The Empathetic INFJ (Socionics)

By Leandro Javier Sepp [INFj]
Edited by Reuben McNew [ENTp]

Often believed to be a martyr for the sake of their own attitudes, INFjs are actually highly sensitive, neurotic slave of their own skills. Since they have awareness of the many meanings behind the various gestures, words, and breaths, the INFj has no difficulty in understanding the moods of people and the situations they are in; they can discern and dissect the motives of any viewpoint, even independently of principle.

Despite her shyness, she carefully word her sentences in a way in which she can answer with the most effectiveness and in a way that appeals to the expectations of others. However, she remains closed and distant to the world; only after she has made sure of her surroundings will she seek to open herself to any experiences remotely resembling extroversion.

INFjs are voracious gatherers of knowledge, especially topics concerning human nature; they can find interest on almost any topic and develop original, ethical, and sometimes extravagant opinions of their surrounding.

INFjs have difficulty refusing the needs and demands of others, and usually comply without taking much thought to their own needs. However, they may bottle up those emotions until some breaking point, where an INFj may flee from a pressuring situation leaving others bewildered. They have difficulty breaking unwanted relations, and may comply with the desires of those by which they have no personal interest; over people may not be truly made aware to their feelings in result.

INFjs may often lack awareness of their surroundings, and have a poor concept of time; usually they are not very inclined to participate in sporting or outdoor activities.

As lovers of routine, INFjs love orderly surroundings; they find peace in structured environments, and seek to keep their lives well on track. But, they may have difficulty realizing their dreams and desires.

Oversensitive and self-conscious, they are vulnerable to physical discomforts, small headaches, messy hair, and unclean clothes mostly resulting from the immense pressure they place upon themselves to live a happy life in a nice comfortable atmosphere. However much time they spend to provide these things for themselves and others, they are not always very good at achieving them, but they depend on it for their own survival and well-being.

INFjs are secretive and reactionary, they rarely reveal their own true opinions and secrets and seek not to be placed in any position upon which they must express themselves: public speaking, reading loudly, or any sort of public exposure does not suit any INFj well.

INFjs fall into two different categories according to appearance and values.

One type of INFj would be considered rather outgoing, braver, and could lead some sort of active social life, often working as translators, psychotherapists, teachers, or any other type of job that would allow them to improvise their ready-made skills. These are the ethical subtypes.

Another type of INFj follows a different path, appearing more reserved and immersed in an imaginary world; often chasing after fantasy tales, scattered, selfish, and dreamy. These are the intuitive subtypes.


INFj by Function
Fi: The first function of the INFj is Fi, by which subjective feeling substantiates itself through various ethical processes. With this function, it is possible to deconstruct and disassemble various levels of emotions, feelings, and moods in order to gauge a sense of their inner workings or how they habitually function. Probably the most powerful aspect of Fi is the forming of a subjective value system by which one uses to connect to others through a maintained and refined view of moral right, wrong, and good; other important features of this function include the ability to word statements and express emotions in the most concise and ethical manner that could be implemented to appeal to the ethical processes of others. Being an introverted function, Fi has an active ability to self-sustain itself and moves actively between an subjective emotional world located in the future and past in order to sustain itself as an active function.

Ne: The second function of the INFj is Ne, by which the essence of ideas arrive and insights into their development arise. With this function, it is possible to collect multiple perspectives, concepts, ideas, and beliefs in order to register into a readily available databank their entirety and the various conscious considerations concerning them as they stand in the abstract theoretical world and in order to derive a global picture of them. However, Ne also maintains an active neutral stance on all of the whole of its inputs, even if the whole of the input of one core belief, concept, or idea, conflicts with any of the other core beliefs, concepts, or ideas it remains non-biased and registers them all as equals. Probably the most powerful aspect of Ne is an ability to see potential in the most obscure forms and to believe in them. Being an extroverted function, Ne cannot derive data from within and must amass information from outside of itself and in the here and now to survive as a function or at all.

Ti: In result of this inability, expected behaviors should include an inability to discern logically the good and bad parts of a concept or the logical importance of a concept, intentionally analyzing too much or not enough, unable to order task in a way that does not cause fatigue, becoming offended when logical mistakes or illogical nature is pointed out, and making impatient and rash decisions before analyzing a situation fully.

Te: Manifested bahaviours expected of this function should include seeming to be in the know about various trends, but has a convulted logic that distorts itself over a period of time, prone to spreading exaggerated gossip that may cause embarrassment, attempts at understanding the logic of others produces childish results, habitually and continually misses the point of someone else's line of thought, spending a great deal of time attempting to substantiate own logic, having a fondness for talking notes or writting in journals in a way that catches attention, attacking the logic of others without substantiating own logic, prone to extreme vagueness.

Se: In result of this inability, expected behaviors should include a lack of motive concerning physical activities, lack of discipline, inability to control aggressive tendencies with unexpected outburst or extreme passivity and non-aggressive, sluggishness and irresponsibility (situational), lack of willpower and initiative, breaking down when put under pressure, shutting down during stressful situations, or inability to push talents and abilities.

Si: . At other times, an expression of this function may find itself in place of the weak and conscious Se function. Manifested bahaviours expected of this function should include experiencing uncontrollable flashbacks of negitive or distorted experiences, obsession with past experiences that seem to have a grip on current reality, having a compulsion to keeping things a certain way because they have a certain familiarity to them, not wanting to change the past, prone to inactivity and unwilling to change since that would mean wrecking or damaging the current and future experience,looking past people or things and walking around with distant and vague look in eye as though unaware of surroundings.