Many or most people seem to misunderstand the basic ideas of MBTI which I'll break out here. I've posted variations on this in many threads recently which is why I think it deserves its own space.
Everybody has the following capabilities: E, I, N, S, T, F, J and P.
Yes, because:
1) With the 4 functions, at least some are E and some are I.
2) There are one of each of N, S, T, and F.
3) At least some are J and some are P.
Everybody
has the following
functions:
- Ne - I want to design the fence.
- Ni - Why do they want to do this and what is the deal with fences anyway? Is this necessary?
- Se - I want to decorate the fence and make sure that it looks stylish and appealing
- Si - I’ll take care of looking at the instructions and making sure that we follow the established guidlines.
- Te - Is doing this cost effective? Will it be useful?
- Ti - I want to analyze the structure and placement of the fence.
- Fe - How will it affect the neighborhood, and what will the neighbors think?
- Fi - I want it to be my own special fence that I can share with others over time
This of much debate.
Some say that MBTI is genetic, and that each type uses different areas of the brain, in problem-solving, and are the unable to use the other 4 functions. According to them, when an Ni idea is expressed by an NP or SJ, it is because Ne has combined with Ti or Fi.
Some say that you can use other functions, but not usually.
Trouble is, then that only suggest patterns of usage, and not anything particularly significant, because if one pair of cognitive functions weren't getting you to your objective, you'd switch to some other pair. So I believe that the fact that people find certain situations so difficult, when they have a habit of getting stuck in a loop, is because we learn and develop
habitually, and so if you use a certain pair of functions consistently, even in a single subject, then it becomes mentally re-inforced that when you approach that subject, you take that cogitive approach, and use those functions. One's general approach, that one takes when there is no specific subject to be selected, would be your "general type". Your types for each subject, would be your subject-specific types.
Still that wouldn't explain why you couldn't get all 64 combinations. Jung also said that certain functions won't work together. Working with that presumption, then one could suppose that one might normally be Ti-Ne in general, and yet be an Ni-Te in politics, and something else in other situations, but you'd always only be behaving like one of the 16, in any one situation. So then, the uniqueness of human beings, would come from the fact that we are always dealing with different people, who know and believe different things, and who know and use different ways of reasoning.
But I'm not entirely sure of that either. From what I think so far, all might be possible. But there ARE clear patterns of behaviour in people in general. So there are probably only certain cognitive patterns that the human mind develops.
Everybody has one of the following types: INFJ, ENTP, INFP, ENTJ, INTP, ENFJ, INTJ, ENFP, ISFJ, ESTP, ISFP, ESTJ, ISTP, ESFJ, ISTJ, ESFP.
This would be the "general type".
Everybody prefers a set of four functions that form their functional stack (i.e. Ti, Ne, Si, Fe for the INTP). This stack strengthens over their lifetime due to using and developing them. Everybody also strengthens their weaker functions and capabilities because they have to due to environmental/life pressures.
Thus people become more self-actualized and well rounded while simultaneously becoming more themselves.
Jung wrote of the nature of the subconscious as trying to complement the thoughts of the conscious, placing itself as the logical opposite of the conscious. This thus suggests that the subconscious is always trying to balance the mind as a whole. But to have more Ne than Ni, means that Ne and Ni are not balanced. So the objective of the mind, is to get all the functions in perfect balance. At the same time, it is practice of a specific function a lot, that improves its usage. So we are continually battling with the subconscious, between its desire to make everything at the same level, and our desire to improve the use of our functions, and so to focus on some to the exclusion of the others.
However, improvement is difficult. It does stress the mental system. So usually, when one is developing a particular characteristic, i.e. under stress, there is a strong tendency to fall back on one's default "general type", and to activate whichever functions are perceived by the mind as being most useful in the circumstances. When 2 compatible functions are selected, such as Ti and Ne, the results produce reasonable answers, enough to deal with the situation. When 2 incompatible functions are selected, such as Ti and Si, then the results are an infinite loop, where one remains trapped in a feedback loop of behaviour that fulfils the famous definition of insanity as "doing the same thing over and over, and expecting a different result". This is common for an INTP, in any topic in which the INTP relies on developing an idea using rational logic (Ti) to connect concrete facts (Si).
