The irony of ironies, I've actually sworn off HBG b/c the Paperlion drama soured me on him and made me untrustworthy of any statements relating to personal responsibility :'DD But, no yeah, I actually agree with that broadly, this post originally had an appended explanation that I learned about MBTI through my analysis of fictional characters, and further talked about how it's more useful to me as a self-knowledge tool, which is how I also relate it to other people, and some of my history with MBTI analysis with my friend, which we used to explore, contrast and better understand each other. There's a lot of stuff I've "learned" through MBTI that I can phrase into normal people-ese pretty easily now, but when I'm approaching a new problem, I like going back to the words that taught me how to think about it.
But after having typed that.... I realised I don't actually have to justify why something resonates with me. That's the self-flagellation urge talking -- if I start trying to talk circles around what I wanna talk about, trying to make sure nobody can interprete what I say in an eugenicist way I'm never gonna be able to talk about the things I want. That interpretation, for those whom MBTI is inseparable from its origins, is gonna come up, and it's much more useful for me to just accept tbat, and if necessary explain my thinking open.
FTR, the way I learned about MBTI? Never really assigned "values" to the various traits, because it was used as a character-building tool. It's kind of like an abstracted version of those pictures with vice-virtue scales that you're supposed to place the character on, and everything I've read since has emphasised that literally any function overly dominant is going to make someone an asshole, and that in reality all people have the same capability to utilise the different fuctions, and failing to recognise that will end with you treating grown-ass people like toddlers. I've always found that a very pro-ND stance, b/c my linearly-thinking arse got infantilised a lot, and the idea that I have the capability to be a full person regardless of what traits dominate my behaviour is the reason MBTI analysis is so dear to me.
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Date: 6/10/19 11:24 (UTC)But after having typed that.... I realised I don't actually have to justify why something resonates with me. That's the self-flagellation urge talking -- if I start trying to talk circles around what I wanna talk about, trying to make sure nobody can interprete what I say in an eugenicist way I'm never gonna be able to talk about the things I want. That interpretation, for those whom MBTI is inseparable from its origins, is gonna come up, and it's much more useful for me to just accept tbat, and if necessary explain my thinking open.
FTR, the way I learned about MBTI? Never really assigned "values" to the various traits, because it was used as a character-building tool. It's kind of like an abstracted version of those pictures with vice-virtue scales that you're supposed to place the character on, and everything I've read since has emphasised that literally any function overly dominant is going to make someone an asshole, and that in reality all people have the same capability to utilise the different fuctions, and failing to recognise that will end with you treating grown-ass people like toddlers. I've always found that a very pro-ND stance, b/c my linearly-thinking arse got infantilised a lot, and the idea that I have the capability to be a full person regardless of what traits dominate my behaviour is the reason MBTI analysis is so dear to me.