INTP as the best psychologist and mental health specialists ?

[WALKYRIA]

Hey guys, After gathering informations from several different sources it paradoxically appears to me that INTP- the supposedly socially awkward and autistic guy- have generally the potential to have the greatest understanding of human psyche.... Why is it so?

I think it's pretty amazing... is it the ability to be detached and analyze? the proximity betweetn psychology and philosophy?
Pretty counter-intuitive no?

 

[crippli]

Understanding of the human psyche. Do you mean Theory Of Mind. Or more scientifically, the operation of the brain? The former is supposed to be a weak side of the socially awkvard autistic specialist INTP gal. The latter the strong point.

I'm not sure it makes much sense to separate the two. As the latter may be the mechanism of the former. Therefor the larger thinking picture person gets recognized as having flawed ToM. While in reality having perhaps superior understanding of ToM.

Like, if someone wants candy. Having the reason why they want candy is usually not wanted. What they want is candy.

So it does seem a paradox. But maybe it's a difference in interests.
http://www.iep.utm.edu/theomind/

Data from autism have also been used to motivate the claim that first-person and third-person mentalistic attribution has a common basis. An intensely debated piece of evidence comes from a study by Hurlburt, Happé & Frith (1994), in which three people suffering from Asperger syndrome were tested with the descriptive experience sampling method. In this experimental paradigm, subjects are instructed to carry a random beeper, pay attention to the experience that was ongoing at the moment of the beep, and jot down notes about that now-immediately-past experience (see Hurlburt & Schwitzgebel 2007). The study showed marked qualitative differences in introspection in the autistic subjects: unlike normal subjects who report several different phenomenal state types—including inner verbalisation, visual images, unsymbolised thinking, and emotional feelings—the first two autistic subjects reported visual images only; the third subject could report no inner experience at all. According to Frith & Happé (1999: 14), this evidence strengthens the hypothesis that self-awareness, like other-awareness, is dependent on the same theory of mind.

Thus, evidence from social psychology, development psychology and cognitive neuropsychiatry makes a case for a symmetrical account of self-knowledge. As Schwitzgebel (2010: §2.1.3) rightly notes, however, no one advocates a thoroughly symmetrical conception because some margin is always left for some sort of direct self-knowledge. Nisbett & Wilson (1977: 255), for example, draw a sharp distinction between “cognitive processes” (the causal processes underlying judgments, decisions, emotions, sensations) and mental “content” (those judgments, decisions, emotions, sensations themselves). Subjects have “direct access” to this mental content, and this allows them to know it “with near certainty.” In contrast, they have no access to the processes that cause behavior. However, insofar as Nisbett and Wilson do not propose any hypothesis about this alleged direct self-knowledge, their theory is incomplete.

 

[Cherry Cola]

Hey guys, After gathering informations from several different sources it paradoxically appears to me that INTP- the supposedly socially awkward and autistic guy- have generally the potential to have the greatest understanding of human psyche.... Why is it so?

I think it's pretty amazing... is it the ability to be detached and analyze? the proximity betweetn psychology and philosophy?
Pretty counter-intuitive no?

What information? Are you sure you are not confusing understanding consciousness with understanding the human psyche? Really there's nothing in your post to counter, I've not read what you've read and I can't read your mind.

Why would understanding the human psyche make INTPs the best psychologists and mental healthy specialists? There's a difference between understanding and being able to act effectively upon said understanding. I would figure that most INTPs would quickly grow weary working as a psychologists what with all the intimate interpersonal doctor/patient talks. Unlike F types they aren't built to deal with emotional matters directly like that. Pretty sure INTPs would be better of doing research.

 

[doncarlzone]

Unlike F types they aren't built to deal with emotional matters directly like that. Pretty sure INTPs would be better of doing research.

Exactly. Being a psychologist is far from just figuring out the human psyche. In therapy for example, then the psychologist may already have figured out the patient's problems within the first couple of sessions. Often that is the easiest part of therapy. It's making the patient understand his or her own psyche that is difficult. This is something which is to be understood on an emotional level - you can't just tell the patients the root of their problems and expect them to get better.

 

[Pyropyro]

Maybe INTP's are better off researching psychological issues rather than actually applying them to people.

