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Which E-Type is the Greatest Enigma to You?

Which E-Type is the Greatest Enigma to You? Why?

18K views 139 replies 63 participants last post by  Hottest_Commie_Ever 
#1 ·
Which types are the greatest enigma to you? Why?


Vote and elaborate in the thread if you would like. :)

I left it multiple-choice because sometimes there are ties. If you chose more than one, feel free to elaborate on all of them.
 
#3 ·
I voted 6w5 and 6w7 hands down.

I don't know which is more enigmatic.

Every conversation with a 6 is a journey through a shifting maze. Some 6s are like a labyrinth. As I descend deeper into the quagmire of their minds in search of their hearts, I encounter traps along the way. I power through, dizzy and hungry and thirsty as I scrape myself back up and back up again. By the time I catch a glimpse of the prize I no longer have any skin left. I am not strong enough anymore to grasp it and before I can pull myself back, the maze shifts and the glory slips from my view. I must persist. But how? I lack the power and alacrity to grasp so many shifting complex premises at once. In my effort to find my way to the center I have forgotten the way out. I don't even know who I am anymore.
 
#4 ·
I agree. they are a mysterious bunch @Animal
 
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#5 ·
all image types: why do you need the world to provide you with self worth? :laughing: the only heart type I'd say I really get is 4w3 (cuz of their flamboyant self expression and elitist attitude)
9s: I can't imagine being pissed off and trying to deny/hold it back (my anger is like a dragon bitch!). 9w8 especially baffles me (8 and 9 are such opposite types. seeing them in the same personality is bizarre)
 
#6 ·
all image types: why do you need the world to provide you with self worth? :laughing: the only heart type I'd say I really get is 4w3 (cuz of their flamboyant self expression and elitist attitude).
Weren't you gushing over 3w4s a year ago?
 
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#7 ·
9s. for a lot of reasons. for one, i can't understand how they can go against what they want just to keep peace. i don't know how they do their merging thing, but it sounds sexy as fuck. i don't know how they have that grounding effect on me just by their presence alone....i don't know how they are the way they are, but who they are is so utterly captivating and attractive that i am incapable of resisting them. they get under my skin the way no other type does, and that is mystifying by itself.
 
#12 ·
2s and 4s.

2s utter dependency on other people to derive self-worth is frightening. It just doesn't make sense to me. How can someone not help themselves and choose to constantly helps others instead, even at their own expense? Looking out for myself will always be my 1st priority and that brings me zero shame whatsoever. It would also seriously fuck with me if I couldn't hold people at a distance, which seems to be harder for 2s to do.

To be frank, when I first read about 2s, I thought they were pathetic. I couldn't help but instinctively reject every aspect to the type. Now though, I have a certain amount of respect for them because I think it's crazy how someone can be just so emotionally open and honest with other people. I feel like attempting to do the same would crush me.

4s need to separate themselves from the world to derive self-worth is also perplexing to me. I just don't understand the need or purpose for doing so though I admit I'm rather ignorant as to what 4s are about.
 
#13 ·
4s need to separate themselves from the world to derive self-worth is also perplexing to me. I just don't understand the need or purpose for doing so though I admit I'm rather ignorant as to what 4s are about.
I am my own personal expression. Immersing myself in their world is a threat to to that powerful artistry, that honest expression, those deep, bare truths that are 'me.' In my eyes, my life is art. Art is life. Anything that does not express my spirit.. money, job, bland socialization, meaningless conversation - is not art, is not life. I might do it because I need to get by, but I'd rather create. I'd rather immerse myself in a world and lifestyle of honest self-expression. Everything I do, everything I own, every conversation and action and friend is a mirror of who I am. My body is a vessel through which my soul is expressed. A canvas for my spirit.

The world, as it is, is too bland for me, and if I spend too much time absorbing its boring, stupid, fake bullshit, it will eventually bleed into me and mold me into something I don't want to be. That will be my mirror: corrupt, fake, boring, monotonous, forced. It will take me away from me.

I have barely left the house in months because of the freezing cold and snow. In the summer I spend time in nature. Art, sex, nature, and love [family, animals & friends included] are the only reasons to leave the house - aside from necessities.. exercise/work/food/medical.
 
#14 ·
I voted for the other Competency types, including 1w2. I think I understand most of these types in an academic way, but have a hard time understanding where they're coming from in real life. A lot of my misunderstanding is probably because I'm so entrenched in my own perspectives and have yet to get out of the habit of judging whether other types' vantages seem easy to get out of. They're all difficult, of course, but I still have a lot of biases against the below types that won't dissolve until I become more empathetic - which I'm working on.

1w2: Of course it's the same core type as my own, but they often have a louder, more gushy approach to doing the same thing I do, and I don't understand why they feel the need to do so. Perhaps not so much of an "enigma" as I simply find it irritating.

