# Introverted Feeling



## firedell (Aug 5, 2009)

Quasi-defining statements

p. 41: "When we use Feeling in an Introverted way, it operates as a kind of inner flame--a sense of personal values that may be difficult to explain or express directly but whose character informs our choices and inclinations."

p. 366: "Introverted Feeling ... encourages a personal relationship to an evolving pattern, a will to gauge the situation by an experiential ideal. For example, if we use Introverted Feeling to make a good spaghetti sauce, we won't follow recipes or measure ingredients. We'll sample the sauce as we're making it, gauging its taste, smell, and texture by their ideal outcome and adjusting for circumstantial variables so the emerging pattern stays on track."

p. 367: "To invoke Introverted Feeling, we have to know the difference between a good outcome and a bad one--know with our senses, in our bones [on the basis of living, breathing, first-hand experience]."

p. 370: "Introverted Feeling relies on the inward, right-brain criteria of experience and empathy to mark off decisions that go beyond our roles in society to affect us as human beings. Law and custom, after all, are the lowest common denominator of a defined community. We associate character and humane behavior with the moral imperatives shaped by inner values."

p. 371: "An inner point of reference, one trained by personal experience. [Bypassing matters of social standing] to focus on the quintessentially human."

Proposed definition #1

Introverted Feeling (Fi) is the attitude that everything that is manifest (apparent, observable, described) is the expression of a soul or life force, in terms of which everything ultimately makes sense. Everything that happens is the result of a soul expressing its unique nature.

From this attitude, each living thing is completely unique, and has unique needs. Every living thing needs to express itself and grow in its unique way. None of this can be put into categories or measurements, at least not without blotting out that utter uniqueness of each living thing. Because we are all living things, even though each of us is unique we can still connect to the life force as it exists in others. From an Fi standpoint, the way to respond to things is in a way that is faithful to that underlying life force.

Proposed definition #2

Introverted Feeling (Fi) is the attitude of judging things good or bad based on how they harmonize or clash with a living being's inner essence. That inner essence or soul, and how things in the environment get along with it or conflict with it, is knowable only first-hand--ultimately, only by that soul. It is known by attending to one's own emotions in response to things. What you like is good--for you, not necessarily good for others. What you don't like is bad--for you, not necessarily bad for others. Anything outside your own soul is irrelevant to evaluating anything or choosing your course in life.

As a language of Ego Orientation

As a Dominant Function, Fi leads IFPs to live a life based on empathy and harmony between self and others--and/or to see life as a never-ending conflict between souls that are intrinsically different and opposed. ISFPs typically seek out a space in which they can be completely and spontaneously themselves, following their artistic impulses without regard to social expectation or definition of any sort. Some do their best to live life as a soap opera: creating and living out intense drama wherever they go. INFPs typically seek to understand the world in terms of drama, emotion, and people seeking their own unique callings (perhaps Garrison Keillor is a good example of that). Some, like John Gray, attempt to help others understand each other through empathy with each other's differences, and thereby find peace and synergy.

Developed Fi naturally leads people to favor mercy or forgiveness for people who have done heinous acts--anything from theft to murder to genocide--acts that, under the ordinary laws that make a society manageable (see Extraverted Thinking), would usually merit their imprisonment or execution. From a developed Fi perspective, the criminal is still a living soul, still unique and precious despite whatever he may have done. If we walked in his moccasins for a while, maybe we could see it his way. Without condoning his crimes, maybe we could see how we ourselves could have done the same things under similar circumstances. This use of empathy as one's ultimate anchor of orientation leads to a resolute non-judgementalness. First empathize--find something in your own heart that lets you see how someone could feel and act the way he did--and then you will probably find that you no longer feel hatred or a desire for retribution.

As a Secondary Function, Fi typically leads EFPs to tune into the unmet needs and callings of others--as an avenue to making a sale, as a way to intuit what would entertain people, as a channel to political gain by demonstrating that you understand people's pain (e.g. Bill Clinton), as a way to chart a course through life based on a calling felt to be unique to them. Sometimes it leads them to sense a higher calling to answer to, a sense that their actions have cosmic meaning by virtue of how they aid or hinder life.

