An acquaintance of mine recently suggested I was an INTP, like Carl Jung, and I wanted to say why I’m an INFJ, and why Carl Jung is not an INTP. INTPs value Diagnostics (TP) Creativity (NP) Philosophy (IN) and Perfection (IT). They project a set perspective or viewpoint on reality and they study the world from this perspective searching for perfect, verifiable, accurate knowledge about the world. The INTPs are constantly turning everything they see into succint, sharp, logically testable data, everything is 1010101, true or false, false or true. They listen and they check for errors and problems in everything. They test your rules and your information to see if your system or strategy is working. They think of counter-moves, like a chess player, making moves, back and forth, tactically.
INFJs value Ideology (FJ) Vision (NJ) Philosophy (IN) and Purity (IF). Purity is often confused with perfection. Purity is about the most pure essence of something, the most authentic form of something, the ideal form, if you’d say so. Plato valued the ideal forms, the purest essence of things, and searched for what the essence of a chair, an idea, a person, was, if you stripped away everything that wasn’t fundamental to that person or thing.
The IFs seek the archetypes, the essences, the ontological “why” that drives our decisions and actions and who we are. This pursuit can make us appear scientific, but we’re not. We’re just trying to look deeply into how humans work, we’re not trying to test what is true or false about a person, simply what is real, and what is unnecessary. In truth, science and puzzles don’t tell the story of my heart, my understanding is not scientific, but artistic. I understand like a writer understands, not like an academic. The same goes for Carl Jung. He was able to profoundly understand people but not from being a scientist but from being more like a biographer of the human mind. His understanding of us was mostly based in feeling, not in thinking.
Beyond this, we are visionaries, not catalysts (NP) – I am constantly formulating a big picture perspective and I am always fitting all ideas together into a steady stream or into a system, where an INTP is more interested in mapping out all kinds of data and new possibilities, I am primarily interested in possibilities relevant to my vision. Beyond this, I am a deeply ideological type, interested in reaching and connecting my thoughts and visions to the people. Which is also why I have written over a thousand blog posts and made hundreds of videos where I communicate my beliefs to others – I like to make a positive impact on other’s when I can.
I get people repeatedly telling me that I am an ESFJ, ESFP, ENTP, INTP, INTJ or ENFJ, and I really don’t mind, I wanted to take this chance to tell you all what an INFJ is like and help people who are unsure if they are INTP or INFJ find out their type. If you want to read more about INFJs or INTPs, you can do so here.
