly elaborate perceptions of the sinister affronts invariably hiding around every corner. That weird recluse down the street who wears a tin foil hat 24/7 to stop the government from penetrating his brain with secret nefarious mind control signals? Probably an NiFi loop INTJ.

Inferior: Extroverted Sensation (Se)

It's worth noting that introverted perception takes great pains to limit its perceptual intake to certain specific kinds of information with which it is comfortable and familiar, because understanding this concept helps us to see why extroverted perception (which encourages taking in the greatest possible quantity of different varieties of new information) generates such a difficult psychological barrier for the IxxJ types.

In the INTJ's case, inferior Se is forced out primarily during highly stressful moments where taking in massive quantities of new external information and adapting and responding to it in real time becomes necessary. This is where IJs flounder the most: they are most at home when Pi is allowed to select the type of information it wishes to perceive and then focus intently on absorbing it into the internal template for that type of experiential input, which Je will then consult in its decision as to which externally accepted methodology will prove most effective. When all sorts of different kinds of information are thrown in her face at once, however, the INTJ must resort to inferior Se in order to catch them all and have any hope of responding before the opportunity is gone. She must act purely on immediate impulse with no time for reflection or consideration; she is forced to navigate terrain that she not only lacks a map for, but that she doesn't even have any related experiential templates to turn to for guidance. She must improvise.

When this happens to INTJs, the enormous flood of undifferentiated information accompanied by the feeling of total loss of control generated by the inability to reflect or consider the options before responding is extraordinarily threatening. Left with no other option, inferior Se leads the INTJ to resort to his most base animal instincts: fight or flight. Even the normally composed, calm, and reserved INTJ may be prone to occasional bouts of total indiscretion, resulting in extreme indulgence in sensual pleasures or outright rage and even physical violence (or at least overt threats thereof.)

I have also seen, on more than one occasion, an INTJ purchase expensive status symbols (fancy cars, big houses, etc.) for the simple purpose of showing off how much his hard work and perseverance has paid off in an immediately noticeable, material sense. On some level, INTJs are aware that ostentatious possessions are the only language some people will understand--and while they tend to consider this a rather primitive value system, they're glad to oblige by occasionally dropping significant money on really nice possessions. This way, they can simultaneously indulge their unconscious Se desires while telling themselves they're only doing it as a private little in-joke with themselves, where Ni can laugh at how heavily such a trivially shallow display of status and power can impact the perceptions of the silly little everyday people around them.

As Ni dominants, INTJs are naturally averse to a focus on literal surface meaning, because it threatens Ni's insistence on defining one's identity by the ability to see past the obvious and intuit the less obvious interpretation, the hidden meaning beneath the surface. If they ever learn to command Se in a positive way (which is somewhat rare), INTJs will learn to discern situations in which there is no underlying meaning, or at least in which looking for it is neither useful nor productive. For an Ni dominant, shutting off this desire to see "between the lines" and focus purely on the immediate sensory content in from of him is just as threatening as turning off vision, hearing, touch, taste, and smell would be for an Se dominant. He feels lost, confused, and woefully subject to the same lowest-common-denominator surface deception that his entire self-image prides itself on its natural ability to discern and avoid.

Nonetheless, some INTJs do eventually learn to command Se in a useful way. It confers some sense of what's popular and immediately effective on a literal sensory level, which often partners with Te's desire to be judged as competent and effective in leading INTJs to take serious pride in their physical appearances, and to be certain that their clothing, speech, and aesthetic tastes are up to date and in style (and thus do not preclude useful business opportunities they might otherwise have missed.) It provides them with an appreciation for things as they are instead of constantly looking for ways to reinterpret them as something else, and for the simple pleasures in life--good food, art and entertainment, physical intimacy--in a way that may, in time, strike them as more spiritually pure than the constant meta-analysis they're accustomed to. In a very well-balanced INTJ, Se should bolster Fi's sense of aesthetic appeal and artistic value ("How does this piece of art hide a disguised meaning that I can analyze?" will give way to, "How does this piece of art make me immediately feel?"), while allowing occasional controlled indulgence in pure, unadulterated fun, for no reason but its own merits.

