EINSTFPJ - MBTI - Basic Theory

This was part of an earlier post. I removed it from there and created a new post here.

What I want to focus on is the kind of responses each personality type gives in various scenarios. This post is on understanding MBTI and its relevance to Vedic astrology.

I have been analyzing the various aspects of our personality for some time and trying to correlate it with the indications of planets in our horoscope. When I use the words horoscope and astrology I am not talking about Sun signs. I refer to Vedic astrology and I do not consider Uranus, Neptune, Pluto which are not part of Vedic astrology.

My specific focus is in splitting our personality layer by layer into our emotions, our mind, our desires, our drive, ability and so on. I want to find out which of these are synonyms or always go together and which of these are independent characteristics. For example desire and drive may not always go together. A person with a low drive may have a high desire or vice versa.

Guess, I have made clear what I want to understand.

This post will contain stuff on MBTI types. I will includes (links to) articles of interest and occasionally my own feelings. At present this post is unstructured and may not be reader friendly. 

Nice posts on MBTI:

• http://insightgame.org/intro.php
• Classroom learnng and MBTI types: http://personalityplaybook.com/2013/10/27/classroom-learning-and-the-16-types/
• http://infj-mbti.tumblr.com/post/102588507108/mbti-misconceptions
• http://www.newdirectionsconsulting.com/leadership-engagement/are-we-compatible-using-the-mbti-personality-assessment-with-couples/
• http://www.myersbriggs.org/my-mbti-personality-type/mbti-basics/the-16-mbti-types.htm
• http://www.inc.com/adam-heitzman/can-the-myers-briggs-predict-your-entrepreneurial-success.html
• http://www.myersbriggs.org/my-mbti-personality-type/mbti-basics/
• https://ebliz.wordpress.com/2012/01/01/why-you-behave-the-way-you-do-mbti-personality-types/

These are related articles on different MBtI topics:

• Inferior functions: 1
• Nice post on introverted sensing: 1
• Ti and Te: 1
• T and; F, ego: 1, 2
• J and P: 1, 2
• N and S: 1, 2, 3, 4 (nice one on misconceptions about S and N)
• Ni and Ne: 1 , 2 , 3 , 4
• Conflicts in TJ, FP etc: 1
• Difference between Ni, Ne and Women's intuition: 1
• Ni, No, Si, Se: 1 , 2
• Fi and Fe: 1
• Fi and comparing with other attributes: 1
• All functions in real life: 1
• NF: 1
• Relationship difficulties for N types: 1
• Gifted students: 1
• Gut feel: 1, 2
• Statistics on various MBTI types: 1, 2
• Differences between J(udging) and P(erceiving): 1
• Difference between T(hinking) and F(eeling): 1
• Forer effect on how predictions / analyses can sound nice and authentic and non unique and fits just about everyone/everything: 1, 2 (Lovely post.)
• Difference between S(ensing) and iN(tuition): 1 - While most articles tend to give an abstract definition of the two, this article seemed to me to explain the difference well.
• INTJ, INFP, INTP, INFJ Relationships, Compatibility, & the Inferior Function: 1 - very nice article.
• INTJ and INTP difference: 1, 2, 3
• On NF, NT, SF and ST - 1, 2 - both nice articles. 
• MBTI types in the classroom: 1, 2,
• Influential people: 1,
• Holland's 6 personality types or codes: 1, 2, 3
• Stress in different personality types: 1

Numbers given above are hyperlinks to different articles.

My discomfort with the definition of N or S is that they are defined on the basis of GATHERING info. I would say they are different in terms of storing info. Issues in relationships happen primarily because of differences in N and S and T and F. Intuition of the feminine kind is of a survival nature. Intuition as in NT (MBTI type) is to do with understanding the model of this world. N and F are similar in this nature - understanding or knowing what is not visible or obvious. F, E and P attributes are grounded with dealing with people. Such people deal with people much better than I, OR NT or J. Note that I used NT together.

We (rather, the definition of the type) say that N doesn't work with data, only the S does. But T processes the data and hence NT also possibly does. So when a person works with data, does it mean he is T and not N? See the confusion.

Put another way, if you see a person who is comfortable mulling on data, then is he NT? ST? SF? Definitely not NF. Read this to feel a good confusion about N (yes, you heard right).

Read this article. This article deals with intuition as defined in English. It has nothing to do with MBTI's N. The policeman who suddenly says (and maybe rightly) that the butler did the murder... Is NOT N. That kind of intuition is more F.

N, I think is about abstraction, about summarizing. Some people summarize, theorize based on data. These perhaps are the NTs. Some summarize without data whose opinions or theories are proved later when data become available. These perhaps are the NF's. N is the ability to see a pattern which others don't. Others see only disparate data, they are the S's. Is my understanding right? I read this lovely article today about the difference between abstract (perhaps "N") and concrete thinking (perhaps "S"). 

Relating MBTI to astrology:

A friend of mine told me this:

P stands for duality and Libran traits
J stands for fixed signs. I is all water and earth signs
E is all fire and air signs
N is a fire and water trait. S is an earth trait largely
T is an air trait
F is a water trait.

Venus refers to feelings, a keen grasp of sensory information, a need for comfort and hates to be rushed. It loves, is addicted to, comfort. and hence would refer to S, F and P. Saturn is thoughtful, cold and impersonal and pushes itself - it would refer to IT and J (as in MBTI). N would perhaps come from Rahu / Ketu. 

I tried to see whether the states defined in transactional analysis (TA). MBTI type ST. S seems to be the parent state, F the child state and NT the adult state.

It is said that N uses deduction while S uses induction. Some say that Ni uses deduction and Ne uses induction. A friend of mine and I keep arguing this point but we have not resolved it. 

Hearing what is not said, gut feeling and classic INTUITION are all F. These, I think have to do with MBTI N. N abstracts all data and stores only the theory behind it. This theory can be explained to an S but the S may or may not understand the theory. The S definitely won't agree with the theory, rather won't agree that the data points can be summarized so neatly into a theory. 


Here are some articles that explain the difference between induction and deduction:

• http://www.personal.kent.edu/~rmuhamma/Algorithms/MyAlgorithms/DeductInduct.htm
• https://suite.io/isaac-m-mcphee/jvn2y0    https://school.carm.org/amember/files/demo3/2_logic/deduction_induction.htm
• http://www.ekahimethod.com/demystifying-intuition/

A friend sent me this link. About the person whose quote is shown in the link: Is he an F or a T?

Additional reading:

1. http://zombiesintelligently.com/non-fiction/myers-briggs/
2. https://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/give-and-take/201309/goodbye-mbti-the-fad-won-t-die
3. http://vbala99.blogspot.com/2012/11/bad-venus.html
4. http://vbala99.blogspot.in/2012/01/modified-five-factor-personality-type.html
5. http://vbala99.blogspot.in/2012/05/know-any-hsps.html
6. http://vbala99.blogspot.in/2012/06/new-vedic-astrology-mars-venus-saturn.html