sentom

[sentom]

About Me

I guess the best way to start an introduction is by actually introducing myself. So, hello, my name is Mark/Sentom, I’m 25 at the time of writing this, and I’m an INFP.

I started my journey in MBTI around 8 years ago, at the age of 17 or 18. I was by that time a very big fan of Carl Jung, having discovered his work after reading an article explaining the end of a certain movie. To say his work changed my life would be an understatement, I was very in love with Jung and his theories. And although be it I had a very superficial understanding of his concepts, I did go and buy his book “Archetypes and the Collective Unconscious” and devoured it in probably 2 or 3 days. I only say this because once I realized that MBTI was based on his work, I was quite impressed.

So, I was browsing the web one day, bored, and decided to look up “personality test” on Google, for fun, so it led me to the MBTI test on 16personalities and I got INFP on the first try. I read the description for INFP and felt quite identified with it, I was very sure I was an INFP. Of course, I do remember going on their website to read other personality types and getting overwhelmed really fast, Thinking “what is really the difference between this type and this type?”. I would read the description for ISFP and think, “hey that sounds a lot like me!” even more so than INFP because I was a guitar player at the time and spent pretty much all my time dedicated to creating art. And then whenever I decided to read the dichotomies between two letters (I’m talking between N and S not even the functions) I didn’t ever quite understand it. I only understood the difference between I and E (shy vs talkative), F vs T (Feeling vs logic preference/orientation), and P vs J (flexible or organized), yet I clearly remember never even learning what N and S meant. And even then, I didn’t pay much attention to it, I took the general descriptions of a personality as the leading factor to understanding them.

Anyways, I did try to browse some forums at the time since I had an urging grow to talk to other people about it, specially to meet other INFPs (the forum was Personality Café). And that was my first glimpse at cognitive functions. I saw people talking about them, but whenever I tried to understand them, I was incredibly confused. Keep in mind there was nowhere that called them “cognitive functions” so I had to go on google and type “Fi” or “Ne”, and when I did manage to get any results, they were always super confusing, and I wasn’t that interested. So I showed the test to some friends and they got different results, I was like “oh cool” but really had no idea what they meant. I only thought “oh yes they are an E type that was so obvious” cause in my mind everyone but me was an E type.

It was then after talking about it 2 or 3 times with my friends I dropped the subject completely for many years. Until around 2 years ago when I started studying a new career in vocational training. So, I was going to class with around 20 other people, and one day, I was bored with one of them and told them to take the test. She took the test and got ESFJ (which she is). After a couple of days, I realized people in the class were taking the test (she must have told someone), and sure thing, in about a week everyone had taken the test. I was quite amazed at the Willingness of everyone to take the test, since whenever our teacher told us to take the “color test” or “Big 5” they all seemed quite annoyed that they had to do it. But now they were actually Willing to do another test… I guess its just an aversion to taking orders sort of thing.

So anyways, people started asking me “what does this mean?” or “what does that mean?”, to which I always tried to answer and after more questions my final answer would always be “I really have no idea”. I had an ENTP in class which I got along with very well and he always put in question everything I told him (it might sound annoying but this is exactly the mentality I use in life, question everything, this is why we get along so well, and why I get along with ENTPs so well in general). So, in response to that, I decided to learn the letter dichotomies (I vs E, N vs S…) better, but it didn’t help much. I dropped the subject for a while, until the second year (it is a 2-year course) where I started reading each personality individually and comparing it to the people in class. I started looking up YouTube videos about those types and it seemed to coincide pretty well with the way they acted.

So, after a while, and with the ENTP questioning me, I decided to give a go at the cognitive functions. By this time, I was quite aware of Reddit, and knew how to use it. So, I went on the MBTI subreddit to get some resources. And its all downhill from there. I started watching Harry from Cognitive Personality Theory on YouTube. I remember my first ever video on cognitive functions was his video, where he re-visioned the functions for people who already understood them. I was quite lost in this new sea of information, having to build both the puzzle behind me and in front of me. I was quite frustrated because the method I use to understand something is by having clear what the actual word means. So, when there is no clear definition for cognitive function, and much less for the actual cognitive functions specifically, it was quite frustrating always wanting to learn more, but nobody ever truly said anything meaningful. This is when my mind unconsciously decided to take matters into its own hands and started developing a web (don’t take this too seriously second-time readers) of information. Writing a book in my mind from beginning to end, every contradiction I ever found made me start the book from the beginning, until I could go from beginning to end without finding any contradictions.