And that's something, I think, that would make a lot of INTJs feel a lot better if they could get out of their systems in a healthy and non-destructive manner. The sooner we get that out of the way, the sooner we can get back to work.












INFJ, or Introverted iNtuitive Feeling Judger, is a label borrowed from MBTI nomenclature and now applied to the Jungian Cognitive Function set {Ni, Fe, Ti, Se}.

Dominant: Introverted iNtuition (Ni)

"I just like putting all of life's little dreams in perspective. The real world is inside my head. Imagination is the doorway to the world--if you can imagine it, then it exists. The difficulty lies in compromising that world enough to get along with the other one. I mean, if you think about it, I have no proof that you or anybody else really exists. Is anything really 'true' in the most ultimate sense? Or is whatever we think of as 'truth' just another frame of reference, with no more objective value than anything else? I try not to take any one definition of reality too seriously, because then I lose the ability to give equal consideration to others."

As introverted perception (Pi) dominants, INFJs are constantly busy with the private inner world of subjective association of signs and symbols with personalized meaning. Both Pi functions (Ni and Si) are concerned with generating internalized impressions of past experience--in this way they are quite similar. But while Si depends on specific and concrete sensory data to build its personal conceptual map of meaning, Ni instead depends on more vague and loosely defined skeletons of the intangible and abstract relationships between ideas. It can't build a map as thorough and complete as that of an Si type who has directly experienced all of the information in a given area, but it can use the conceptual outlines of its own experiences to "fill in the blanks" and predict how related experiences that it hasn't actually had will feel in terms of the personal impression they create.

Often, the way a particular piece of information strikes them is simply too dependent upon the assumptions inherent in Ni's worldview to make its significance meaningful to anyone else. Putting it into words ruins the point because words are yet another limited medium which carries too many inherent assumptions to fully carve out an effective vocabulary for the conceptual impressions in which Ni specializes.

As an introverted perception function, dominant Ni is not making any kind of value judgments. It's only taking in impressions--as many different possible interpretations of the significance of any given idea or event as possible. That may sound similar to Ne on the surface, but it's not--Ne is picking up a lot of different events and ideas at once and looking for common threads between them; Ni is picking one idea or event at a time and examining ("from a clean slate", as Yukawa says) every angle of every component of that one thing in order to find any as-of-yet untried interpretations that might cause us to view the whole issue in an entirely new light.

While Ne explodes into a million new places from one starting point, Ni is much more comfortable "imploding" into an overarching interpretation that combines many different disparate elements into one more cohesive whole. Often this results in the keen ability to pare down many different apparently disparate options into the best and most effective option for the singular vision that the INFJ's judgment functions have decided is the best use of time. This ability often leads others to see INFJs as possessing some sort of mystical, almost supernatural foresight; of course, there is nothing supernatural about--Ni simply notes the general ideas implied by conceptual impressions, and from there it's not a difficult jump to imagine how they might be deconstructed or rearranged for different purposes. Ni dominants are often surprised and a little perplexed that others don't naturally see the unstated meaning that characterizes their entire self-experience.

Ni dislikes forcing rationalized structure onto its conceptual impressions because that structure is bound to operate under a certain set of assumptions which may prematurely (and without even realizing it) eliminate the very kind of information Ni is interested in: using past experiences with related conceptual frameworks to eliminate the barriers on its holistic understanding of symbols and the meaning they signify.

Often, INFJs feel that others operate under too many unstated assumptions of meaning to even follow the esoteric trains of internal imagination in which they live. All too commonly this results in feelings of isolation: the INFJ sees himself as too unorthodox in his very assumptions about the nature of reality to fit into the frameworks by which most of the people surrounding him define themselves.

