INTP Traits - "The Thinkers"
Positive Traits:
- Extremely imaginative, creative and ingenious
- Tend to be highly intelligent
- Observant
- Generally laid-back and easy-going
- Usually go-getters
- The love and affection they feel for those close to them is often childlike in its purity
- Enthusiastic in their approach to things that interest them
- Not personally threatened by conflict or criticism
- Not demanding, have simple needs
- Interested in how things can be improved or what they can be turned into
- Great at analyzing problems, identifying patterns, and coming up with logical explanations/solutions
- Live primarily inside their minds
- Always seeking a higher understanding
- Value knowledge above all else
- Minds are constantly active, working to generate new theories or disprove existing ones
- Are questioning and skeptical of existing “rules” and popular opinions and define their own approaches
- Analytical, objective and theoretical
- Love new ideas and theories and discussing concepts with others
- Have no desire to control others
- Very tolerant and flexible in most situations
- Have firmly held beliefs that they with staunchly stand up for
- Can be very shy when meeting new people, but are usually gregarious and confident around those they know well
- Base decisions on logic and objectivity
- Value the succinct, correct expression of ideas and facts
- Will not tailor what they believe to be the truth while expressing it to others
- Independent, unconventional and original
- Often brave and pioneering
- Unlikely to strive for traditional goals such as popularity or security
- Usually complex individuals
Negative Traits:
- Can be restless and temperamental
- Can be scatterbrained, disorganized, absent-minded
- May seem dreamy and distant to others because of how much time they spend in their heads
- Not naturally in tune with the feelings of others – can be slow to respond to emotional needs
- Not naturally good at expressing their feelings
- Tendency to be suspicious and distrusting of others
- Not naturally good with practical, day-to-day matters
- Tendency to have difficulty leaving unhealthy relationships
- Tend to either ignore conflict situations or blow up in heated anger in response to them
- Hate working on routine tasks
- May be prone towards social rebellion
- May be prone to feelings of over self-importance
- May become overly critical, sarcastic and cynical
- May need to work on expressing their well-developed theories in a way that is understandable to others
Musings on a Bisexual/Questioning Confession
I saw this ask submitted to biconfessions, and it sort of got me thinking.
I have known that I am bisexual for several years, and I am to a point where I am pretty open about it. Although, even now, as an “established” bisexual who has experienced both sexual and emotional intimacy with same-sex partners (and opposite sex partners), I sometimes still feel insecure in my bisexual identity. It’s almost like I’m afraid that it’s going to up and disappear someday.
For example, if I see a male I am attracted to, I sometimes think to myself “It sure would be nice to have a boyfriend”, and then I start to feel guilty almost. As though having a “heterosexual thought” might somehow mean that I’m not really bi anymore. I particularly felt like this a lot when I was younger and questioning. My best friend is gay, and I was afraid he would assume that I was just imitating him or “doing it for attention”. That part of this ask really hit close to home for me.
Now, obviously, I know that being attracted to any particular person doesn’t change who I am. Just because I happen to be more interested in one gender more than another at some points doesn’t mean that I’m not bi anymore. But there’s still sometimes this little voice in the back of my head that makes me feel insecure about that.
I tend to think that a lot of these feelings come from internalized biphobia. Growing up, I didn’t hear a lot about bisexual people, but the things I did hear weren’t very flattering. I’d heard people say that bisexuals were just attention-seekers. That there was no such thing as a permanent bisexual (“it’s just a phase”). I’d heard people say that bisexuals were indecisive or would never be able to be faithful to a single partner. That they were just straights who were trying to be cool and alternative by imitating gay people.
These messages and stereotypes still affect me to this day. Even though I know intellectually that they’re just stereotypes and aren’t necessarily true, it’s still as if I am afraid that they will come true anyways. That I’ll suddenly become this indecisive, unfaithful person. Or that I’ll “turn straight” because it was “just a phase”. I have no reason to believe that these things will come true, but yet a small part of me still fears that they will. I still feel afraid of losing part of myself.
I wonder whether gay and lesbian people ever feel this way. Do they feel afraid that their “gayness” will disappear or afraid that the stereotypes they’ve always heard will come true for them (despite no evidence that they will)? Afraid that they went through the emotional struggle and stress of coming out for no reason?
I’m not gay or lesbian, so I don’t know. I wonder what other people think about this.
Some questions which helped me when I was questioning whether I was a transsexual man.
- Can I imagine myself growing old as a woman? I could not imagine a future where I was a woman. I could not imagine looking in the mirror and seeing an old woman and feeling anything other than abject failure. On the other hand, I could imagine looking in the mirror and seeing an old man, overweight and hairy and bald, and feeling accomplishment with my life.
- How do I feel about having a vagina? I find my genitals repulsive and wish to ignore them as often as is possible.
- How do I feel about having a penis? I am frequently saddened and upset by not having a penis, and expect to see and feel one when I am naked. I cannot engage in sexual acts using my current genitalia because the disconnect between my brain and my body is too great.
- How do I feel about having breasts? I find my breasts repulsive and wish to ignore them as often as is possible.
- How do I feel about having a flat chest? I am frequently saddened and upset by not having a flat chest, and expect to see and feel one when I am naked.
- How do I feel about the less attractive effects of testosterone: weight gain, increased acne, increased body hair in places not deemed conventionally attractive? Although these effects do not particularly appeal to me, especially the weight gain and increased acne, they are preferable to a future as a woman.
- How do I feel about being treated as a normal man, not a transsexual one? Bear in mind that when you transition, especially if you have a masculine presentation or are not assumed to be non-heterosexual, you will not be treated like a transsexual man unless others are aware of your status. Being genuinely treated like a man feels very different to being treated like a woman who everybody is pretending is a man, as happened to me when I was earlier in transition. I enjoy this difference.
- How do I feel about being on medication for the rest of my life? I find this idea much more appetising than having a feminine body shape.
I do not believe that any individual has to answer these questions the same way that I do in order for them to be a transsexual man, but I found these questions useful when wondering whether I should transition, and considering that I have seen many questioning whether they are men, I felt they may be useful. Bear in mind that your sexual orientation has no relation to whether you are a transsexual man; many transsexual men are homosexual or bisexual.
Now tell me, on the day of Judgement when you are standing before Allah(swt) and He asks you about those sins you never repented for and you constantly did without shame, who will you turn to?
Because all of those “friends” that were there for you before, they ain’t gonna be there of you then. Trust me.
questions should not discomfort us, but enlighten us.
but when we are emotionally attached to ideas and beliefs, we cling to them, degrading anyone who questions these ideas or beliefs. but when we are free from ideologies — and this is what i understand as true submission to Allah — we welcome any form of questioning of that which we understand as true.
