[Raichan]

I posted this on another forum but I want to post it here too

I've just wondering what exactly makes a person become INFP?

Usually I find that most INFP's:

• Had been taken advantage of many times in the past, and they let such experiences define their skills so that they would avoid the same mistakes in the future.
  
• Often feel the same rushes of rage almost immediately when they see or detect the same experiences happening to others (bad experiences they had already gone through themselves)
  
• Place importance on subtle gestures and signs because they had overlooked them in the past which had changed their lives permanently. Often get misunderstood by others for over emphasis on this importance.
  
• Place over importance on depth, because of unwillingness to fall into potential mistakes that can be caused by meaningless superficialties.
  
• Often able to recreate certain idealist movie-like scenes in head, and determined to see those scenes as how their life should manifest. Which often lead them to become highly intuitive, driven dreamers.

Although INFP's project idealism and optimism when it comes to creativity, are we at some point mostly defined by this: past pain?

Me the INFP

 

[Raichan]

Also, another thing that fits the INFP paradox - although we are very idealist and we tend to have issues with controlling our guilt, the past pain creates a dark side in us that we often have to battle. Well, at least for me.

My past pain defines me in a such a way that there have been times when I secretly fear I might turn into the mentally, emotionally and socially manipulative being I can be whenever I feel injured to the extremes. It is almost a miracle that not many people will be able to even understand that side of me.

 

[ljcoles]

Wow yeah I completely relate to this, I was considering this the other day, and I think because I was bullied at school that had an impact on me throughout my childhood, and that has made me into the INFP I am today, that is what we are caring and quiet because past pain has made us self-conscious and we care because we know what it is like when people don't...
And seriously I feel so much guilt over little things that happened ages ago, such as not ringing someone back, or saying the wrong thing at the wrong time, or even just overlooking something I should have noticed and been more considerate of, I completely get the whole dark side thing, and I think this is also one of the reasons I strive to be better.

I don't completely believe in the concept of karma, but I think it is a good way to live, "treat others as you expect to be treated"...sorry to quote religion...

 

[refugee]

the earliest memory of me being an INFP was when i was about 8 yrs old. i remember playing peacemaker when a fight broke out between two kids. i noticed one of them being bullied so I rushed over and defended the one who was being bullied. i had a soft spot for underdogs which has stayed with me to this day.

@ izzie

life provides ample opportunity to be the idealists we wish to be. perhaps we cannot attain perfection in this world, but we can certainly try. i noticed that i get a certain high from serving people's needs. i cannot speak for all INFP's but when i feel like i genuinely helped someone, i find i am more positive about myself and reality in general. the world can come crashing down, but holding on to an ideal helps guide me to the promised land. i could care less who stands in my way, i just keep fighting back like a cornered junkyard dog.

 

[rowingineden]

EDIT: I changed my mind. I think basically, we all have a natural "reaction range" of personality types which we may present in our lifetimes based on our experience, and sometimes where we are in our reaction range may change, but I think we can't really change that range - that's just innate. I think my reaction range in MBTI is NT and NF personality types.

 

[Tridentus]

i'm so sick of posting this:
people are BORN an mbti type.. that's why parents often think they can spot their childs personality from when they were babies. stress and different factors may make you "become" another type- at least it will seem like it, and this is especially true of NFs who are eager to find themselves and to learn from mistakes, but essentially you will always be the type you were born with.

an anxiety suffering reculsive ENFP is not then an INFP, an NF who makes mistakes in life and decides logic is preferable is not then an NT. they will simply be stressed versions of their type and will never truly be anything like the type they claim to have "changed into/from".

 

[Vaka]

There was a similar thread in the INTJ section, although it was apparently a joke thread.
I don't really think you can become your type. I could explain it further, but I'm admittedly lazy :crazy:

 

[Lad]

Neglected -- can be either family or people in general.
One of your few friends when you're at your worse is someone that's almost obligated to like you, but isn't really within your age group ie: a teacher, coach, older cousin, granny
Lack of drive
Emotional, but more hidden and reclusive. -- basically introverted, but still with that kaboom factor of everything exploding in private.

Probably more, but I have to eat my spaghetti.

 

[Doomjr]

lol, i posted the same thing on the INTJ Forum it was cute, just like laura croft said it was for fun and jokes. am happy with myself! =D take care, and remember there is no specific answer for everything! =D

 

[rowingineden]

Neglected -- can be either family or people in general.
One of your few friends when you're at your worse is someone that's almost obligated to like you, but isn't really within your age group ie: a teacher, coach, older cousin, granny
Lack of drive
Emotional, but more hidden and reclusive. -- basically introverted, but still with that kaboom factor of everything exploding in private.

Probably more, but I have to eat my spaghetti.

Now I want spaghetti. Jerk. :tongue:

 

[Lad]

Now I want spaghetti. Jerk. :tongue:

Add spiteful to my list of "What makes an INFP come to being."
:tongue:

 

[Acey]

i'm so sick of posting this:
people are BORN an mbti type.. that's why parents often think they can spot their childs personality from when they were babies. stress and different factors may make you "become" another type- at least it will seem like it, and this is especially true of NFs who are eager to find themselves and to learn from mistakes, but essentially you will always be the type you were born with.

an anxiety suffering reculsive ENFP is not then an INFP, an NF who makes mistakes in life and decides logic is preferable is not then an NT. they will simply be stressed versions of their type and will never truly be anything like the type they claim to have "changed into/from".

no one can definitively say its nature over nurture, especially for all traits.

 

[saturnbug]

I don't know if one is born a certain type. That would mean that there must be some way of telling our MBTI through DNA. But I do think that MBTI and personality and values are embedded in our minds very early on, and we can trace back examples of us acting a certain type back to our childhood. We're always the same people that we've always been, though we may change in little and big ways, we're still basically the same.

Like I can trace back my introversion back to my childhood. I was alone a lot, so that led me to really live internally. I had a really vivid imagination because of all this alone time. I liked looking at pretty things and making up stories. I was the oldest, so I was naturally nurturing and loving, which may have led to my high F. My P was perhaps created because of my very laid back family.

But if I never had siblings or a laid back family or a lot of alone time early on in life, I don't think I'd be the same person at all, and certainly not an INFP.

 

[refugee]

lol, i posted the same thing on the INTJ Forum it was cute, just like laura croft said it was for fun and jokes. am happy with myself! =D take care, and remember there is no specific answer for everything! =D

haha that was an epic thread! :crazy:

 

[Raichan]

Neglected -- can be either family or people in general.
One of your few friends when you're at your worse is someone that's almost obligated to like you, but isn't really within your age group ie: a teacher, coach, older cousin, granny

Emotional, but more hidden and reclusive. -- basically introverted, but still with that kaboom factor of everything exploding in private.

Fuck, now I feel so transparent.