INJ Types

All the information in this post comes directly from Personality Type: An Owner's Manuel by Lenore Thomson. I own nothing. Please excuse any typos.

INJ Types

“Some twenty-five years ago, there was a riddle making the rounds that went something like this: ‘The surgeon’s brother went out to sea; but the man who went to sea had no brother. So who was the surgeon?’ At that time, the answer was a surprise and produced a laugh: The surgeon, of course, was the man’s sister. Today, the answer may be so obvious that the joke seems pointless and insulting” (228).

“The issue here is the framework of beliefs an expectations that we maintain. Some are dictated by society; others are a matter of subjective experience—our gender, our name, our history, our vocation, our background. Knowledge is facilitated, limited, and directed by boundary conditions” (228).

“INJs have an unusual awareness of how such conditions determine our conceptual vocabulary, and their Intuition leads them to discern aspects of reality that aren’t being acknowledged. Thus, many INJs choose professions that allow them to work with questions of language and terminology—as editors and proofreaders, for example, but also as mathematicians, psychologists, theologians, poets, and programmers. Any field that involves conceptual signs and categories is likely to interest these types” (228).

“The difficulty, of course, is that an INJ’s Intuition often takes the type beyond the reach of an existing vocabulary. Consider again the joke about the surgeon’s brother. It used to work because the word surgeon was synonymous with a male doctor. The idea that a surgeon might be someone’ sister was beyond the reach of the most peope’s expectations” (228).

“INJs are often frustrated by the limits of the language they’re using to test the freight of their Intuitions—whether their means of expression involves the written word, mathematics, musical or scientific notion, metapsychology, or art. As they shift vantage points, they’re oblige to invent new terms, reinterpret old ones, or use words like post-modern to avail themselves of the categories their Intuitions are point beyond” (228).

“One can see in Jung’s body of work, for example, his long struggle to invent terms for what he Intuited about archaic levels of the human mind. Even when he settled on words like archetype and collective unconscious, he spent the better part of his life attempting to work out their conceptual limits” (229).

“Because INJs can’t develop their primary skills without analyzing the way things are generally described and understood, these types are likely to experience themselves as different from others. Constituting only two percent of the population, young INJs can feel isolated, unable to fit in even when they want to. Before their skills are well-developed, it’s difficult for these types to justify the questions that occur to them” (229).

“After all, Introverted Intuitions are not ideas. They’re like trains at the edge of articulated knowledge. You can’t claim them or advocate them. You put on a hat, grab hold of a boxcar door, and see where they go. Until these types acquire enough information to map out the path they’re taking, all they can do is insist on their need to take it” (229).

“INFJs, in particular, who need others’ encouragement and approval to establish a positive self-image, struggle with feelings of alienation, and they often develop an ironic sense of humor that protects them from self-revelation and assures them of positive relationships. INTJs do this too, but they’re not as reluctant to ask questions and summarily reject the answers. One might consider, for example, the humor of comedians like Dennis Miller and George Carlin” (229).

“In either case, INJs have no choice but to cup Intuition’s small flame against the hard wind of others’ beliefs and opinions. If they lean too comfortably against the lamppost of someone else’s knowledge, they never realized how illuminating that inner flame can be. They have to tolerate ‘not knowing’ long enough to understand how an existing vocabulary works and to use it well enough to point beyond its limits” (229).

“Once INJs learn how to do this, they have to learn how to stop doing it. Such types are never satisfied with what they know, and it takes a real effort for them to set limits and make use of the knowledge they already have. In fact, an INJ who feels well-informed is likely to have so much information that imposing order on it and sharing it with others is almost impossible. INJs are so different in this respect from their Extraverted counterparts that it’s worth noting their opposing behaviors” (230).

“ENPs are most visible in the first flush of discovery, when they’re excited and optimistic. They aggressively seek feedback form the people around them, and they welcome others’ involvement in formulating their Intuitions and carrying out their plans” (230).

“The goals these types posit are also inversely related. ENPs, as right-brain types understand objects in terms of the larger context. They picture an integrated—a global village, a unified theory, a consolidation of disciplines, a mind-body-spirit connection” (230).

