[Dark Opal]

In your experience, does being typed as an INTJ changed your self-concept? To what extent?

I ask this because it seems that people tend to identify themselves with their superior functions (e.g. "I am a Thinker") and don't seem to explore other, less integrated shadow functions -the so called Inferior Functions. This is really a pity. They seem stuck in this narrow "INTJ" stereotype.

Being described as an INTJ is a wonderful thing, but I also like to explore and develop my Feeler and Sensor side in order to achieve more psychological integration. Do you guys try to explore your Feeling/Sensing side, or are you happy being a typical INTJ?

 

[Monkey Fritz]

At first I embraced INTJ as the answer to all the things people had been telling me were wrong with me all these years, but then I delved further into the theory and got a decent idea of my shadow type.

I look at it this way: when I am comfortable my I N T J sides "let go" and the shadow sides come out. At default, I am an introvert, I prefer to keep everything inside. At default I am constantly trying to figure everything out. At default I simply can not stop thinking. At default I want everything to make sense, to fit within my sense of reality, with my "rules".

Of course I understand that the other functions are still there, just suppressed. It is only in situations where I feel relaxed, or safe, that they might actually come out and make an impact. There are also more extreme situations where something else takes over, but all and all I generally am just an INTJ.

Even if I am being extroverted around friends, i'm not really. I have internalized everything I know about them, so I am really just being outwardly introverted.
Even if I am paying attention to the details, I am only paying attention to the ones that are absolutely necessary to maintain my overall understanding.
Even if I am feeling, I am only doing so within the confines of what I think of the situation. Not what I feel about it.
Even if i am being spontaneous or seemingly chaotic, I am still following my internal systems and maintaining my own form of order.
So even if when truely relaxed or in a good mood, though I may appear to act less like an INTJ and more like an ENFP or an ESFP, beneath the surface I am still an Introverted Intuitional Thinking Judging type pretty much all the time.

Of course sensing is always there, it's never off or I wouldn't ever notice anything. Feeling is always there too, though a little more difficult to quantify at times. Extraversion too, in a way, or I would never have any interest in anything outside my own mind. Percieving: I suppose there is an inner desire to "let go", perhaps that is the tendency. But I am never really in a position where I can say that my judging function is turned off.

So I am not just an INTJ, but no matter what happens I am always an INTJ.

 

[Einsteinette]

At first I embraced INTJ as the answer to all the things people had been telling me were wrong with me all these years, but then I delved further into the theory and got a decent idea of my shadow type.

I look at it this way: when I am comfortable my I N T J sides "let go" and the shadow sides come out. At default, I am an introvert, I prefer to keep everything inside. At default I am constantly trying to figure everything out. At default I simply can not stop thinking. At default I want everything to make sense, to fit within my sense of reality, with my "rules".

Of course I understand that the other functions are still there, just suppressed. It is only in situations where I feel relaxed, or safe, that they might actually come out and make an impact. There are also more extreme situations where something else takes over, but all and all I generally am just an INTJ.

Even if I am being extroverted around friends, i'm not really. I have internalized everything I know about them, so I am really just being outwardly introverted.
Even if I am paying attention to the details, I am only paying attention to the ones that are absolutely necessary to maintain my overall understanding.
Even if I am feeling, I am only doing so within the confines of what I think of the situation. Not what I feel about it.
Even if i am being spontaneous or seemingly chaotic, I am still following my internal systems and maintaining my own form of order.
So even if when truely relaxed or in a good mood, though I may appear to act less like an INTJ and more like an ENFP or an ESFP, beneath the surface I am still an Introverted Intuitional Thinking Judging type pretty much all the time.

Of course sensing is always there, it's never off or I wouldn't ever notice anything. Feeling is always there too, though a little more difficult to quantify at times. Extraversion too, in a way, or I would never have any interest in anything outside my own mind. Percieving: I suppose there is an inner desire to "let go", perhaps that is the tendency. But I am never really in a position where I can say that my judging function is turned off.

So I am not just an INTJ, but no matter what happens I am always an INTJ.

