How Functions Work: Inferior Se (INTJ/INFJ)

The inferior function is the hardest to understand and describe. It embodies the part of us that we are least accepting of. Although we are often unaware of its activities,it would be inaccurate to describe the inferior function as?“weak”because all of our core functions are powerful in their own way. The power and force of the inferior function actually comes from the mistaken assumption that it has no power. We underestimate the inferior function at our own peril.

The Role of the Inferior Function

As you develop,it is natural to become more dependent on the dominant function and unwittingly repress the inferior function in order to give the dominant function as much conscious control over life as possible. However,the dominant function cannot handle reality on its own without feeling increasingly overextended as you push it to the upper limits of its strengths while turning a blind eye to its weaknesses. As you press down harder on the inferior function and resist its perspective,it will gradually feel too constricted and its repressed energy will begin to?“leak" into your conscious mind in the form of inexplicable urges or compulsions,especially when you feel frustrated or emotionally vulnerable.

When you rely too heavily on the dominant function for extended periods of time,the functions below it cannot work in a healthy way,and the inferior function remains deeply submerged in the unconscious mind as you keep repressing that perspective in favor of the dominant function. As the dominant function becomes stretched beyond its capabilities,you will feel increasingly stressed because there will be many life problems that you cannot handle with such a narrow and limited perspective. When life stress depletes your focus and mental energy to critical levels,the dominant function will?“burn out”and cause you to lose control of yourself,and this then allows the primitive impulses of the inferior function to?“erupt”from the unconscious and take over your conscious mind,a.k.a. being?“in the grip”of your inferior function. The degree of reactivity of the inferior function will be related to the force with which you repress its activities. Because the inferior function’s view of the world is the opposite of what you are used to,you will unconsciously resist that perspective even as it floods your consciousness. This results in a distorted view of reality and the weaknesses or destructive side of that function will manifest. By releasing the pent up energy of the inferior function,you can find some temporary relief from stress;however,the extreme out-of-character or destructive behaviors that arise can often exacerbate the problems that were causing the stress to begin with,which can potentially create a negative pattern of destructive behavior.

According to function theory,the psyche is a self-balancing mechanism. When the inferior function erupts,it is sending you a message informing you that your psyche is out of balance because you are directing most of your mental energy to the dominant function. This means that there is a positive side to the inferior function in terms of telling us where we need to grow and improve in order to rebalance ourselves. Learning to use the inferior function appropriately will recalibrate energy distribution so that your psyche can establish better equilibrium. Therefore,instead of repressing the inferior function,we should gradually learn to be more aware of it and less resistant towards it. Although you cannot use the inferior function as your main approach to life like a dominant function,you can learn to respect it for its strength and power. As you come to understand the value of the inferior function and the advantages it can bring you in daily life,its power to disrupt your conscious mind will gradually fade. You will then gain a new perspective for understanding life,which will lead to more adaptive and effective behaviors.

Inferior Se

Ni-doms can use Se consciously for tasks that require attention to sensory or physical details. For instance,when cooking a meal or playing a sport,one needs to be fully aware of the external environment in order to adapt to the physical demands of the situation as fluidly as possible. However,since Se is the opposing force to Ni,Ni is very prone to overriding and repressing Se and misunderstanding its fundamental nature. While Ni-doms can use Se in very simplistic ways,they cannot fathom using Se as a?“main approach to life”like a dominant function,and therein lies the main source of psychological conflict.

Ni focuses on perceiving underlying patterns and creating meaning through symbolic intuition;it observes facts/events from various perspectives in order to construct a bigger pattern that can be used for predicting future outcomes. When Ni-doms rely too heavily upon Ni,they will identify with Ni’s activities,using abstract meaning and purpose as well as the ability to access intuitive truth to construct the foundation of their identity. Because of this,Ni will feel continually threatened by the Se perspective because Se has the potential to disrupt or shatter one’s ego-image. Se is focused on engaging fully and immediately with sensory stimuli,adapting to changes quickly,and making the most out of each moment’s opportunities. But Ni tends to misinterpret Se as being superficial,meaningless,or even base and vulgar. Ultimately,Ni forcefully rejects the Se perspective because it fears that sensory or material life itself is insufficient for making one’s life meaningful and,if one’s life is not meaningful in some abstract way,then one has no concrete reason to live. Therefore,unhealthy or immature Ni-doms do their utmost to reject Se in order to protect their ego-image as a?“thoughtful,insightful,deep,and intuitive”person.

