# I wish I could forget Myers Briggs.



## Talon (Feb 15, 2012)

Mainly because it's really affected the way I view people. Whenever I meet someone I try to study them and figure out what type they could be and I wish I didn't do that. Instead of thinking "oh she's an ISFP" or "oh he's an ENTP" I wish I could see people more as individuals. I mean I do to an extent. I know not all INTPs act the same, have the same hobbies, etc. But I wish the first thing I wondered about a person wasn't their MBTI type because it's a really limited assessment of someone. Of course I'm interested in people beyond that but instead of it being a tool to help me better understand people, it's like I'm throwing them into a box immediately instead of first accepting them for themselves.

It's even the same for myself. I have a pretty good grip on who I am, how I think, what I want, and everything like that. But I'm always trying to figure out exactly what my type is because I've never been too sure. I wish I could take what I know about myself and let that be it. Let that define me and not worry about applying a type that fits who I am.

I guess most of this is my fault because I obviously misuse Myers Briggs, but I wish I could forget it all together.


----------



## JungyesMBTIno (Jul 22, 2011)

Yea, I hate MBTI for that reason. It's like "WHO CARES" what cartoon character the person resembles - ewww..I just want it to describe them as they are.


----------



## tanstaafl28 (Sep 10, 2012)

Talon said:


> Mainly because it's really affected the way I view people. Whenever I meet someone I try to study them and figure out what type they could be and I wish I didn't do that. Instead of thinking "oh she's an ISFP" or "oh he's an ENTP" I wish I could see people more as individuals. I mean I do to an extent. I know not all INTPs act the same, have the same hobbies, etc. But I wish the first thing I wondered about a person wasn't their MBTI type because it's a really limited assessment of someone. Of course I'm interested in people beyond that but instead of it being a tool to help me better understand people, it's like I'm throwing them into a box immediately instead of first accepting them for themselves.
> 
> It's even the same for myself. I have a pretty good grip on who I am, how I think, what I want, and everything like that. But I'm always trying to figure out exactly what my type is because I've never been too sure. I wish I could take what I know about myself and let that be it. Let that define me and not worry about applying a type that fits who I am.
> 
> I guess most of this is my fault because I obviously misuse Myers Briggs, but I wish I could forget it all together.


So stop misusing it. Don't use it. I am interested in MBTI, but I don't go around trying to type everyone. I just talk to them and they talk to me. No big deal.


----------



## Sixty Nein (Feb 13, 2011)

I am rather lukewarm whenever it comes to MBTI. I generally dislike Kersey and any system that uses "NT", "NF", "SP", "SJ" in all seriousness. It comes off as unrealistic caricatures of actual human beings.

I never apply personality theory to other people in any serious way. If you are starting to think of others as a set of functions, instead of their actual characteristics, then you might need to take a break from this.


----------



## FlaviaGemina (May 3, 2012)

I don't actively try to type everyone I come across, but I've had a kind of hyperawareness for a while where I take in both what they say and do and how it might be related to their type. It can be helpful sometimes, but it can also be boring and exhausting because keep collecting evidence of their type when I'm actually pretty sure of it already and don't need more evidence. I wouldn't say I judge or pigeonhole people according to their type, though. There are some people of type XYZ that make sense to me and some that don't.


----------



## Talon (Feb 15, 2012)

FlaviaGemina said:


> I don't actively try to type everyone I come across, but I've had a kind of hyperawareness for a while where I take in both what they say and do and how it might be related to their type.


This is more what I meant. I don't actually try to type EVERYONE when I talk to them. It crosses my mind when a person says something says something that sounds like a specific type though. But what I mean is, I don't want it to cross my mind at all.


----------



## 2GiveMyHeart2 (Jan 2, 2012)

Then stop putting people into boxes then. Simple as that. Human beings are complex creatures whether you're using MBTI, color personality, ennegram, Keirsey, the four humors, or whatever. It's just a tool to better understand why a person is the way they are sometimes but human beings can be flexible in how they think. I use it for fun to type characters, because...well...it's fun!


----------



## FlaviaGemina (May 3, 2012)

Talon said:


> This is more what I meant. I don't actually try to type EVERYONE when I talk to them. It crosses my mind when a person says something says something that sounds like a specific type though. But what I mean is, I don't want it to cross my mind at all.


Maybe you'll get bored of it after a while? Or maybe you could find an obsessive interest that has nothing to do with MBTI/psychology/people? Distraction usually works rather well for me.


----------



## Talon (Feb 15, 2012)

FlaviaGemina said:


> Maybe you'll get bored of it after a while? Or maybe you could find an obsessive interest that has nothing to do with MBTI/psychology/people? Distraction usually works rather well for me.


I have tons of interests.


----------



## Surreal Snake (Nov 17, 2009)

It is Jungian Bubblegum.Jung generally had it right.But it can be fun..