“The left-brain INJs understand context as a mental phenomenon, something that people bring to the out world from within. Thus, they don’t see ‘wholeness’ as an integrated endpoint. Wholeness, for INJs, is the chaotic beginning—raw sensory input without meaning’ (230).

“Charles Williams, in a novel called The Greater Trumps, describes what he calls ‘the everlasting dance’—the reality that lies behind reality, and his image characterizes very well the INJ’s perceptual experience of life:

Imagine…that everything which exists takes part in the movement of a great
dance—everything, the electrons, all growing and decaying things, all the seems
alive and all that doesn’t seem alive and all that doesn’t seem alive, men and
beasts, trees and stones, everything that changes, and there is nothing anywhere
that does not change…Quick or slow, measurable or immeasurable, there I
nothing at all anywhere but the dance" (233).

“One might also suggest that the Internet is a pretty decent reflection of the way INJs think. Information is constantly proliferating in all different directions. One click of the mouse and your entire perspective shifts. You give away one idea and in return you get access to more data than you’ll ever be able to look at” (231).

“Where ENPs will take action as soon as they have the gist of a situation, the more information INJs acquire about a subject, the more it strikes them there is to know before action is possible. As Spock maintained throughout the Star Trek series: Truth is not Oneness. It’s infinite diversity in infinite variations. Indeed, most INJs use their secondary function, Extraverted Thinking or Extraverted Feeling somewhat defensively to dismiss the influence of perspectives that stop short of what they’ve already considered” (231).

“For example, an INTJ theology professor at the seminary I attended, who enjoys theoretical discussions and has no problem entertaining multiple paradigms, had the reputation of being dogmatic and impossible to satisfy because he consistently directed his Extraverted Thinking to pointing out the logical limitations of any idea a student ventured. He wanted his students to take an Intuitive leap—to move beyond the boundaries he was setting up, but his comments struck them as negative and critical (231).

“INFJs are less likely than INTJs to diminish the views of others by subjecting them to logical analysis, but they’re quite capable of surrounding themselves with people whose Judgment skills are underdeveloped, which gives them the opportunity to conduct their relationships by advising others on the wisdom of their life choices” (231).

INJs and Physical Reality

“Like Introverted Sensates, INJs may collect objects or experiences that give form to their inner life. ISJs, however, give form to consistent self-experience, and they often preserve cherished objects against changing tastes and times. One might recall, from chapter 15, the ISJ who was fascinated by cylinder phonographs, learned to repair them, and found, almost despite himself, that his expression of self had turned into his social identity and life’s work” (231).

“INJs, by contrast, often collect things that represent their sense of emergent meaning, even if they can’t explain why the objects matter to them. For example, an INTJ minister of my acquaintance collects carvings of the Green Man. The instinctual nature of this pagan image resonates with him but has no relationship to his present life structure. The INJ’s self-experience nearly always involves the unknown, a state of being that’s not yet embodied” (232).

“Accordingly, where ISJs maintain and enjoy their hobbies all their lives, INJs tend to lose interest when the fluid nature of unrealized meaning takes expressible shape and has meaning for others. One of my cousins, an INFJ, spent years following the career of an unknown character actor, mesmerized by what she saw in him but unable to explain the interest to anyone else. When he ultimately a part in a popular TV show and won an Emmy, she felt vindicated but found that he no longer held the same fascination for her” (232).

“Although Extraverted Sensation is the INJ’s inferior function it should not be supposed that INJs are entirely in their heads or never leave their journals and computer terminals. They’re bona fide Perceivers, and their senses may be very keen. INJs follow sports, enjoy outdoor activities, take up Tai Chi, drive fast cars, cook gourmet meals, make art—all sorts of things that involve a sensory engagement with life” (232).

“INJs tend to enjoy fantasies and myths in which the hero has evolved a perfect combination of visceral and cerebral skills, but in practice, the two usually run on parallel tracks. Indeed, INJs who lack Extraverted Judgment are likely to neglect their practical and material needs, regarding visits to the dentist or eye doctor as time wasters, letting everyday chores pile up, or assuming that bills, retirement plans, and health insurance will take care of themselves” (232).

