# What is the difference between inferior Ni and Ne?



## MilkyWay132 (Jul 15, 2010)

I'm always hearing about inferior Ne, but I don't hear about how inferior Ni manifests itself in ESPs quite as much. What are the differences between the two? And between inferior Se and Si for that matter?


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## cyamitide (Jul 8, 2010)

You might be interested in reading through this: Form of the Inferior


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## LiquidLight (Oct 14, 2011)

Yea i mean it basically ends up as having 'prophetic visions' or conspiracy theorizing, or thinking that you are wiser than you really are. Pretty much just go to one of those Nostradamus or 2012 or Obama is a Kenyan Muslim member of the Illuminati websites and that's generally a good example of what Inferior Ni looks like. People have an suspicion or hunch about things going on behind the scenes, but because they are unable to properly judge those hunches (because Ni is the inferior function) there is no filter as to which are worth acknowledging and which are just out to lunch.

The problem for these types is occasionally their hunches are right, which only fuels the hysteria in people who are really under the grip of their inferior function. I think the most famous cases are people who fly off the handle and say things like "all those people are racist," or "they won't hire me because I'm a girl." This is where a hint or a hunch gets blown way out of proportion in relationship to its actual significance in the real world. I went to a barber shop one time, where the barber, a clear ESFP, was going on and on about how he went to an office, and the lady at the counter and the attendant were slightly rude to him and in his eyes this was a clear indication that everyone who worked in the office was racist. Stronger intuitives would judge that and maybe conclude "well maybe that was just my experience," but Inferior Ni it just all comes out. And the general pattern is almost always founded firstly in sensation (where true intuition operates without physical evidence). The pattern is typically "because I have observed x it must mean y." But dominant intuitives do not necessarily need to observe X to come to a conclusion about someone or something, its just a gut-feeling or hunch. 

Another example I can think of is an ESTP boss I had who came back to the office late one night to find everyone still working on a project and swore we must have all been there working on work for another company! He immediately jumped to the worst possible conclusion rather than sort of rationally intuit that there were complications or we were pulling a late night (that episode prompted some of his employees to quit because they found his lack of judgment insulting). But understand that perception functions, by nature, do not judge, so a perception function in the inferior will 'perceive' without filter. That's why people with Inferior Ne get the reputation of hyperbolizing worriers about every little possibility that could go wrong and Inferior Ni types get stereotyped as conspiracy theorists.


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## MilkyWay132 (Jul 15, 2010)

Hmm..So doesn't that mean that inferior Ni could make someone very distrustful?


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## LiquidLight (Oct 14, 2011)

MilkyWay132 said:


> Hmm..So doesn't that mean that inferior Ni could make someone very distrustful?


Well a lot of things can contribute to someone being distrustful, and all the inferior functions would have an element of that, but in the case of Inferior Intuition the distrust would come from that person's notions or impressions or hunches about something or someone. I have personally on a number of occasions heard sensation types literally say "well I always assume the worst." 

But generally people are wary around things involving the inferior function anyway. Thinking types don't trust Feeling evaluations, they may see them as illogical. Sensation types tend not to trust intuitions or intuitives preferring to stick to that which has evidence. Intuitives tend not to take anything at face value always convinced there must be more just beyond the reach of perception and Feeling types may see Thinking as too cold and technical to be trusted.


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## MilkyWay132 (Jul 15, 2010)

Inferior Ni largely seems to be about finding hidden negative meaning that might not even be there. And about perceiving functions not judging--well, that slightly confused me. Maybe you could explain that more?


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## cyamitide (Jul 8, 2010)

I will have to disagree with LiquidLight that Ni/Ne inferior has to do with either having "prophetic visions" or "conspiracy theorizing". Thinking of this sort is more likely due to some unresolved anxieties, neuroses, or personality disorders rather than cognitive functions. It is highly questionable whether these have anything to do with MBTI types at all.

With Si-inferior types I've ran into a certain unwillingness to do everyday upkeep tasks or take care of themselves physically. For example I had an ENTP friend who despite having a certain medical condition would forget to carry pills for it. It was as if he was partially dissociated from his physical body and not fully realizing the gravity of the situation. Taking care of his physical needs represented a very burdensome task for him. He would rather spend his time on reading up latest news or articles, or having debates and discussions with his friends, and let his mind fly, than realize the real-ness of the physical world that he was a part of. Periodically he would experience a panic about it, and desire for an anchor, something or someone to deter him, to slow his mind down, to disambiguate the physical state of things for him in place of his mind rapidly tracing all the possible connections, which presented the physical world in a rather hazy state for him.

From Jung's Psychological Types on Extraverted Intuition:


> The intuitive is never to be found among the generally recognized reality values, but he is always present where possibilities exist. He has a keen nose for things in the bud pregnant with future promise. *He can never exist in stable, long-established conditions* of generally acknowledged though limited value: because his eye is constantly ranging for new possibilities, stable conditions have an air of impending suffocation. *He seizes hold of new objects and new ways with eager intensity, sometimes with extraordinary enthusiasm, only to abandon them cold-bloodedly, without regard and apparently without remembrance*, as soon as their range becomes clearly defined and a promise of any considerable future development no longer clings to them. As long as a possibility exists, the intuitive is bound to it with thongs of fate. It is as though his whole life went out into the new situation. One gets the impression, which he himself shares, that he has just reached the definitive turning point in his life, and that from now on nothing else can seriously engage his thought and feeling.


I'd write some on the Ni-inferior but I'm really tired right now. Suffice it to say that they crave same kind of anchoring, but from a point of view of someone deterring them from over-indulging in their senses and in actions, rather than the rampant mind-wanderings of Si-inferior types.


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