Eight Functions

I am beginning to observe a whole personality perspective based on the Myers-Briggs typology. As an INTP, I recognize that certain cognitive functions are dominant in my daily life and others are less exercised. In dreams, the Dreammaker is often suggesting reflection upon behavior that favors one function to the expense of others: and on occasion, the Dreammaker will also suggest a solution to that one-sidedness, whether through strengthening the opposite or loosening the dominant.

I have found that the feeling function for me does not have to do with emotion itself, but with value and deep meaning — the symbolic life. And the thinking function for me does not have to do with thought itself, but with orientation and real-world direction — the waking life. I have found that judgement is about what “should be” done — morality — , and perception is about what “could be” done — possibilities. Over the past two months, my shadow work has been geared toward (1) healing a deep debt of the personality in the feeling function: way too much literal cognition, way too little appreciation of the symbolic; and (2) toward softening the projections the judgement function is making onto what is “right and wrong” for others.

I am also exploring the different ways that perception and judgement combinations show up in my life:

ETJ: I can see an unhealthy use of this function in my personality with too much emphasis on effectiveness, goals, competition, and external markers of success. This can make me prone to impatience and steamrolling others. This shows up for me in a healthy way in that I have a plan, I have goals, and I hold myself accountable to those goals.

IFJ: This tends to be an underused function for me: only sometimes do I check-in on what is feeling authentic. Looking back at my life I have often found myself blinded by ambition, doing things, starting projects, or fantasizing about grand actions without checking-in on my underlying motivations. However, I also see healthy expressions of this function. For example at the beginning of the last few years, I have taken stock of where I am at on different levels including my spiritual and physical health, the health of my family members, and cultivating experiences with my Wife. I recognize that those areas are of more importance to me than the ambitions. That evaluation process has led me to put more energy in those directions.

EFJ: I can see an unhealthy use of this function in my personality because I will do things to maintain the harmony in my relationship, or especially in the household, and then I will resent ever having done those things as if other people should have recognized my contributions or my Wife should have done the dishes or thanked me for doing them, or whatever. The healthy expression of this is maintenance mode, which often times I do not mind or even enjoy, what is unhealthy is the resentment.

ITJ: This is a very underdeveloped function for me. I tend to ignore the details, or delegate them to others. I often do not have enough patience for the nuances of a situation. There are some exceptions in that I will sit down and financial plan, I will update budgets, I will journal my dreams, but often in service of being an effective person. This area could definitely use more work.

INP: This is my dominant function. On the positive side, I have a number of visions of different “wholes”; even tending toward speculations on the universal. On the negative side, I tend to assume my visions are true before I stress-test those ideas.

ISP: I see mostly a healthy expression of this function in my life through my commitment to a strong routine that includes physical exercise, spiritual practice, walking in nature and accumulation of markers from those experiences: muscle, journal entries or other written works, and the collection of lots of feathers and other “found-objects”. Perhaps a negative expression of this is in my hoarding of books, and in some of my hoarding of knowledge. I could work on loosening that use-case.

ESP: This is an inferior function for me. Although there are instances in my life where I have tinkered, engineered, tried to fix things in the household, I often find that to be a frustrating experience. ESP teams up with ITJ and prefers not to engage in tasks that require details, complicated math, instructions, and systematic follow through. There have been some positive expressions of this in my life, through my interests in computer technology, neuroscience (I worked in a brain lab and worked for a defense company that was using brainwave technologies), and conceptual issues of artificial intelligence. But I have resisted getting “too technical” in any of those areas of interest. This often leads to a superficial appreciation of many fields.

ENP: This exploratory function has been an issue in my past life. I would say less so now, but definitely before in a major way. I have had instances where I get a grand idea, like starting a new social network and I will commit all kinds of time and money to the project but then it fizzles out: I don’t finish it, I run from it, and I move on to the next thing. I have found that in my career — that I jump from idea to idea, without building the professional capital that could be got through concentrated effort. However these negative uses have led me to a better appreciation for the tenacity required to complete a project: I have committed to my profession, to my company, and to seeing certain projects through. But yet this exploratory function often does nag at me, to start this latest and greatest thing. It has definitely been a process to recognize and channel that energy in a healthy way.