----------



## War pigs (Sep 12, 2012)

aw shit, exactly what I feel, I can't get it out, feels like a robot, detecting people's type on their goggles xD
not just that, I became a little obsessed about me, mbti helped me get on the right track at first, but then it was like: oh no this shit is against my Ti, oh let's use a bit of Fe right now shall we?
Whenever a new idea comes in mind, oh that's Ne
Not cool, it helped me alot, but it became quiet a bad obsession


----------



## fihe (Aug 30, 2012)

haha, at first I thought the message of your post was "To hell with Isabel Myers Briggs!"
I don't really think of people in terms of their type, but then again I don't care too much about analyzing other people. I've had a few friends take the test; with one of them I forgot his result, and the other I'm not friends with anymore  I also had my mom take an assessment, but other than that, no one. and I don't quite like to speculate on things that I don't have any proof of (in this case, the proof would be the results from one taking the test oneself).


----------



## Devalight (May 27, 2012)

My advice would be to leave it alone for awhile. It isn't helping you. Just forget it in relation to other people, and if you use it at all, just focus on yourself.


----------



## The Alternate (Jan 14, 2013)

I think this symptom happens anytime one learns the system behind something they think is "magical". The curtain is pulled back once you know. Then you can never approach it again with the same ignorance. And what could be more special than personality, somebody's core being or soul?

There's some quote or story, but I can't remember it exactly, but it was about magic in the ancient times vs science. Some people didn't like how science was aiming to know everything, as the act of knowing what makes things tick takes the "magic" away. Unpredictability and the unknown are what make some things exciting. Would people still watch sports if we could predict the winner in advance every time?

I'd love to know music theory, and I do know some purely technical things, but I know for a fact that once I learn song structure, chord progressions, etc, how I approach music will never be the same. I'll keep trying to fit everything I hear into the box of "rules" I've learned and analyzing it. I've already done it to an extent. Maybe this is the Ti in us working a little _too_ well.


----------



## Conclusion (Sep 21, 2012)

Maybe it helps to keep in mind that most everyone is really hard to type, and that unless you know them quite well and/or are quite skilled at typing, any guess you might have about their type maybe isn't terribly reliable. 

At this point I find the "boxes" thing a bit puzzling -- there's probably no one attribute that every member of some type has in common, so if you look at types as collections of attributes it's hard to imagine they'd be terribly useful.  Maybe more useful is using type to help you understand how their perspective might differ from yours, what they might see that you don't, how their approach to certain problems might differ from or complement yours, what skills or talents they might have that you don't -- basically to help you appreciate and respect and empathize with people unlike yourself. (Before I learned about type I used to imagine that everyone was pretty much like INTP me except maybe dumber -- not what you'd call super respectful, and honestly MBTI helped snap me out of that. )


----------



## Sol_ (Jan 8, 2013)

Talon said:


> Whenever I meet someone I try to study them and figure out what type they could be and I wish I didn't do that.


ok, Santa allows you to do not type people around



> I guess most of this is my fault because I obviously misuse Myers Briggs, but I wish I could forget it all together.


Just do not type, not much people can do it correctly anyway. Try another hobby - gathering of muchrooms, for example.


----------



## Mouse222 (Jun 29, 2011)

I feel for you, I try not to use MBTI everyday, otherwise I would fit people into boxes. Thankfully, I'm able to mostly "turn it off" (except for when typing myself...). I think the major reason you should try to stop is because otherwise you WILL start putting others to boxes subconsciously, and nobody likes tight boxes.


----------



## IdahoJoe (Feb 3, 2013)

huesos said:


> haha, at first I thought the message of your post was "To hell with Isabel Myers Briggs!"


"I wish I could forget you Isabel, you wretched woman, alas, you have stolen my heart with your personality tests and I'm afraid it shall never mend again... ISABEL! COME BACK TO ME ISABEL!"


----------



## mental blockstack (Dec 15, 2011)

I did kinda put people into similar compartments which used the same logic as Myers Briggs, before ever knowing about it anyway..


----------



## Acerbusvenator (Apr 12, 2011)

Like @tanstaafl28 said, it's not like MBTI forces you to assess everyone you meet. You choose to do so on your own.
I really like doing it as a test of knowledge of MBTI, but I don't really care about things beyond what type they are, it's not like I avoid my 3 female friends who are ESTP, ISFJ and INFJ because of how those types are "supposed" to act, I just like being right. :wink:

Before MBTI I would stupify my dad because he didn't understand me and I was really mean about it from time to time - then I found out that he was an ISTJ and it made me realize that it was just that he processed information in another way than me and thus the lack of understanding had nothing to do with intelligence, but rather had to do with how *I* talked rather than how smart he was so I changed the way I spoke to fit him better. I wouldn't want to take that back.

So I really see the possibility for MBTI to make things better between people. But what has the power to help, also has the power to destroy.


----------

