Monday, April 8, 2013

Reasons Why It Might Be Hard to Find Your Type



I wanted to post some reasons why people might find it hard to discover their type. All too often, type professionals and hobbyists try to scapegoat a certain type or preference for this difficulty. ("INFPs have trouble finding their type.") This provides an easy way to deflect tough questions and more quickly identify a type for the person. However, the issue is often more complex than that. Here are some big reasons why a person might find it hard to nail down their type:

(1)An Underdeveloped auxiliary

The most common reason the auxiliary would be underdeveloped is that you're young. Type theory suggests that we develop our auxiliary between the ages of 12 and 20. I personally think it can be as late as 24. That means, at least until high school or (for traditional students) early college, which way you will go is unclear. So, if you have dominant introverted intuition, Extraverted Thinking and Extraverted Feeling will "compete" for the supporting role of auxiliary. As most type descriptions are based on the premise that the dominant and auxiliary will both be fairly well developed, if you're younger, you may not have a well-developed auxiliary yet. This makes it difficult to determine your type.

(2)An overdeveloped auxiliary

As you get older, you may use your auxiliary so much that you confuse it with your dominant function. (You may or may not confuse it with your attitude--Extraversion or Introversion--as well.) Marie-Louise Von Franz describes this phenomenon in Psychotherapy:

I once, for example, knew a woman who was an introverted feeling type; that is, in the past she had been a feeling type, but in the stage at which we met, she had already switched the process to developing intuition and at that stage had as much trouble with her sensation as if she had been a genuine intuitive...for example, she became completely inaccurate about facts and had trouble relating to them, exactly as an intuitive does. She then stated with great emphasis that it had always been an error to call her a feeling type, for she was an intuitive, but she was wrong! (pg 131)

The key here is to search your memory. Diaries may be helpful in this. If that's not an option, and if you have a decent relationship with them, family can provide useful feedback. To find the dominant, you need to look at who you were earlier in life.

(3)A Long Time Wrangling with the Inferior Function

If your inferior function has been bubbling up to the surface, you may become confused between the dominant and inferior. I don't think, for example, that an ISTJ could confuse herself for an ENFP. It's too big of a switch. However, an ISTJ might still be confused between intuition and sensing, or in some cases ITJ versus IFP. There's usually one you handle more masterfully than the other, but if the inferior function is stuck in consciousness for too long, even one's own dominant function becomes a bit compromised.

The inferior is a lot like when you first start to learn a new language. You can say some basic phrases, but you miss a lot of the nuance. You can understand if people go slowly, but get kind of lost when you're with a group of native speakers. A similar thing can happen with the inferior function, except since we're talking about psychological type and not one's first language, there's more confusion that comes into play. You may start to wonder which one is the "real" conscious part of the personality.

(4)You Are A Distorted Type

If the early childhood environment interferes with type development, then you can sometimes break the typical developmental pattern and develop your auxiliary (usually in the same attitude as the dominant) first. In the same book as before, Marie-Louise Von Franz states:

Many people...you can tell their type at once, but others may be very difficult to define. Even the people themselves have trouble in finding out their own type, which is very often due to the fact that they are distorted types. This is not a very frequent occurrence, but it does happen in cases where someone would naturally have become a feeling type or an intuitive, but was forced by the environment to develop another function. Suppose a boy is born as a feeling type in an intellectually ambitious family. His whole surroundings will exert pressure upon him to become an intellectual, and his original possibility as a feeling type will be thwarted or despised. Usually in such a case, he is unable to become a thinking type--that would be a step too far--but he might well develop sensation or intuition, one of his auxiliary functions, so as to be relatively better adapted to his surroundings, for his main function is simply 'out' in the milieu in which he grows up.

I would imagine this is most likely when one's dominant function is atypical to their gender, particularly when the other family members have a dominant or auxiliary function that's opposite the child's dominant function. In a sense, I think a girl could be an INFP in a thinking family and feel misunderstood but not to the point where she develops her N and has trouble recognizing her F. A boy could be born INTP in a household where everyone has dominant or auxiliary Feeling because he's a boy, and well, to some extent, it's expected that he's going to be a thinking type. On the other hand, if the INTP in the feeling household is a girl or the INFP in the thinking household is a boy, something else entirely happens. First, the child seems like an anomaly to the family, because they aren't supposed to act that way. Second, society at large (in this case, school and other kids of their gender) reinforce this message. It's pretty hard to develop your dominant function under those conditions. Maybe if you have at least one family member in the home that supports your preference, you can withstand some of the social pressures but if you don't, unless you're fortunate enough to be born into a family that really knows a lot about type and is committed to supporting your preferences, the chance of a distorted type is a good one. It can make finding one's own type terribly confusing.

I'd add, I think that there's a very real extent to which you may internalize these sanctions against your main function. I often think that a lot of these "I'm an INFJ on an Ni/Ti loop" folks may, in fact, be INTPs that are still unconsciously trying to please their family by identifying with the tendencies they were persistently shamed for lacking as a child. If you think this could be you, I would strongly suggest reflecting on what sort of tendencies as a child were often rejected by your family but also which you found hard to completely repress. If you're independent from your family, then ask your friends, spouse, etc about their thoughts on your type (within reason). You may show more of your dominant function than you think.

5. Your Dominant Function is in the Same Attitude as the Auxiliary

This one I've mentioned before, but it is possible for someone to develop their auxiliary in the same attitude as the dominant. These people are "extreme introverts" or "extreme extraverts." Since the type descriptions assume balance, they likely won't fit. This should be pretty easy to tell when it's the case. If you find yourself saying stuff like "Well, I'm pretty sure my dominant function is Extraverted Intuition but I think my Feeling is Extraverted rather than Introverted" and you have a hard time unwinding and introverting when necessary, then you probably really are an ENFP.

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