Similarities and Differences between INTP's and INFP's

42469 Views 33 Replies 21 Participants Last post by narawithherthought, Aug 10, 2014

daydreamingsince1992

Discussion Starter · Jun 7, 2010

This year I had a wild experience of rooming in college with a fellow INFP. When I first met her I thought we had crazy similarities, we loved the same music, enjoyed the same classes, shared the same major, both liked photography, and were into writing. However, I soon found that our the way we perceived things was completely different. She based her opinions and made decisions solely on feelings (Strong Feeler) and everything I did was revolved around my thinking analysis of things (Strong Thinker). Although these differences caused a cross in communication and understanding at some points, after some time we came to know and understand how the other functioned and became quite the dynamic duo. We became best friends and did everything together, the only time spent apart was when we had to go to classes. With this being said, we would have the same exact day which would lead to us ultimately thinking about the same things, so much sometimes it was almost creepy. One of us would bring up something on their mind that had occurred and the other would confess to thinking about the same thing.. the only difference was the way we interpreted those thoughts. It's as if we were on parallel train tracks, the only difference being the energy fueling our trains.

..I thought it would be interesting to get some feedback from other INFP's who have been friends with INTP's or vice versa. Input would be lovely!

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Socrates

· #6 · Jun 8, 2010

INFPs are eerily similar. The one I knew could go every bit as deep into philosophy as I – the difference was will. She let life get her down sometimes and wasn't as willing to go into philosophy. We had similar viewpoints on a lot of things, but different viewpoints on a lot of things. Our fights were E-P-I-C beyond epic. :tongue:

I started with the intent to be friends but developed feelings for her. Even though it was a few months ago, I still have those feelings. :frustrating:

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Socrates

· #18 · Jun 11, 2010

I quite enjoy my debates – maybe a source of the claimed belligerence. I use debate as a tool to learn, somewhat. It's not my main method, but it's definitely the only way I really learned to get to the "heart" of an argument and figure out why people think about things the way they do. This quest for understanding unfortunately gets me into a lot of trouble.

People often (falsely) believe me to be a dimwit upon an initial encounter. I don't say much with new people, and what comes out isn't exactly what you would expect of a smart person. Strangely enough, without being cocky (I'm not, except on this issue), everyone I've ever gotten to know holds me in a high regard as far as intelligence and usually comes to me first on anything relating to knowledge or logic. That feels good, a sense of accomplishment, if you will.

It seems as if the average INFP is quite a bit different than... all of that. They could be insanely smart and no one would ever know because they tend to keep that kind of thing to themselves and focus more on the emotions or what have you. Just my opinion.

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Socrates

· #20 · Jun 11, 2010

I've had almost that same conversation before. In fact, several times with many different types of people. A lot of people believe I just like to argue... funny thing, a lot of the time I either don't care or agree and am just playing Devil's Advocate. I always make a strong case for whatever I'm arguing, even if I know it's dead wrong. :blushed:

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