So here I am, many months later, and my mind can finally go from beginning to end without finding any contradictions in my definitions for the cognitive functions, their inner workings, and their inter-relations. And I am now comfortable sitting down, and writing down my findings, for everyone out there who is as frustrated as I was before. I am, in a way, writing this text for my past self. For an inner anger towards the MBTI system and the unspecified nature of Jung’s work.

I will finish this chapter with an analogy. As Jung walked over the beach sand, with a metal detector, it beeped, giving sign of deep hidden buried treasure. Jung then dug a while until he found the treasure chest, but thought that the chest itself was the treasure, that it wasn’t worthy of deeper exploration. Many have tried finding the key to open it, they have tried to open it with a crowbar, and while their findings have only been superficial, as relating to the sound the contents made when they shook the chest. I am quite sure I have managed to open it. Don’t take this too seriously either, for since I think I have managed to open it, I have yet to explore the concepts that are hidden inside. I am only here to say I have finally found the key, and that the investigation that went on in my head for the past months only lead to finding the tip of the iceberg, to opening a chest with no bottom. I hope you are ready to quench your curiosity, I hope I don’t disappoint.

[sentom]

The Will and Personality

To experience the pull (Will) of the object, we must turn into the subject, and vice-versa.

If the external world (object) pulls from us like it pulls from a growing tree, then we talk of an absorption of the subject into the object. We turn into the subject and forget our inner selves in order to give importance to the external world. As Jung would put it, an extroverted movement. This pull that the world exerts on us can be seen whenever we are conscious and aware of it, there is a laser point focus upon any aspect of external reality. Whether watching a movie, reading a book or listening to our teacher, this forgetfulness of ourselves or of our thoughts occurs, if words are forming in our minds as we experience the world, they only do so in an unconscious manner.

On the other hand, if the internal world (subject) pulls from us, then we talk of an internal assimilation of the external world. We don’t so much meld into it as it melds into us. We turn into the object and forget about the external world in order to give importance to the subject, to ourselves. This mode is easily observed when “listening” to ourselves. We have a conversation with ourselves as we turn into the object in the same way we would have a conversation with someone else. But the fact that it is our subject’s Will which is being pulled and not the object makes the conversation predictable, unlike speaking with someone else, since their subject always belongs to the object, their Will is also going to be out of our control.

So does an Introverted Perceiving function in the Ego exert a higher amount of control over its external counterpart. Even as the external world pulls it towards itself, the Ego offers a much higher amount of resistance. Leading to the J types to be more organized. As for the P types who have a Perceiving function in their Ego would rather let the object pull from them as to evade a constant unifying pull from the subject. Their Will is much more in accordance with that of the Object and therefore it is more in control of the world and not themselves.

To perceive the external world, being pulled by the object, is to defragment it with Judgement. It is not absorbed as words, we listen to the person talking, we watch the movie, we read the book, but the pictures in our mind are higher forms of existence, they carry no words only information and values. So is it that when the subject pulls and we reverse our focus towards the inside, we look at this world and deconstruct it, putting it into words so to speak, something which is purely dependent on memories, for what are memories but pieces of Space and Time which the Will has decided to keep. This reverse focus on oneself can be described as “thinking about what to say” before we say it. For those who have Ne in their ego they have a huge tell when they do this, they go “uhhhhhhhmmmm”. Opposite to those with Ni in their ego who are mostly silent when thinking about what to say, the only “uhm”s that may appear are very brief.

And so we get our link of Introverted Perception with memories. Introverted perception is not the memories themselves, but the gateway to them. The memories themselves are purely a product of perception (pieces of space inside a globe of time). So does Si in the Ego remember the space with extreme intensity, but going down the path of time to access these memories, as well as the time that encapsulates them is going to be a much harder task for the Si-Ego. On the other hand we have Ni, who has lots of ease going down the path of time to access the memories, but the space in the memories is mostly conceived of experiences and not tangible facts, the memories are colors of perception, and very distant to the Ni-Ego type.