As a Tertiary Function, Fi typically leads ITJs to retreat into solitary actions that have no constructive worldly effect but are aimed at providing a justification for calling themselves good people. Another example is obsession with the purity of one's soul. For example, being a vegetarian while working at Taco Bell--not out of any great love for animals (the person might hardly know anything about what cows are like), but to be able to say, "Well, at least I never ate any animals." Or engaging in pointless acts of honor, like maintaining super-self-control or "doing one's duty" or going down with the ship. Nothing is gained by going down with the ship; it's a hyper-introverted act aimed at providing a rationalization for one's goodness without regard to real-world consequences. Nearly all of these tertiary-Fi acts involve refraining from action viewed as unethical rather than taking positive action that would accomplish something. They're a retreat from the world--or rather, a rationalization for disregarding worldly matters.

As an Inferior Function, Fi typically leads ETJs to acts of self-destructive hedonism, creation of opera-like drama in their lives and the lives of those around them, obsession with "integrity" (like going down with the ship), instant and irresponsible abandonment of anything they don't like (the opposite of going down with the ship), and bizarre solitary acts of atonement for the harms they've done to others. Sometimes inferior-Fi leads ETJs to preach and even practice a sort of hyper-selfishness, e.g. Ayn Rand and the Landmark Forum. "I'm doing fine, so why should I give a damn about you?" (Very different from highly developed Fi, which leads you to see all people as connected and the highest joy of life as the experience of that connection.)

Tertiary and inferior Fi also sometimes lead TJs to view large numbers of people as "troglodytes": soulless or stupid creatures whose rotten situations in life derive only from their own intrinsic rottenness-of-soul. To take a comic example, Lex Luthor's lamentation in Superman, "Why is the world's greatest criminal genius surrounded by nincompoops?"

Perhaps the most typical manifestation of tertiary and inferior Fi is an attitude of psychologizing other people: a sort of pseudo-empathy in which one explains other people's behavior in terms of pitiful needs and psychological flaws that anyone would be ashamed to have. "Notice the defensiveness. He clings desperately to his ideas. Such weakness." (Nearly all psychological theories offer plenty of ammo for psychologizing, including Lenore Thomson's ideas.) Where developed Fi leads you to find something in your own soul in terms of which to truly understand someone else and see things their way, tertiary and inferior Fi typically lead you to find something in your own soul that you despise, in terms of which you can "explain" them and justify putting them down.

Naturally, you can see plenty of dominant-style Fi in ETJs, secondary-style Fi in IFPs, and so on--even inferior-style Fi in IFPs.

Introverted feeling is judgement with an emotional slant that causes the individual to view the object on a Subjective level. It is primarily a silent inaccessible function that is difficult to conceptualize. Therefore, unlike its extraverted counterpart, Extraverted Feeling, it is entirely individualistic, with a leaning toward the mystical. Introverted feeling is generally disconnected with typical external stimuli. Introverted feeling is only concerned with the external to the extent that the object has some relevance to a deep, internal value. Its primary objective is to harmonize ideologies, concepts, relationships etc. with the internal guiding force.

Whatever the individual values the most will dominate the motivations, goals and chief objectives of the individual. For example, if the primary value is God, then all other values will find themselves inexorably subjugated to this primary one. Often, unbalanced introverted feeling will create in the individual dramatic mood swings and decisions based on illogical rationales. However, at its best, introverted feeling provides a navigational quality that creates in the personality tenacity, idealism, honor, relationship wisdom and a unfaltering value system that is seldom compromised.

Source


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## Sherod 88 (Feb 17, 2012)

That was everything I needed to know.


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## Inveniet (Aug 21, 2009)

@firedell

Thanks for this one! =D
It is most helpful. ^_^


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## FlaviaGemina (May 3, 2012)

This is very interesting.
I'm majorly confused about Fi at the moment. I'd like to know how well (or poorly) developed mine is, but I wouldn't know how to find out. I'd be very grateful if someone could "diagnose" me and would try to answer any questions as best as I can.


