MBTI Shift

I am curious if there is any evidence that mental illness/a life-changing event can shift your MBTI type.

To expand on this, is there any theories or evidence out there that the psyche of a person can so degrade or shift in extremes, that a person's MBTI type can change?

I came across the following tonight:

"This was demonstrated particularly powerfully by an MBTI® instrument user who always reported INTJ. In fact, answering just the TDI® .Is. version she still reported INTJ. However, when she completed the TDI ‘Is‐Want’ version the reported type split into ENTJ and INTP. Her initial reaction was disbelief. She said .there is no way I want to be an INTP like my husband! He is hopeless. However, after several hours of emotional exploration during which she said .I now know when I became an INTJ! I was eight and my mother rejected me. I vowed I would never be humiliated like that again and have been fiercely independent ever since.. Her INTJ identity had served her well but was, in fact a form of protection. The desire to let go and just become hopeless like her husband held both appeal and fear. Understanding her reported ENTJ was also complex. She felt a clear preference for introversion but her need to avoid dependency had externalised itself in the way she took charge in many aspects of her outer life. This was a most powerful session with many insights which would have been very hard to achieve if she had simply reported her usual INTJ."

http://www.teamfocus.co.uk/user_file...cle%202011.pdf

Also, Katherine Benziger addresses the issue of type falsification:

benziger.org

That wasn't exactly what you asked, but if someone is mistakenly identifying themselves with a type taken on in childhood, with that knowledge not easily accessed, how could we, or even they, know whether the type has changed or they've instead let go of an artificial type and gone back to the inherent one? I'm not saying MBTI is useless, more that it's not always straightforward but still a good method to get to know who you are if you don't just accept the score at a superficial level.

It's a good question though. If type is hardwired in at birth, I don't think it can change, but maybe if someone undergoes a powerful experience it could open up other pathways in the brain the person could more easily access.

No, unless one is psychotic (which Jung explains). Jung was a psychologist, btw.

Thanks for the input all.

Jung

Under abnormal conditions, i.e. when there is an extreme and, therefore, abnormal attitude in the mother, the children can also be coerced into a relatively similar attitude; but this entails a violation of their individual disposition, which quite possibly would have assumed another type if no abnormal and disturbing external influence had intervened. As a rule, whenever such a falsification of type takes place as a result of external influence, the individual becomes neurotic later, and a cur can successfully be sought only in a development of that attitude which corresponds with the individual's natural way.

Well when I was developing Ti more, it felt like a lot of change...... but full personality change? Not so much, just certain aspects of cognitive processing and life interests etc

Originally Posted by JungyesMBTIno

No, unless one is psychotic (which Jung explains). Jung was a psychologist, btw.

Not only. I'm sure if people had their brain chemistry disorganized by some accident their personality might change.

I don't quite think personality is hard-wired at birth; it develops during the early stages of your life, then probably solidifies itself when your mind is at the concrete operational stage - around 7 years of age, according to Piaget (although the age may differ depending on the individual). Habits and other such quirks probably develop earlier on.

That said, I don't think complete personality change is possible. It may be that you can develop or suppress certain functions, but I highly doubt you'll ever change so much that you're no longer of the type you typed as before. For example, I developed my Ne more through high school by using it as much as an Ne-dom would; now it tends to overrule my Ti at the most inopportune times, yet my Ti still shows through as a dominant at other times. I consciously made the effort to act on my Ne before I started college, but I'm not sure if that still constitutes being considered an actual change.

I still type between INTP and ENTP, even though I'm far more certain I used Ti more in high school.

Originally Posted by NovaStar

I don't quite think personality is hard-wired at birth; it develops during the early stages of your life, then probably solidifies itself when your mind is at the concrete operational stage - around 7 years of age, according to Piaget (although the age may differ depending on the individual). Habits and other such quirks probably develop earlier on.

That said, I don't think complete personality change is possible. It may be that you can develop or suppress certain functions, but I highly doubt you'll ever change so much that you're no longer of the type you typed as before. For example, I developed my Ne more through high school by using it as much as an Ne-dom would; now it tends to overrule my Ti at the most inopportune times, yet my Ti still shows through as a dominant at other times. I consciously made the effort to act on my Ne before I started college, but I'm not sure if that still constitutes being considered an actual change.

I still type between INTP and ENTP, even though I'm far more certain I used Ti more in high school.

I don't know if you're right or wrong about the bolded, and it also depends on what you meant by "early stages." I found this study:

Inhibited and uninhibited infants "grown up": adult ... [Science. 2003] - PubMed - NCBI

I've also read about a study that showed it's possible to tell within a couple days of birth whether the infant will be introverted or extroverted. I haven't heard about other characteristics, beyond anecdotes from mothers saying their babies were significantly different from each other almost from birth. So it's unclear, but I'm not ready to rule out hardwired yet.

Originally Posted by Sarah

So it's unclear, but I'm not ready to rule out hardwired yet.

Neither am I, but I highly doubt it's completely hard-wired. This is like the nature vs. nurture debate, except this time we're arguing personality. Psychologists tend to uphold the idea of nature over nurturing (or the environment), while sociologists tend to uphold the idea of nurturing (the environment) over nature. But obviously, both have something right. Our minds are hard-wired in a way that they react differently to a variety of external phenomena. If that's the case, then how can one have a presupposition of one over the other? In the end, both the environment and the natural development of the mind are important factors to take into account. Without the environment, can we honestly say that one would still develop a personality the same way? And without the conscious mind, can we honestly say that anything even resembling 'personality' is truly personality?

Anyway, we're used to analyzing personality from a psychological perspective, completely (or exceedingly) ignoring the sociological perspective. Maybe it's about time someone brought up the effects of society on individuals as well?