my personality... or one of them

written at 2:45 p.m. on 06.29.03

Your personality type is INFP.

Introverted (I) 89% Extraverted (E) 11%
Intuitive (N) 59% Sensing (S) 41%
Feeling (F) 55% Thinking (T) 45%
Perceiving (P) 73% Judging (J) 27%

Note that if some of your results are near 50%, then you may not fall 100% into one personality type. For example, if you are an ENFJ but your Feeling and Thinking are almost 50/50, then you would more accurately be an ENxJ.

INFP Profile

Introverted iNtuitive Feeling Perceiving

*some quote from moby dick*

INFPs never seem to lose their sense of wonder. One might say they see life through rose-colored glasses. It's as though they live at the edge of a looking-glass world where mundane objects come to life, where flora and fauna take on near-human qualities.

INFP children often exhibit this in a 'Calvin and Hobbes' fashion, switching from reality to fantasy and back again. With few exceptions, it is the NF child who readily develops imaginary playmates (as with Anne of Green Gables's "bookcase girlfriend"--h er own reflection) and whose stuffed animals come to life like the Velveteen Rabbit and the Skin Horse. *some quote from the skin horse*

INFPs have the ability to see good in almost anyone or anything. Even for the most unlovable the INFP is wont to have pity. *some quote from steven vincent benet*

Their extreme depth of feeling is often hidden, even from themselves, until circumstances evoke an impassioned response: *some quote from moby dick*

Of course, not all of life is rosy, and INFPs are not exempt from the same disappointments and frustrations common to humanity. As INTPs tend to have a sense of failed competence, INFPs struggle with the issue of their own ethical perfection, e.g., perfo rmance of duty for the greater cause. An INFP friend describes the inner conflict as not good versus bad, but on a grand scale, Good vs. Evil. Luke Skywalker in Star Wars depicts this conflict in his struggle between the two sides of "The Force." Although the dark side must be reckoned with, the INFP believes that good ultimately triumphs.

Some INFPs have a gift for taking technical information and putting it into layman's terms. Brendan Kehoe's Zen and the Art of the Internet is one example of this "de-jargoning" talent in action.

Functional Analysis
INFPs live primarily in a rich inner world of introverted Feeling. Being inward-turning, the natural attraction is away from world and toward essence and ideal. This introversion of dominant Feeling, receiving its data from extraverted intuition, must be the source of the quixotic nature of these usually gentle beings. Feeling is caught in the approach- avoidance bind between concern both for people and for All Creatures Great and Small, and a psycho-magnetic repulsion from the same. The "object," be it homo sapiens or a mere representation of an organism, is valued only to the degree that the object contains some measure of the inner Essence or greater Good. Doing a good deed, for example, may provide intrinsic satisfaction which is only secondary to the greater good of striking a blow against Man's Inhumanity to Mankind.

Extraverted intuition faces outward, greeting the world on behalf of Feeling. What the observer usually sees is creativity with implied good will. Intuition spawns this type's philosophical bent and strengthens pattern perception. It combines as auxiliary with introverted Feeling and gives rise to unusual skill in both character development and fluency with language--a sound basis for the development of literary facility. If INTPs aspire to word mechanics, INFPs would be verbal artists.

Sensing is introverted and often invisible. This stealth function in the third position gives INFPs a natural inclination toward absent- mindedness and other-worldliness, however, Feeling's strong people awareness provides a balancing, mitigating effect. This introverted Sensing is somewhat categorical, a subdued version of SJ sensing. In the third position, however, it is easily overridden by the stronger functions.

The INFP may turn to inferior extraverted Thinking for help in focusing on externals and for closure. INFPs can even masquerade in their ESTJ business suit, but not without expending considerable energy. The inferior, problematic nature of Extraverted Thinking is its lack of context and proportion. Single impersonal facts may loom large or attain higher priority than more salient principles which are all but overlooked.

Famous INFPs:
Homer * Virgil * Mary, mother of Jesus * St. John, the beloved disciple * St. Luke; physician, disciple, author * William Shakespeare, bard of Avon * Henry Wadsworth Longfellow (Evangeline) * A. A. Milne (Winnie the Pooh) * Laura Ingalls Wilder (Little House on the Prairie) * Helen Keller, deaf and blind author * Carl Rogers, reflective psychologist, counselor * Fred Rogers (Mister Rogers' Neighborhood) * Dick Clark (American Bandstand) * Donna Reed, actor (It's a Wonderful Life) * Jacqueline Kennedy Onasis * Neil Diamond, vocalist * Tom Brokaw, news anchor * James Herriot (All Creatures Great and Small) * Annie Dillard (Pilgrim at Tinker Creek) * James Taylor, vocalist * Julia Roberts, actor (Conspiracy Theory, Pretty Woman) * Scott Bakula (Quantum Leap) * Terri Gross (PBS's "Fresh Air") * Amy Tan (author of The Joy-Luck Club, The Kitchen God's Wife) * John F. Kennedy, Jr. * Lisa Kudrow ("Phoebe" of Friends) * Fred Savage ("The Wonder Years")

****The weird thing is how much I like the people mentioned above, like Julia Roberts, and how people have compared me to Phoebe on Friends, and how much I love most of the characters below! That's so pyscho!****

Fictional INFPs:
Anne (Anne of Green Gables) * Calvin (Calvin and Hobbes) * Deanna Troi (Star Trek - The Next Generation) * Wesley Crusher (Star Trek - The Next Generation) * Doctor Julian Bashir (Star Trek: Deep Space 9) * Bastian (The Neverending Story) * E.T.: the ExtraTerrestrial * Doug Funny, Doug cartoons * Tommy, Rug Rats cartoons * Rocko, Rocko's Modern Life cartoons

Copyright � 1996-1999 by Joe Butt