#intoverted thinking

Important Featuresof Dominant Introverted Thinking

Introverted Thinking types typically use their favorite judging function in their inner world, focusing it on concepts, experiences, and reflection. As a result they tend to

• Try to maintain the utmost objectivity

• Approach people and events as dispassionate observers

• Enjoy objective analysis for its own sake

• View criticism and disagreement as constructive rather than personal

• Welcome tough critiques that help them achieve accuracy and objectivity

• Unknowingly offend others at times by their objective criticism

• Appear unfeeling and disinterested in others

• Appear distant and even arrogant at times

Triggers for the Inferior Function

Introverted Thinking types report the following type-specific factors that are likely to provoke a grip experience:

Strong emotional expressions: Being around people who are expressing strong emotions can serve as a trigger for the inferior function in Introverted Thinking types, especially if others are criticizing their personal characteristics. The emotions that accompany short-term crisis situations may also trigger an inferior function episode.

Disconfirmation of Feeling values: As is the case for Extraverted Thinking types, ISTPs and INTPs can be pushed into a grip experience when their own strong values and feelings are not recognized or affirmed.

Insensitivity to Introversion needs: Others' insensitivity to an Introverted Thinking type's need for silence and solitude can also provoke the experience. They then experience others as invading their space. They may react with an uncharacteristic display of emotion or readily take offense at minor slights.

Forms of the Grip Experience

Just prior to falling into a grip experience, the dominant function of Introverted Thinking types may become exaggerated. They may be cutting and sarcastic in their judgments, with little or no intuitive data to back up their conclusions.

As this one-sided approach inevitably leads to further failure of their Thinking function, the Introverted

Thinking type's conscious control of differentiated thinking starts to diminish, and an internal struggle for control occurs. This may be largely unobserved by others but can eventually be seen in a slowness, vagueness, and distractibility that replace the sharp acuity we expect from the Introverted Thinking type. As dominant Introverted Thinking recedes into the background, inferior Extraverted Feeling takes over.

As a reminder of what Extraverted Feeling looks like in its adapted, dominant form, Table 8 describes what Extraverted Feeling looks like in dominant Extraverted Feeling types, as well as in Introverted Thinking types, for whom it is the inferior function. Notice the difference between conscious (dominant) Extraverted Feeling and unconscious (inferior) Extraverted Feeling.

Logic emphasized to an extreme: Introverted Thinking types in the grip of inferior Extraverted Feeling may become passionately and emotionally insistent on using logic, engaging in excessively logical, unproductive thinking. One ISTP feels compelled to "prove" the accuracy of his perception of things. There may be an obsessive quality to their thinking. An INTP said, "If a problem comes up that I'm unable to resolve, I work away at it anyway and can't let go of it, even if I know I can't solve it." Both ISTPs and INTPs report that they forget things, misplace or lose objects, and become generally disorganized and unproductive.

Hypersensitivity to relationships: In the grip of inferior Extraverted Feeling, Introverted Thinking types become increasingly hypersensitive to "feeling" areas. They valiantly try to hide their formerly alien concerns about being liked and appreciated. In this unfamiliar frame of mind, they over-interpret or misinterpret others' innocent comments or body language as evidence of disapproval, dislike, and rejection. Something as innocuous as someone failing to say hello upon entering a room may be taken as clear evidence to the Introverted Thinking type that she or he is disliked. Others are usually unaware of the altered, hypersensitive emotional state of the ISTP or INTP, as these types tend to provide minimal physical and verbal clues about their inner state.

Emotionalism: In the grip of inferior Extraverted Feeling, Introverted Thinking types may not differentiate between the expression of Feeling values and the expression of emotion. They may tearfully accuse others of ignoring them and taking them for granted. Their unfamiliar feeling side may come across as self-pitying, maudlin, and sentimental.

Said an ISTP, "I start to notice my feelings and become moody and impatient. I feel like I'm drowning in emotions."

An INTP described blaming others for not appreciating or loving her enough. Others' emotional reactions are also problematic for Introverted Thinking types in the grip of their inferior Feeling. They find others' strong emotional expressions intensify and magnify an already tense situation.

Ways of Returning to Equilibrium

Introverted Thinking types report needing others to respect their physical and psychological space when they are encountering a grip experience. Excusing them from some of their usual responsibilities can be quite helpful, since they typically are feeling unable to perform well. Perhaps the worst thing to do, however, when Introverted Thinking types are in the grip of their inferior Feeling, is to ask them how they feel. This is likely to push them further into the grip. Equilibrium is often accomplished via their auxiliary Sensing or Intuition; ISTPs acknowledge one or more important realities bearing on their situation; INTPs find a new idea or perspective that interrupts and modifies their exaggerated sensitivity or emotionalism.

New Knowledge

ISTPs and INTPs frequently mention that what they achieve from their very painful grip experiences is a new respect and appreciation for ways of knowing that are "illogical and unexplainable." They are thus more willing to acknowledge their own vulnerability to themselves and others. Grip experiences also make Introverted Thinking types aware of their own depth of feeling-which is always there, but rarely experienced and expressed.

Summary

Table 9 summarizes the important triggers for the inferior function, forms of grip experiences, ways of returning to equilibrium, and typical new knowledge gained from the experience for Introverted Thinking types.

A Grip Experience

The following episode was reported by an INTP However; ISTPs report similar responses to the kind of situation described here.

Unknown Depth of Feeling

Martha, an INTP, is divorced and has two sons. She had never had a close relationship with her elder son, who was quite undemonstrative and independent. But she was quite close to her younger son, whom she described as a Feeling type. When the older son went to live with his father; she was not upset and felt comfortable with it. However, several years later, the younger son decided to live with his father too. Even though she thought the move would be good for her son, she found herself increasingly distraught as his departure approached. She felt rejected and discounted. Her older son came to pick up his brother to bring him to their father's house. When she went out to greet him, Martha broke down sobbing. Her older son held her and comforted her. From that moment on, her relationship with her older son changed dramatically. They became close and intimate, rather than distant and aloof. Apparently, neither Martha nor her son were aware of the depth of feeling in their relationship. This moment of intense vulnerability that occurred when Martha's dominant function could not "solve the problem" permitted the welling up of genuine emotion stimulated by her normally unconscious Feeling function. By experiencing a part of herself she rarely acknowledged, Martha made an important and lasting connection with her son.