 

[Brontosaurie]

you can't just tell the patients the root of their problems and expect them to get better.

there's always some trick to it. like if the patient is a homeless outcast, you must treat it like anyone else. and if the patient is a very successful chief executive director, you must treat it like anyone else. i think treating anyone like anyone else is crucial. most important for the therapist is accurate perception, a lucid mind, a benign attitude and some basic communication skills. a well developed INTP could do this.

 

[Jennywocky]

Why would understanding the human psyche make INTPs the best psychologists and mental healthy specialists? There's a difference between understanding and being able to act effectively upon said understanding. I would figure that most INTPs would quickly grow weary working as a psychologists what with all the intimate interpersonal doctor/patient talks. Unlike F types they aren't built to deal with emotional matters directly like that. Pretty sure INTPs would be better of doing research.

Exactly. Being a psychologist is far from just figuring out the human psyche. In therapy for example, then the psychologist may already have figured out the patient's problems within the first couple of sessions. Often that is the easiest part of therapy. It's making the patient understand his or her own psyche that is difficult. This is something which is to be understood on an emotional level - you can't just tell the patients the root of their problems and expect them to get better.

Maybe INTP's are better off researching psychological issues rather than actually applying them to people.

In general that's how I view it. INTPs have the benefit of big-picture detachment, but that's only half the picture if we're discussing actual therapy -- often the emotional stamina and interest and relational abilities are not there to enable the INTP to persist in the kind of therapeutic sessions from which the patient would benefit, even if the INTP has an accurate understanding of the patient's issues. Therapy is about more than understanding the problems accurately, it's about relating to the patient in a way that enables them to overcome their problems.

It's that area where the F types tend to do better and have the emotional stamina to persist.

I consider my social skills to be pretty decent for my basic type (and I've had people who don't know me well say that I remind them of a therapist IRL -- people seem to scan me as warm and a good listener and soothing to talk to), but it's very draining for me on the long haul and I also can lose interest once I have the "problem figured out." Canny NFs in my personal experience were the best therapists I've encountered.

INTPs would likely be the better researchers and maybe short-term specialists, where you're there to figure out the problem and get to the core of things fairly quickly.

 

[Spirit]

Enfj > intp

 

[Black Rose]

Enfj > intp

 

[Brontosaurie]

 

[Black Rose]

Rectifying All Perspectives into an Uber Model

 

[Tutu]

intp can be excellent in analysing issues but not sure how well they generally relate to others.

 

[NorthernStar]

I am a peer counselor in mental health and I love it. You would think that as an INTP I would run from the hills but it's a great career. Not to sound egotistical but my clients seem to really benefit from my counsel. I go back and forth in my head with their problems. And I love to listen. Oh BTW I am reading a book on INTPs by Dr.A.J Drenth and he says psychologists and counselors are 2nd choice careers for INTPS.

 

[Architect]

I am a peer counselor in mental health and I love it. You would think that as an INTP I would run from the hills but it's a great career. Not to sound egotistical but my clients seem to really benefit from my counsel. I go back and forth in my head with their problems. And I love to listen. Oh BTW I am reading a book on INTPs by Dr.A.J Drenth and he says psychologists and counselors are 2nd choice careers for INTPS.

Despite as much as I use his ideas and follow PJ I don't think Drenth has the right angle on careers. He had CS low on the list for INTP's, for example, and revised later to up that. He's biased by his psych/humanities background I believe, I don't think he knows much tech. Furthermore, I gather he has a PhD in psych, but it's unclear how he's using it. He does allude to the fact that it wasn't the right choice for him, and he's much happier writing/blogging.

I think generally INTP's have a fascination with psychology, it having to do with the mind. However I'm doubtful about a wholesale recommendation of clinical psychology for INTP's, because its a service industry job. From what Drench has said I gather this is the problem. His inferior Fe decided it wanted to help people, but it was an inferior crutch. Later when he got into it he realized it wasn't the right path. So clinical psych isn't something I think INTPs generally would like, but theoretical or research likely would be.

A potential obvious counter example might be Jung. Nobody can really figure out what type he was. Drench thinks INFJ from a theoretical basis, I think INTP from the details of his life. Regardless if he was INTP then he might be an example of one who made the jump from clinical to theoretical psychology.