However,when Ni-doms rely too heavily upon Ni and suppress Se,they will develop an overly subjective and solipsistic view of the world. Instead of using Se appropriately,Ni will use Se to collect?“factual”evidence to confirm its own intuitions,biases,or suspicions. In other words,Ni will develop a maladaptive tendency to misinterpret facts,arrive at invalid inferences,or?“discover”intuitive meaning or connections where there really are none. When Ni is not functioning in a healthy manner,Ni-doms will be more prone to overlooking important details or failing to adapt their vision to changing circumstances,and this will lead to a buildup of feelings of incompetence or worthlessness,especially when they make careless mistakes or are unable to explain their intuitive reasoning coherently.

No function can be fully suppressed,so inferior Se will leak into consciousness in strange ways. Proper Se desires full freedom to pursue new experiences and is completely comfortable with seeing external reality as having no boundaries,limits,structure,or personal meaning. This can create an underlying sense of anxiety in Ni-doms because Ni fundamentally requires a firm sense of structure,direction,and meaning. Thus,when Ni becomes overextended,Ni-doms may exhibit somewhat desperate attempts to impose artificial structure on the external environment as a way to generate meaning and purpose for themselves and defend against the chaotic and shapeless nature of Se. For example,they might: have a tendency to talk themselves out of doing things because of being convinced that the outcome will be negative or undesirable,vicariously enjoy interesting activities through others rather than doing it themselves?(e.g. reading literature or hearing stories),be overconfident that they understand the?“truth”about the world even when they have not experienced much of it,be oversensitive to negative feedback that contradicts their ideas/beliefs,subconsciously seek out positive feedback/reinforcement by doing things just to garner compliments or admiration,seek out interests/activities that provide safe haven from the expectations of the outside world and even become snobby about their ideas/hobbies as being?“superior”or more?“meaningful”,become obsessive about tracking objects/people/details,overcompensate for insecurity by excessively researching so that they can plan or organize every detail,compulsively clean/arrange/rearrange the physical environment,feel driven to learn and practice physical skills that provide a sense of mastery over the environment,suffer from perfectionistic or controlling tendencies,project their own weakness onto others by nitpicking other people’s failure to notice details or by mistakenly assuming that everyone feels uncomfortable in unfamiliar environments,and so on.

However,this means that Ni has not understood the real source of its own anxiety and so the underlying conflict remains unresolved. Ni sees Se as the?“enemy”rather than as an important and helpful part of one’s own psyche. The longer this conflict between Ni and Se goes on,the greater the likelihood of succumbing to?“the grip”. Ni might try to resist a grip experience by looking for an external scapegoat for its stress or suffering. Not wanting to turn a critical eye on itself,Ni will blame the outside world for its own failure to engage with Se,e.g.,by accusing other people,society,or the world for being unsupportive,shallow,short-sighted,or inattentive to meaning. On one hand,Ni-doms crave connection with the Se world and unconsciously desire the natural ease,flexibility,and admiration that the best Se-doms can achieve;on the other hand,they resent themselves for this desire and become all too ready to distrust the external world,creating a paranoid mindset where the world is always throwing up obstacles for them and only they themselves know the?“truth”about things,all the while ignoring the real problem. The more they resist adapting themselves to changing facts and details,the more they will feel bound or constricted by practical concerns.

Ni-doms can be emotionally triggered in a variety of ways,such as: feeling overwhelmed by the details of an unfamiliar physical environment,unexpected changes to their personal space,having factual errors pointed out to them in a way that implies carelessness or lack of forethought,being exposed or judged as lacking knowledge/insight,being forced to handle too many small details at once,lack of autonomy or personal space to engage in private activities,prolonged exposure to situations that encourage sensory overload like big crowds or noisy environments,being blindsided or confronted with unwanted surprises,feeling pressure to extravert too much,frequent interruptions from others or the environment,working in environments that do not allow independent thought or expressions of creativity,not receiving proper recognition for insight or hard work,doing things that have no future prospects or significance for personal development,working with people who seem short-sighted or apathetic or inefficient,spending too much time in environments that lack structure or clear rules of conduct,uncertainty about the future,feeling a chronic lack of purpose/meaning/direction in life.