“Predictably, our Sensation-oriented pop culture is merciless in its INJ stereotypes. While INFJs are portrayed as neurotic psychics, INTJs are depicted as nerds, absent-minded professors, and eccentric detectives with bad wardrobes and inadequate sex lives. This is how Fox ‘Spooky’ Mulder on The X-Files was initially portrayed—as a classic INTJ obsessive, oblivious to work atmosphere, career status, and the need for relationship—everything expect his private quest for truth” (233).

“As the series has moved from cult status broad popularity, Mulder’s character has been subtly redrawn. He’s less like an INJ who sees conceptual possibilities excluded from the FBI’s standard categories of knowledge and more like an ISP influenced by tertiary Introverted Intuition, certain that the government is conspiring to hide the presence of aliens form an unsuspecting public” (233).

“On the other hand, the decision to pair Mulder not with an ESP action hero (which is the usual gambit in a science fiction series), but with an ENTJ pathologist (Agent Dana Scully) is inspired. Scully’s by-the-book Judgment is consistently subverted by Mulder’s appeal to her secondary function. Consider this bit of dialogue between them:

Scully: I’m struck by how much you’re like Ahab [in Moby Dick]. You’re
so consumed by your personal vengence against life—whether it be its inherent
cruelties or its mysteries-that everything takes on a warped significance to fit your
megalomanical cosmology. The truth or a white whale—what difference does it
make? Both obsessions are impossible to capture.
Mulder: Scully, are you coming on to me?

“Extraverted Judgers almost always stereotype INJs this way: as peculiarly and obsessively driven, with a tenuous hold on morality. And like Mulder, INJs are liable to sidestep the observation by shifting perspectives and depriving it of meaning” (233).

Developing Secondary Judgment

“In point of fact, INJs would do well to take Scully’s assessment into account. Such types spend so much time avoiding external influence to protect their evolving Intuitions that they learn to use their Judgment largely to dismiss others’ opinions and to maintain their self-determined path” (233).

“There’s an old Star Trek episode about an alien life form that had invaded the planet Deneva. Batlike creatures, these aliens would entwine themselves with people’s nervous system, manipulating their behaviors and driving them mad with pain. Ultimately, the crew discovered that the creatures could be destroyed by exposing them to intense light” (234).

“INJs tend to use their Thinking of Feeling in much the same way—to resist ‘infection’ by a custom, method, ideology, theory, or set of expectations that feels aliens to them and capable of malignant attachment. They throw light on such creatures, revealing them as arbitrary constructs, depriving them of the power to influence” (234).

“It takes a deliberate effort for INJs to use their Judgment for self-criticism, and not just to analyze the limits of others’ ideas. Until they learn to do this, they’re nearly impervious to criticism form anyone. Even INFJs, who can be seriously wounded by a rift in a relationship, are unlikely to take another’s opinion of them at face value. A position that conflicts with the INJs own is, after all, just somebody else’s point of view” (234).
“It takes a fair amount of experience for these types to recognize that merely pointing out the limits of whatever happens to be in place is ultimately destructive. Two stocks characters in films and novels exist for good reason: the INFJ whose local grievance unleash mob fury and the INTJ scientists who sells his soul for knowledge and brings about the apocalypse. These stereotypes don’t say as much about the INJ as they do about the effects these types can have on others. INJs have a distinct responsibility to develop their secondary function, because their Intuitions have power well beyond their own interests” (234).

Introverted Intuition in a Sensate Culture

“INJs throughout history have been prophets, poets and heretics. But in a Sensate culture, whose focus is on immediate surface stimulation, the INJ’s process of self-discovery inevitably coincides with some of society’s blind spots. Without an adequate Judging perspective, these types can be influenced by society’s unconscious needs without realizing what’s happening to them” (235).

“Like all types, when INJs become too dependent on their dominant function, their psyche floods them with unconscious impulses from their inferior function, which pushes them out of their usual approach to life. This gives INJs a chance to grow, to get in touch with their secondary perspective, Extraverted Thinking or Extraverted Feeling. But INJs are less likely than other types to recognize the opportunity” (235).

“INJs, however, have an additional incentive to blame their situation. The unconscious Sensate impulses they’re experiencing share common ground with prevailing views outside them. So it’s not difficult for them to concluded that their problems are the result of peoples inability to see past surface boundaries” (235).

