[Abyss Soul]

Were you of this personality type as long as you can remember or did you evolve (develop) into an INTP later on in life? If you did evolve into this personality type, then do you think it was determined by our consciousness or unconsciousness? Note: the second question is optional.

 

[CrazyGlitch]

Not that I remember. I evolved, you could say. I've always had original ideas, yes, but never all my life have I been an INTP. :X

Unconsciously or consciously? Perhaps unconsciously, as a defense mechanism.

 

[AkiKaza]

Mm, I wanna say some of it I evolved, some of the traits I've had since childhood.

I do think I was a bit more extroverted as a child, as I remember having lots of friends and going places. As I got older and started acting "weird" and getting interested in more obscure topics, I got teased a lot, so I became very introverted very quickly. I'm still quite talkative, but only about certain things, and only with some people.

I was probably more of an F when I was younger, too, though this could've been because my family is full of Fs, but I also got more T as I grew older as well. I started questioning things, and realizing things didn't make sense. I started thinking more rationally.

I think I've always been an iNtuitive and a Perceiver. So maybe I just started out xNxP, and the I and T traits developed more as I got older.

 

[Nitou]

I have always been introverted and intuitive. The TP probably emerged during early adolescence. During my teens years I was more artistic and used Fi a lot more than I do now. My artistic side kind of disappeared while I was in college and the T became more pronounced. After college I suffered a long episode of mental illness which had a shadowy Fi/Ni character to it. I made the conscious decision that Ti must dominate in order to help restore order (though this was before I understood MBTI). Now I think my predisposition is to be an INTP with a feeling streak, and the way for that to be properly expressed is via Ne/Fe rather than Fi/Ni.

 

[Psychosmurf]

I may be an INTP or an INTJ depending on the phases of the moon. :mellow:

 

[honestfi]

Yes - I was told at an early age that I was a carbon copy of my dad (apart from the gender of course:crazy - he is the only definite INTP that I know of in my life.

 

[Vahkrin]

I don't think I started out an INTP. It was probably just the fact that the first few grades in school tend to suck a lot less, but I was much more interested in school, seeking the attention of the "popular" kids, etc. when I was younger.

Of course I'd been on the computer since I was around five (We were testing a new computer with Mechwarrior 4: Vengeance, and of course I wanted to play So my nerdliness began.) so when school started to really suck, and I discovered the wonderful escapism of books, I was doomed. :crazy:

 

[teddy564339]

I can't say anything personally, not being an INTP myself, but I have read that out of all of the 16 types, INTP's like categorizing and putting people in "boxes" the least. I have an online INTP friend, but he very grudgingly listened to the whole MBTI thing from me, and he only went through with it to humor me. He hated the idea of putting people in categories and just thought the whole thing was silly and pointless.

So to me, it would make sense that an INTP would kind of adapt and change between types a lot before finally settling on INTP, because they would be so resistant to wanting to put themselves into any kind of category.

 

[Radiant Flux]

I think that I probably started out more even with the S/N and T/F, but I've always been I and P. So, I suppose I could have turned into an ISTP, ISFP, or INFP. So, yes, I evolved into the true INTP I am today.

 

[Mendelevium]

I probably started out as an ESFJ or something of a sort, but I eventually evolved into an INTP. It took hundreds of books, several humiliating personality experiments, and some minor emotional trauma. When I started acquiring knowledge, I learned about what I did not know, and my INTP-ness began.

 

[Eisenheim]

I remember as a kid I wanted to be a professor, and always had a keen interest in intellectual pursuits, as I used to play chess from an early age, and memorized most of the capitals in the world.
I always saw myself as intelligent and I feel my surroundings percieved me the same way(though it is hard for an INTP to interpret social signals ).

But when I began in school I became the comedian of the class, and I hugged alot of attention everyday, making it hard for me to stay introverted. The reasons that I took the comedian role are varied, on one hand I found that sarcasm and the other tools of a comedian extended a viable path through social encounters, on the other hand it was a way to stimulate myself during, what I found to be, very tedious classes(this was before people had laptops or used computers in classes, in the later years of my education I tended to just surf the internet instead).
'
I do often fall back on the comedian role in social encounters, in a sense masking my intp personality, by acting extraverted.
But I do believe its common for introverted people to become slightly more extraverted during social encounters.

Back to the question, I think I was an intp from a very early age.

 

[feefafo]

Well, I've tested as an ENTP before, and I think it was pretty accurate at the time. I don't know if that was who I really was or just who I thought I was - I mean, when you're asked to answer questions about your personality, you're not always honest.

