Unlocking the Emotional Potential of the INTP.

[Sijov]

Thanks. I did not mean to imply that you thought art was meaningless. You'd just have to attribute meaning to art by a different method than mine.

 

[PhoenixofVindemiatrix]

I view/listen to art I think is beautiful, or that portrays my current emotional state.

 

[Minuend]

Remember the last time you got angry, now I mean ANGRY- the kind of anger that, if focused on one person, could tear the skin right of their bones and boil their organs on the spot. If my assumptions are correct, most INTPs have gone through this sort emotional hellfire at one time or another. When we become enraged in this way we seem to become a COMPLETELY different person- all our rationality and reason just disappears. We shred people apart with harsh words and leave people completely stupefied and frightened.

When the calm comes we become appalled, confused

As a result we continue the practice of restraining and controlling our emotions as to not let the floodgates burst ever again.

This exact thing has happened to me. It amazes me how reason just flies out the window and you don't care what or who you mess up. It can be very destructive. I didn't know I could be controlled so by my rage.

So yeah, scary stuff. Better be kept under control, yes.

 

[Myself]

I quite like unlocking my own emotional potential.

I've begun to say things more or less before I'm done thinking about them, whereas before I'd think about them longer and not get around to saying anything, since the moment would have passed even if I had concluded to share.

It always surprises me that I'm asking people stuff about themselves (without considering if it's too personal, etc, etc...) or sharing things about my life -- and that people respond so casually to them. In my mind I've just almost commited sacriledge. To them... I guess I just acted normally. Moreso than usual, perhaps, even.

 

[Dapper Dan]

I quite like unlocking my own emotional potential.

I've begun to say things more or less before I'm done thinking about them, whereas before I'd think about them longer and not get around to saying anything, since the moment would have passed even if I had concluded to share.

It always surprises me that I'm asking people stuff about themselves (without considering if it's too personal, etc, etc...) or sharing things about my life -- and that people respond so casually to them. In my mind I've just almost commited sacriledge. To them... I guess I just acted normally. Moreso than usual, perhaps, even.

This rings true to me. I enjoy various games and sports, and I'm constantly amazed by just how outgoing I can become when my T backs off and lets the N take charge.

It works with conversations as well, so long as I find the conversation/company interesting. Even so, I still struggle with pulling my conversational weight. I often realize well after the fact that I did nothing besides answer my partner's questions, and that they'd probably like me to engage them in return.

Oh well. =/

 

[ked]

NTs and generally the STs are more or less blocking the emotions. The F-dominants are not dominantly blocking them but they live in them, both the NFs and the SFs. To get more what the other has, one needs to be more with whatever one wants more. Just that we start with some dominants doesn't mean we need to be retarded all our lives.

 

[Enne]

Yeah, we've all been there. The solution is to learn to not really care very much. I mean you should care, in the sense that compassion is a rational course of action (or so I would argue), but learn not to really care on an emotional level. That shit'll just fuck you up. So many of people's problems could be solved if they just learned not to give a shit. Easier said than done, I admit (I think this generally occurs after experiencing severe extremes of an emotion and becoming desensitized to it, or with desensitizing due to age, perhaps).



See, here's part of the problem. People think that there are good emotions (joy, happiness, love, etc.) and bad emotions (fear, hate, wrath, etc.) when in fact all emotions are bad things. It's not just that they skew your judgment. I can't explain it fully right now (the epiphany isn't with me at the moment), but I'm more confident about this than I am about most things.

As an example, I almost started a thread once about the destructive power of fear and hope, and how hope is often viewed as a good thing when in fact it's equally as dangerous as fear. (fear and hope, in my view, sit at opposite ends of a spectrum [the spectrum being expectations]) Fear's destructive power is fairly obvious (I think), but what's always overlooked is that hope causes the same sort of emotional responses that fear does, it just does it in a different way (by indulging positivity instead of negativity). They're essentially the same emotion, temporarily useful (fear leading to avoiding danger, for example, or hope being used to alleviate suffering while awaiting a positive outcome), but if you let yourself experience them in anything beyond the slightest, most self-controlled way, that shit'll fuck you up and destroy your life. That's how it is with all emotions - temporarily useful if taken in the smallest of quantities, but otherwise to be avoided at all costs. They're like a poison, or a really horrible drug.

Damn, I really wish I'd actually started that thread now, when it was all still fresh in my mind. I was going to do it after I finished God of War 3, because so much of the dialogue focused on the concepts of Fear and Hope, and it really got me thinking about it (the game takes a very positive view of hope, "Hope is what makes us strong. ... It is what we fight with when all else is lost.", but it's wrong).

Anyway, my point is that all the so-called "positive emotions" are like that. They're no better than the "negative" ones, they're just more seductive and deceptive. So really, why should we want to unlock our emotional potential? We should try and find ways to cut that shit out at the source, IMO. Or control and limit them for our own uses, but that seems dangerous, like using performance enhancing drugs or something (I'm reminded of Bruce Lee's statement, "It needs emotional content," which I think is true, but it's basically using them in dilute form for that kind of enhancement - still very dangerous).

I realize I might sound a little crazy saying all this, but I really think it's true. So let me reiterate:

Then what motivates you? The ability to have the desire to do anything is going to be based in some emotional need or response. Once you stop doing anything that is required for your survival / existing, you are bringing your emotions into play. The fear and hope that are espoused in these games are part of setting the scene and are also very real components of battle, war, progress, political policy. You claim that you are going to seal away the emotions or taper them / carefully measure them or whatever, but the desire to do anything, even this is going to be motivated by some sense of value that you place on appearing a certain way - and this value would then be based on what how you feel about seeming cool, calm, rational, whatever.

If you have any sort of desire, can you really distill it to some logical function?

I also don't understand what the OP means by unleashing creativity by unlocking them - is that supposed to be the ability to capture a strong feeling and express it in the manner that you wish?

I think when people post that they'd want to seal away a feeling what they really mean is that they'd want a greater sense of balance in what they're feeling? Sounds like casting the demons back is where the floodgates problem is stemming from to begin with.

Being a thinker, I never feel anything but win. Feelers are the ones who get depressed. I'm good, lol.

Maybe Fi dominants. In my experience, knowing how to work with Fe means that you can navigate your feelings in a way that's much more socially conducive. In Fe dominants I just see people who can get their desires out in the open in a way that expresses what is important to them or how they want to respond to what's expected of them, versus a shadow Fe's tendency to only burn themselves and anyone around with communicating "this is significant to me, even if it might not make much sense to you, or even to myself'.