the possibility for change

[shoeless]

okay, i am a full-fledged intp. everything on this site describes me to a tee. or whatever.

like many intp's with the increased likelihood for depression and whatever, i am not completely happy with myself. specifically the i-t part.

so i was pondering this in the shower today; it's a lot to do with the nature vs. nurture argument, which i have conflicting views on (fuck my logic!). are people capable of changing their personality type? or is it somehow ingrained in us?

like, given an extreme change in habitat, i just wonder if i could somehow become an e rather than an i, or develop my f to the point where it overthrows my t. if that makes sense. and i know that, for example with e and i, it's not necessarily a matter of your actions but rather a matter of where you draw your energy/how your thoughts are processed, but what if we could learn to draw our energy from a different source? i would be a perfectly happy entp i believe, or even an enfp.

i know people can "learn" to become more social, but that doesn't necessarily mean they are ~changed people~, but rather it means they have learned a new ability. is it possible to fundamentally change aspects of our personalities?

i honestly don't know. i'd like to hope it is, but, i don't know. throughout the various stages of my life, knowing i am an intp, i've taken the test multiple times from multiple sources and always gotten the same result, regardless of how my social life at the time has functioned.

if my personality is a result of my nature, somehow genetically passed down, i think i'm fucked. if my personality is a result of nurture, how i've developed through my environment, i may have hope yet. but most likely it is a result of a combination of the two, so i just don't know.

i feel like i'm rambling. but anyway. thoughts?

 

[Invoke Ninja's True Power]

I think the INTP personality type would have been a real boon in the days of the hunter/gatherer societies. We would probably have been beneficial to hunts and coming up with new hunting technologies.

 

[Enne]

I don't think so. Unless you were mistyped from the beginning, your personality would remain the same. MBTI doesn't measure personality as much as it does cognitive preference, and I think your best bet would be to learn more about your natural tendencies, and then try to develop the functions you were weaker in.

Since the difference between introversion and extroversion is largely whether you glean your energy/stimuli from internal or external sources, I doubt you could morph into an extrovert, unless you were one to begin with (ref: learnt introversion). The split between thinking and feeling is largely your final decision making function; do you prefer to base things primarily on your logic or gut feelings? This may be easier to reconcile over time, but again, the neurological pathways that your brain has always followed when evaluating new information cannot be instantly rewired.

That being said, why do you want to grow away from your personality? Are you trying to access a higher part of yourself / maximize your innate abilities, or are you trying to develop your weaker or shadow functions?

 

[Invoke Ninja's True Power]

Not recommending any of them but the only way I know of to change introvert into extrovert is use of drugs that bring out extroverted tendencies. Possibly strong electromagnetic fields applied to specific areas of the brain but this technology as not very well developed/understood. I prefer the way I am. I would have no insight or knowledge that I do if I was extrovert/always caring what everyone else thinks. Fuck the World, I like the way I am.

 

[nickgray]

is it possible to fundamentally change aspects of our personalities?

Nope, I don't think so. We are what we are, can't change the nature of a man.

On the other hand you can try to temporarily alter your mind by consuming drugs, and Ninja suggested. Try alcohol, it can really bring out the "social guy" in you. If you don't have much experience with it it'll probably take some time to get used to it's side effects and concentrate on its "socialness" effect. But, to be honest, I don't really recommend it. Alcohol is addictive and it's hard to get off this stuff - first you're drinking to feel good, then you're drinking 'cause you're bored, then you're sipping your 4th beer in a desperate attempt to relieve hangover from 4 days of drinking... not a pretty thing.

 

[James Black]

I find I'm gradually more and more "extroverted" so to speak. It may just be the effect of college and my friends but I find more joy in going to some friends' parties, drinking, chatting, (in most instances, playing halo/rock band), etc, than I previously thought I would. In fact, I find more and more, questioning why I don't do more "extroverted" things I enjoy, such as game nights (halo parties are win, admit it!), or a movie night, or something as common as bowling, putt putt, roller blading, or laser tag.

