Stunning. I am absolutely blown away by this insightful and frighteningly accurate multifaceted portrayal of my type. There is so much insight here that I don't have time to comment on all of it.
As for myself, I would say that I am predominantly the Academic (I am a physics major enrolling in medical school in the Fall) followed by the Method Actor: but in truth there is some of each of these types in me, as in every INFJ. Many people often mistake me for an INTJ, but the truth is I'm INFJ to the core - my vision is always people-centric despite also having an interest in the scientific and the philosophical.
What you said about The Academic running Ti in real time as we speak is dead on. I have always felt that my need to speak in a perfectly coherent, grammatically precise, and concise manner is the one thing holding me back from being able to fully control the people around me. Sure, I am already exceptionally good at manipulating people in subtle ways that I can honestly say they have no awareness of; however, if I were able to let go of this Ti constraint upon my speech then I would be able to charm people to such an extraordinary degree that managing a cult, or getting in bed with practically whatever woman I wanted, would not seem very difficult. As it is, I can charm people, but a more accurate description for my current capacities along this line would be "influencing people outside their level of immediate awareness." My ex-girlfriend (in addition to considering me psychic, something I don't believe in for a second - she eventually gave up altogether in trying to lie to me) once told me that she could not feel when I was controlling her as it was happening, but that upon reflection weeks or months later (when the full context of my manipulations became clear) she could see the degree to which I had forced her behavior and attitudes in certain directions.
I'm currently in the process of getting an attractive girl to fall for me. I would say that the INFJ's ability to control such a wide variety of people comes from our capacity to see every individual personality with such a startling accuracy, and this versatile capacity allows us to titrate and direct our manipulations differently for every person. The most effective method is to use peoples' insecurities as road maps for your machinations. There is nothing more obvious to an INFJ than the insecurities of the people he's inspecting. Within five seconds of watching someone speak, I see an accurate picture of their most intimate social insecurities.
The girl I'm currently working on is considerably attractive and is sought after by nearly every man she knows. One's motives have a direct, intimate relationship to one's insecurities: for a simplified example, if a man is in business school and has an obvious desire to accumulate wealth, I know that this is tied to a material insecurity. In fact, I would go so far as to say that our insecurity is the single most important factor directing our behavior. This particular girl is insecure about her sex appeal (being attractive is not enough to soothe this sort of insecurity; she must constantly assure herself that men are enthralled with her, more so than the "next girl"). Thus, my approach in manipulating her into liking me is to be the one guy in the world who does not seem to stare at her as she walks by.
Last night, she and I and another girl and several other guys were at a bar. The other guys were generally trying all night to get her attention: tickling her, smiling at her, trying to chat her up, etc. This is typical, and it plays directly into her image of herself as a "man trap": it was enough to make her happy, soothing her insecurity, but in terms of making her attracted to the guys, it was as pitiful as swinging a sword at a fly.
I, on the other hand, paid a little attention to her, but most of the time just stared off, watched the TV, or whatever. I talked to the other girl some, but my target is socially adept enough to know that talking to the other girl might be an attempt at making her (the target) jealous.
My target rapidly began struggling for my attention. When she would say something flirty to me, I would continue (e.g.) looking at the TV for a second, then acknowledge her by turning to her and looking straight into her eyes and, with a subtle smile, respond to whatever she'd said. If she said something flirty, I would generally respond in a non-flirty tone.
The other guys started to get angry by how much she seemed to be striving for my approval. I saw each wondering, "What the fuck did he do to get that? He hardly even talked to her all night." At one point, she moved into my line of sight and started to lift up her shirt, exposing her stomach to me. Most guys would stare and wet their lips in an attempt to communicate to her "Yes, I am confirming that I do want that from you." I gave it a slow glance and then looked away and started to type on my phone.
It is important to not deny her all of the time: she will tire and eventually give up in frustration. It is critical to give her some approval some of the time, enough to make her attraction on a steady upward slope, but without crossing the threshold of giving her the ego climax she wants from you. Make it last until you can give her a real climax, and take yours too.
For anyone who wants to take advice regarding girls from this short monologue, understand that you must cater your approach to the insecurities of the particular girls; obviously, not all girls are like my target. If you want to develop a real relationship with the girl, eventually you must reach the point where you stop solely manipulating her based on her insecurities (of course, we all manipulate each other some of the time, so it will never completely end.) But you will quickly find that you lack genuine feelings toward her if you are engaged solely in control.
There is a general misconception of INFJs (especially on type forums) as gentle, overly-caring, emotional cases. The truth is, I am quite emotional on the inside, but I can control this tendency in public. INFJs who come onto forums to talk about other INFJs seem to be the type who are socially undeveloped or see themselves as social victims and want to hear other people talk about how gentle and sad they are (= ego stroke). Many INFJs, however, are selfish: since we grew up unable to open up to people and were especially hurt when we were rejected for our childhood shyness, we develop some anti-social traits. This is what leads us to manipulate people, a sort of social revenge via control, and our uncanny ability to read people makes this mostly easy. The only thing that holds us back from literally being so charming as to be able to take over the world is our inability to speak freely and think of what to say rapidly. I have always thought that if you could take an INFJ and keep his frighteningly good Ni ability to read people but give him an equally strong Fe, then he would be able to take over the world (a bit extreme but you understand). If I could trade some of the strength of my Ti and put it into an even stronger Fe (as well as bolster the Se a bit to fine tune the perfect facial microexpressions, vocal intonations, and physical mannerisms), I would be almost unstoppable. I would be able to say the perfect word at the perfect moment with the perfect amount of detail, humor, and metaphorical imagery, flavor it with the perfect amount of emotion backed with the perfect facial microexpressions, and wrap it all up into one generously powerful moment. The charm would be irresistible to anyone who was not aware of con artistry; the gullible would be swayed by the flick of my finger.
Well, have I stroked my own ego to climax enough in all of your faces? I certainly hope I have. I hope you liked that image.
I was a bit surprised to see an INTP read so precisely into what it is to be an INFJ. For anyone who is doubting the veracity of Adymus' analysis, put your doubts up your ass. This is a more accurate analysis than you will find elsewhere online (to my awareness). The sort of INFJ who goes online and posts about what it is to be INFJ is the type of social victim case who wants to cry about how understanding and deep he/she is. Yes, we are understanding, and we are intensely deep, but we are not always angels. Sure, some of us are. In truth, I do care about helping people: I'm not going into medicine solely for the respect and attention. The question is, how much is my tendency to care about people just another product of my self-deceiving insecurities - a way of getting myself to feel good about myself?
I practice it when I meet new people at work, and I kinda do it now without realizing it. Some reason, I like to know how everyone thinks. I'm just starting to realize it's probably because I don't readily trust people, and this is a great way of vetting them to see if they're trustworthy.
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