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    • MY "TYPE" : INTP

    Posted on | May 4, 2006 | 1 Comment

    I recently took several of those Myers-Brigg/Jung personality tests, and I came up “INTP” (Introverted 50%, Intuitive 65%, Thinking 52.38%, Perceiving 67.65%), with a consistently strong emphasis on the Intuitive and Perceiving parts.

    For some background on what an “INTP” person is like, visit:
    Typelogic: INTP Profile. Or, read on and let me know what you think! …

    INTPs generally have the following traits:

    . Love theory and abstract ideas
    . Truth Seekers – they want to understand things by analyzing underlying principles and structures
    . Value knowledge and competence above all else
    . Have very high standards for performance, which they apply to themselves
    . Independent and original, possibly eccentric
    . Work best alone, and value autonomy
    . Have no desire to lead or follow
    . Dislike mundane detail
    . Creative and insightful
    . Future-oriented
    . Usually brilliant and ingenius
    . Trust their own insights and opinions above others
    . Live primarily inside their own minds, and may appear to be detached and uninvolved with other people

    INTPs have a special gift with generating and analyzing theories and possibilities to prove or disprove them. They have a great deal of insight and are creative thinkers, which allows them to quickly grasp complex abstract thoughts. They also have exceptional logical and rational reasoning skills, which allows them to thoroughly analyze theories to discover the Truth about them. Highly analytical, they can discover connections between two seemingly unrelated things, and work best when allowed to use their imagination and critical thinking.

    Since the INTP is driven to seek clarity in the world, we have a happy match of desire and ability in this personality type. INTPs will be happiest in careers which allow them a great deal of autonomy in which they can work primarily alone on developing and analyzing complex theories and abstractions, with the goal of their work being the discovery of a truth, rather than the discovery of a practical application.

    INTPs are pensive, analytical folks. They may venture so deeply into thought as to seem detached, and often actually are oblivious to the world around them.

    Precise about their descriptions, INTPs will often correct others (or be sorely tempted to) if the shade of meaning is a bit off. While annoying to the less concise, this fine discrimination ability gives INTPs so inclined a natural advantage as, for example, grammarians and linguists.

    INTPs are relatively easy-going and amenable to most anything until their principles are violated, about which they may become outspoken and inflexible. They prefer to return, however, to a reserved albeit benign ambiance, not wishing to make spectacles of themselves.

    A major concern for INTPs is the haunting sense of impending failure. They spend considerable time second-guessing themselves. The open-endedness (from Perceiving) conjoined with the need for competence (NT) is expressed in a sense that one’s conclusion may well be met by an equally plausible alternative solution, and that, after all, one may very well have overlooked some critical bit of data. An INTP arguing a point may very well be trying to convince himself as much as his opposition. In this way INTPs are markedly different from INTJs, who are much more confident in their competence and willing to act on their convictions.

    Mathematics is a system where many INTPs love to play, similarly languages, computer systems–potentially any complex system. INTPs thrive on systems. Understanding, exploring, mastering, and manipulating systems can overtake the INTP’s conscious thought. This fascination for logical wholes and their inner workings is often expressed in a detachment from the environment, a concentration where time is forgotten and extraneous stimuli are held at bay. Accomplishing a task or goal with this knowledge is secondary.

    INTPs and Logic – One of the tipoffs that a person is an INTP is her obsession with logical correctness. Errors are not often due to poor logic — apparent faux pas in reasoning are usually a result of overlooking details or of incorrect context.

    Games NTs seem to especially enjoy include Risk, Bridge, Stratego, Chess, Go, and word games of all sorts. (My addiction is crossword puzzles!)

    Introverted Thinking
    Introverted Thinking strives to extract the essence of the Idea from various externals that express it. In the extreme, this conceptual essence wants no form or substance to verify its reality. Knowing the Truth is enough for INTPs; the knowledge that this truth can (or could) be demonstrated is sufficient to satisfy the knower. “Cogito, ergo sum” expresses this prime directive quite succinctly.

    In seasons of low energy level, or moments of single-minded concentration, the INTP is aloof and detached in a way that might even offend more relational or extraverted individuals.

    Extraverted iNtuition
    Intuition softens and socializes Thinking, fleshing out the brittle bones of truths formed in the dominant inner world. That which is is not negotiable; yet actual application diffuses knowledge to the extent that knowledge needs qualification and context to be of any consequence in this foreign world of substance.

    If Thinking can desist, the INTP is free to brainstorm, calling up the perceptions of the unconscious (i.e., intuition) which are mirrored in patterns in the realm of matter, time and space. These perceptions, in the form of theories or hunches, must ultimately defer to the inner principles, or at least they must not negate them.

    Intuition unchained gives birth to play. INTPs enjoy games, formal or impromptu, which coax analogies, patterns and theories from the unseen into spontaneous expression in a way that defies their own comprehension.

    Introverted Sensing
    Sensing is of a subjective, inner nature similar to that of the SJs. It supplies awareness of the forms of senses rather than the raw, analogic stimuli. Facts and figures seek to be cleaned up for comparison with an ever growing range of previously experienced input. Sensing assists intuition in sorting out and arranging information into the building blocks for Thinking’s elaborate systems.

    The internalizing nature of the INTP’s Sensing function leaves a relative absence of environmental awareness (i.e., Extraverted Sensing), except when the environment is the current focus. Consciousness of such conditions is at best a sometime thing.

    Extraverted Feeling
    Feeling tends to be all or none. When present, the INTP’s concern for others is intense, albeit naive. In a crisis, this feeling judgement is often silenced by the emergence of Thinking, who rushes in to avert chaos and destruction. In the absence of a clear principle, however, INTPs have been known to defer judgement and to allow decisions about interpersonal matters to be left hanging lest someone be offended or somehow injured. INTPs are at risk of being swept away by the shadow in the form of their own strong emotional impulses.

    Famous INTPs: (the first five happen to be some of my idols…I’m such a nerd)
    Socrates
    Rene Descartes
    Blaise Pascal
    Sir Isaac Newton
    Albert Einstein
    James Madison
    John Quincy Adams
    John Tyler
    Dwight D. Eisenhower
    Gerald Ford
    William Harvey (pioneer in human physiology)
    C. G. Jung, (Freudian defector, author of Psychological Types, etc.)
    William James
    Tom Foley (Speaker of the House–U.S. House of Representatives)
    Henri Mancini
    Jeff Bingaman, U.S. Senator (D.–NM)
    Midori Ito (ice skater, Olympic silver medalist)
    Tiger Woods

    Type Relationships for INTPs:
    Identity Pal Complement Contrast Supplement Anima Suitemate Cohort Companion Tribesman Advisor Pedagogue Enigma Novelty Neighbor Counterpart

    Copyright © 1996-2005 Joe Butt

    Category: a musing

    Comments

    One Response to “MY "TYPE" : INTP”

    1. P
      August 16th, 2007 @ 4:34 pm

      :) I just took a ‘Leadership Workshop’ at Rice (it was required as a part of my fellowship program) and they made us take the Myers-Brigg test as well. I ended up as an INTP/INTJ type, too. Where did you get the descriptions for the personalities? One of the descriptions (INTPs are pensive, analytical folks. They may venture so deeply into thought as to seem detached, and often actually are oblivious to the world around them.) sounds very much like me. I still don’t like it, though. The idea that I can be classified and pigeonholed into four neat letters bothers me.

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