INTP's and mood/atmosphere

[Ombat]

I didn't think I found a thread on this particularly, unless it's hiding in the deep recesses of this forum, in which case you may choose to ignore me.

I relate to this on an annoying level. I just have so many feeelings T_T
Does any of this apply to you?

From INTP.org:

Introverted Sensing often plays an important role in the private world of the INTP. When he visits a place, whether new or already known, his Si function gives an overriding concern for the atmosphere or mood of the place. In his subconscious, he connects the present experiences of his surroundings with memories of his past, sometimes deep past. A sense of history, of universality, is almost always invoked. When on holiday, the INTP wants to experience above all the ambience of each location. Specific details in the present are relatively unimportant and will not be well remembered. However, the atmosphere or mood will be remembered long after, as though it were a solid object. Since people encountered on a holiday usually count as details, unless more personal contact develops, the INTP tends to be drawn more to lonely, isolated places where atmosphere is less disturbed. Nevertheless, the presence of people does add its own ambience which can also be appreciated considerably. The net result of this concern for past experiences and of mood/atmosphere is that INTPs belong centrally to those types referred to as melancolic. The INTP melancolic is typically drawn to wild polar expanses, to mountain ranges and all places on the edges of civilisation. Whatever his particular yearning might actually be, it has a common root. The homeland of the INTP's psyche is a small and cosy community, isolated in the middle of a vast expanse of wilderness

 

[Jaico]

Definitely; I hardly ever remember exact or specific details about a place I visit, but I do have a pretty good sense of what it felt like. I think being in an isolated place where there's few people (or even better, none save for myself) is a far better experience than, say, doing some cliched tourist-y thing. The sense of...being there, and enjoying it all by yourself (sounds somewhat selfish, I know) is wonderful.

I've always wanted to explore the ocean, or maybe outer space...and just get that feeling of magnificent desolation, as it were.

 

[Tunesimah]

Yeah that's me. Going abroad and traveling has very little appeal to me, but when I do go... I like to just take my time and take it all in. I don't need to do anything really, just observe a new place at my own leisure.

I like viewing the world from a new perspective, seeing architecture and landscapes. It's not that important that I have to see anything really... just take it all in as I can... and go from there.

I like just sitting on a beach watching the waves...

I really like to tap into my Si function, I love that sense of nostalgia from a music/sound/taste/textures. I have a slight but powerful motivation to capture a smidgen of the wonder these experiences gave me as a youth.

 

[Ran]

Well I've never traveled alone before, it's usually with my loud family and/or a group of friends. But I do know that when we're walking along I tend to either drop back and walk a few feet after the group or speed up before everybody. I kind of want to take in the view and make my own decision about what I see, instead of hearing what the tour guide has to say or what other people thinks, least it might "contaminate" my initial opinion.
Usually when my whole tour group is awing over one scene I like to sneak away alone and look at something else and imagine the "feeling" of the place if I had stumbled on it instead of visiting on purpose. If it's some place historical I'd close my eyes and imagine the scene when the place is bustling with activity from that time period. If I was just a passerby at the time, what kind of atmosphere would the place have?

the INTP tends to be drawn more to lonely, isolated places where atmosphere is less disturbed.

I can relate to this! I remember when we visited Washington DC and the cherry blossoms were blooming. Everybody was gawking at the Lincoln Memorial but I was staring at a nice little niche created by two cherry blossom trees thinking how nice it would be to sit there and contemplate life.

 

[Kuu]

a far better experience than, say, doing some cliched tourist-y thing.

I kind of want to take in the view and make my own decision about what I see, instead of hearing what the tour guide has to say or what other people thinks, least it might "contaminate" my initial opinion.
Usually when my whole tour group is awing over one scene I like to sneak away alone and look at something else and imagine the "feeling" of the place if I had stumbled on it instead of visiting on purpose. If it's some place historical I'd close my eyes and imagine the scene when the place is bustling with activity from that time period. If I was just a passerby at the time, what kind of atmosphere would the place have?

Indeed, I also share a dislike for touristy things and tend to avoid guides and the sheeple that follow them with their wowing and photographing on cue to what the establishment tells them is beautiful or important... What are museum pieces and guided tours through sanitized, sterile hollow rooms void of their true activity, if not necrophilia? I don't agree with that kind of "conservation", it is death through idealization. Usually the better things in travel are not those that are popular "tourist attractions". Where is the real sense of life, of adventure and discovery, if not getting lost in a city, in a great market amidst the life of the locals? Or just going to places no tourist would go, "uninteresting" places, "unsafe" places.

Oh yes. Yet more proof for the closet romantic INTP. We are very attuned to phenomenological matters because of introverted sensing.


