Me again :)

[Phaedrus]

However, there's a problem with leaving the functions out, which is that you end up with a type, but no theory. So, if you want to extend the theory and use it for analysis of various things, you're kind of limited if there isn't any analytic core to the whole thing. So what if someone fully identifies with four letters?

The four scales is a central part of Socionics. They cannot be dismissed. If you don't identify with all of the four letters that are supposed to correlate with your type, then either you haven't understood what those letters stand for, or you have an incorrect view of yourself -- or you are not the type you thought you were.

If you are an INFj as suggested by Diana, you have to identify with F and J, and in that case you only have two choices. Either you convince yourself that you really are an ethical type according to the socionic criteria and that your behaviours and attitudes are correctly fitting those criteria, and that you are a rational type with most of the typical behaviours associated with being a rational type (including physiological traits and V.I.), or you can't be an INFj. There is no other alternative, unless you want to destroy the whole theory. Both you and I seem to share some fascination with the thought of doing that, but in that case you should start with destroying the theory, and only after that perhaps consider the possibility that you might be an INFj.

I would like to rebuild Socionics from the ground up, and make it cleaner. That may be some of the Ti in me.

Are you going to fall into the same trap as so many others? Don't do that, please. (This is becoming more and more irritating. Why can't people read and learn about the functions correctly?) What you describe here, Jonathan, has nothing to do with . You want to redo the puzzle when you can see faults in it, which is a Gamma concept, not Alpha. You want to turn practice into a new theory, which is typical of the IP temperament according to Smilingeyes's Dichotomic desciptions of the types v2.0 -- read that please. An INTj, who has an IJ temperament, would be more interested in turning theories into practice.