INTPs and self harm?

[Taniwha]

I apologize if this thread has been done before.

Are INTP's more prone to self-harming than other MBTI types?

Is depression (or other mental disorders) more common amongst INTP's than other types?

What about INTP's and suicide, is it more common to see this happening with INTP's than other types?

 

[Anthile]

I apologize if this thread has been done before.

Are INTP's more prone to self-harming than other MBTI types?

Why would they?

Is depression (or other mental disorders) more common amongst INTP's than other types?

There aren't any studies or statistics available to make a qualified statement about this.

What about INTP's and suicide, is it more common to see this happening with INTP's than other types?

See above.

 

[Puffy]

A friend told me for depression NFs were most prone, followed by NTs, SFs and STs, but I am unsure what research that is based on. The introverted type being more prone than the extraverted.

 

[snafupants]

Relationship of Myers Briggs type indicator personality characteristics to suicidality in affective disorder patients.

Conclusion: "Compared to the group of non-suicidal affective disorder patients, suicidal affective disorder patients were significantly more Introverted and Perceiving using ANCOVA analyses, and significantly more Introverted alone using Chi Square analyses."

Suicide Ideation and Personality Characteristics among Gifted Adolescents.

Conclusion: Non-significant differeence between gifted and non-gifted and rates of suicidal ideation. Female students showed higher levels of suicidal ideation and "female students exhibiting introversion-perceiving types held higher levels of suicide ideation than those with other types." However, an aggregate of all the significant predictive factors (e.g., introversion versus extraversion) accounted for a small percentage of variance in suicidal ideation.

n.b., These studies combine poor methodology and lackluster results in an impressive way. Also, they only look at extreme populations - affective disorder and gifted individuals. The takeaway point for the second study is do not be female, smart, and INTP, if that can be avoided...

 

[Lobstrich]

I'm not prone to "self-harming" I think it's weak.

But then again, there are always X's amongst the ticks. So I don't really know if INTP's are more prone to such actions, to be honest.
I doubt it though, it's illogical.

 

[SpaceYeti]

I think self-harming is sexy.

So I'm fucked in the head. You can't sue people for it, you can only shake your head and facepalm in disgust. I'm okay with that. Facepalm away.

 

[Fukyo]

This kind of thinking a common fallacy.

For several reasons.

An observed trend in one piece of population, doesn't necessarily have it's causes within something intrinsically related to INTPs or the INTP psyche.

These forums tend to attract people who are in some way troubled; maybe they are lonely, depressed, or just looking to find a place of kinship after prolonged periods of real or perceived isolation from their peers or humanity at a higher level.

Specifically talking about depression, it causes us to get more withdrawn and introverted, more contemplative and analytical in the purpose of problem resolution, hence you will find that many people tend mistype themselves as a consequence of this, which leads me to my second point.

You would be mistaken to acknowledge most trends you spot on these forums as manifestations of a particular type, as a lot of people tend to not belong to the type they claim.

Lastly, we pretty much have a shortage of information to make qualified conclusions about this, and most people will use anecdotal information, which is a lot less than ideal, and can be outright misleading, taking into consideration possible mistypes and differences between individuals.

My assumption is that things like individual brain physiology, chemistry and external stimuli you are subjected to are more relevant where these kinds of disorders are discussed.

Which isn't to say that a correlation stemming from your cognitive function doesn't exist; this apparatus does influence how you perceive external stimuli and react to it, its shortcoming is that it's simply less reliable than looking elsewhere at this point, and it doesn't quite get to the root of the matters yet, because it's really more of a descriptive method.

All of this assuming you're after pinpointing the exact causes of your ailments.

I don't think any type is inherently predisposed to any kind of pathology. Cognitive functions are neutral in an isolated context. The pathology happens as a product of various elements, and if you're using cognitive functions to figure this out, you're going to have settle with speculation.

 

[Reluctantly]

For the sake of detail, I want to add to Fu'kyo' and her good summary by saying that with MBTI it is not studied or viewed as an observationational science by most who use it and is rather more an anecdotal one. With this in mind, severely depressed often test INFP despite the fact that their jungian cognitive functions do not match that from an objective scientific standpoint. This makes the INFP type look more vulnerable to mental illness than that type by cognitive functions really is.

 

[indigofireflies]

I used to that -- helluva lot. I don't know if they're more prone to or not? I think it's more of an individual thing. A study would be intriguing to see, nevertheless.

 

[echoplex]

I think people who self-harm are more likely to believe they're INTP, or even more likely INFP or INFJ. Heaven forbid an ESJ engage in a perfectly natural coping mechanism.

You could just as easily argue that EFJs, for example, care more about connections with other people and thus have 'more at stake' in that area, thus leading to a greater potential for self-harm if they fail in that area of life. I'm not saying that's correct either, but it's a similar kind of thinking to the 'INs are lonely/misunderstood/detached and depressed because of it' line of thought.

Actually, it may just be my own distorted and highly subjective view of INTPs, but I really don't see them as the type to self-harm much at all, to the extent that I'd actually see them as less likely to do it than most other types. I tend to see INTPs, perhaps wrongly, as cool, laid-back, and slow to act out or hastily seek relief for emotional ills, in part because they often aren't even aware of such things. Though, perhaps once the INTP does become aware of it, they may overreact in the form of self-harm? I dunno, I'm trying to see how people might see INTPs that way 'cause I really don't. If anything, I tend to think of dominant feelers as being more prone to it. Though, as stated earlier, any such thinking is speculative at best.

 

[Lobstrich]

This kind of thinking a common fallacy.

For several reasons.

An observed trend in one piece of population, doesn't necessarily have it's causes within something intrinsically related to INTPs or the INTP psyche.

These forums tend to attract people who are in some way troubled; maybe they are lonely, depressed, or just looking to find a place of kinship after prolonged periods of real or perceived isolation from their peers or humanity at a higher level.

Specifically talking about depression, it causes us to get more withdrawn and introverted, more contemplative and analytical in the purpose of problem resolution, hence you will find that many people tend mistype themselves as a consequence of this, which leads me to my second point.

You would be mistaken to acknowledge most trends you spot on these forums as manifestations of a particular type, as a lot of people tend to not belong to the type they claim.

Lastly, we pretty much have a shortage of information to make qualified conclusions about this, and most people will use anecdotal information, which is a lot less than ideal, and can be outright misleading, taking into consideration possible mistypes and differences between individuals.

My assumption is that things like individual brain physiology, chemistry and external stimuli you are subjected to are more relevant where these kinds of disorders are discussed.

Which isn't to say that a correlation stemming from your cognitive function doesn't exist; this apparatus does influence how you perceive external stimuli and react to it, its shortcoming is that it's simply less reliable than looking elsewhere at this point, and it doesn't quite get to the root of the matters yet, because it's really more of a descriptive method.

All of this assuming you're after pinpointing the exact causes of your ailments.

I don't think any type is inherently predisposed to any kind of pathology. Cognitive functions are neutral in an isolated context. The pathology happens as a product of various elements, and if you're using cognitive functions to figure this out, you're going to have settle with speculation.

Very good 'summary'!