# How would Tertiary/Inferior Te and Ti present themselves?



## agape eros (Sep 15, 2012)

Hey peoples of PersonalityCafe! ^^

Sooo, I'm just a lonely little newbie trying to type herself; have been for about two months now (which is like a year to someone deeply interested in this and highly impatient xD). At first I was INFJ, then INFP, then INFJ, and now I'm back to being an "Unknown Personality". (Wooo, scary right? Don't worry I'm getting to why I'm actually posting this here and not in the "What's my personality type?" forum; bear with me.)

Anyways, I've been researching Cognitive Functions like crazy the past few days, and I still can't tell whether I use Fi or Fe and Ni or Ne. Instead of wasting more brain cells on that argument, I've decided to try a different approach: figuring out whether I use Ti or Te. Once I sort that out, I hope it will be pretty clear whether I am INFJ or INFP. (Or some other type entirely!)

Therefore, I'm going to be needing somewhat detailed-but-still-in-English explanations of how Ti and Te manifest themselves as either tertiary or inferior functions, which is why I came to you folks for help instead of to the _What's my personality type?_ forum. (I figure you guys who hang around here are the most knowledgeable on functions and how they work.^^)

(Also, kinda trying to hide from the WMPT forum O.O...don't really wanna admit I'm back to being indecisive after deciding to be INFJ after - um - has it really only been two days?:laughing: lol)


Thanks in advance! ^^


_agape_


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## The Nth Doctor (May 18, 2012)

The Form of the Inferior - IFP
The form of the Inferior - EFJ
The Form of the Inferior - INJ
How do INFJs use Ti?


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## JungyesMBTIno (Jul 22, 2011)

Tertiary should probably be normal enough (there's a lot of disagreement on what exactly the tertiary would represent - I think characterizing it like the inferior is waaay off - totally off, unless it for whatever the reason is just extremely repressed in them). Inferior T would probably look rather undiscerning and maybe even hard to follow (over-complicated reasoning). It's hard to standardize this stuff, and it doesn't say anything about their abilities, but on the level of explaining their reasoning, I suppose inferior T types might just come off as sounding a little vague or maybe unclear in terms of their analysis of something, I dunno (I remember it being best put like "they always sound confused or like they're fighting confusion"). It's best just to read up on the inferior functions in Naomi Quenk's book or in work by Jungian analyist Von Franz to get an accurate picture of what this stuff's getting at. It's a hueristic model - not absolute conditions of a person.


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## Aquarian (Jun 17, 2012)

*so interesting*

@agape eros,

Such an interesting question you're trying to figure out. 

I don't know if any of this is really in useful English, the cognitive functions language is awkward. 

Anyway, speaking from personal experience as an INFJ: Tertiary Ti, for me, shows up in my ongoing drive to understand human dynamics, cultures, ideas, experiences etc through figuring out what categories different things go into, and how those categories are related/interrelated. So, for example, I can figure out the themes and underlying assumptions that make up an organizational or group culture by applying Ti to what I observe and experience. And I generally like doing stuff like that.

For me, Ti doesn't operate in a vacuum. It usually operates in conjunction with my Ni (Ni seems to provide creative inspiration and cool intuitive leaps of comprehension/clarity) and the process uses data I get through Fe. My Fe-generated data relies on orienting towards other people's perspectives - asking them questions, feeling for how they perceive or feel things, etc - and/or being a participant-observer rather than simply an observer.

I'm struggling a bit with your question because the difference between INFJ and INFP seems so SO clear to me experience-wise. My wife (for example) is INFP and the cognitive functions model has helped so much in clarifying for me the pretty clear differences between the ways we each process information ... so I admit that I'm really curious to know what your questions are about Ni/Ne and Fi/Fe, but I hear you that that feels like a waste of time to you right now. 

Okay so: I don't consider myself a theoretical expert on the functions - but I will say if you feel like a more detailed INFJ/INFP discussion in which I try to figure this out with you through dialogue, please message me. 

I think it would be a fascinating experience for me to see what comes out of a one-on-one dialogue trying to figure this out. And if I can help figure it out - yeah that would partly use my Ti, and Fe to ask you questions and try to really understand what you're saying, and possibly Ni for intuitive leaps. I'd probably want to do a combination of cognitive analysis (Ti) with gut-level feel (Fe plus Ni).

Hope this makes some sense.


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## agape eros (Sep 15, 2012)

@The Nth Doctor

Thanks for those links! I find I really identify with the inferior Sensing descriptions for IFJs, which is a strong reason why in the past I've thought INFJ...however, I find I can also find common ground with inferior Te in IFPs; I get very critical and harsh towards people when I'm stressed and can sometimes not even make much sense with my criticism. xP

@_JungyesMBTIno_

Thank you for the explanation! It's difficult for me to say how I appear to others when I'm talking about "rational" things though...I don't have very good speaking skills in general, and when I'm trying to explain something complicated it only gets worse. :/ I imagine I can also come off vague quite often, even when I'm in conversation with someone, because half the time half my brain is lost in thought somewhere else. x3

@_Aquarian_

I would mostly certainly enjoy messaging you; any help with this subject is very much appreciated! And I know I said I didn't really want to deal with Fi/Fe and Ne/Ni at the moment, but what I really meant was more that because that approach was not helping me in reaching my goal I should discard it for now in search for more efficient ways to reach my type. I actually enjoy talking about the cognitive functions and learning how I and other people "work"; it's just mildly stressing when I try to do research and still feel like I'm going in circles. :/ But one-on-one sounds good to me; I'll message you as soon as I can. ^^


Thank you everyone again for your time! ^^


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## Teen Rose (Aug 4, 2018)

JungyesMBTIno said:


> Tertiary should probably be normal enough (there's a lot of disagreement on what exactly the tertiary would represent - I think characterizing it like the inferior is waaay off - totally off, unless it for whatever the reason is just extremely repressed in them). Inferior T would probably look rather undiscerning and maybe even hard to follow (over-complicated reasoning). It's hard to standardize this stuff, and it doesn't say anything about their abilities, but on the level of explaining their reasoning, I suppose inferior T types might just come off as sounding a little vague or maybe unclear in terms of their analysis of something, I dunno (I remember it being best put like "they always sound confused or like they're fighting confusion"). It's best just to read up on the inferior functions in Naomi Quenk's book or in work by Jungian analyist Von Franz to get an accurate picture of what this stuff's getting at. It's a hueristic model - not absolute conditions of a person.


It sounds like that only when we r trying to explain it..it totally makes sense in our head and we are clear about it! TM, gald that u foun d ur type!


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## Teen Rose (Aug 4, 2018)

agape eros said:


> @The Nth Doctor
> 
> Thanks for those links! I find I really identify with the inferior Sensing descriptions for IFJs, which is a strong reason why in the past I've thought INFJ...however, I find I can also find common ground with inferior Te in IFPs; *I get very critical and harsh towards people when I'm stressed and can sometimes not even make much sense with my criticism*. xP
> 
> ...


 @Bold - I get you !!!


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