Auxiliary: Extroverted Feeling (Fe)

"A nation's culture resides in the hearts and in the soul of its people."
--Mohandas Gandhi

How then, may an INFJ find a way to relate his vision meaningfully to the people around him and achieve the social acceptance and communal understanding that he desires? The answer lies in auxiliary Fe.

Fe encourages us to derive our moral and ethical ideals from the groups of other people that we consider important, or at the very least, to define morality in a way that can be widely understood and applied by large groups of individuals. The goal is relatively simple and utilitarian: To define our relationships to each other according to the common moral guidelines upon which we agree to base our lives together, for the common good of everyone involved.

"I can sympathize with where you're coming from--allow me to emphasize some sort of cultural bond or familial connection that relates us in an objectively observable way and suggests that we have some degree of responsibility toward each other. Only through committed responsibility to these objective relationships can we form the social hierarchy by which we will decide--together through collective experience--what constitutes moral and ethical behavior within the communal bonds of our lives together. Morality is simply too important to be decided by any individual without any input from the consensus of the people he trusts, loves and respects."

Fe is, in a certain sense, inherently tribal. While it does promote something of an "us vs. them" mentality by grouping those who feel the same way "we" do as opposed to those who do not, Fe types do not view this as an exercise in the exclusion or repression of differing views. They simply regard morality as an ideal that is too important to be trusted to the whims of single individuals: they recognize that in order for society to exist productively as a collective unit, certain interpersonal and social standards of conduct and ethics must be agreed upon and upheld in order to maximize the utility of moral values by designing them to appeal to as broad a base of different people as possible.

In a more practical sense, Fe provides the INFJ not only with a vocabulary for defining and structuring her familial, social, and cultural obligations to others, but also with a clear cut sense of direction and a tangible goal at which to direct her grand visions. INFJs with strong Fe often make tremendously charismatic speakers--they are in touch with the needs and collective sentiments of their communities, and they understand the assumptive frameworks of competing value systems in enough depth to express the collective ethical voice of "their people" in terms that even their enemies will find palatable--or at least difficult to argue with.

Without strong Fe, the INFJ may find herself increasingly isolated and feel bitter and resentful toward the external world for its inability to understand or appreciate her talents. She will, most likely, also be painfully aware of her own shortcomings and faults, including her inability to communicate her ideas effectively to others in any way that will facilitate the mutual understanding and approval that she requires. She may even feel directionless and purposeless, full of immense visions for worthwhile goals but utterly unable to convince anyone of their merit.

Tertiary: Introverted Thinking (Ti)

The downside of Fe, of course, is that it depends exclusively on the judgments of others in its ongoing effort to be judged as a morally sound example of the best values its communities (friends, family, coworkers, any groups to which the INFJ feels emotionally connected and responsible for) hold dearly. One may wonder, then, where the INFJ's sense of personal principles originates, if Ni simply perceives as many conceptual possibilities as it can, while Fe derives its evaluative principles from the moral fabric of its external surroundings.

Enter tertiary Ti: When all else fails and no meaningful conclusion can be reached via the Ni-Fe approach, the INFJ will turn inward again and listen to whatever his conscience tells him is inherently consistent, fair, and reasonable. The value in Ti's approach here is that it provides a sense of definite and complete closure to an INFJ in the middle of a conflict over which set of external moral values should be granted highest priority. Return to the basic axioms of what we do know for sure: "I think, therefore I am." When externally derived moral values have become too convoluted or too compromised to be trusted with a personal decision, Ti steps in to provide a personalized logical framework which can be universally applied regardless of context.

It gives us something we can know for sure because it seems inherently correct and consistent in and of itself, and that can be quite a relief in times of internal strife. When an INFJ gets overloaded with too many possible interpretations of a problem, and can't find any useful objective guidance, he turns to Ti to decide what's ultimately reasonable and important to him. From this he can derive personal convictions and find a way to make private value judgments without feeling he is neglecting the vital opinions of his community or locking himself into a limited interpretation.

