Ah right, that would make sense (shadow functions and such). I thought the shadow functions were more of a hinderance than a help though?
Well from what I read it says : "The shadow processes "operate more on the boundaries of our awareness…We usually experience these processes in a negative way, yet when we are open to them, they can be quite positive."
So I don't see them as being a bad thing at all times. When I look at Socionics I kind of see them as going about the whole thing in a completely different approach from MBTI (although it may look similar). They basically say that we can use all 8 but to different degrees. MBTI states the quote above so this is how I look at it:
I think that we rely on the first 4 (or really first 2 with the other 2 depending upon our level of "maturity") and have almost no reliance on the other 4 shadow functions so they are harder for us to understand, develop, or even be aware of. When we become stressed we look for brand new ways to use our skills that we've already developed which leads us to extrovert our introverted functions and introvert our extroverted functions to solve that stress. After all we get stressed when what we usually rely on stops working for us.
I think that we can usually experience our shadow functions in a positive way when our stress level is not ridiculously higher than what we can handle. When it becomes too much we rely on our shadow functions for too long trying to figure out a new way and it leads to disaster or a negative experience because our stress level is never resolved causing us keep relying on them.
I think i've seen something like this in myself. For example:
When I was younger I used to become depressed in cycles. For a week i'd be energized, happy, and clear thinking and for 2 or more i'd pretty much be the opposite and I was really stressed all the time during these moments. At some point during these cycles i'd start worrying about all of my creative ideas and trying to write them down and organize them. Sometimes i'd stay up all night doing that. I'd lay down, random thoughts would pop into my head and then i'd freak out about how I was gonna use them and start writing them down and planning them out as far as I could. I think that this was a negative experience of Te and this was at a point where there was really nothing that would lower my stress unless the depression itself subsided.
Doing school work however is a whole different ball game. When my stress levels start to get up there I can relieve them by solving whatever problem is in front of me. So when my shadow functions come out during the brief period in which my stress levels get up there they usually help resolve my stress levels because they were the missing skills that I needed to get things done in the first place.
So I think that the Shadow Functions basically are a double edged sword. Because we have limited control or understanding of them they can help us when used appropriately under the right amount of stress but if we become too bent out of shape we'll only experience them negatively because we never really bring our stress levels down enough to be able to use our regular skill set (Ne Ti) to be able to handle the problem.
So that's basically why I theorize that. Perhaps i'm on to something and perhaps i'm not but by my own logic it seems to be the only thing that explains it hahaha