Same here... totally agree on every word

 

[JimmyWales]

Half of the people here are probably just random people from the internet who answered the Meyer-Briggs test with answers which rather match the way how they would like to view themselves. So instead of answering honestly they answered with answers about what they actually want to be. The moment they see the results they will be happy being associated with something they would like to be, despite they will always behave a way other. I actually suspect alot of SciFi fans, especially Trekkies to get INTJ results despite their IRL character is completely different.

For myself the results actually told me nothing new. However they gave me some self-confidence. I could identify quite a lot of properties described to the INTJ character with me. I'm even heading for one of the classic INTJ careers.

 

[antiant]

In your experience, does being typed as an INTJ changed your self-concept?

Only in the extent that I now know why people don't understand me, thanks to dominant Ni. It's not too common of a function, therefore not a lot of people understand it or know too much about it, outside typology forums. Even on typology forums, there is little information on Ni.

Also, I now have a better understanding of myself with regards to Ni, all the things I have done in my past, makes a lot more sense. Sometimes it would seem out of nowhere, randomly, I'd come up with an answer or some type of formulation to something and I would wonder where the hell I would get it. I can now chalk it up to Ni and make the connection. In a way, it's like some alien thing coming out of you, but yet it's apart of you, Ni is very weird like that. I would love to get more information and have more articles on Ni. I think Ni is a fascinating thing, that needs more study and in-depth analysis. I would love to know how we become Ni dominant, what factors contribute, etc. Throw some scientific study into this.

On a side note, I am not too fond of the MBTI INTJ general descriptions, it explains myself to some extent, but I believe cognitive function theory (more in depth) and the Enneagram has better described me.

I ask this because it seems that people tend to identify themselves with their superior functions (e.g. "I am a Thinker")

I didn't know "I am a Thinker" was a cognitive function. You should tell them that, next time, to get a laugh.

and don't seem to explore other, less integrated shadow functions -the so called Inferior Functions.

Hmmm? I'm not too sure I understand this. You only have one inferior function, for an INTJ, that's Se.

They seem stuck in this narrow "INTJ" stereotype.

What narrow "INTJ" stereotype are you specifically referring to?

I also like to explore and develop my Feeler and Sensor side in order to achieve more psychological integration.

Feeler and Sensor is too general. Are you talking about Fi and Se?

Do you guys try to explore your Feeling/Sensing side, or are you happy being a typical INTJ?

What is a typical INTJ?

 

[hoom]

I also agree with MonkeyFritz's description....

Do you guys try to explore your Feeling/Sensing side, or are you happy being a typical INTJ?

I seem to have become much more sensing over the last year, as I've been forcefully bombarded and reduced to rubbish by some of my social encounters with my parents - who I'll thankfully be escaping from at the end of this year. I haven't had the time to express my N as much, and so I'm N:58 S:42 right now - which is really annoying. When you're forced into unwelcome social situations for monetary support - seems as though you can't get the alone time for the N to do its thing. If you want to call that 'working on it' then go for it - but it's hell.

In your experience, does being typed as an INTJ changed your self-concept? To what extent?

Figuring that part out only a week or two ago - I'd say yes. Makes me less interested in trying to pretend I'm not a jackass for the sake of being able to ask people what the homework was and more interested in getting my N back to what it should be when I finally leave this craphole and get to college.

 

[Lycannihilation]

Fritz said it. +1.

I'm a man of a thousand faces. Faceless when left alone.

 

[Napoleptic]

At first I embraced INTJ as the answer to all the things people had been telling me were wrong with me all these years

Bingo.

When so much of what you see as being "you" is met with resistance and disdain and just flat out made fun of your whole life, and then you suddenly stumble upon a whole community of people actually celebrating and taking joy in those very same things and giving you a sense of belonging and validation...well, it's all too easy to allow that community's viewpoints to begin to affect you.

