Character Comparisons: Ne vs Ni

[Auburn]

I think this forum is severely lacking material on the theory which it's based on, so I figured I'd start this thread.

But rather than using solely abstract verbal descriptions to differentiate these two very different functions -- this thread is dedicated mostly to tangible, visual/verbal media-based examples or representations. Feel free to share your own examples. (:

Warning: This thread may have movie/show spoilers! Read at your own risk. ^^ Tho I'll try to minimize plot details and just focus on characters.

Comparison #1:

Best Boy vs Raven

Ne is: real-time, speculative, doubtful/questioning, re-interpretive, mentally spontaneous, modifying their understanding regularly.

Highlight: Beast Boy is one such character, who is constantly adapting/transforming himself (literally) to the situation, "going with the flow" and often making witty comments. Many of these properties are also shared with Se. His energy is dynamic (E) and engaged in a type of feedback cycle with outer happenings.

Properties: Optimism, Resilience, Naivete, Energetic
Throughout the series, Beast Boy is a constant source of comic relief, amusement, but also absurd decisions, general naivete but also levity in the face of gravitas. Ne has a childish quality always about it (independent of age) that sees possibilities in everything and is animated toward experimenting with those hypotheticals.

Ni is: longstanding, speculative, suspicious, growing an understanding slowly through time with little spontaneity about "how the world" evolves/exists/flows.

Highlight: Raven is by contrast mysterious, ominous, but also no-bullshit. She's able to think of the world as "other-than-how-it-physically-is" (an N quality) but this alternate perception takes the form of a pretty stable or longstanding paradigm.

Raven is quick to anticipate, almost pessimistically, the outcomes that will emerge. While Beast Boy is equally quick, but in suggesting alternative options. To Ni, its less a game of speculation and "options" and far more a game of figuring out what "is" underneath.

Properties: Ni's focus isn't on branching endlessly into doubts and reinterpretations, but is narrow and fatalistic in its thinking. Ni users can become caught in a feeling of inevitability that exists to situations, without being able to fully loosen that grip and explore alternatives. In this way, Ni can be just as rigid as Si in its interpretation of "How the world works"

An Ne user may put forth a hypothetical to an Ni user, and the Ni user may think "seriously? that's the dumbest idea. that won't work" because Ni has run the situation through their worldview and found it incompatible with how reality unravels.

 

[Auburn]

Comparison #2

Spongebob vs Squidward

[bimgx=350]http://imgur.com/MsRNqui.jpg[/bimgx]

Highlight: Spongebob is perhaps a perfectly exaggerated example of 100% Ne, and of Pe in general. His energy is entirely dynamic, active, naive, optimistic and engaged. His ideas are random, in-the-moment/spontaneous, and often out in left field.

For example, the bubble episode about "the technique". Or how he rides atop of rocks. The writer/director likely had Ne influence here as well, as those are the kind of "possibilities" that Ne users may randomly entertain as they go about their day -- especially when they're younger and have no Si development.

Eventually, Si development takes the edge off of the utterly unrealistic musing of Ne, and also helps develop a sense of grounding and rote ability. To give an example of this total lack in Sponegebob, he can never learn how to drive despite having tried the driving test thousands of times. This shows a characteristic inability to store past experiences into functional life-lessons.

[bimgx=350]http://imgur.com/ozeEiIo.jpg[/bimgx]

Highlight: Squidward, on the other hand, exists as a complete opposite to Spongebob. He's perhaps equally extreme in a representation of simplistic/caricature Ni. To squidward's monotonous eyes, he can already see decades in advanced to the day he dies as a completely unaccomplished musician who worked at a burger joint his whole life.

Every day at his menial job is, to his Ni, a testament to what the future will bring. He has little optimism about change and is somewhat resigned to "the causality of things". Of course, like Spongebob this character isn't very sophisticated either, so we only see this one pessimistic element of Ni's operation.

 

[Auburn]

Comparison #3:

Paprika vs Chiba Atsuko

Highlight: Paprika is, in the self-same movie, a wonderful embodiment of full Ne. She is, much like Best-Boy, a shape shifter and is flighty, animated, dynamic and always evolving in real time.

She is the optimistic character in the movie, providing other characters with a perspective that allows possibilities to unfold, and tries to get Mr.Konokawa "un-stuck" from his psychological hold-ups. She is also always pushing her alter-ego Chiba to loosen up and accept the infantile magic of her own soul (which is Paprika herself)

Highlight: Chiba is a quiet, dutiful executive and brilliant scientist working on the DC mini project. She is, like Raven, a "no-bullshit" type of character. As an NiTe, she's also got a very steely, deadpan appearance and rational character.

She's quick to see where situations are evolving, and plays the role of a detective in trying to uncover what is happening with these mysterious and spontaneous patient possessions. Again here we see a narrowing of focus, by using large-context-based thinking, to get at specific details or conclusions.

 

[Deleted member 1424]

You should put paprika in spoiler tags.

 

[QuickTwist]

You should put paprika in spoiler tags.

bags are pointless, its going to dry out anyways...

 

[Architect]

Also while the Ne of one individual won't generally be much different from another of the same type, the same isn't true of Ni. This is a characteristic of all the introverted functions. The extraverted ones, being outward and taking cues from external role models (e.g. prominent people demonstrating that function), the introverted functions are highly individualized. So you'll see two ENTP's as being relatively similar in their Ne explorations, but two INFJ's can be quite different in their insights.

As far as I can tell this mostly just applies to the dominant function. Once you go further down the stack the functions are less developed, and hence less individualized for the introverted ones.

 

[Black Rose]

Auburn, Yes I am more Spongebob than Squidward. Is INFP a good fit for me? (I'm more confident I am INFP than anything else, I just want to know more about them from your perspective)

 

[Artsu Tharaz]

I think Typology itself is an example of my Ni growing an understanding slowly over time. When I first started, I was tying in the functions to things like Plato's divided line, and I quickly got a decent grasp of the functions, enough to correctly type myself as INFJ after a couple months of being into it. Now Typology is like automatic for me, which I guess it started to become early on, and I'm at the point where I can often very quickly type the people I meet, and I've improved in my descriptions of the functions.

Actually, I think I'm at the point where my Ne is used quite heavily in my Typology musings as well, and some people do mention that I seem NTP-ish. I think this is because it takes Ne a long time to get to the point where it can go into "flow" regarding a particular subject, and now I've internalised enough of the data that I can do so in both Ni and Ne ways. With that said, I haven't taken enough trouble to identify my own Ne use, so I can't give much in the way of examples.

 

[Auburn]

@Animekitty - Well these aren't mean to be informative of whole type psychologies. They're just extreme polarities in caricature form. Mostly applicable to Ne and Ni doms that are very heavy in their primary function.

Many an INTP may feel they're more Squidward than Spongebob if they had to choose one, due to being an introversion-dom (Squid) vs extroversion-dom (Sponge), etc.

I don't know if I could comment on your type... that would need to be very carefully constructed, since you're a rare/unique case-- as I've found when I tried before. I think there are a lot of interplaying components in you, some of which aren't type related but more related to your spiritual/personal path, etc.


@Architect - Mmmhm. Introverted functions take more isolated, and thus divergent, routes when it comes to the beliefs they form. Fortunately, their mannerisms (& energy levels) will show their type all the same, independent of their specific beliefs or values.