When they become stressed and mentally fatigued to the point where Ni can no longer maintain its dominance,unhealthy Se urges will finally erupt from the unconscious,driving Ni-doms to surrender to Se in a negative or destructive manner. The ways in which these psychological urges manifest behaviorally are often unique to the individual and the circumstances. They tend to abandon self-discipline and overindulge any impulsive whims that arise moment to moment,unable to regulate their own mental functioning because of losing sight of future consequences,even becoming emotionally volatile or explosive,raging at others or trying to coerce people into falling in line with their unreasonable expectations. They might give in to hedonistic temptations and overindulge in sensory pleasures?(like food,alcohol,drugs,sex,socializing,gaming,risky physical challenges,etc.)because these short-lived experiences are an all too convenient escape from underlying emotional issues. Since these poor decisions tend to worsen life’s difficulties,it becomes easy to spiral out of control,thereby exacerbating the urge to seek further sensory escape as panic or anxiety about the future cannot be kept at bay. Their view of situations can become extremely narrow and unimaginative as they become hyper-focused on what certain?“facts”mean,with a tendency to overthink details and misinterpret them in a negative,critical,biased,or pessimistic way,usually because they are only able to see the details that support their cynical suspicions,and this gradually erodes emotional well-being and self-assuredness because of getting poor results or making no progress. They may start to blame others,nitpick other people’s behaviors,or become extremely judgmental and inflexible in relationships. As a result,they might come to rely on negative coping behaviors like self-imposed isolation or sensory escape in order to protect/distance themselves from the perceived demands of the external world.

In order to properly avoid a grip experience,it is essential that Ni-doms learn the real value of the Se perspective and the advantages it can confer. For Ni-doms,successfully emerging from a grip experience usually requires solitude and private space away from the demands of work to regain composure?(avoid giving them advice or unnecessarily reminding them of negative experiences). Oftentimes,the immediate physical environment can trigger memories of stress,so a change of location or scenery might be required. Ni-doms can also quiet the mind by utilizing?productiveand relaxing Se-related activities that do?notrequire any focus on long term outcomes or achievement. Whatever activities are chosen,they should accomplish two goals:

• to release and expend Se energy in a way that consciously emphasizes its worth and usefulness,rather than using Se to escape or avoid stress
• to decrease the dominance of Ni,thereby allowing it to relax and regain its natural flexibility and accuracy

Because access to the inferior function is extremely difficult to achieve due to its opposing nature,the?auxiliary functionmust also be used to relieve psychological pressure whenever possible:

• INTJs can use Te-related activities to improve their ability to engage with the external world through being planful,competent,and results-oriented?(thereby building genuine confidence by working towards concrete goals).
• INFJs can use Fe-related activities to improve their ability to engage with the external world through taking time to understand the?(new)perspectives of others?(thereby improving relationships and achieving better social support).

Ongoing type-related development for Ni-doms:

• work on being more adaptable to changes in external circumstances
• use physical/sensual activities to relax rather than to escape stress
• set more realistic goals for yourself to avoid undue stress or anxiety
• use Se consciously to explain one’s current awareness of a situation
• use Se adaptively by forming the habit of focusing on sensory information
• use Se to support Ni by collecting evidence/experience of the physical world and taking practical action towards goals/potential
• avoiding making incorrect intuitive connections without enough facts
• become more aware of?the intuitive processso that you can know yourself more objectively and communicate your thoughts,ideas,or feelings clearly to others
• enjoy physical activities or aesthetic/artistic pursuits in a way that allows you to exercise your intuition alongside sensing,e.g.,interpret and re-interpret works of visual/performance art
• reflect on how your relentless need to analyze meaning or pursue future goals affects you and the people around you
• make efforts to genuinely understand and build up the natural strengths of Se;observe healthy Se-doms and learn to appreciate their style
• envision,recall,or experience real-life scenarios where Se is more capable or effective than Ni at handling reality,so that you can learn to consciously and comfortably choose the most adaptive behaviors

“Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it”,and there may be no more devoted adherents to this adage than ISTJs. They are committed to maintaining a systematic and predictable path forward for society,one that avoids the follies and pitfalls of history. They are of the Archivist archetype,always examining and storing information to build guideposts for society.

The ISTJ Ego consists of Introverted Sensing?(Si)Hero,Extraverted Thinking?(Te)Parent,Introverted Feeling?(Fi)Child and Extraverted Intuition?(Ne)Inferior/Aspirant. In terms of communication style,they are concise and to the point. They prefer that others initiate conversation,but when they do speak they say what they mean and mean what they say. Although procrastination may hinder them,completion will be followed through once committed to. Their temperament is characterized by preferences for systems and processes,for concrete reality,and for doing?“what’s right”. They are protectors of our traditions,exceedingly loyal and duty bound.