[sentom]

The Function Stack

I have already explained how our Ego forms around a function as unconscious babies rise into consciousness. But our Ego doesn’t just form around just 1 function. If the Ego formed around 1 function, then the Ego could not conceive of a separation between object and subject; instead, the Ego forms around the Function it likes best, but oozes towards the nearest function of the opposite direction, extending a little part of itself. So if the Ego forms around an Introverted function, it will extend a piece of itself towards its nearest Extroverted function, and as we have seen, the nearest function of the opposite direction is always going to be of another mode. So if the Ego forms around an Introverted Judgement, then it cannot extend around an extroverted Judgement, it will always extend towards the nearest – Extroverted Perception.

If the Dominant has taken the role of the Ego, and the auxiliary takes the role of Ego-extension; then the Inferior takes the role of the Shadow and the Tertiary the role of Shadow-extension. Where these extend is towards the other, so the Auxiliary is an extension of the Ego towards the Shadow, while the Tertiary is an extension of the Shadow towards the Ego.

If I have defined the Ego as the “I”, the me. It is the captain of our ship, the one in charge, giving the orders, choosing the choices, only and ONLY through the Ego does the Will penetrate. Then the Shadow is the other side of the Ego, it is the not-“I”, the not-me, the anti-captain, the one who wants to be in charge and give orders but is never allowed to, because the orders it wants to give are opposite of the ones given by the Ego, as it is the opposite side of its axes. But in this same way is the Shadow the same as the Ego, a duality, they cannot live without each other, what I think is not-me is still me but I have unconsciously rejected it, it is still part of my ship, like an old captain that was put in the jail under the ship after a mutiny, it demands to be let out and give orders again. It is if this captain is ignored for too long, that the sailors on the ship preform a mutiny against the Ego and let the Shadow give the orders it always wanted to give in a destructive and explosive way, fueled by the tension of ignorance and suppression.

So we can see how the 4 functions are all part of the same ship, how they can all seem to make decisions. The Shadow is a reversion/mirror image of the Ego, the Auxiliary an extension of the Ego towards its mirror image, the Tertiary an extension of the Shadow towards its not-so-true form. Yet the one in charge, always and forever, are the captains, and the ones taking the orders are the sailors.

So we can have 4 captains in total:

Introverted Judging Dominant: The purpose, the orders given by this captain are solely and only to give value to internal information. In order to do this, it must bring lots of information from the external world. So does it give orders to both its sailors, but to one more than the other.

Introverted Perceiving Dominant: The purpose, the orders given by this captain are solely and only to adapt itself towards the external information. In order to do this, it must understand the values from the outside information much more than the values from its own information. So does it give orders to both its sailors, but to one more than the other.

The extroverted variants are the same but reversed.

[sentom]

The Cognitive Chain

The Cognitive Chain is the beginning fundamentals to understanding how the 4 functions interact with each other, and why they form axes. The chain isn’t “started” by any function, but we could say that it reaches its most powerful point around the Dominant function. The chain goes like this (in no particular order):

Object -> External Stimulus -> Stimulus Received (External Perception) -> Stimulus is given value (Internal Judgement) -> Subject -> Internal Stimulus -> Stimulus Received (Internal Perception) -> Stimulus is given value (External Judgement) -> Object (cycle begins again)

So then, we can see that to Perceive is to receive information, and to Judge is to give value to that information.

The world of Perception is an interesting one. Just like the subject and object, it also forms another duality. So this is essentially where MBTI starts getting complicated, as we infuse a duality with another duality, we start creating paradoxical unions which give rise to the paradoxical mind. The duality of perception comes from the fact that perception, at its core, can only perceive two essential components. These are Time and Space. To perceive one means perceiving the other, they cannot live without each other. Yet, just like object and subject, our ignorant human mind has divided both to form the human experience. So I will term the Perception of Space as Sensing, and the Perception of Time as Intuition. Humans must perceive both space and time to exist, meaning that we must use both Sensing and Intuition. Humans are also the epicenter of the division of subject and object, meaning that if Space relates to the Object, then Time must relate to the Subject. Hence we get our Perception Axes. To relate to the object means being Extroverted, relating to the Subject means being Introverted. An Extroverted Sensing (Se) will always be accompanied by an Introverted Intuition (Ni), so to speak, If the Object controls Space, then the Subject controls Time. And so we get our Perception axes: Ni-Se and Si-Ne

