For greater depth of understanding about personality type, there is nothing better than returning to the source, Carl Jung. In the book C.G. Jung Speaking: Interviews and Encounters, there is a section from pages 304-314 where an interviewer asks him about type.
Of particular note is what Jung said about introverted intuitive types (what today we would call INTJ and INFJ):
So you see, if the introverted intuitive were to speak of what he really perceives, practically no one would understand him. They learn to keep things to themselves, and you hardly ever hear them talking of these things. That is a great disadvantage, but it is an enormous advantage in another way, not to speak of the experiences they have in that respect and also in their human relations.
For instance, they come into the presence of somebody they don’t know, and suddenly they have inner images, and these images give them more or less complete information about the psychology of the partner.
It can also happen that they come into the presence of somebody they don’t know at all, not from Adam, and they know an important piece out of the biography of that person, and are not aware of it, and they tell the story, and then the fat is in the fire.
So the introverted intuitive has in a way a very difficult life, although one of the most interesting lives, but it is often difficult to get into their confidence. [emphasis mine]
C.G Jung Speaking, p. 311
In this section of the book Jung also tells a funny story about an intuitive type, where the woman noticed through intuition that Jung had seen a male patient earlier than morning, even though she was completely oblivious to the physical clue of a half-smoked cigar right in front of her. This prompted Jung to say:
The intuitive is a type that doesn’t see, doesn’t see the stumbling block before his feet, but he smells a rat for ten miles.
C.G. Jung Speaking p. 309
If your type is introverted intuitive, I’d love to hear if the above insights from Jung resonate with you. Instagram is a good place to message me.
