Personality Cafe banner

Bipolar Disorder and MBTI

5K views 5 replies 6 participants last post by  Alomoes 
#1 ·
I have Bipolar Disorder, in a mild form, and I seem to alternate between INTP and INFP. I think this is, in part, due to my disorder. I fluctuate between the mild depression stage and hyper mania stage which produces a poor self image on one hand and a grandiose, narcissistic view on the other. I believe this leads to a leaning toward the feeling and thinking functions alternately.

Do you have any disorders that you think affect your personality test results?

Do you agree with my theory?
 
#2 ·
This is interesting!
Some claim personality types can't be applied on people with disorders but I strongly disagree. Because wether or not we have disorders we still use our functions in specific orders, one more than the other.

I'm INTP too and there are several "disorders" that describe me really well but I do function well nowadays.
The only official diagnosis I have is ADHD. INTP/ADHD is an interesting combination because if I tell people I have ADHD they get chocked like "What!? You're the calmest person I know of". But my ADHD is directed inwards.. I'm extremely restless inside and my overly active brain will sometimes keep me awake from when I go to sleep till the moment I'm actually supposed to wake up.
This does not seem to affect my personality tests, however I'm slightly bipolar too just like you.
But I still do not think this could possibly make us switch our personality type. More like we'll constantly experience what it is like to be a depressed INTP as well as the opposite.

Could you describe more how you experience your ups/downs?

On a side note I have been wondering if us INTPs would ever classify ourself as strongly bipolar due to our tendency of pushing away and ignoring emotions...?
 
#3 ·
This is interesting!
Some claim personality types can't be applied on people with disorders but I strongly disagree. Because wether or not we have disorders we still use our functions in specific orders, one more than the other.
It's not just mental health disorders.

It's specifically said that people with sociopathy or psychopathy are likely untypable. This may be because they do not experience emotions outside of rage or fleeting glee. They also don't experience empathy.
 
#4 ·
No I disagree. No part of type refers to the actual emotions or mental state of a person. Only the alleged congintive functions that they possess. They are usually defined as processes and are associated with certain values (Ti-independence etc.) Then you would need to explain how you could swap a dominant Ti with a dominant Fi and an inferior Fe with an inferior Te. This doesn't describe how a person behaves, it attempts to describe how a person takes in and processes information, most of it is mental. People misconstrue T and F preferences to somehow mean that people have stronger or weaker emotions. These are two rational judging functions, they are refer to how people judge/process information. Feeling/thinking could have been named in a much better way. But they way it was written by Jung seemed to be "for a lack of a better word, feeling and thinking". This should not be reduced to emotions or ability to think reasonably.
 
#5 ·
Jung on Bipolar:


Dr E. A. Bennet:


Do you consider that the superior function in the case of a person suffering from manic-depression remains conscious during the period of depression?


Professor Jung:


I would not say that. If you consider the case of manic-depressive insanity you occasionally find that in the manic phase one function prevails and in the depressive phase another function prevails. For instance, people who are lively, sanguine, nice and kind in the manic phase, and do not think very much, suddenly become very thoughtful when the depression comes on, and then they have obsessive thoughts, and vice versa. I know several cases of intellectuals who have a manic-depressive disposition. In the manic phase they think freely, they are productive and very clear and very abstract. Then the depressive phase comes on, and they have obsessive feelings; they are obsessed by terrible moods, just moods, not thoughts. Those are, of course, psychological details.


You see these things most clearly in cases of men of forty and a little bit more who have led a particular type of life, an intellectual life or a life of values, and suddenly that thing goes under and up comes just the contrary. There are very interesting cases like that. We have the famous literary illustrations, Nietzsche for instance. He is a most impressive example of a change of psychology into its opposite at middle age. In younger years he was the aphorist in the French style; in the later years, at 38, in That Spake Zarathustra, he burst out in a Dionysian mood which was absolutely the contrary of everything he had written before.
- The Tavistock Lectures


NOTE: I created the break in paragraph. The first half is about manic-depression (bipolar) and the second half he talks about a durastic change in type.
 
#6 ·
You are very likely using Fi and Ne respectively. Fi is an introverted feeling function, I've found that it means I'm hyper aware of myself, and Ne is your questioning function. What tends to happen with me is that I go into a phase where I say something with Fi, and then I'll question it with Ne. This leads to an unsurety. I see this here.
 
This is an older thread, you may not receive a response, and could be reviving an old thread. Please consider creating a new thread.
Top