by Conscious Reminder
INFJ stands for Introversion, Intuition, Feeling, Judging in the Myers-Briggs personality types indicator test. INFJs are usually the rarest types and “old souls”.
Though it is considered that they occupy 1% of the total population, but if tests are run majority of the people turn out to be this type. It is also very confusing to know this type because they seem like a combination of every other type, if you read up.
I am going to write an anecdotal account of the characteristic features specific to INFJs type in order to make it clearer. The information is taken from Carl Jung, Isabel Briggs-Myers, and other typologists who’ve put in a lot of study and time to clarify the different types. Also, you need to understand that this information is well-researched but not absolute or completely exhaustive. If you have further queries on it, feel free to address them.
Misconception #1 – INFJs are Extremely Sensitive and Emotionally Intense
INFJs aren’t wired to have an understanding of their emotional states. Also, they are intuitive first. They are much more focused on analyzing the bigger picture, the long-term goals and the future. For them, picking up on others’ emotions is much easier than their own. They are almost always in confused state. They aren’t fully emotionally laden though.
Misconception #2 – INFJs are Extremely Detail-Oriented
There are numerous memes on INFJs about their OCD driven orientation for details. Yes, they are organized and very much interested in the nitty gritty of stuff. However, they aren’t mad about it. Moreover, they tend to gloss over details and in the lookout for bigger picture, may even overlook concrete details.
Misconception #3 – INFJs are Ambiverts
They have extraverted feelings and may, therefore, be termed to be ambiverts as opposed to introverts. Carl Jung himself said of INJs, “As their main activity is directed inwards, nothing is outwardly visible but reserve, secretiveness…uncertainty, and an apparent groundless embarrassment…When anything does come to the surface, it is generally an indirect manifestation of the inferior and relatively unconscious functions…Accordingly they are mostly underestimated, or at least misunderstood.” They are purely introverts, unless seriously motivated to be otherwise.
Misconception #4 – INFJs Are Psychic
They are masters of pattern recognition. It is easy to confuse this with them being labeled as ‘psychic’. They rather gather a lot of information about various things via their inferior function Se. They do not react to information instantly like the Se-dominant types do, but they collect all the sensory data in jumbled form. They can easily sense the ‘brewing storm’ et al. their intuitive powers are always on.
Misconception #5 – INFJs Know You Better Than You Know Yourself
No. Period. They may have special qualities to sense certain set of patterned behavior but they do not have complete knowledge about a person.