“Like all Introverts, INJs respond to a threatened self-experience defensively, by using their secondary function to get the outer world under control. This can happen in any number of ways, depending on the type’s interests and concerns” (235).

“But without sufficient Judgment, they don’t know how to structure INJs may, for example, feel a strong need to express themselves creatively their ideas. Such types may not even know what they want to say. So they spend their time acquiring more information about the writing process itself—perhaps by reading other people’s books or finding out more about publishing. Instead of applying their Judgment to the inner world and limiting their options, they apply it to the outer world and keep their Intuitive approach intact” (235).

“INJs also defend their Intuition by applying their Judgment to institutionalized bias. This is a valid concern, of course, and well developed INJs are often in the forefront of battles involving inclusive language. However, when these types are defending their inner world against inferior aims, they invariably focus on terms that suggest as Sensate viewpoint—that is, one determined by surface criteria: gender, race, color, and so forth” (235).
“The defensive nature of these efforts is appartent in the laws, charters, hymn books, and classroom agendas that issue from them. The language of these products is not inclusive so much as disembodied. Made to accommodate the INJ’s purely conceptual approach to life, the terms don’t support every point of view; they reflect no one’s actual experience” (236).

“Like individuals, a Sensate society doesn’t improve when it’s compensated by its inferior function. A Sensate approach to life becomes morally responsible when it’s tempered by Introverted Judgment—the recognition that human values transcend loyalties based on surface criteria. Introverted Intuition merely counsels that surface criteria should be discounted altogether as conditions for meaning. This notion completely negates a Sensate point of view” (236).

“Indeed, the only way Sensate society can appropriate it is to concluded that every social structure is constructed around specific material conditions and excludes people whose conditions are different. No moral consensus appears to be possible. Respecting people’s differences becomes a matter of tolerating any life choice as valid and valuable” (236).

“Moreover, the ideas arises that having a moral perspective is impossible to a material being. One sees this philosophy afloat on the tide of culture in those cults that believe the body is a mere container for consciousness and in popular ideas about the intercession of angels” (236).

Developing Extraverted Judgment

“When INJs are defending themselves against unconscious Sensate motives, they start out by resisting others’ conceptual boundaries. Gradually, however, their inferior Extraversion becomes apparent. The more their behaviors are colored by unconscious Sensate aims, the more they’re aware of themselves as different from others. Such types want people to see them as special, but they often feel insecure and unappreciated” (236).

“Their unconscious Sensate impulses fills them with a yearning for credit and recognition, but they may be increasingly critical of their opportunities to make a contribution or so dissatisfied with their efforts that they don’t share them with others. This is generally the point at which the type’s tertiary function, Introverted Thinking or Introverted Feeling, steps in” (237).

“As discussed in other chapters, our tertiary function is helpful and enriching when our secondary function is well developed. It provides and outlet for ‘the other side’ of our personality. For example, it prompts INJs to recognize the truth can be appropriated experientially as well as conceptually as a way of being, one that they feel in their senses and their bones” (237).

“As a last-ditch defense against unconscious Sensate impulses, however, Introverted Judgment simply convinces INJs that they have no need to establish an investment in their outer situation. The real truth is the complicated inner stuff that can’t be put into words because it’s connected to everything else that matters to them” (237).
“The more INJs try to protect their inner world, the more they lose the Intuitive perspective they’re trying to maintain. They lose their capacity to shift perspectives. They have the sense that truth is a core experience, archetypal, impossible to express in a way that captures its full significance. Their vision becomes a psychological castle and they stand in the highest parapet, warning people that they aren’t worthy to come in” (237).

“It should be emphasized that INJs who feel like this aren’t hiding from the outer world. If anything, unconscious Sensate impulses are generating undue interest in how they look to others. The problem is the type’s inability to deliver what’s gestating inside. It’s too large, too unformed; it won’t survive in the world if it’s cut off the INJ’s Intuitive nourishment. The only way they know how to witness to it is to point out the poverty of others’ positions, showing how they fall short of understanding. Such types may become so adept at this that people see them as oracles and prophets. But they don’t really have a positive vision of their own” (238).

