Inferiority Complex
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posted by Vicky Jo at 3:25 AM
Thursday, June 15, 2006
About Me
- Name: Vicky Jo
- Location: Los Angeles, California, United States
I coach people to identify and develop their natural personality strengths in order to maximize their potential.
Please contact me to arrange a free strategy session -- I would be delighted to speak with you.
Previous Posts
- von Franz on the Inferior Function
- Fresh Approach
- Wish I Had a Nickel
- Traits
- Individuation or Evolution
- Fe Fi Fo Fum
- Slaying Dragons
- Perfect Example of Fi
- Being and Doing
- How the Processes Show Up
9 Comments:
So Te is way down in 7th (Trickster) position for me, and I can't relate to this very well.
How does Te let you "know" something in a way the other processes do not?
My two cents say that it's not Te telling you "You can't do this here. How will you ever explain this if someone walks in on you? Go to the bathroom and wash your face, or at least lock the door." That sounds more like extraverted Feeling, since it's around a "what will people think?!" kind of energy. Is there an opposing personality archetype pushing back on your public display of emotion? After all, according to Fi "rules," emotions are not meant to be flopped around in the world *out there* -- they're supposed to be kept *in here*.
I realize it's an uncomfortable place to look, but I'm further wondering whether it was extraverted Thinking that killed the Gladiator's wife and son. It seems to me it was a 1)logical outcome; 2)cause-and-effect behavior; 3)empirical decision -- unless, of course, the killing was done out of hatred or revenge, which would put us back into the Feeling realm again. What dya think? Does that resonate for you?
Beebe talks about how we must "hold our shame" about the inferior processes. And much of the literature in psychology talks about "walking with a limp." This represents our attempts to *integrate* the parts of ourselves we aren't as good at doing, compared to always living out of our heroic aspects, which feels more natural and easy. Heroes don't limp, but wise men do. (Isn't there a parable about putting a rock in your shoe to remind you of something? How does that go?)
To your other point -- yes! it is wonderful how you recognize in yourself an admiration for Fe. I have similar admiration for Fi and Ne when it is used well.
If you really really wish to evolve your ability in this area, I recommend you get yourself a coach. Find somebody who uses Fe well (or Te well), and ask them to coach you from time to time.
My husband often asks me to coach him. He has called me from the classroom to tell me about a problem he is having with a student, and wondering how I might respond in such a circumstance. I *love* giving him advice and sharing my wisdom, and it gives me SO much more patience around his lack in this regard. I'm careful not to tell him to BE different, but instead I suggest alternatives and new options, and we work together to shape something that will address the problem effectively for him. We collaborate on a solution, but lean more into the wisdom of my Fe sensitivity.
In like manner, I suggest you seek out or identify allies who can support your development -- people who won't IMPOSE their views on you or make you wrong, but are willing to "consult" with you and share some strategies. OR, even better, find another INFP who seems to use these processes well and ask them to MENTOR you. That's about the quickest way I know of to develop skill in a process you don't use as well as you'd like to.
Let me know how it goes!
INFP here.
My Te shows up in that I love debating with people and attending lectures where I can listen to and think about the ideas that the speaker was presenting. It also gives me something to talk about with my INTJ boyfriend if we go to dinner after a presentation.
I love chess. I'm great at it, but I was in the chess cub in high school. I prefer to play with a 4 player board because then I only have to think a couple moves in advance before the board looks entirely different because you have 4 people moving chess pieces.
I orginially came to college to major in Engineering. I had a talent for drafting, seeing thinks visually in my head and putting the image to paper. But I changed majors to English eventually because I missed my humanities and didn't have the passion for the more detail oriented of my engineering courses.
To me, Te is for puzzles. It's for putting the world together, or someone else's ideas together, so that there is a complete picture for me to study. Once I have a picture, instead of a jumble of puzzle pieces, then I can recognise the patterns and pay attention to how I feel about the image.
Sometimes I use it to but together a puzzle for someone else. I may make a judgement based on a feeling or personal value, but my audience has no interest in emotions and personal opinions. That is when I have to sort of deconstruct my feeling or opinion and use logic or Te to rebuild my image in front of someone else, so that they can come to my conclusion. As long as I am carefull not to loose any pieces and end up with a whole in my picture, then it generally works.
"complex". Boy am I glad Jung got away from Freud. I think Freud must've had a PHD in making the obvious obscure.
Anyway, about the complex thing. I've always envied the general physical competence that many of my artisian friends have, and I used to wish I could be as athletic as them. They seem to be able to just 'do' things like skiing, with out having to technique-ize it and concentrate intensely: which is what I do.(I do still like skiing). I can't imagine how an ESTP/ESFP would have an inferiority complex around Ni, they just seem to be enjoying Se so much. Does it just appear to them when they're middle aged, and wondering about how to make their life have a purpose? I wish I could rent an artisian or two to talk about this.
Sorry, I should also be talking about INFP stuff: I apologize to all you INFPs for any time that I've givin an INFp a hard time about the reality of one of thier ideas. I realize that the eye-roll probably hurts my INFP friend's feelings, and helps feul the insecure Te.
Could you find a friendly Artisan (Improviser) to rent? I'm sure someone would be willing to be quizzed if it were done in a respectful way, and sometimes that's the best way to get at their inner workings.
What I notice is that I have an ESFP nephew, and he suffers from nightmares. My hunch is that it's Ni coming up by way of the archetype when he is vulnerable. That's not the same as an inferiority "complex" perhaps, but it lets me know something's cooking in there. And let's face it, nobody wants to brag about their inferiority complex.
Well actually, I have a friend who might be willing to talk, I just hope he has an idea of what we're talking about. Maybe I'll e-mail him.
In the meantime: I notice that it seems like a new genre of semi-good films and novels are developing. For me, I like to watch movies that will actually be meaningful in some way, or stupid low-brow humor movies that I can just turn off my brain and laugh at. Now, it seems like these 'turn brain off and laugh' movies are increasingly attempting to have some moral, or meaning to them. Usually those things sound a bit like an artisian Ni.(Talledega nights) Which is why I usually don't like these movies, to me they seem like a misuse of Ni. Of couse if artisians listened to me, they might never express thier intuitions. So I won't go into that much. But there you have what I think is an example. And There's a lot of other movies that do this, I just can't think of them now.
By the way, my most favorite, favorite artisian hero is bugs bunny. Do you INFPs (any who are reading this) have an extraverted thinking character/archetype that you look up to?
Is inferior SE responsible for someone thinking they are ugly? How can one help if that's the case?
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