Can An INFJ Access Introverted Sensing?
In this episode Joel and Antonia answer a listener’s question about an INFJ’s access to the “Memory” (Introverted Sensing) cognitive function.
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We invite you to ask questions about personality types, relationships, and personal growth. Your questions may be addressed on our audio podcast “10 Minute Type Advice ”
In this podcast you’ll find:
- How does Memory (Introverted Sensing) affect those who don’t have it in their Car Model?
- Why types who use Memory (Introverted Sensing) are more influenced by their past.
- How do the four functions that aren’t in our Car Model influence us differently?
- What are the ways Sensation (Extraverted Sensing) users can become sabotaged by their past?
- Antonia’s closing advice to this question.
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3 comments
Thanks a lot for this great question and for the deep analysis answering it! :-)
As an INFJ I’ve also been asking myself this question for a long while now.
Thank you for the question and the response.
It’s like… I hate to admit this… In my mind, I feel a tad bit of distaste when some people tend to reference and emphasize on their past experiences. It is upon learning about personality types, I have better understanding about how the cognitive functions can surface as a behaviour.
Personally, I politely respect my past experiences and upbringing (almost because it is the right thing to do.. i don’t want to be perceived as ungrateful.) but have not really embrace the fact that my past experiences is a part of me, influencing me throughout my life.
Until i listened to this.
It is still a challenge to give it due credit because i just don’t feel its importance. It is going to take a shift… to embrace this.
Door is slightly ajar now.
Thankfully for this podcast.
This is a question I’ve never encountered in my own life as an INFJ, or from the INFJs I work with, but it’s got me thinking. While the Ni process is directed toward the future, it is a post-processing function— so it hones its future predictions by pattern recognizing the past. Over time, we develop an extensive body of patterns we’ve recognized from the past, and constantly apply these past-recognized patterns to the future.
It seems that some INFJs have a more conscious awareness of the past patterns they apply toward future scenarios, and some less. I wonder whether the asker may have less conscious access to the past patterns she’s recognized.
I can usually point toward the exact memory/memories I am drawing pattern application from for a current or future scenario.
On the other hand, I wonder if many INFJs internalize past patterns less consciously, and so their intuitions about the future seem more like gut instinct, disconnected from memory.
I think that INFJs can build more conscious awareness of the past by journaling (or recording in some way) their processing of recent experiences or learning. That way, there’s an external record to make up for our lack of Si.
The way I experience memory and the past is through a metaphorical three dimensional network of patterns I’ve recognized.
Attached to each pattern are the memories that provided the data for that pattern I recognized.
Imagine webs of lines connecting patterns and memories to other patterns and memories.
Instead of being what I imagine Si experiences more as a library of chronological books (memories) side by side, my memories are connected to each other non-linearly through the 3D network.
In fact, I just realized that my ability to sharply and viscerally recall the memories connected to the patterns is probably because of the Se way in which I first experienced the memory. I have body memory of the sensory sights, sounds, etc. of my memories, and I see them from first person perspective— looking up when I was young, or more level from adult memories.
This is where it gets tricky for me, because I understand that Se is a here-and-now function, so Si must be at play somewhere in the keeping of these visceral memories.
My memories also have visceral internal sensations attached, including the sensations my nervous system experienced during the memory. I’d love to hear more about whether this internal sensation memory process is more connected to Se or Si.