Which super ego functions does this suggest?

[Joy]

I know someone who has a very serious degenerative medical condition, and she's already in pretty bad shape because of it. She refuses to take the medications available for it because of potentially serious side effects, such as liver failure and death. I asked her what the incidence of those side effects were, reminding her that most medications have potentially serious side effects and that medications such as acetaminophen and ibuprofen can cause those side effects as well. She said she didn't know the actual incidence of the serious side effects she'd mentioned.

She's decided to take a natural route... supplementation and dietary stuff. She's been claiming to do this for years though, and she "cheats" on her diets a lot. She can go for like 6 months without cheating, then cheat for a special occasion and then start cheating a few times a week for a while, until her next check up. Then she finds out that her condition has worsened quite a bit and she decides to go back to a super strict diet. She sets a date a few weeks into the future and eats as much as she wants of whatever she wants because she won't be able to eat those foods again for a long time. When the date arrives she sticks to her super strict diet, often losing a lot of weight very quickly (which worries her husband). The cycle starts all over again.

So I've been thinking that the stuff in the second paragraph suggests a Si PoLR, but the stuff in the first paragraph seems pretty... not Ni... to me. The problem is that I have a hard time separating Ni from Te sometimes.

I guess I could add that this person likes to see herself as a very "logical" person, someone who "thinks with her head instead of her heart" and is financially shrewd and whatnot (I really don't see this though).

[aestrivex]

LSI maybe. it certainly would be consistent with my observations of LSIs refusing necessary or useful medical treatment in some way, which i've seen on a few occasions lately.


i don't know though; the description overall is pretty vague.

[Joy]

She does seem to have Beta values, but while she's one of the most emotionally expressive people I know she often seems to be clueless about what's going on with others, sometimes making imposing requests or annoying/upsetting others without seeming to realize it. She tends to be rather enthusiastic in conversation. She also tends to be rather extremist in her convictions and beliefs. I used to think she was ISTj with freakishly over the top Fe, but her Si seems to be quite weak as well. She likes to think it's strong though. I guess I have a hard time seeing an ISTj being so lax with housekeeping? And while she definitely seems to value Ti, I'm not sure how strong it is. It's like she clings to systems she's been taught but when someone makes a really good point about some part of it being wrong, she just uses circular reasoning. When you point out that it's circular reasoning she gets quiet and looks down, then reasserts whatever her stance on the matter is, totally ignoring the points you just made.

She gets really into her hobbies sometimes, too. Right now she's doing a lot of obedience classes and trials with her dogs, and she'll be off 3 nights a week doing that sort of thing.

[elle]

She sounds like my EIE mother, who definitely has Si in her super-ego, she cares less about feeling good than looking good.

She's the epitome of both:

The hypochondriac who is constantly ill with some strange and menacing illness that cannot be seen.

The exalted prophet who is constantly telling people about what will happen or is happening unnoticeably and driving home how wonderful or how awful that is.

Her Fe is overwhelming too. Though I also considered LSI, because she's so pigheaded about what she feels is right, and her sense of how things look is, what I consider Se, is pretty good too.

But I figured she'd be much better at Si than she is now, if she had Si in her id. Si polr from a mother is not fun. But also, her Ni - which surfaces in the form being hyper aware of danger everywhere she goes (and everywhere I go...ugh. ) and being superstitious and such.

So whoever you're describing is sounding like a very beta EIE who highly values Ti and Se, just like my mother.
-How is her Ni?

[aestrivex]

i would ignore those social role descriptions if i were you.

[Expat]

I see in super-ego.

[elle]

meh.

i take them with a grain of salt, of course. but i can see how they work, especially in my mother. all the Ni, paranoid Si, and none of the Te to back it up = hypochondriacs that prophesies the apocalypse, lightening up the atmosphere with doom and gloom.

[Joy]

Your mother sounds similar to this person, though she isn't a hypochondriac... she really does have a serious medical issue. (Just because someone has paranoid Si doesn't mean there aren't any actual problems. Sigh.) And instead of being superstitious, she's super religious (pretty much the same thing).

[Joy]

Anyways, all of this seems to be reinforcing my EIE typing for her.