Hi guys,
I was having a conversation with my ISTJ friend recently about imagination. He said that he really struggles to imagine anything before he has experienced it, so in order to empathize and help someone he has to have had the same thing happen to him and then he can relate back to it in his memory in order to understand. It was a funny conversation, because he doesn't know anything about Myers Briggs but it sounded to me like what he's talking about is Si compared to my Ne. He said that when he was helping teenagers with drug problems he went and tried all the same drugs they had tried, just once, so that he'd be able to relate to what it does to you. I find that fascinating when to me empathy and imagining how someone feels comes very naturally to me.. I can hardly stop myself from doing it. I had the same thing with an ISTJ regarding depression - he couldn't imagine how depression would feel, no matter how much his depressed friend described it to him he couldn't empathize in the least... but then a few years later he went through a period of depression as well and now uses that experience to relate to others. For me on the other hand if someone describes a feeling to me then even if it's something I haven't experienced at all I find I can usually imagine it very clearly. So just wondering if you have had the same experience when it comes to imagination.. can you imagine how something would feel if you haven't experienced it and is your imagination accurate?
I was having a conversation with my ISTJ friend recently about imagination. He said that he really struggles to imagine anything before he has experienced it, so in order to empathize and help someone he has to have had the same thing happen to him and then he can relate back to it in his memory in order to understand. It was a funny conversation, because he doesn't know anything about Myers Briggs but it sounded to me like what he's talking about is Si compared to my Ne. He said that when he was helping teenagers with drug problems he went and tried all the same drugs they had tried, just once, so that he'd be able to relate to what it does to you. I find that fascinating when to me empathy and imagining how someone feels comes very naturally to me.. I can hardly stop myself from doing it. I had the same thing with an ISTJ regarding depression - he couldn't imagine how depression would feel, no matter how much his depressed friend described it to him he couldn't empathize in the least... but then a few years later he went through a period of depression as well and now uses that experience to relate to others. For me on the other hand if someone describes a feeling to me then even if it's something I haven't experienced at all I find I can usually imagine it very clearly. So just wondering if you have had the same experience when it comes to imagination.. can you imagine how something would feel if you haven't experienced it and is your imagination accurate?