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## elixare (Aug 26, 2010)

> Tertiary and inferior Fi also sometimes lead TJs to view large numbers of people as "troglodytes": soulless or stupid creatures whose rotten situations in life derive only from their own intrinsic rottenness-of-soul.


What, that is caused by Fi??? lol how???


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## JungyesMBTIno (Jul 22, 2011)

childofprodigy said:


> What, that is caused by Fi??? lol how???


Yeah, I hardly believe that as well. I think this is better described as a manifestation of inferior S (those who see the sensory world as kind of a source of enslavement, perhaps), according to Naomi Quenk (or it's just someone in a pissed off mood who just can't get past the negative in people).


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## JungyesMBTIno (Jul 22, 2011)

> Introverted feeling is judgement with an emotional slant that causes the individual to view the object on a Subjective level. It is primarily a silent inaccessible function that is difficult to conceptualize. Therefore, unlike its extraverted counterpart, Extraverted Feeling, it is entirely individualistic, with a leaning toward the mystical. Introverted feeling is generally disconnected with typical external stimuli. Introverted feeling is only concerned with the external to the extent that the object has some relevance to a deep, internal value. Its primary objective is to harmonize ideologies, concepts, relationships etc. with the internal guiding force.
> 
> Whatever the individual values the most will dominate the motivations, goals and chief objectives of the individual. For example, if the primary value is God, then all other values will find themselves inexorably subjugated to this primary one. Often, unbalanced introverted feeling will create in the individual dramatic mood swings and decisions based on illogical rationales. However, at its best, introverted feeling provides a navigational quality that creates in the personality tenacity, idealism, honor, relationship wisdom and a unfaltering value system that is seldom compromised.


This is all very well put.


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## MuChApArAdOx (Jan 24, 2011)

JungyesMBTIno said:


> This is all very well put.


I agree. These lines describes Fi as a whole regardless where it sits in the top 4 functions. Fi doesn`t behave any differently in the DOM position, the process is the same across the board in all types who use it. The closer it gets the the dom position, the more obvious it becomes to being a primary way of consideration.


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## pandamiga (Aug 11, 2012)

I don't know to say that I am glad that I read this. I read the Fe description too. They seem completely different, like absolutely different, even though they are both feeling. 

For example, I understand mainly tertiary Fi. I am like that because even though I drink coffee because I need to stay awake, I still hold on to the belief that the idea of coffee is bad. I understand that it is useful and I don't mind mochas ...since it tastes like chocolate, but to me coffee is a bad thing because it is for lazy people or for people who think they being forced to suffer through this busy world. People who do not take responsibility for themselves drink coffee. Most people drink coffee because they went partying and didn't get to finish their homework. They ignored the consequences of their actions and didn't truly know what it is that they wanted to do. Or it's for people who just "suck it up" and fear paying attention to the fact that they are working too hard.

So right now I am mad at myself for drinking coffee these days *I usually never drink coffee and when I do, I usually feel proud that I don't like it xDD* I realize drinking coffee means that I am not taking responsibility for myself AND I am forcing myself through this process of meeting deadlines. I try to not drink coffee though, or I drink as little as possible, just to prove to myself that this is what I believe. It's just hard when you have so much studying to do. =/

...lovely logic, huh? xDDDD


....i think that is Fi though.


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## susurration (Oct 22, 2009)

Fi to me is like a bubble of emotion that is not directly touched by the outside. You can experience feelings that aren't in direct relation to real life at that direct point in time. Feeling that removes itself from the object (from an object relation for example). 

It's my personal opinion that when Fi removes itself from the object it can move towards the subject at a root level, internally. Perhaps rather than "move towards" subject it's more accurate to say that the subject (the essence or the inner of the object) is taken inwards. And building it/swimming/engulfing it internally as Fi tends to do.