For Judging, on the other hand, the world is not so interesting as it is complicated. Judgement does not organize information as Perception does (to prepare it for judgement), no. It gives value to that information for the Will to interpret it. In other words, Perception organizes for Judgement, and Judgement validates for Will. Once Will has chosen (the object/subject has molded itself in accordance with the other), then does a reverse of worlds occur, where object turns into subject and vice-versa, the end turns into the beginning and the chain starts again but in the other direction.

So then, what are values? What values can humans give? Much like what I said in the introduction, value always needs to have underlying information. The value given is the appearance of a number. This duality is seen as the 0-1 duality. If 0 is nothing, then 1 is something/everything, if you combine nothing with something you get two concepts. In this sense is the Judging mind much like a robotic mind, it can only think in 1s and 0s. But different from a robotic mind, Judgement doesn’t sit directly on the 1 or the 0 but on the relationship between them, it is in a spectrum between them, always in a decimal place. The information that is given value, even if presented in this text as “words”, the information in perception is never “words” it is always conceptual. The formation of words we will see later on. In any case, if we are to strip each concept to its bare minimum, we can observe which value is applied to the concept, and this “base value” as I like to call it, is always going to be either good or true.

If the value given is that of Goodness, then we can say it was given by the function of Feeling. If the value given is that of Truth, then it is ascribed by Thinking. If Good=0 then its basically what we call “bad”. It is a moralistic value. Something can be more or less good in the eyes of Feeling. For Thinking, Truth is also going to be given a value between 0 and 1. Then how are Feeling and Thinking in a duality? This is because Good is always deduced or translated from Truth, and vice-versa. There cannot be Good without Truth or Truth without Good. If I ascribe the value of Good onto raw information, that information must have had a value of True put onto it beforehand. Therefore, there is no such thing as raw information. Raw information is information without value, like a number without the of, it does not exist.

Introverted Judgement is judgement which strips the values of the Object to give values to the Subject in accordance. Extroverted Judgement is the judgement which strips the values of the Subject to give values to the Object in accordance. It acts like a translator between Pi and Pe, between Object and Subject, it needs to know both languages, but one language can only be understood while the other can only be spoken. The introversion or extroversion takes into reference the direction of the spoken language, not the language understood.

So we get the cognitive chain. The subject pulls on the object and creates an external stimulus, where external information with external values comes to the gates of internal Judgement, then internal judgement understands the values given, strips them and re-arranges them into internal values, once it turns into internal values the information goes through the subject and the subject molds itself according to the object. Now the cycle reverses itself, the object pulls on the string, internal information creates an internal stimulus, the information is brought to the gates of external Judgement, and the values on the inside are destroyed to be given new values in accordance with the Object. This is the only way internal/external information can turn into its opposite, information with external values can never be internal information. This is to say, what defines if information is objective or subjective are the values applied to it.

In the next chapters I will go into explaining each axes individually and how it differentiates from the other axes. Followed by defining the function stack and how having the Ego surround a Function affects our Will so much.

[sentom]

Object vs Subject

Before I start getting into the functions and (like many do) start throwing around words like objective and subjective without specifying their proper meaning, I need to make it clear.

First of all, I am not saying that this is the true meaning of these concepts, but that I had a concept in my head which was very similar and had many coincidences with what people generally consider these words to mean, so I apply these words (steal them in a way) as to not make the subject (topic at hand) more complex than it already is and saturate it with more technicalities. So, without further ado, I shall begin to explain.

Inside our deepest selves, there lives a person. Its not just a person, but the person. Perfect in all aspects, this person could be considered to be the bottom of the most bottom layer of the human psyche. In Jungian terms, it lives in the bottom of the Collective Unconscious. Which, therefore means, that this person is shared by everyone! It is Collective after all. So, yes, this person can be considered a sort of deity figure, a god inside all of us so to speak. This individual, I shall call subject from now on.