3's: I don't understand the assumption that simply getting something done is the same thing as getting it done the right way. It's hard for me to envision what is driving them to similar extents that I am driven, yet not applying that drive to making sure you are consistent between what you do and what you believe - that latter part comes across to me as being completely absent in 3's, and I put a great amount of stock in it.

5's: The "enigma" here is much more permeating than the above. I simply don't understand how type 5's core fears work, and find it difficult to understand how their approach is effective in dealing with the world on a pragmatic level - then again, I don't spend a lot of time thinking about non-pragmatic things, so I'm equally out of place in their world. I'm very much open to input on 5's, as I tend to stereotype them as not being action-oriented - so why would be important to "know more" as opposed to "do more?"

Obviously, in an academic way it makes sense how their fears align with this kind of defense, it's just difficult for me to imagine what their everyday mindset is like.


Honorable Mention - 4: The lower side of 4 I am very familiar with and understand experientially, but I actually don't have a great feel for the potential of type 4, as I only ever experience the type in a state that signals something is wrong, and needs to be balanced again. I'm very curious to know what the high side of 4 is like, as I only ever really experience the low.
 
#23 ·
5's: The "enigma" here is much more permeating than the above. I simply don't understand how type 5's core fears work, and find it difficult to understand how their approach is effective in dealing with the world on a pragmatic level - then again, I don't spend a lot of time thinking about non-pragmatic things, so I'm equally out of place in their world. I'm very much open to input on 5's, as I tend to stereotype them as not being action-oriented - so why would be important to "know more" as opposed to "do more?"
Ditto on 1s. I don't understand this need to be right all the time, to be perfect, living up to standards? I have standards, but not standards of impossible perfection. There's beauty in being flawed. I might even argue more beauty in the flawed than the perfect. Perfect you see and then just gloss over because there's nothing to captivate you but with the flawed there's struggle and improvement. You see growth. There's nothing beautiful about people always having it served on a silver platter because there's nothing to admire.

As for how 5 works on a pragmatic level - it's basically summarized through the creed that knowledge is power. When you know and understand, you also know what to do. Not so much the right thing in a moral sense, but the thing which is the most likely to work out for you, make the most sense, help you cope and deal the best, in a Te-esque biased sense, what's the most effective way of doing things.

In a practical sense imagine that you are lost in a maze and you have no clue where you are and where you need to go. 5 logic is the need to know the structure, to map out the maze because if you act before you know you might step into a trap and die or get even more lost than you already are and how you are then supposed to find your way out? Even for sx 5, 5 is a cautious type. It seeks to prepare and ward against dangers by empowering itself with knowledge of the current situation.

To call it lacking in action is not incorrect at all since it after all integrates into two id types, both being action-oriented in their own respective senses. It's more that informed choices lead to the best actions [to survive]. Survival is not of a moral character as in the fear of being under some form of moral scrutiny, but survival is a matter to survive at all. I think especially if 5 is influenced by sp logic, survival becomes a highly personalized thing only really concerning the type 5 at the risk of shutting out everything else.
 
#15 ·
It occurs to me that what version of portrayal one is looking at might play in. I think in many portrayals 5 is most unbaffling to me (I'm the absolute first to go endlessly into the nonpragmatic), but everytime I read Naranjo's 5 it just makes me go huh?

Ditto for the 1, to a slightly lesser extent.



But switching over to some of the other portrayals I learned of before Naranjo, I'd say 2, 6, 7 and still 1 are some of the most baffling.
Seven due to the so-called scattered portrayal. I am quite easily able to see the Naranjo 7 making sense, on the other hand. And anything portraying the endless doubting/changing of mind of a 6 (though I admit this is a forum phenomenon, but somehow I suspect I'd find it validated in literature to an extent) -- what do you call it, ambivalence -- is baffling. Fearing and despising uncertainty, that I can see; but if uncertain, why the push-pull? I'd think a blatant skepticism of everything without the momentary latching-on would make more sense.
As for 2, I've literally met the insane overly-helpful 2 only a few times, but each time I can only think "how does said individual exist".
 
#67 ·
As for 2, I've literally met the insane overly-helpful 2 only a few times, but each time I can only think "how does said individual exist".
Welcome to my world growing up.

:dry:
 
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#19 ·
@Gentleman Bastard

To add another answer to your question about 4s and isolation, I won't answer for anyone else, but for myself, I have an illness that causes my hair to fall out sometimes. I still have some hair but its stringy and horrible no matter what I do. It started falling out again about 2 years ago ad that is when my social life switched from IRL to PerC. I don't feel like myself without my long mane billowing in the wind. It's weak and stupid, I know, but it makes me not want to leave the house, and instead write my book about my character who has long gorgeous locks down to her knees. If I leave the house I get jealous and angry at every person I see with hair that resembles what mine is like when it doesn't fall out.

I love staying home anyway because I constantly create, instead of getting bogged in social inanities, and I can be somewhat isolated eve with my hair, but feeling like I can't "be myself' or I'm lacking something crucial to my self-expression makes leaving the house undesirable.
 