“When INJs develop Extraverted Judgment and train it on themselves, they begin to see life differently. They recognize their need to be understood, to make a genuine connection with others, to be a contributing part of something outside themselves. This recognition short circuits the INJ’s focus on conceptual boundaries. Such types try to reach people instead, to formulate their ideas in light of what others believe and think and cherish. In the process, they find a way to bring their insights into the larger community” (238).

“INJs don’t find it easy to make this effort. But developing secondary skills is always difficult; it forces compromises we don’t want to make. For INTJs, saying things in a way that people can support and accept feels like selling out or watering down something important. For INFJs, it feels like being an inauthentic and hypocritical. Extreme types may even believe they still need to figure out who they are and shouldn’t be influenced by others’ expectations” (238).

“The irony is that INJs figure out who they are by way of Extraverted Judgment. It’s the attempt to give their insights outward form that ultimately shapes their social identity. Unless INJs find a way to honor their Intuitions in the public arena, they won’t recognize themselves in the feedback they get from others. Even if they’ve been highly successful in their outward pursuits or spend many happy hours in solitary past times, they’re like to feel unfulfilled” (238).

“Once INJs are relating to people (rather than counseling them or analyzing their frame of mind), they recognize how different perspectives can be bridged by common ideals. Well-developed INJs are capable for unusual empathy on this basis. They may see, for example, how widely divergent political positions are derived from the same moral principle. Psychologists James Hillman speaks about psychological polytheism—the separate selves existing inside us, anchored by the soul” (239).

“Such philosophies are not social plans. They’re description of an interior point of view that enables a person to respect diversity without compromising importance social values. INJs are often moved to write about interior perspectives—how they’re cultivated, the power they have to change society, what they feel like when they’re operating. Given a facility with language, INJs can be highly gifted in this area” (239).

“Such types also realize that some Intuitions will not bear fruit in a particular time and place. Sometimes the only responsible decision is to keep them alive and pass them down to the next generation. This is a hard notion in a culture that values the gratifications of the present moment, but INJs often make a difference whose consequences they will never see” (239).

 

I think her point about developing the extraverted judgement function is incredibly important, especially when Se is an INJ's blindspot.

It also makes me wonder about (going off on a tangent here) Je functions in the inferior position. I often hear about inferior Te people who think they have inferior Se because they have trouble with practical activities like bill paying in the example above. So if an INJ ignores the aux, they end up in a kind of double-blind (though this goes for any type, really).

 

It also makes me wonder about (going off on a tangent here) Je functions in the inferior position. I often hear about inferior Te people who think they have inferior Se because they have trouble with practical activities like bill paying in the example above. So if an INJ ignores the aux, they end up in a kind of double-blind (though this goes for any type, really).

I think her analysis is something like the IPs with undeveloped Pe spend their time avoiding situations that don't accord with their dominant function, but have trouble figuring out what they really want; they're trapped in a reclusive Ji-Pi loop. Thus, people unconscious Je will not so much forget about/lose awareness day to day tasks as mentioned, but rather, avoid them because they are considered shallow and limiting. Personally, I tend to experience this issue as a matter of poor follow through and inconsistency.

I think that is different from what she describes with IJs who experience a pull from inferior Pe as either a preoccupation with negative outcomes (Si-Ne) or a need for attention/recognition (Ni-Se). Without Je they have too much information in their head, but no way to explain it on existing Extraverted terms. When they are trapped in a Pi-Ji loop, they defend their inner perceptions by becoming overbearing (in ISJs) or overly dismissive of others opinions (in INJs).

I'll post more on this when I finish typing up the articles for ITPs and IFPs. Until then, thanks for reading

 

I appreciate you posting this, but the small font is very hard to read in comparison to the default font. Would you consider editing it to make it easier on the eyes?

 

Oui~

 

Scully: I’m struck by how much you’re like Ahab [in Moby Dick]. You’re
so consumed by your personal vengence against life—whether it be its inherent
cruelties or its mysteries-that everything takes on a warped significance to fit your
megalomanical cosmology. The truth or a white whale—what difference does it
make? Both obsessions are impossible to capture.
Mulder: Scully, are you coming on to me?

ha!
great dialogue