Unravel the enigma of the INFP personality type, often dubbed as the 'Creative Seeker'. Delve into their world, exploring their unique traits, strengths, and challenges. Discover how their creativity and quest for authenticity shape their interactions and relationships.
The INFP personality type is creative, quirky, humane, and individualistic
Curious and restless
- INFPs want to understand who they are and their purpose in the world
- They bring an experimental attitude to life as they explore a variety of ideas, lifestyles, and experiences
- Their curiosity about the world can inspire them to travel or adopt a peripatetic lifestyle
- Money is valued only to the extent that it furnishes the time and freedom to explore their deepest passions
- The idea of performing uninspiring work for the sake of a paycheck is off-putting to them and they adopt a minimalist lifestyle, hoping this will translate into less time spent performing uninteresting work
INFPs’ Tertiary Function: Introverted Sensing (Si)
Concerned respect for the past-for what is routine, familiar, or traditional
- Minimalist attitudes toward money and material goods
- Seek openness to new experiences
- Explore the mind-body connection and enhance their sense of well-being
INFP Personality Type Development & Functional Stack
Each personality type prefers to use four of the eight functions first described by Jung. These four functions comprise its “functional stack.”
- The relative strength of preference for these four functions is expressed in the following manner: dominant, auxiliary, tertiary, and inferior.
- INFPs’ Functional Stack: Dominant: Introverted Feeling (Fi), Auxiliary: Extraverted Intuition, Ne, Si, and Te respectively, followed by Fi, N, Te, and Inferior.
INFP’s Dominant Function: Introverted Feeling (Fi)
INFPs are deeply aware of and in touch with their inner landscape.
- Their dominant function is inwardly focused and adept at evaluating and handling their personal tastes, values, and emotions
- Fi can develop deep attachments and loyalties to certain externalities
- They are particularly prone to empathize with and develop attachments to those unable to help or care for themselves-animals, children, the less fortunate, victims of injustice etc.
Phase I (Childhood)
This is characterized by the exploration and development of INFPs’ dominant function, Introverted Feeling (Fi).
- Sensitive to their own feelings, as well as those of others, they feel unsettled and anxious in conflictual situations.
- They seek refuge in time alone, finding comfort in solitary activities such as daydreaming.
INFPs’ Auxiliary Function: Extraverted Intuition (Ne)
Ne demands novelty. It craves new ideas, connections, and possibilities. It seeks to understand the world (and the self) through the lens of ideas.
- Operating in Ne mode can be exhilarating. Ne can be associated with a sense of blind anticipation and expectation, of not knowing who or what will manifest next.
INFPs’ Inferior Function: Extraverted Thinking (Te)
The most “left-brained” of all functions, Te can be associated with structure, organization, quantification, and the ability to manage T things, such as time and finances.
- As an extraverted judging function, Te also serves as a tool for verbally asserting, in a measured and deliberate way, one’s opinions and judgments. Unlike Extraverted Feeling (Fe), it is unemotional in its presentation.
Phase II (Adolescence-30s)
Additional development of their auxiliary function (Ne), as well as heightened polarity and conflict between their dominant Fi and their inferior function, Extraverted Thinking (Te).
- Ne is INFPs’ preferred extraverted function and one of the primary tools they use to explore the outside world.
- The liberal and explorative ways of Ne are checked and countered by INFP’s tertiary Si and inferior Te, which urge them to “be responsible” and follow a more traditional path.
Phase III (30s, 40s, & Beyond)
Integration occurs when the functional stack is consistently used in a “top-down” fashion
- The functions are best prioritized and utilized in a dominant-auxiliary-tertiary-inferior sequence
- Counterbalancing Fi requires both extraversion and perceiving
- Ne as an extraverted perceiving function can do for INFPs
