Nice! My exposure started in 1994 when I found a downloadable test, which put me at INFP. I became heavily involved in an INFP mailing list online and explored what I could talking to many others of similar temperament, to where we were similar and differed and did further reading in whatever books I could find in my local libraries.
During that period of time, which was probably five or so years, I also challenged myself to “break the test”, by transforming into the other 15 types, answering as they do.
A few types were a challenge, but eventually I did it and was able to take the test as anybody. I did it not to defraud but as to understand other types, particularly ones that baffled me, such as some of the extroverted and sensor types.
It helped and I think that kind of thing is totally within the character of INFP, to try to understand the other types .I think Briggs Myers was INFP if I remember right.
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YES! Mother daughter, that’s right. It’s been a long time since I studied but I was completely wrapped up into it for quite some time.
I never found other tools such as the Enneagram to have the kind of practicality as the MBTI does and none of them “grabbed me” the way it did.
I love that it’s the kind of thing that people frequently discover on their own to the point where one can say “I’m INFP” online and there is a good chance that many other people in a group will also know their types.
I can remember when it was rare. This is one of the things I love about internet discourse.
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Thank you – I like that perspective. I can already see in myself how the I/E shift you make works and works well.
As a boy I was diagnosed with generalized anxiety disorder. At 11, I was taught self-hypnosis, biofeedback, guided meditation. It was more primitive in the early 1980s (I’m 48 now) than it is now but it helped.
Since having my genetic work done and putting it through a thing that links together genes with scientific work done ( http://codegen.eu ) I discovered that I have genes that _could_ be related to: ADHD, Autism, Anxiety, Introversion, Schizophrenia , all of which I noticed would show up in clusters around similar genes, which tells me they’re all in the same “family”.
One thing that ADHD, Autism, Anxiety, Introversion, Schizophrenia have in common is exactly what you talk about for Introversion: rooted in in-born instinct, or taken from an inverted perspective, did or could not learn much of the pragmatic externalizing or simply, social skills, where you suppress your in-born instincts for pragmatic reasons involving other people.
I could not learn certain social things as I find much of it “mind reading” which I can’t do. Theory-of-Mind would call me “mindblind” but I don’t think it’s that but rather that I need to evaluate each person or situation individually and cannot generalize to a broad social assumption easily.
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Oh, that’s the overlapping reports of scientists doing science things, trying to match up genes with traits. I’m not schizophrenic although there are aspects that are relatable, as if deeply submerged but in there somewhere. For example, when I am in large noisy groups for too long I can find my identity slipping and it is a very uncomfortable feeling of losing self-control, as I was prone to ‘outbursts’ as a boy where I was “inconsolable” (they couldn’t reach me) – and that reality is always just below the surface.
That is a beautiful cover and I love how you express “lives in pairs” vs “lives in groups”. It also has a nice mathematical ring to it.
I have bookmarked your book and if I purchase it I’ll be sure to let you know
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