[audrey551]

I am pretty confused about my type. Whenever I take the test I turn out to be INFP, now I'm pretty sure about the I, F and P, but the N thing buggs me.I mean, I think about future possibilities but it's more like, I'm worried about my future, anxious and stuff. Also, I read the Keirsey/Bates book and the NF child just doesn't ring true, yes, I was sensitive to rejection but who isn't...On the other hand I didn't fit the SP profile either, I wasn't a noisy or disobedient child. I liked animals and I had sympathy for people who suffered, there was a war going on and I usually gave my pencils and rubber erasers to kids who needed it, small stuff like that. Also, I enjoyed looking at my grandma working in her garden and helping her and stuff. I had lots of phases, I liked needlework and baking cookies and being outside a lot, but I also had excellent grades and was very good with languages (which is an NF quality),so I just don't know.

Could somebody please explain how they know that they are intuitive, and what are the really noticeable differencea between INFP and ISFP. ISFP is supposedly the visual artist but I was never very good at drawing or anything creative or innovative because I just can't stay focused or interested long enough.

 

[lammas]

Hmm... I think you're more ISFP than INFP

 

[audrey551]

Hm...it's just that the term"artist" makes me feel uncomfortable, like I should be having an artistic talent and I don't even know how to draw a chair. I feel like a fake as an ISFP. And as an INFP as well.

 

[Grey]

Why don't you consider another type? What you've described of yourself, albeit limited, seems to me more like ISFJ or INFJ. Furthermore, don't get hung up in the labels - I'm definitely no scientist, but that doesn't revoke my status as an INTJ. The names are meant to be adjectives and titles that express what the type is really about, but not their exact interests, specifications and career choices.

 

[cardinalfire]

Hm...it's just that the term"artist" makes me feel uncomfortable, like I should be having an artistic talent and I don't even know how to draw a chair. I feel like a fake as an ISFP. And as an INFP as well.

I've been there, I had a whole thread going on for this.

Anyway I know the plight. I just wanted to be honest at the end of the day, and found myself thinking, I just don't care anymore, I'll be a FEDR for all I care, it's just letters. I read a blog by Promethea and then I was like 'ok I'm getting this handled'.

I tend to see the bigger picture more, because I'm often crap with the details, I have an ISFP friend and I know what the differences are, I also have a lot more in common with descriptions of INFP then ISFP, though I still draw, i'm not brilliant. So being an ISFP doesn't mean you have to draw or be an artist, it just means you are a feeler perceiver, or a 'sensitive doer'. You are pragmatic, detail focused and caring. Some descriptions even list creativity for all F types, so creativity is such a vague word, which can be manifested in many ways.

Perhaps maybe just making a decision and saying 'I know I'm not one hundred percent this type, though it will do for now' may help. It has for me. I have always said that if I meet one of the members on this site in real life and they believe i'm something else, then I'll consider it.

Finally what is your motivation? I read somewhere that SPs tend to value freedom whereas NFs value meaning, in their lives. I read that and knew which one I was, I don't like doing things that don't have any meaning for me, hence why I don't want to be an accountant or anything like that, I find it pointless work.

Hope that contains something useful in their somewhere. You got to look for the good parts in my words. I often have piles of rubbish before you find any gold.:happy:

 

[audrey551]

Why don't you consider another type? What you've described of yourself, albeit limited, seems to me more like ISFJ or INFJ.

I also feel uncomfortable with being ISFJ or INFJ because I feel I'm way too impulsive, disorganized and scattered in many ways, 'work before play' is really not my motto eventhough I really want it to be. But I'm willing to consider any type really.

Perhaps maybe just making a decision and saying 'I know I'm not one hundred percent this type, though it will do for now' may help.

Yes, that helps a bit because, for now, I just can't be sure.

I read somewhere that SPs tend to value freedom whereas NFs value meaning, in their lives. I read that and knew which one I was, I don't like doing things that don't have any meaning for me, hence why I don't want to be an accountant or anything like that, I find it pointless work.

Well, I guess I value freedom to do my own thing which is very subject to change (i wanted to sew, write, be a lawyer because I like their outfits, be a hair dresser, i studied archeology for a couple of months, wanted to be a phorensic because I thought they had really cool gadgets, be a cook or a vet etc...). I don't want to be an accountant either because it just seems like a boring thing to do day in day out. But I also don't feel like doing anything on a regular, everyday basis, not because I want meaning but because I would just get bored and feel like a zombie. Plus I can't get up early in the morning.

 

[Grey]

One thing to remember is that J and P isn't determined by whether or not you're organized - it's a preference, as well as a comfort centered thing. Even if the J is disorganized, they prefer and feel inherently more secure with some sort of structure, even if it's internalized and their environment is a pigsty. Likewise, a P may be the cleanest person with the best office in the world, but they prefer to have the freedom of options and feel more secure when there are more avenues. The reason J is considered more organized is because they usually structure their environment, but not always, and Ps may even consider organization sealing up of options and freedom.

 

[audrey551]

I'm really confused right now. I'll have to rethink this whole thing.:crazy:

 

[firedell]

Hm...it's just that the term"artist" makes me feel uncomfortable, like I should be having an artistic talent and I don't even know how to draw a chair. I feel like a fake as an ISFP. And as an INFP as well.

