Thread by @crashen_burn, I have such an elaborate monologue on Fi, wondering if I should [...]

I have such an elaborate monologue on Fi, wondering if I should try boiling it down to a twitter thread or if that would ruin it.

Okay guys, hear me out.

Many descriptions of Fi will talk about preferences or values or authenticity or emotional self-awareness, etc. Which is fine, don't get me wrong. But I think it misses out on the systemic sophistication that mature Fi entails.

Since mbti is so wonderfully symmetrical, we can agree that there are parallel similarities in the building/operating of functions which are then applied to different realms, such as Fe/Te and Ti/Fi.

I feel that Fi needs a bit more exploration on this front.

Ti users talk of analyzing information in order to break it down to its smallest, core parts. And then examining those parts to see if they are universally true, if they can be applied across the board. Building a framework of universal truth through which to gauge reality.

I'm here to claim that Fi does the same thing, but in the emotional realm.

What Fi does is that it delves deep into the realm of emotions, sifting through the different colors, flavors, nuances of emotional manifestations. Looking for that core element, the source of these different manifestations. The element that is universally true across the board.

The idea is that the human emotional experience is universal, and there are a certain set of core emotional experiences that everyone has access to, though they will manifest differently for each individual in different situations.

Example: homelessness.

Homelessness as a complicated emotional phenomena has various different aspects, to name a few:

not having a home

not being safe

not belonging

not being wanted

Each of these FEELS different. But they are all embedded in the experience of homelessness

Fi will sift through these different aspects and break them down to the most basic, core elements. You take the situational and you find the universal within it--and since it's universal, you can resonate with it. You can UNDERSTAND it.

So when you hear that "Fi users empathize by imagining how they would feel in your situation,"

that's true, technically, but

it demeans this entire, rather sophisticated process that Fi engages in. Ti builds a framework; I'd say that Fi, being in the less linear/not-easily-quantifiable emotional realm, builds more of a network of understanding the interconnections of emotional experience.

I've never been literally homeless, but I HAVE experienced what it feels like to not feel at home, not feel safe, not feel like I belong, not feel wanted.

And because Fi is so in tune with analyzing its own emotional experiences, I can easily reference those experiences to understand whichever manifestation of homelessness you are experiencing.

Which is why Fi users can have such an easy time empathizing with villains, because at their core, villains are experiencing the same emotional experiences as everyone else--they're just choosing to manifest them in very unfortunate ways.

...Which can also make Fi users unsettled by villains, because it's so easy to find the same core emotions within your own experience, and wonder if you're really that different.

Which brings me to values.

It makes sense that Fi would build values around its network of emotional experience.

The fact that Fi so commonly values authenticity is telling, because while Fi is so incredibly aware of the universals of human emotions, when building that network it sifts through tons of different manifestations of those emotions.

So you must treasure the manifestations as much as the universals; they are of equal importance theoretically, but when it comes to the individual it is the kaleidoscope of manifestations that thrum together to create YOU.

And as--also in theory--all manifestations are equally valid, Fi users are incredibly aware of the importance of allowing space for people to authentically express different manifestations of the universal human experience.

--It's your values that determine which ones are more or less "acceptable," aka anger is a valid universal human emotion, but some manifestations of it are NOT acceptable.

A mature Fi user will hold everyone's preferred (and acceptable) manifestations as equally valid, and won't fall into the stereotype of Fi being selfish/biased towards its own preferences. It can be incredibly generous in that manner, and hold space for everyone's authenticity.

Oh I also must tie this in with the common experience of Fi users feeling perpetually misunderstood.

Because after you've spent so much time going through your own emotions and understanding the different manifestations within yourself, it's hard to feel understood at all unless a person understands ALL of it.

Okay so you know these preferences/experiences, but do you know THESE preferences?? No? THEN DO YOU EVEN KNOW ME AT ALL?

Because once again Fi is taking the broad spectrum and breaking it down to the Core Elements, and that applies to the individual as well. So if you don't even understand the broad spectrum of how I manifest, how can you possible understand my core?

Which is also why Fi cares so much about intentions, because intentions come out of who you are at your core. But if you don't understand all of my preferences, you misunderstand my intentions, you don't understand who I am---MASSIVE relational dissonance.

Here's a theory for ya: I wonder if the experience of being misunderstood is particularly jarring for Fi users, not only because they are so in tune with understanding themselves, but also because it fractures this basic assumption of universal human experience.

It's a--

--PARADOX, because Fi feels incredibly individual and Alone; it operates almost in a vacuum of the Self, and yet it assumes that everyone can be understood through the self--and this SHOULD be reversibly applicable to the Fi user as well, yet we never truly believe this

I'll just end with the obvious caveat that your preferred perceiving function will influence your process and what types of data you're focusing on, and clearly it's a very subjective function and so will vary dramatically from user to user.

thanks for coming to my ted talk

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