Do you remember? Feel the wind on your face. The warmth of the fireplace. The shadow of the trees upon the blank wall. The smell of wet earth. The smoothness of skin. And the absolute silence of night. Ah... every moment is an experience to be fully alive in the present, to look forward to newer ones in the future and to be nostalgic about those now long past. The fragile impermanence of life onto which we hold on tenaciously, grasping for meaning.

Christian Norberg-Schulz would call it the genius loci, commonly rendered in english as "Spirit of the Place". Others would talk about Atmospheres. Others like to call it Placemaking...


This is what I love about architecture so much, and why I think the INTP philosopher-artist-scientist fits so much with its "architect" nickname. Though the resolution of the functional problems of constructing a building are quite satisfying (firmitas), the essence of architecture is not the building itself. The building-object, matter, is merely a means for, superfluously, accommodating human activities (utilitas), but most importantly, a means for the manipulation of the environment and human perceptions (sound, temperature, light, odor, texture), for the creation of what is identifiable space or "place" or "atmospheres", incorporating both what is natural and what is artificial into this sorcery of the senses. Because its true and transcendental purpose is to stimulate the human spirit, to remind us of the greatness of existence, to be a backstage for our lives, an evocative receptacle of our memories both private and collective, a materialization of our culture's values and dreams, and a sense of divinity or universal unity (venustas)...

Quite unfortunate that our increasingly banal civilization, and a majority of the architectural profession complicit, has relegated millennia of accumulated knowledge into the creation of entirely commercialized environments fueled only by the desire to market products and accumulate money instead of the unprofitable yet truly worthy goal of exalting the human spirit.

 

[Jennywocky]

The gist of the paragraph, yes, I strongly identify with, and it's what sets up the "bittersweet" component in my psyche: My Ne is always forward-looking and pinging off in new directions, motivating me to embrace change and exploration... but my Si anchor is always giving me a firm understanding of what I am losing, and so there is this constant push/pull bittersweetness of life... because I'm compelled to leave things behind but I have a very strong emotional sense of what I am leaving behind and what it means for me. If one or the other was not so strong, perhaps it would be easier.

I have very strong evocative "mood" memories of places. I just moved out of my city apartment last week into someone's suburban house, partly due to money reasons... and I started crying (then sat in my car alone and bawled before driving off) when I shut the door for the last time, hearing the click echo through the empty rooms. That place was mine for a year, I had expected to be there for a few years at the least along with my roommate... but our friendship was not as happy as we had hoped, so expectations had to change. Also, so many "firsts" for me occurred in the apartment, it was my main place of residence throughout the biggest life change I've made and will make ever, and despite it sometimes being a painful and confusion time, it was also a rich one, and it just hurt to shut a door on that chapter of my life. It's so weird to be so intellectually minded, yet have such a fixation on mood and ambiance. I am very attached to places, and my memories are far more about the mood and ambiance than about the details.

I get similar feelings when I go back to my parents' house where I grew up (I like to wander around the yard and look at the trees I had climbed and cornfields where I used to play as a child), or when I go back to my college, or back to houses I've lived in, or drive by the church where I was heavily involved in worship for ten years. Not just the buildings do this, but the people -- I miss particular communities and I remember the mood state of being with them.

I do not like to do things to change my mood from its current state. I like to play music that reflects my mood, rather than using music to modify it. I also remember the mood associated with certain books I've read -- not just projected by the books themselves, but also by where I read them, how old I was, my life/emotional state at the time. (Note: I also remember all the intellectual concepts the books triggered, my "thought" memory... but forget the concrete details.) Same thing with movies, I like movies that create an ambiance of emotion. The emotions exist as items to be picked up, examined, explored and even perhaps to immerse oneself within in order to feel them more richly.

This is what I love about architecture so much, and why I think the INTP philosopher-artist-scientist fits so much with its "architect" nickname. Though the resolution of the functional problems of constructing a building are quite satisfying (firmitas), the essence of architecture is not the building itself. The building-object, matter, is merely a means for, superfluously, accommodating human activities (utilitas), but most importantly, a means for the manipulation of the environment and human perceptions (sound, temperature, light, odor, texture), for the creation of what is identifiable space or "place" or "atmospheres", incorporating both what is natural and what is artificial into this sorcery of the senses. Because its true and transcendental purpose is to stimulate the human spirit, to remind us of the greatness of existence, to be a backstage for our lives, an evocative receptacle of our memories both private and collective, a materialization of our culture's values and dreams, and a sense of divinity or universal unity (venustas)...

QFT.

 

[INTPINFP]

Yeah myself, I tend to love looking at the scenery when I'm on a car ride. I hate looking at the same scenery over and over again, which is why I get bored really easily.