Ivor Grrrney

Well done bbm ... keep going!!

A

Thank you A


Morticia, I am surprised you did'nt get bug-eyed!!!

O hi.  I was INFJ  when I took the Mayers Brigg test with RC nuns over 15 years ago.  My partner is almost sensate rather than iNtuitive (ie he's a mathematican - as he says, I'm good at stories, he's good at figures.)

It is not meaningless, but it is very schematic.  I was told by Sister Anne that in Jung's understanding, you were either one or the other, ie you were either sensate or intuitive, introvert or extrovert.  And in the second half of life, you express the other side of your personality.  So I am can do extrovert things, that I would not do before 35.

Mrs Myers and Mrs Briggs were an American mother and daughter who came up with a Jackie type quiz, which would establish where in terms of his understanding of the personality.  Jung came up with the introvert/extrovert, intuitive/sensate, feeling/thinking pairs, and Mrs Mrs M and Mrs B added the Judgemental/Perceptive bit to say whether the intuitive/sensate or the feeling/thinking pair were predominant.

This system was dead fashionable some 15 years ago among RC nuns into spirituality, but your system seems a bit different.  How can you be predominantly Feeling but only 25%?  That means you are 75% Thinking.

It is quite useful for me or whoever to ask questions about myself or yourself.  It is dead iffy when used by HR departments to decide who to sack.

My confessor of many years described Myers-Brigg as middle class horoscopes.

That's just what I thought.  And from what I know of you, you show how unhelpful and schematic the system can be.  I am much more interested in the Enneagram, which was the personality system which I have linked to the nine characters in Winnie the Pooh.

Yes, but luv, sorry actors are notoriously introverted.  They can put on an act for the public, but they remain hidden behind the persona.  I'm deeply introverted, but I can read in church or guide a group around a tourist site with no problem.

I reckon if this system can tell you something useful about yourself, like comparing yourself to a character in fiction, then fine. If it can give you the understanding to be more tolerant of others, or avoid them having unfair power over you, again fine.

But to treat it as scientific truth is missing the point.

(Mind you, I'm so utterly intuitive I would not recognise scientific truth when served up to me on a plate with watercress all around it.)

When I did M-B some time ago, I was near 50% on everything, with only Perception-Judgement being clearly on the side of Judgement.  Consequently, what my useful HR department told me as useful hints was largely a waste of time.  (For most people they either a) picked things that would develop your weaker trait, or b) help you find the right team members to be with.  As a 'neutral' I didn't have a weak side to develop and could get on with just about anyone.)

Anyway, I hope I have become somewhat less judgemental since then, but I think this was because of meeting someone who saw huge potential in everyone and never judged anyone, rather than any M-B stuff.

The worst bit about use of these things (usually by misguided people in InHuman Remains) is when there is a view that there is a 'perfect' that you have to aim for.  Some exec member says they want a team that intuitively knows what to do and you end up with a team that never checks what what customers actually want, and go down the pan that way.

Actually, I can't see why anyone uses this.  It's all mumbo-jumbo-billo-hookos.  (oops! judgement coming out a bit string there again..... )

Tommo