I read somewhere that your type can change, but it doesn't seem to make sense that your functions would change like such. All in all, however, you have to question everything, even the MBTI. Can it really depict what and who you are properly? Just because you're an INTP doesn't mean you are now, or ever will be, bound by the definition of an INTP, locked into a box with only a set group of actions and thoughts... So, in short... I'll be the first to say "It just might be possible to change your type", or have your type change over time. Would you want to, however?

 

[Ermine]

I think that your personality is a fundamental part of you, but it's just a starting point. We have our positive and negative traits, but so long as we develop the positive traits and learn in time to strengthen our weaknesses, the sky's the limit. Of course you can change.

In fact, I find more and more, questioning why I don't do more "extroverted" things I enjoy, such as game nights (halo parties are win, admit it!), or a movie night, or something as common as bowling, putt putt, roller blading, or laser tag.

All of those things sound awesome. For me, what really drains me is genuinely caring about people I don't know and trying to make conversation with them. If it was just me and a couple close friends, I could do the aforementioned extroverted activities all the time. Never mind. Scratch that. I still need a long recuperation period. Even going to school (or any area with lots of people) and talking to hardly anyone can be draining sometimes.

 

[Damaged.Goods]

Show my your ''personality''. I'll tell you can if you can change it.

Tell me how your ''personality'' was built. I'll tell you how to knock it down.

Describe the component of your ''personality''. I'll tell you which parts to replace.


If you can't, I'd say then you don't know enough to determine what you can and can't change. ''Personality'' is just broad synonym for ''we really have no idea what's going on here''. Me neither. Perhaps some traits stay constant or are variable throughout people's lives, but that doesn't mean that there isn't great variability or stability beyond limited areas already empirically measured. Or that there isn't great variable regions of human experience which can't be measured. All the seeming wisest teachings I have read suggest this:

Our modern concept freedom is misleading because are embodied beings whose thoughts and actions are determined by structure of our embodiment. Modern concepts of freedom seem to have implicit in them a lust for some kind of ultimate essential freedom from the confines of body. Modern ideas of ability to change oneself also share this element in common.

If one leaves behind this kind of angelic concept, one is left with embodied self. One may not be able to achieve this perfect, abstract, God-like ''freedom'' to change into whatever at will, but one can surely achieve harmony within oneself and wholeness as determined by the way oneself is physiologically oriented.

Think of it in terms of animals: a strong tiger is fulfilling its purpose. A weak tiger is degenerate and not fulfilling its purpose. This isn't matter of objectivity, it's just clear to the intuition that one is doing as fulfills its purpose and results in wholeness and the other isn't.

The same applies on more complex level for human beings. We may not be able to be like every other type of person any more than we can be like every other type of animal, because what we are is determined by deep structures. However, we can surely fulfill our purpose and achieve our wholeness. Aside from such basic structures as determine what kind of form our wholeness should take if we are to be fulfilled, there is also so much room for subtle variation and choice of how these structures work together and are expressed.

In modern world people tend not to take into account the great growth and maturing that can occur over a lifetime. A human being is not a thing that can either be changed or must remain static. A human being is a developing growing process that unfolds in infinitely subtle and complex ways. We, unlike say a rose, have ''conscious'' aspects of us which can interact and act in such a way as to effect how this process unfolds. Maybe we can't change some fundamental aspect of what the process is that we are, but we can surely have a great effect and find meaning in this.

So I think that the question of whether we can really ''change'' isn't that important. It's more important to work out how we can fulfill our individual wholeness in the way that suits are individual deep structures of physiology and psychology. I think striving to be something else other than that is a kind of sickness resulting from not realising the possibility of fulfilled wholeness. Even in our individual wholeness though, there is infinite complexity and ability to interact with oneself and determine what one becomes. It is no more a limitation than the petals of a rose are a limitation upon its beauty or the claws of a tiger a limitation upon its ferocity and strength. A tiger wishing for 12 claws and neglecting to learn how to use its own is simply sick.

The same is true with humans, I think.