I used to be a lot more 'outgoing'...within my teeny-tiny group of friends. The same 3 friends I have today (there's one more now, but we don't always like her). At the time, I just enjoyed being social and loud and crazy. I think high school changed that a bit. As time goes on, I feel that expressing myself outwardly becomes less and less important and I don't feel the need to be outwardly 'weird'. Of course, I still look like a weirdo, but I'm not trying.

It could be that I was always an INTP, but my lack of social skills didn't lead to me being quiet around strangers...I was just stupid around them.

Aren't all kids like that?

 

[ShadeOfGrey]

Were you of this personality type as long as you can remember or did you evolve (develop) into an INTP later on in life? If you did evolve into this personality type, then do you think it was determined by our consciousness or unconsciousness? Note: the second question is optional.

I was unusually talkative when I was a child, quite expressive and very curious. A bit like an ENTP. I enjoyed talking to everyone, even complete strangers and adults.
During school lunch I usually sat around talking to everyone while they ate, and when they were finished and went to have their break I just sat around listening to all the things the teachers talked about. I sometimes spent the entire lunch break in the dining hall, talking and listening (without eating).:tongue:

That changed after my first few years of school. I don't know why, but one theory (this is pure speculation) is that due to the lack of people my age where I lived got me more time for introspection and reflection. I wouldn't say it was a particularly concious process. But by fourth grade I was already quite quiet and INTP-like. If I had originally been an ENTP this could have meant more time for Ti and less for Ne, Ti eventually growing stronger than Ne and me becoming an INTP. The leap wouldn't have been too far, I think.

 

[Abyss Soul]

I can't say anything personally, not being an INTP myself, but I have read that out of all of the 16 types, INTP's like categorizing and putting people in "boxes" the least. I have an online INTP friend, but he very grudgingly listened to the whole MBTI thing from me, and he only went through with it to humor me. He hated the idea of putting people in categories and just thought the whole thing was silly and pointless.

I am surprised to hear that INTP's do not enjoy categorizing people. To me, this fits people into a general, logical structure for understanding people in and out. After all, INTPs want to find the truth of everything and categorizing seems to help put the puzzle pieces together. Since you're an ISFJ, do you personally find it useful to categorize people?

 

[teddy564339]

I am surprised to hear that INTP's do not enjoy categorizing people. To me, this fits people into a general, logical structure for understanding people in and out. After all, INTPs want to find the truth of everything and categorizing seems to help put the puzzle pieces together. Since you're an ISFJ, do you personally find it useful to categorize people?

I tried to find which book I read that part in. I don' t think this is it, but this is along the same lines:

Such a combination of preferences keeps the INTP caught up in the paradoxical goal of always trying to make a coherent whole out of an endlessly proliferating amount of data. Whether it's an article, drawing, a plan, scheme, thought, or theory, the INTP struggles to fit all its pieces together into a complete picture that keeps expanding with the continual discovery of new pieces. As a result, all thoughts, ideas, and plans, however final they seem, are subject to last-minute changes when "new data," from either internal or external influences, become available. This is very exciting to INTP's and very frustrating to others, especially those with a preference for Judging.

To arrive at what seems like perfection, only to have it challenged by a new insight, is at once exciting and challenging to INTPs. As a result, they are their own greatest critics and pride themselves on being the first to knock down their own theories or correct themselves with a better word or improved idea. The quest for flawlessness, cleverness, competency, conceptual perfection, and self-mastery is a driving force for INTPs. When maximized, however, these goals can become tiresome, self-punishing liabilities.

I've always felt that Judgers are more likely to like categorization than Perceivers...Judgers like to have things put in their place, they like to plant things down and have them settled, and they like to know what to expect. I've always pictured Perceivers as wanting things to remain up in the air, therefore not like to have to pin them down into categories.



As for me as an ISFJ...I think SJ's in general like to categorize things because of their fondness for structure. This can be pointed to Si, I think...ISxJ's have dominant Si and ESxJ's have auxiliary Si. And Si thrives on consistency, drawing on the past to understand the present. I know for me, that's what I loved about the MBTI...being able to organize people into groups to understand them better. In fact, I like it so much that I constantly have to remind myself that type is only one part of a person, and that you can't categorize people too much.

So yes, for me, I love categorization. It's possible that I don't find it useful in the same sense that you do...I think for me it's just really satisfying and it gives me peace, to know what to expect and to know where everything stands.

 

[Molock]

I was more ISTP-ish as a child. That changed mid-teens and since then I have, without a doubt, been an INTP. I have to admit that I have my ISTP moments though :laughing:

 

[AlbertScoot]

When I get up in the morning I'm either an INTJ or INTP. I'm INTJ most of the time but lean to INTP when I'm in extreme mode or group conflict resolution.