The subject holds on to a string. Many strings in fact, and each string goes through each individual. So, it holds onto a string that goes through you, and extends outside of yourself, where at the other end, another person is holding on to the strings… oh boy. This other person does not live in the depths of the Collective Unconscious, instead it lives on the peak of consciousness. It is hyper aware of everything like a giant eye which whatever it looks upon, it shines light upon. Much like our consciousness is light, our unconscious is shadow. So, in this sense the one holding the strings outside of ourselves I shall call object from now on.

Both deities, object and subject, can pull from these strings. This pull I will call Will from now on (with a capital “W”). If the subject pulls on its string, then it is a subjective Will provoked by our deepest self, we could almost call this “choice”. If, on the other hand, the object is the one who pulls, it is an objective Will, and out of our control. We can choose where to plant the tree, but never how the tree grows. The object pulls on the tree from the ground up, shaping it according to itself. Like a writer creating the main character of their next story.

But here is the catch, the division of object and subject is only exclusive to humans. The moment we are born we form this “prime duality” so to speak. It is what gives the rise of the human experience, which sits between both and does not know which to choose between. We are at the will of two opposing currents, constantly battling for dominance, in blissful ignorance, we forget that they are both one and the same.

This division, as I said, is the prime condition for the human experience. But in ABSOLUTE reality, these two figures are not divided. Object and subject are one and the same. Just as the object shapes our subject / the subject shapes itself according to the object, so does the reverse happen. They are both a reflection of the other. Like two opposing mirrors, they form an illusion, a never ending corridor that spans trillions of light years into the dark void of space (And on the opposing side, trillions of light years into the dark void of our unconscious)

So, the string that goes from one to the other, is not a string that goes from left to right, no. The string forms a circle, where one ends, the other begins. And so we get a cycle. A cycle of “cognition” so to speak. Where the object flows into the subject, as the subject pulls the object towards itself, and produces changes, the subject molds itself to resemble the object better; and then the opposite happens, the object pulls on the subject to shape itself accordingly. To say these both movements are in a self-balancing situation is a misunderstanding, no, these movements, paradoxically, both happen at the same time. Its just that one is conscious while the other is unconscious.

Where do we stand then, as humans, how does the string go through me? Well, this is what Jung called the Ego, the me. The Ego forms as babies, it forms when we start getting our first memories, so do our first forms of consciousness start appearing. There is a process, when we are babies, we are totally unconscious, and the 8 functions are all acting in a passive unconscious manner, this whole period of life could be considered as a period of “choice”. Only the most inner subject is pulling on the strings, we emerge from the Collective Unconsciousness into consciousness as our Ego is born, as we choose which function we like best, so does our Ego shape itself around it. We rise into consciousness, and our Ego stands as the prime divider between the Object and Subject. But as many know, it is never right in the middle, but rather deviates to favor one over the other, beginning the clash between both.

So this string is a circle whose direction is permanently going both ways. This circle I will call the Cognitive Chain from now on, and it is the subject (topic at hand) of my next chapter.

[sentom]

Introduction

               What are numbers? We can ask ourselves this question. Numbers by themselves hold no value, the value given is only of human making. This is why in antiquity, numbers weren’t perceived as abstract concepts, a number was always followed with an “of”. So, 5 wasn’t 5, it was 5 of cows, or 5 of plates. There was always a value given to this abstract lonely concept.

               But if we ask then what is math, and why do we perceive numbers the way we do today? This is because math is not an inherent value or component of numbers, but the relationship between them. This is what our modern mind has given value to. We understand by what degree 2 is higher than 1, and it shares the same relationship with it as 3 does with 2.

               In this sense do I want to re-define the way we look at the cognitive functions. Cognitive functions are not individual concepts. They are far more than that, every function lives in a dualistic relationship with another function. Therefore, a function cannot be understood by itself, it must be viewed from both angles, and both angles must be understood before synthesizing both together into a single understanding. Not only that, but there are other functions which, although not in a dualistic relationship with it, also serve similar purposes, and understanding where they differentiate is the key to solving much confusion.