ISTJs represent a potent force of purpose to secure a future for humanity based on verified knowledge,sound principles,and established traditions. They believe in their moral duty to warn about what lies ahead and oppose what has been shown as undesirable but are effective only when actively verifying information and engaging with others. In this way,they are able to fulfill their aspirations in advocating for worthwhile causes and helping others intelligently develop a better world. While they may not be comfortable in leading such an effort,they are committed to its success in the following 8 ways:

Watchfulness

ISTJs are inherently protective and risk averse. Sensibility which derives from personal fear of the unknown and desire to feel safe with the unfamiliar. Those concerns even extend beyond self to include society and the future of humanity collectively. The question of?“what if”is always accompanied by feelings of apprehension. As a result,ISTJs seek to allay fear and secure safety. They are aware more than most that history has a way of repeating itself,and thus rely on past experience and the acquisition of knowledge to forge protective shields for themselves and others. They become watchmen for any information or movement,having the potential to challenge the status quo or inject uncertainty about the future. As such,they guide society along a known and proven path that ensures a continuing and protected future. Little wonder such duty-oriented occupations of police officer,firefighter,and soldier are attractive to them.

Self-Discipline

ISTJs act because of self-discipline rather than force of will. At times,they may find difficulty extricating themselves from the rut of familiarity,from the warmth of personal comfort and certainty of self-worth,yet it is exactly this difficulty that they must overcome in order to fulfill the measure of their creation. In the absence of engaged and active ISTJs,humanity is without foundation and left to wander in a wilderness of chance. Obligation and duty are far stronger prescriptions than freedom and desire for the cure of inaction. Only through the mastery of self can the ISTJ shift attention from the trivial to the important.

Rationality

ISTJs seek information and knowledge,and can obsess over finding answers. Credentials are of utmost importance because they evidence an education,a skill,an expertise in something the ISTJ lacks. In turn,citing these sources and reference points demonstrates their own knowledge,building reputation. They risk error in following the narrative of the collective,yet through verification and experience,ISTJs accumulate significant comprehension and build themselves into towers of wisdom. The world will not change until they share that wisdom.

Verification?

ISTJs must verify sources in order to validate belief. They rely on knowledge possessed by others more so than they do their own logical analysis,effectively resulting in a system of beliefs which may or may not be fully correct. While less mature ISTJs may shrug at the need to substantiate the accuracy of their beliefs,maturity brings a conscientious effort in recognizing that a certificate does not guarantee truth,and without truth,safety cannot abide. Their mission and reputation are in jeopardy if their scholarship comes into question.

Memory

ISTJs possess remarkable long-term memory. Every event,relationship,word spoken,and more is effectively catalogued and stored within their minds for quick and easy retrieval later. Beyond simply storing information,ISTJs have the ability to recognize patterns in that data which gives them a measure of prescience. They can predict future events based on their experience and analysis of historical information. Sight of the fabric of culture through time gives them unique insight into future potentialities. While ISTJs are wisely wary of the inaccurate and immaterial,illuminating the way ahead is their torch of truth and fact.

Objectivity

ISTJs place great importance on the need for dispassionate neutrality in decision-making. They value playing the role of devil’s advocate as it works to ensure desirable outcomes. Indeed,their virtue is objectivity. They examine data,highlight error,and limit fiction. Unfortunately,this potentially inhibits an openness to fresh information,new ideas,or alternative possibilities. Although data may be key to impartial judgements,provided it is relevant and verified,excessive insulation from differing viewpoints may introduce vulnerability rather than protection. ISTJs are generally mindful of this risk and strive for healthy balance.

Gatekeeping

ISTJs are not only scholars or walking encyclopedias,but they are also the gatekeepers of that knowledge. They are always in the know and enjoy recording events and circumstances. They are curators of knowledge rather than art,and are trusted and confidential sources of data upon which others may draw. Thus accounting,law,politics,and financial management are natural professions for them. ISTJs recognize the value of information is its power to inform decisions,impact judgements,and drive the course of history.

Structure

ISTJs understand that predictability and risk mitigation is achieved through the development of an effective framework of processes and procedures. Spontaneity is potentially more exciting,but ISTJs find joy in ordinary work and following a proven course of action. Less interested in taking charge than in simply getting the job done,they reluctantly assume leadership when no one with sufficient knowledge is available. Once engaged,they will not rest until completion. Endurance is their hallmark to achievement,reflective of their loyalty to purpose.

In summation,these are the 8 ways ISTJs preserve the social contract,for both the present and the future. Their numbers in society reflect the importance of that role they fill. Understanding well the First Law of Time—all that has happened before will happen again—they are determined to prevent the recurrence of problems that have plagued humanity from the beginning. They seek to be the voice of warning and to keep mankind on the straight and narrow path. They dutifully tend the garden in which the seeds of future generations are planted.