INFJ Function Breakdown

Introverted Intuitive Feeling Judging

DRIVER Ni Introverted Intuition Prophetic

Asks: What could be? What is the meaning of everything? How can I understand everything to predict and understand my own future and existence?

INFJs spend a lot of time using their Ni to focus in on complex abstract ideas to understand them on a deeper level than any of the other functions. INFJs are concerned with their own fate, finding insights, asking origin questions, searching for meaning and understanding and finding the essence of ideas and existence. Ni works to create complex understandings with theories and symbols funneled down into a comprehensive vision using only a few sensory details from reality. They are often seen as pensive, serious, mysterious and prophetic. Unfortunately, this function is difficult to explain verbally and often INFJs find themselves understanding others in ways they can’t logically explain because the understandings are not understood logically. For this reason, INFJs are often looked up to but not wholly misunderstood.

PASSENGER – Fe Extroverted Feeling Harmony

Asks: what gets everyone’s needs met? What is everyone feeling? What gives my understanding meaning?

The job of Fe is to support Ni by giving it a purpose and a focus. Ni by itself is a very powerful function with a lot of will, but it can be selfish because it internally understands complex ideas and meaning but then holds onto them, unwilling to share these revelations. Fe gives Ni a reason to share these revelations and understandings as it is concerned with the harmony of others. Instead of focusing on every thing in the world that is abstract and needs to be understood, Fe gives the INFJ a focus on things that can directly give others peace and harmony within themselves. Since the INFJ is concerned about others needs, their emotional states and their peace with themselves, INFJs often have an insane ability to read the emotions of others, absorb them then to be able to say exactly what the other person needs to find peace within themselves. Fe helps the INFJ and others by bringing them deep emotional understanding. The more people the INFJ brings peace, the more they are able to find peace themselves. A part of the INFJ wants to bring everyone around them a sense of peace and understanding because if they could help everyone be at peace around them then they could finally focus on themselves and build peace within. If you are interacting with an INFJ, it is most likely through their Fe, since it is their strongest extroverted function. The combination of Ni and Fe means that the INFJ often very quickly understands people, this makes the INFJ come across as intense and although people may adore them for their abilities, people may keep them at a distance because having their soul frequently pierced can be unnerving to most people.

10 YR OLD – Ti Introverted Thinking Accuracy

Asks: Does this make logical sense? How do I know what I know about people?

Ni is a very internally chaotic function. It understands things in a linked and interconnected way, but it is unorganized. When Ni is funneled through Fe and engages with others, the goal is often to help others understand themselves better and to provide them with their emotional needs. The purpose of the INFJs childlike function, Ti, is to check that they are staying honest with themselves. It checks their judgments of others emotions for accuracy. It also checks their own understanding and search of meaning for honesty. The INFJ internally evaluates its own understanding for truth. Asking themselves frequently how they know something and whether or not something is logical. They often make observations of others simply in an attempt to check that their understanding is accurate. The angelic side of Ti in an INFJ can easily see through the walls people put up and say in a very keenly accurate way the simple truth. However, if an INFJs Ti is attacked or dismissed, the devilish side shows. The devilish Ti of an INFJ turns this keen truth inward on themselves, causing them to be stuck in a paranoid search for accuracy and precision which leads to an obsession with perfection, overanalyzing, over thinking and doubting their hunches that were previously understood so easily. This results in them being extremely self critical. Because of Fe, INFJs rely on confirmations that their understanding is accurate or right from others. If they are told that they are wrong, they reevaluate their entire understanding until they are told that they are right. Unfortunately, childlike Ti, takes everyone at their word and trusts that the feedback they receive from people is accurate. So the INFJ gets stuck in a loop reevaluating their understanding based on what they see to be as accurate as possible when they were actually right to begin with. It is the job of Ni, to check in with Ti occasionally for accuracy but it shouldn’t rely on it and instead trust its own ability to understand intuitively.

3 YR OLD – Se extroverted Sensing Reality

Asks: what is happening right now? What is everyone doing?

