I had an IEI friend when I was younger. We vaguely keep in touch now through goodreads, pinterest, and fb. She was a really good friend. I wish we had been able to stay in touch more. We share a lot of opinions on things like feminism, religion, animal rights, and social issues. I find myself agreeing with most of her pins on Pinterest. We also like somewhat similar books. But usually all for different reasons.
My IEI friend is actually the one that got me interested in typology. She went somewhere that tested her for her MBTI type in our area. They typed her INFJ. My IEI friend's mother thought knowing my IEI's friends type would help her make a decision as to what major she would be most compatible with to choose for college. I don't really know how much MBTI is suppose to correlate with Socionics. I don't think any one can say, confidently, since there aren't any objective parameters to type ones-self to begin with. There's a correlation chart I've seen, and supposedly the j/p switch doesn't work for everyone. If the j/p switch doesn't work, it's possible one has been mistyped to begin with. You are probably going to get a different opinion from everyone on that. Some will say the functions transfer smoothly, some will say its a completely different system, some will say the j/p switch didn't work for them, some will say socionics is only in our minds..
etc. I think the functions transfer smoothly and that since socionics is better at explaining, if one finds the functions don't transfer smoothly after reading more into the theory, then they were likely mistyped in MBTI.
As to how well my IEI friend and I got along, we only had a rift once when we were playing doubles tennis together. She thought I wasn't trying hard enough and that I didn't care if I won or lost. She wanted a more competitive partner. I think it frustrated her that I didn't give a crap, because, honestly, I didn't care about winning. and she knew that.
From my perception of her, I noticed in a group of people, she would sit back and watch, and I could tell she observed a lot about everybody. It was like people were playing instruments with their own unique music that she automatically absorbed, using it to build this complex understanding of the tunes, notes, and the core meaning and motivation behind each individual song that had eventually formed this web of emotional understanding. From this web, she could conduct people by pulling on their emotional strings individually or unify everyone together in a symphony. I think, if she had the desire, she could be a wonderful manipulator. However, I don't ever see her stooping to that level. But I know she had the capacity for it. It's like being an actress, she had all these personalities inside of her. She was, in fact, literally, an actress, and a pretty good one too. She had the potential to be a dangerous weapon. lol.
She did seem to understood people so well without judging them. It was as if she could see through everyone, their darkness and their beauty, and just accept that. She wasn't one to shy away from the dark and nitty gritty depths of a person. I liked that about her. She always wanted to pull back the layers and dig deeper and deeper. She was always asking what she called 'deep questions' and wanted to have 'deep conversations.' I wasn't surprised when she went on to be a psychologist.
She'd always give me good advice and would watch my back. She often dragged me away from dangerous situations or people she thought were harmful that I naively walked into a few times. I'd give people the benefit of the doubt, and she'd take one look at someone, and it's like she could see a line of dominos falling before her, and she'd pluck me right out of the way. I'd understand why she did it without asking, but I wouldn't have understood that creepy Ni stuff nearly as well if I hadn't been friends with her.
There was also this distant coolness about her hidden underneath a sociable, friendly exterior. She was often smiling on the outside , but I think a lot bothered her that she didn't show. It was as if throwing an insult at her wouldn't crack the exterior, but on the inside were the cracks and broken glass, an accumulation of criticisms that were very damaging to her that she allowed to fester. She had that kind vulnerability about her.
She seemed quite a bit different than a lot of people I've ever met. At times, I felt as if she was being fake on the surface, but yet there was a lot more going on underneath. Of course, I think everyone is like this to an extent, but I think it varies as to how far it goes and how much activity is going on at those depths.
She may have been a more atypical IEI, a product of her environment that demanded perfection. Although, I believe people that share the same type can be quite different depending on a plethora of reasons. She was most likely of the IEI-Fe variety and reminded me a lot of Sylvia Plath. Ironically, Plath is one of her favorite authors.
I'm sure I've known other IEI's, but I found her hard to get to know at first. I think we never would have spoken to each other if it wasn't for having a mutual friend. She didn't let people into her circle easily. Even though she seemed non-judgemental about humanity in general, she was reserved with others, until, it seemed, she decided they were worthy to let in.
QuasiIdentity INFj-INFp
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It's like all infjs in my life have treated me that way. It's not assholeish exactly but it's weird and uncomfortable and I don't like it.
Originally Posted by 1981slater
. We had so many things in common and we read and liked even the same books , sometimes without previously discussing it . Yet there was something that made us iremediably different too . The IEI was very suspicious , almost paranoid about people and me some times . Probably because of my Fi curtains . He used to accuse me of the craziest things some times and lash against me . I think all in all I am not that dark and competitive as the IEI and I love humanity more . He was E4 w 3 or E 3 probably . It rang a bell so well , like what you said about manipulating others' emotions . I am more accepting of people's feelings and sympathies without trying to pull strings to change what they feel or use that against them . Very illuminating post , I appreciate it so much . 