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## Inveniet (Aug 21, 2009)

> Tertiary and inferior Fi also sometimes lead TJs to view large numbers of people as "troglodytes": soulless or stupid creatures whose rotten situations in life derive only from their own intrinsic rottenness-of-soul.





childofprodigy said:


> What, that is caused by Fi??? lol how???





JungyesMBTIno said:


> Yeah, I hardly believe that as well. I think this is better described as a manifestation of inferior S (those who see the sensory world as kind of a source of enslavement, perhaps), according to Naomi Quenk (or it's just someone in a pissed off mood who just can't get past the negative in people).



Making value judgments about people "soul" is very much a Fi based process.
Your internal reasoning must decide to reject them as worthless.
You certainly can't Te them into worthlessness. XD

Rottenness of soul being of course Fe. 
To tertiary Fi, Fe seems very rotten, accompanied by Si even more so.


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## MuChApArAdOx (Jan 24, 2011)

hornet said:


> Making value judgments about people "soul" is very much a Fi based process.Your internal reasoning must decide to reject them as worthless.You certainly can't Te them into worthlessness. XDRottenness of soul being of course Fe. To tertiary Fi, Fe seems very rotten, accompanied by Si even more so.


Hum, i never really viewed Fi as making judgements on the soul of others, although i don`t disagree with it either. Fi is black and white, it either finds value ( worth) or doesn`t. And when it doesn`t, oh boy, there is nothing or anyone who can change that process. Fi rejecting the value or worth of others is not a hard decision either, it actually comes quite easy for me. Standards and boundaries are set in stone, there isn`t any " well maybe " or let me think about it for a few days, nope, its instant, it fits perfectly in the inner model, one i usually never regret.haha, you can`t Te them into worthlessness. Sounds like trying to dream people into life ;p


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## Inveniet (Aug 21, 2009)

MuChApArAdOx said:


> Hum, i never really viewed Fi as making judgements on the soul of others, although i don`t disagree with it either. Fi is black and white, it either finds value ( worth) or doesn`t. And when it doesn`t, oh boy, there is nothing or anyone who can change that process. Fi rejecting the value or worth of others is not a hard decision either, it actually comes quite easy for me. Standards and boundaries are set in stone, there isn`t any " well maybe " or let me think about it for a few days, nope, its instant, it fits perfectly in the inner model, one i usually never regret.haha, you can`t Te them into worthlessness. Sounds like trying to dream people into life ;p


Ah dream people to life, well that works in a way. 
Just as if you are the authority in a dictionary, you can define everyone else as worthless.

I think the process of making the judgements is very Fi, but how the results of the judgements
manifest belong more in the realm of enneagram.
I would suggest that you firm boundaries comes more from 8w7 fix than pure Fi reasoning itself.
As a 9w8 I find myself willing to compromise and review the Fi judgements, when pushed on the issue.
However if I come to the same conclusion again after the review, all bets are off.


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## Kynx (Feb 6, 2012)

childofprodigy said:


> What, that is caused by Fi??? lol how???


The only way Fi judgement can be unsympathetic is when it concludes that someone doesn't deserve sympathy. Fi doms/aux will look for the good in everybody and search for ways to explain 'bad' behaviour, actions or circumstances as misunderstandings, accidental happenings, etc. Only when they can't explain things with anything other than intentional selfishness, complete irresponsibility or evil, is when they will decide that someone is undeserving of sympathy or empathy. Therefore, they then feel justified in omitting the feelings of the 'undeserving' people and no longer considering them when making decisions. This is why ixfps will change when 'values are crossed' and become uncharacteristically cold and mean. 



> But, once it becomes falsified by an egocentric attitude, it at once grows unsympathetic.....
> 
> Continually emancipating itself from the relation to the object, this feeling creates a freedom, both of action and of conscience, that is only answerable to the subject....


An inferior Fi judgement would need to be applied prematurely, to prevent it from interfering with dominant Te's aim.


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## AliceKettle (Feb 2, 2014)

When people have violated my deeply held personal values, even if they apologize, I'll say I forgive them, but I really don't because what they did feels like they've violated a part of who I am.


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