The INFJ has a love hate relationship with Se. Se fuels the abilities of Ni. The INFJ sees very few sensory details in reality and uses them to create the comprehensive understandings in their mind. But they struggle frequently to live in the moment. Wishing that they could think like they do without relying so heavily on experiences in the real world. They often wish they could separate their body from their mind and not be dependent on its needs and desires to feel good and look good. The INFJ simultaneously fears that too much focus on the present could lose their concern for the future, and their concerns for others. They fear being too materialistic and dependent on physical sensations without meaning. So, they will often deny their desire for a satisfying physical reality in an attempt to live fully within their mind. This denial however, can cause an obsession with the physical. They may become addicted to things that help their mind relax, like sex, nicotine or alcohol and then feel guilty after because it feels like they are attempting to separate from who they are. The addictions are Se acting out, if the basic needs of Se to live in the moment are ignored, the INFJs ability to be intuitive, understanding themselves and others accurately will suffer. The only way to satisfy the basic needs of Se is for the INFJ to accept that we live in a physical world with physical needs and that Ni is dependent on Se experiences to expand its understandings. It is the job of Fe to remind Ni, that in order to understand people better and to be able to understand themselves better, they must engage in reality with them and appreciate the physical world in its simplistic beauty.

DETOUR – Ne extroverted intuition Creative

INFJs can understand things in a deeply intuitive way, Ne challenged Ni to direct its abstract ideas outward. While Ni takes longer to consider things internally and to predict a future for itself, Ne considers many ideas and how it might impact people as a whole. Because of this INFJs can become frustrated or annoyed at the expectation that they must explain themselves quickly. It can also manifest itself as a worry for the future of people as a whole because of their desire to help people arrive at a place of peace. INFJs may become overwhelmed with the energy required of them to help so many people find peace. But the expansion caused by Ne actually provides a great opportunity of growth for the INFJ. Ni wants to capture ideas and hold onto them for consideration. Ne may frustrate them with too many ideas to be considered but it can challenge them in a positive way to be able to make decisions faster instead of being so slow to understand something. (NOT THAT THEY ARE DUMB BUT THEY ARE THOROUGH) This will help expediate and help them change their external world to what they want. Ne’s ability to juggle many ideas at once can also be fascinating to the INFJ giving their desire to understand things internally at a greater depth a sense of purpose and focus.

COP – Fi Introverted feeling Morals

Asks: Am I a good person or a bad person? Is this right or wrong?

INFJs are the most critical of their inability to know how they feel about something and whether they are doing the right thing. They often criticize others for not knowing their own feelings better and for not being better people. They feel that if everyone were good people then it would be easier for them to evaluate whether someone should be helped because then it would be easy, everyone would be deserving of help. They also become irritated at people’s inability to know how they are feeling. If everyone knew how they were feeling and weren’t so defensive about it then life would be a lot easier on their Fe, which seeks to accurately read other people’s emotions. But at the same time, INFJs constantly criticize their inability to know what they want and how they feel about something since they are often trying to satisfy other people’s needs. They desperately want to know that they themselves are good people and they do a lot for people in an effort to prove this. The truth is INFJs are actually some of the best most objectively good people to have lived, often credited with some of the most valuable shifts in morality and spirituality.

BROKEN SPEEDOMETER – Te Extroverted Thinking Effectiveness

Asks: What is the most efficient way to get things done? What do people’s actions reveal about them?

Like the broken speedometer we reject that this function is important. INFJs don’t see actions and efficiency as being important. INFJs care what people think logically as this causes them relief but whether those actions are carried out logically isn’t necessary. When interacting with people they prefer to see their emotions, observe the situation and then assess their ideas. But INFJs fail to see that a person’s actions point to whether they are a bad or good person. And they don’t think that people should be judged based solely on their actions or output, INFJs prefer to look at a person’s potential. Since anyone can do anything, what they are doing doesn’t matter and what they are doing for the sake of productivity doesn’t matter either. Although they have a lot of drive and energy to get things accomplished this is more for the sake of the experience to fuel their understandings of people and ideas. For the INFJ, what someone has done doesn’t matter as much because if the whole situation is understood, it is unlikely that they are truly a bad person.

SPEED LIMIT Si Introverted Sensing Memory

Asks: what happened before? what are the details?

What happened before and the details associated with the past are largely dismissed by INFJs. This is because whatever happened before led to this moment. There is no predicting this moment because we are already in this moment and it has been decided, therefore details and facts about the past are not important and largely forgotten. It is the present that provides clues to the future and understanding about the future. INFJs for this reason reject details that led to the formation of an idea and wait to hear the essence of the idea or at the very least, the most compact form of the idea possible. This they absorb and use to expand internally the implications. It isn’t that they devalue the past or details, it’s that Ni resists absorbing this information and searches for the meaning behind everything.

How INFJs go bad

If INFJs dismiss the importance of the past and the fact that actions can be bad, the INFJ might rationalize that as long as the collective future for people is good, then any action necessary to get to the future is permissible. They will control and manipulate the emotions of others to ensure that this future is realized convincing themselves at their core that the only thing that matters is the future. This can cause people who follow them to do terribly horrible things completely in trust that they are for the greater good.