Hey everyone,

I've been wrestling with understanding the functions lately and would like to know, how does one identify one's own ego function with certainty?

I was recently introduced to socionics when an acquaintance of mine typed me as a Myers-Briggs INTP and I did a few thousand google searches to find out what exactly that meant. Don't get me wrong, I respect this individual's judgement since he is a certified practitioner but as I read more and more on INTPs and LIIs I found that I didn't entirely relate to these grand descriptions of architects or pure, cold, analytical thinkers.

One of his major reasons for saying INTP was that I held a high honours degree in philosophy and psychology. At the time I thought nothing of it and believed him completely, however now I also believe he may have assumed that I enjoyed these subjects and that they came easily to me. Little did he know I hated some of those classes and found them completely pointless. You'd think if I had or in the ego block I would enjoy it when lectures took a two hour detour into discussing the logic behind proper linguistic form or how a passage from Nietzsche's Genealogy of Morals can mean 20 different things. These are things I can do well and enjoy lightly in passing, but always seem to come at the cost of high amounts of stress when I need to produce something substantial. For our mandatory logic classes I finished with a grade of 86, but man! Some of those problems made me lose hair and definitely did not leave me feeling more energized. I have a feeling this practitioner made the mistake of confusing intelligence with cognitive preference. The one thought that got me through university was "I'm not letting these 4 years be a waste of time and my parent's money".

I realize functions don't exactly indicate talent or interest but I find this to be a huge red flag in being able to come to terms with LII as my type, especially since I'd like to use socionics to better understand my own talents and have more fulfilling relationships.

I've looked at a few things including the Reinin dichotomies and I believe I am probably an alpha type with beta being my second best guess. I am almost certain impacts my personality but I can't be sure in what way or in what position (if it resides in the ego or super-id block for instance). I am highly aware of the emotional environment and can easily guess what other people are feeling or thinking when I look around the room but I also do lack confidence in my ability to affect change if someone feels down, depressed, or like an outsider. I am very friendly with everyone (almost detrimentally so) and hate it when I see someone treated like crap (though don't always express this hate). Is it likely that an individual with in the ego block might be aware of these problems but lack the confidence or skill to make a change? Is it possible my concerns with my university experience have nothing to do with cognitive preference and I still may be an LII? How do you self identify your preferences?

I appreciate any and all thoughts you might have regarding this issue and am willing to give more information if you ask. I'm not really certain about any of it and figure I might just be better off forgetting about typology

Thanks all for reading and I wish you well!

(I'm male and 24 if it helps to know this)