PHQ | QUESTIONS: Are INFJs The Rarest Type?

24 comments

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  • Steven
  • October 30, 2015 at 3:16 am

  Sorry Nora, that is an awful experience that you’ve endured, and I can relate to a lot of it. I came from a bit of a rough childhood myself, though I won’t get into it.

  Often times when I ponder my past and find myself wishing something had been different, I wonder what sort of person I would be today had I not been through every single trial my past had given me? I know I have a lot of room for improvement, and sometimes comparing myself to others leaves me feeling inadequate, but I still like myself on a fundamental level. I also love my children and my wife, and I wonder if any deviation in the past had occurred, would I still have my wife and children exactly as they are?

  Regretting the past is something my mind drifts upon often, but I always end up coming to the same conclusion at the end of it: I wouldn’t change a thing.

  I hope you feel the same about yours, and I’m sorry, I don’t mean to trivialize anything you’ve said, I just hope you’re at peace with it.

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  • Meliss
  • October 30, 2015 at 1:28 am

  It’s not surprising at all. In fact I remember Antonia saying something about INFJs typing as T as being common especially if there was some early trauma. We have a need for a protective wall and sometimes we build it up a little too thick.
  I too am better off listening to my intuition than trying to be Spock though.

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  • Steven
  • October 30, 2015 at 1:23 am

  I have a theory that people show more of their introverted functions online than offline, and so people don’t really represent themselves as well online at times.

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  • Steven
  • October 30, 2015 at 1:06 am

  Oh, and another question I try to ask myself often: “Who is benefiting from my being critical?”

  Usually, my answer is nobody, and so as hard as it may be, I resist the urge to continue, although I might shift into a line of thought questioning where the urge came from.

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  • Steven
  • October 30, 2015 at 12:56 am

  I was going to post something really long about my experience with MBTI and MBTI derivative personality profiles, but I am recalling the ‘not turning the comment section into a tome’ comment I read a while back, and I thought I might heed that in advance, hehe.

  Both Joel and Antonia made so many excellent points here in regards to the personality type community in general, but the one I wanted to comment on (because I struggled with it myself for a while) is about getting protective over ones type.

  I am absolutely guilty of having felt this urge, though I have always suppressed it by keeping in mind that there is another person at the end of that comment, and you have no idea exactly how much personal value they have placed in their identification to that type. Being critical about it with them is just going to make us both feel bad in the long run, so I just keep in mind that they are doing what they need to do to get by. If they are happy with where they are at, then that is good for them, if they aren’t they are eventually going to question themselves seek clarification on their own.

  The purpose of a lot of those communities is to socialize, have fun, and share experiences. They are not structured in a way that the information can/will ever really be truly reliable, and so the serious critical hat needs to be set aside while in those places.

  I’ve heard someone say before that the moment you lose the ability to find humor in a situation is the moment that you need to take a step back from it and collect yourself, which is a policy I have been trying to hold myself to. It’s a work in progress for me still.