Fi or Fe?

1739 Views 32 Replies 20 Participants Last post by nablur, May 26, 2018

Bhathaway

Discussion Starter · Oct 27, 2017

Which feeling function can recreate the feelings of others internally through imagining and then act based on that feeling?

Between Fe and Fi which is more likely to pay attention to body language to infer internal feelings?

Assuming the first is Fi, does it use it's imagination/past experience to bring into consciousness the feeling they have had, and then assume that the other party(the one who originally was experiencing the emotion) feels the same? This would hypothetically be the subjective factor? While I suppose Fe doesn't really feel the pain of others, but rather externally acts accordingly?

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00Hikaru00

· #10 · Oct 28, 2017

frostedfields said:
The former is, indeed, Fi in my own experience. Fe doesn't need to internally validate the feelings of others and relates to others pain and joy without drawing from internal experiences. As a Fi-dom, I relate to others by drawing on my own experiences and "recreating" their feelings inside me, so Fi is more tempered when it relates others I think. Both Fe and Fi possess empathy but it is sourced differently.

To answer your last question, my INFJ husband and an ENFJ I know do act as though they feel the pain of others, as close as one can without being the actual person they are relating to.

I am trying to understand Fi better... so when you say, "As a Fi-dom, I relate to others by drawing on my own experiences and "recreating" their feelings inside me", does it mean you can't understand or recreate that feeling if you have not experienced a similar situation before? And when you do, do you inject your personal, subjective feelings into it?

Also, when you say INFJ/ENFJ act as though they feel the pain of others, are you saying they're pretending? I'm trying to grapple with this because when I see someone in pain, I put myself in their shoes and imagine how I would feel if I were them, and that's how I am able to empathise. Is this "pretending" (act as though) in your opinion? Note that I'm associating your "act as though" to "pretending". If this isn't what you mean, pls correct me.

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00Hikaru00

· #17 · Oct 29, 2017

frostedfields said:
Oh, I don't mind explaining at all. I don't mean that they are pretending To put it another way, as far as I can observe, their actions indicate that they feel the pain of other people. This empathy is deep within them and completely sincere. I would agree with how you describe your way of empathizing with how I have observed it.

For Fi, I admit I don't understand it completely myself (haha!), I think partly because there is a lot of negative said about it (Fi-doms are selfish, unempathetic, etc). But I don't become the other person, like an Fe-user would. I don't put myself in another's shoes. Since Fi is a "vetted", judging function, ultimately my understanding of others comes from understanding myself first. So if someone is going through hard times, I would be able to relate to them best by drawing on my own experiences first and then be sympathetic. It is more difficult to understand someone going through something I have never experienced, but all that means is that it takes me longer (and I may not express it outwardly) to empathize with them but I get there eventually by synthesizing empathy from approximately similar experiences (different from actual memories/experiences). I have not considered before if I would put my own personal feelings into this synthesis, but I likely would especinally since Fi is personal to begin with. I'm also an Ne/Si with a strong well of memories, which may make it easier for me to do this, so a Se/Ni may be different.

I hope this explains it some! If not, feel free to ask again lol. Fi and Fe is not easy. D:

Thanks for the explanation.

I don't find Fi selfish but rather very subjective when relating to others as it seems (from what I've read so far) to be subjected to personal experiences and filtering (i.e. how you have felt when you encountered similar circumstances), and with that, you empathise and believe that person must be feeling the same way you did? Pls correct me again if I'm wrong because I'm making assumptions here. IMO, people are all made different and not everyone feels the same way in one given situation. How do you reconcile that as a Fi-dom?

I believe there's no good function/bad function but how it manifests in individuals that matters. What bugs me is the comments made by several Fi-doms insinuating that Fe is "fake/inauthentic" and that bothers me, and that's also why I asked you to clarify your comment (which you did and thanks). As a Fe-aux user, I don't proclaim to understand everyone's emotions. I imagine it on me and try to understand. There are also times I don't understand and I state so. "I don't get why you're so upset over this" is a statement I've made many times before.

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