INTP

Any Jungian Analysts in my readership?

Hope not.

Otherwise, I can expect a deluge of 'Au Contraire, Mon Confrere!' emails. Y'see, I'm about to run roughshod over their sacred ground. The topic on which I'd like to edgimicate y'all is the Myers-Briggs Personality Profile System.

I was tested to determine my Myers-Briggs profile some twenty years ago, when I was pounding on the door of yet another seminary. It was part of the discernment process of this particular affiliation, and it went down over the course of a weekend long retreat. Anyone similarly situated has probably undergone much the same thing. And, many B-schools are now doing the same thing.

Not to say that it's the be-all-and-end-all. It's something better horoscopes, but it's still an attempt by we puny humans to take what William James described as the 'blooming, buzzing confusion' that is reality and put chunks of it into labeled boxes.

But I think it's really cool.

It has as its basis Carl Jung's archetypal ideas on personality. It sets up along a continuum four aspects of the human personality:

• From whence we derive our psychic energy
  
• How we gather information about the world
  
• What we look to to guide us
  
• How we come to closure in decision making
  

The extremes for these categories are as follows:

Introverted (I) --- Extroverted (E)
Intuitive (N) --- Sensate (S)
Thinking (T) --- Feeling (F)
Judging (J) --- Perceiving (P)

An extrovert derrives energy from interactions with others. He finds being alone to be draining. On the other hand, an introvert finds dealing with other people to sap his energy, and will need to be alone afterwards to recharge his batteries.

A sensate person is grounded in the five senses. An intuitive person, on the otherhand, lives primarily in his head.

A thinking person figures things out, weighs options, makes lists, does cost-benefit analyses. A feeling person has no need for any of that. He goes with his gut.

A judging person (poorly named), feels stress until he comes to closure on a decision. However, a perceiving person (again, poorly named) wants to postpone closure as long as possible.

Okay. So let's say we have two roommates. One is an INTJ, and the other is an ESFP. They plan an evening out going to the movies. To start off with, both of them arrives home after a horrendous day at work. INTJ needs some time alone to recover. But ESFP wants to sit his roommate down and tell him--in detail everything that went on to recharge his batteries.

So what movie will they see. INTJ has gone through the papers and read all the reviews. His studies have provided him with a good grasp of what's showing that's good, and what's bad. But ESFP has a strong feeling about what movie is going to be 'good,' although he can't point to any specific reason he feels so strongly about that.

They have very different movies in mind. They do their best to make a decision. INTJ wants to decide before they leave the house, but ESFP would much rather they walk to the theater, see what movie is up next, and just let fate decide.

They go to the movie. ESFP was impressed by the special effects, the cinematography, the set designs, the musical score, and the like. INTJ couldn't tell you what the lead character was wearing at any given point in the movie. However, he can discuss endlessly the interplay of symbolism and the philosophical ideas behind the script.

Clear?

Good.

There are sixteen possible personality types that can be derrived from this system. The test I took all those years ago indicates that I am an INTP, an Introverted, Intuitive, Thinking Perceiver. I build intricate houses of cards in my head, but I'm not very good at realizing them with actual decks of cards. I prefer to work on my alone, and according to my own timeframe.

Now here's the thing that makes Myers-Briggs really cool.

Figured out which of the sixteen types you are? It's tough, huh? One of the things that makes it tough is that we contain within ourselves the opposite of ourselves, which Jung called 'the Shadow.' Our shadow-self comes out when we play, and when we're under extreme stress. And, at the point in our life when our own mortality becomes a certainty to us, we flip. The shadow emerges and takes over.

Far out, huh?

What does all of this have to do with S/M? Wellll... I very much tend to live in my head. But not when I'm doing S/M. Uh uh. Then it's all about sight, smell, sound, touch, and taste. And that feeling I have of becoming more and more myself? I bet that's the Shadow.

Or... y'know... not.

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