#22 ·
I guess you're right at not understanding 9s if we assume I am a 9, because I don't relate to those things you posted above. I relate to some parts of it in a conceptual level. I guess I was right self-typing as a 6.

Now, back to the topic. I think I only have a conceptual understanding of the types, but not a real one. I constantly question my understanding of the types and try to strip off the types to a universal, core level. I am trying to avoid thinking of the types as edge-trimmed caricatures, mere stereotypes, of a human being, but I end up having a blurred image of their differences, where there are a lot of overlaps. To put in another way, I "understand" the types but I find difficult to see them in the real world. That makes me question my understanding.
 
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#25 ·
2's are a type I will never fully "get." I don't have really any compulsion to be of service to anyone or any cause. In fact, my interest in causes outside myself, politically or socially, is inconsistent and abstract at best. And pride is not something I usually indulge in.

The aggressive types (3,7, and 8) are also a mystery. I will never have the kind of ease and comfort with the "real" world that these types seem to have, which will possibly be my downfall. -_-
 
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#26 ·
Twos are the most foreign; I can understand them on an intellectual level, but I have a hard time relating.

But for straight up confusing, I gotta go with myself. I wish I could be more consistent.
 
#28 ·
Definitely type 9.

Enigmatic as 6's are, I can tell right away that there's more than meets the eye; that there's a challenge around the corner. 9s slowly grow on me. At first they seem so up front, simple (in a beautiful way; simple does not mean stupid ) .. present, down to earth. Then as I get to know them, the hidden world and talents come to the surface. It's very beautiful. I don't know if I would say "underestimate" but certainly I have been taken aback by the way there is more, and more, and more which comes out slowly over time.
 
#31 ·
To answer my own question, I think if I were looking superficially at the types, I would most natively underestimate type 7. I've noticed that 7s can look to me like they lack a certain focus that, in my own life, gives me strength. I have to stretch myself in certain ways to honor their way of going about life and see it in terms of its own purpose.

The idea that some type is an enigma to you requires that every level of it, from the superficie to the depth, be opaque to you. The idea of a type being underestimated by you can point to your blind spot without you needing to lack understanding of the type, hence it isn't completely an enigma. This might be especially useful to ask, then, for those people who say they do not see any enigmatic types: @Cosmic Orgasm.
 
#32 ·
Underestimated -- maybe type 2. Although part of this is simply the nature of what I seek, I'm sure a lot of type 2's that I might "underestimate" would be far from underestimated by those who esteem them. The simple dynamic of pride as a passion in how it tends to play out in 2, among all the positive triad types, probably makes it hardest for me to see what gives this type direction.

As for 7's, I know one or two people I'd vaguely guess are 7's with a 6 wing, and they make a lot more sense to me than the other kind of 7. Neither 7 nor 9 is a type I'd underestimate much. 7 makes a bunch of sense to me.


As for complete enigma, discarding specific versions of type presentations, I'd say among those I've actually experienced in life + my general synthesis of different ideas on what this type is, probably 1. More so than with 2, I really can't imagine how their wheels keep turning, so to speak.
 
#36 · (Edited)
and it frustrates me how 4s get the least votes tied with 1s :frustrating:
Haha how come?

I can't stand it when people tell me I'm complicated. I want to be innocent, true, animalistic, youthful. If i'm complicated, then I am failing to understand myself or I am failing to communicate. Therefore I am doing something wrong.

That being said I am very very attracted to complexity in others.
 
#35 ·
3s, 4s, and 8s.

I'll never understand how 3s can be so driven just for the sake of success. It's always baffled me and probably always will. I mean, they get the drive from their desire to succeed, but when they do succeed, it makes them want to succeed more, so where the heck is it all coming from?

From my interactions with 4s, they know who they are (which, in itself, is pretty impressive to me) and they want people to see them for who they are. What I don't get is, well, the entire "I want people to see who I am" thing. If you're being yourself, aren't people seeing who you are? I dunno, all in all, 4s in general just confuse me.

8s are so intense. It's enigmatic to me because it's as if the intensity doesn't go away, ever. There's gotta be something driving that intensity, right? The intensity can't just be there for the sake of being there, can it? I don't think I'll ever understand what goes through an 8's mind.
 
#38 ·
The only type I really reel at is 6. I don't understand how anyone can dwell in 6 land. It sounds miserable to me. Even imagining it makes me want to shift to a happier mindset. I'm a 6-winger and whenever the wing gets strong, it's like RIP star tripper. Ironically, most of my absolute favorite people are in fact 6s (usually 6w7) because I'm so, I'm not sure, sucked into them? They're not 4s, y'know, they're not living off in 6 land for the sake of uniqueness or what have you. Actually, come to think of it, I think this could be a side-effect of me underestimating them. They elude me and I don't know what to expect, so when they do something relatively extraordinary, it's like fireworks go off or something.
 
#40 ·
2w3

just...how do you people?
 
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