Ti can have a negative impact when it's poorly developed or when it blocks out Fe to an unhealthy degree--the NiTi loop INFJ is brutally anti-social and absolutely clueless as to how to relate to the rest of humanity. One INFJ friend describes Ni as, "a very deep hole that it's very easy to get lost in and never come back."

NiTi loop can have even worse implications: If Fe is weak or underdeveloped enough, the INFJ may display so few outward signs of emotion that he is seen as uncaring, unsympathetic, selfish, and pretentious. Ti suggests a framework of logic for dealing with a problem, but there's no source of objective data to stop Ni from noting all the inherent assumptions in Ti's approach and short circuiting the INFJ's confidence in his entire cognitive process.

In the end, Ti serves a useful and much-needed assistant to Fe in the judgment process, but it will not function on its own as an adequate substitute for objective, externalized Feeling judgment.

Inferior: Extroverted Sensation (Se)

For the INFJ, inferior Se has a slow building process over time, like a candle gradually burning down into a stick of dynamite. The first example I always think of in reference to inferior Se is Black Flag singer Henry Rollins (obvious INFJ), and the stories of him beating the living snot out of kids who spit on him on stage, back stage after the shows.

Another example might be Radiohead singer Thom Yorke, with his amusing explanation for how he deals with the guilt and pressure of fame: "I masturbate a lot. That's how I deal with it."

One INFJ friend describes inferior Se thusly: "Man, when I was a kid, I always hated and resented jocks for their superficial outlook...but some part of me still thought, 'But oh man, aren't they SO COOL?'" That same friend, I have noticed, has learned the hard way to remove himself forcibly from conflicts before he gets truly upset--because he knows how brutally aggressive and insensitive he can become if he is pushed to the breaking point.

Se represents the raw, animalistic, aggressive, spontaneous hunger for the reality of pure, literal sensory input which Ni dominants take so much care to lock away and hide from others as much as they can. As a tertiary function for ENJs, Se has a much more helpful use, because it's under their control enough that they can use it to show others they care about appearances and trends (for Te- or Fe-oriented business goals), and, if necessary, to subtly imply threats of brute force if the adversary cannot muster up the discipline to respect the ENJ's polite requests for obedience.

But as an inferior function, few INJs learn to command Se to a degree that it becomes a substantial part of their regular healthy cognition. Its literal focus on precisely what is immediately obvious presents a direct threat to Ni's all-encompassing desire to see "beneath the surface" of the information presented to it. Se places value on precisely the kind of guttural, immediate impact that many INJs spend their entire lives working hard to eliminate in themselves, insistent that such shallow focus is beneath the sophistication of their constant work to see all the less obvious, hidden interpretations where Ni feels at home. But Se is still there...lurking under the surface, waiting to boil over. You don't want to be around an INFJ when it does.

Ideally, inferior Se should eventually help the INFJ to stop looking for deeper meaning in places where it's neither intended nor useful, to appreciate the more immediate value in that which is tangible and real to others (even though she herself may see it as trivially insubstantial), and to maintain a degree of spontaneity in terms of ability to pay attention to and imitate what others around her see as current and worthy of attention. Ultimately, Ni can learn to interpret Se's unconscious signals as "just another perspective" and assign them the same level of scrutinized value as any other possible frame of reference. Harnessing Se for positive use requires tremendous personal balance and will power, lest it get out of hand and consume the INFJ in an uncontrollable fit of hedonism or rage.

Eventually, Se should support Ni by adding real physical data and in-the-moment "gut feelings" to the intuitive conceptual "hunches" on which Ni operates. It's vital for the INFJ to recognize that the face value of this immediate sensory information can actually bolster the power of his intuitions--if only he is able to interpret it in context, rather than allow it to consume his entire experience and block out the under-the-radar, between-the-lines information to which he feels a more natural connection.

Sometimes this is the only way the INFJ can get anyone to pay enough attention to what he's saying to make any real noticeable impact or difference in the world--and that's something most INFJs struggle their whole lives to feel like they are doing.