I wouldn't consider myself as an amazing at drawing, painting, or anything to do with art. I get told I am good at it, but I doubt I am so good I could make money from it. The only thing I can do is Photoshop, and that has nothing to do with art using my hands.

You should write a paragraph or two about yourself. roud: Or even three, but I think you get my point.

 

[Sanity]

Yeah, i make music too, but still i don't feel like i am an artist, i think it takes a lot more to be an artist, making music is a half hearted hobby to me, who knows next year i might be doing somekind of a different form of art.

I really hate labeling myself.

 

[audrey551]

You should write a paragraph or two about yourself. roud: Or even three, but I think you get my point

Ok, here goes nothing, I wrote some of this in the enneagram thread but here's some more;

I adore animals. I have 5 cats and I talk to them all the time and I like to smell their fur especially in the winter. I have a few close friends but I never manage to open up completely. Even when I try to express myself and my emotions in the process of that sharing I start thinking how what I just said doesn't really convey what I'm feeling so my words just fall short or something.

All my life people would come up to me and confide in me. Some of them were seriously mentally ill (one girl with Schizophrenia, another with a very poor hygiene who talked about her childhood traumas, a guy with BPD, a 45 year old virgin guy etc...) and some had physical issues-I'm generally a magnet for older people who then go on and on about their issues, what went wrong in their lives, and one girl whose nerves were damaged during childbirth and her face was disfigured...I just tried to help by listening but I was just too drained to do any good so I had to stop seeing them and answering the phone when then they called.

Also, I have very strong spiritual needs. When I was 8 I started going to Church, I loved biblical stories, and I felt connected for a while. This was a time of civil war (the Balkans, nuff said) so I was a pretty anxious child because my dad wasn't at home for awhile and I was worried. But anyway, after the war we got visited by Jehovah's W. and after some study my parents and my bro decided to become one of them. I was eleven at the time and I liked the illustrations in their magazines so I just went along with them. I was extremely bored at these meetings so I developed a rich fantasy life and was terrifyingly embarrassed during field work (door to door service) and was regularly criticized and 'helped' and was labeled disinterested, vague, reserved, even asocial. One sister said that she felt like she was alone in the service rolling one of those trunks on wheels (the trunk being me).

Anyway, in my teenage years I started to rebel a bit and I even thought about leaving home and become a forensic, but I suddenly got scared, like I won't make it on my own and without God and my family so I just tried to blend in and maybe get married to somebody and numb myself with work or whatever, so instead forensic work I wanted to be realistic and decided to become an archeologist:laughing:. Anyway I got bored with that so I decided to change my major for Spanish and also some courses in English lit, because I was always very good with languages. In the meantime my dislike for the JW religion deepened and I also felt I was moving farther away from parents. I just tuned out during those meetings and think about Michael and Nikita getting it on or about Jordan Catalano or how great it would be to become a missionary in Africa where I would finally become interested in spreading the good news. Or whatever.

I started using my imagination and get creative a lot when they would ask me if I did any service and I would make up stories and embellish them with these little tiny details that everybody really seem to like over there. Like I was brave enough to resist peer pressure, BS like that. After a year or two of hypocrisy I managed to tell my parents I don't want to attend the meetings anymore and I tried to tell all the stuff that I learned about the org in the meantime bt they didn't want to listen because independent thinking is not encouraged and shouldn't even be reading those Satanic things anyway.

What else? I love Dostoevsky and read all of his novels in my native language but I wanted to get a feel on the Russian culture and spirit so I started Russian but that interfered with my obligations so I had to stop, I also learned Chinese but it was too hard, German was boring, French was ok but I got bored easily, and picked up some Italian...Anyway I'm not a really good student anymore because I can't study that same BS all the time. So now I'm 24 and still have two more exams to wrap this shit up, and then there's the rest of my life. The thought of it makes me slightly depressed.

Anyway, my favorite TV shows include Poirot, La femme Nikita, Northern Exposure, Buffy and Angel (when I was younger), My So Called Life...Favorite authors Dostoevsky, Jane Austen, Hemingway. Poets Dickinson and sometimes Frost.

I really like to listen to music hours on end . When I was younger Iron Maiden (because they have lots of the Middle ages motifs in their work), Beatles, Simon&Garfunkel, and Bosnian ethno . I have weird phases where I would just be obsessed about some issues and problems in the world, like... women in Islam, cliteridectomy, overpopulation etc...Or some stupid stuff like love handles, cellulite and Ewan McGregor being a sell out. I like making musical videos with that Nan dub thingy or whatever it's called. I also think I'm in love with this guy that I see on the bus, we never talked but he's beautiful and I don't want to spoil it by talking to him.

Also, lots of times I feel compelled to act dumber than I am. I even change my tone of voice so I appear younger, I have this baby talk when I feel really self-conscious and people laugh which is nice but it's not nice when they don't take me seriously or think I'm a weirdo. People genuinely think I'm a nice person which sometimes comes as a shock really.

So, uh, what do you think?

 

[audrey551]

So, nada?

 

[firedell]

So, nada?

Sorry hun, I still see ISFX in you.

 

[audrey551]

That's ok, I feel like I still have a lot of reading to do before I make up my mind.