I'm beginning to move beyond that, though - I think hearing Ns rail against Ss one too many times has made it seem too much like a bunch of angsty teenagers who've found a group of friends they can identify with and bond by sitting around complaining about how the adults will never understand them. I see far too many people who are interested in Myers-Briggs forget that it was meant to foster communication, and instead use it to accept or dismiss people - I love having a system that can clarify what people's motivations are and what's important to them, but when I see how much it's abused it makes me very leery indeed.

 

[caffeine_buff]

OP, that's a solid observation! i appreciated the mbti profiling when i first came across because it helped me know myself better - i was finally able to pin down stuff about me and get reasons for some things that confounded me. i think i'm more and less than INTJ. my life experiences and my learnings from them have been more relevant to shaping my self-perception than the profiling.

i dislike any fanatical pigeon-holing of people. and i think it's super lazy: if you want to know someone go figure out properly from first principles what makes them tick rather than trying to apply a formula and then "adjust for reality"!

 

[jbking]

For myself, being typed an INTJ reinforced some aspects of myself. In a way, this was someone giving me permission to just be as I am which may or may not make sense to others. It helped me reach a point of embracing myself more than I did previously.

I doubt I'm a typical INTJ but I wouldn't say that I'm heavily trying to exploring my Sensing side either. My Feeling side is already pretty strong though gaining better control over my emotions is one of my missions now in a sense. I'm starting to take more from the Enneagram where as a Type 1 my Thinking center is under actualized which is something I'm trying to remedy. I do tend to like using Ni all over the place as my view of the world gains more complex as I gain new insights though I get that not everyone has so much access to this function as I appear to have.

 

[Zilal]

Yeah, it absolutely changed my self-concept... I think I finally started to appreciate the fact that I'd always felt like an oddball because I really was an oddball, heh, and to understand that people often had a hard time connecting with me because I simply thought and acted differently than they did. I have more appreciation for my quirks now... reading other types' boards helps, honestly, when they say they like INTJs for this or that reason.

I absolutely adore MBTI and also fail to take it at all seriously. I don't really think it's good for anything except helping you be more understanding of other people's making decisions differently than you.

I guess I "try to explore my feeling/sensing side," though I don't think of it that way. I just think I want to be a more well-rounded person, which includes a lot of stuff, but certainly includes learning how to get close with other people and how to let go and be in the moment.

 

[beth x]

I really had no concept of INTJ when I first found out. When we did the test at uni no-one was surprised that my study buddy and I scored the freaky rare type...we were treated a little like rock stars...my study partner was amazing with stats and was already uber stat man anyway. The interesting language that my study partner and I already had was shortened to abbreviations, knowing looks and skipping several steps to get to the crux of a conversation just like I had already with my (INTJ) brother. We simply just "got" each other without trying to interpret hidden agendas and meanings. This is a rare occurrence.

It wasn't until I got home and researched the letters INTJ that I came across an INTJ forum where I spent hours pissing myself laughing at like minded freaks bitching about the same things that irritate me that I actually felt less of a freak. 10 years later repeat the process only this time I actually decided to learn about other types and joined the forum after lurking for a day or so.

I guess the concept of INTJ for me is "freak", feeling different and isolated but sort of gifted in some senses, loved by few, hated by few, misunderstood by most. The label INTJ has made it possible to explain myself a little better to people who have often misinterpreted what I have said. This and the way I approach my phases of complete isolation and shutting out of negativity is far more explicable in terms of type. It has helped me understand the meaning of some F types and not want to murder them any more but rather gainfully communicate with them.

I guess it has been nothing but positives in finding out what my type is, as I really had only met males before who I seemed to have the awesome "Ni" conversations with before now. Finding that there are other women out there of this type was huge for me.

I know I haven't really addressed the functions apart from Ni when it comes to the INTJ functions.....the biggest part of the concept of INTJ is really more about all encompassing relief of knowing there are "others" rather than anything to do with functions.

 

[tannguyen1]

Descartes, I think, therefore I am.

My self-concept did change a little but then I realized, it was habits I already had so I decided just accept the fact I was an INTJ but I did question it a lot but taking different Myer-Briggs personality tests over a course of 7 years and it still has not changed.