INFP Personality Type Interview (with Dana Jacobson) | Podcast 0426

17 comments

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  • Margaret Newcombe
  • March 23, 2022 at 1:34 am

  This is so sad Andrea. I hope you are able to get back on board with your medical career as a psychiatrist perhaps in another setting. Healed people heal people. That’s my story, as an older INFP. Its never too late to change and be who God created you to be. I had very little information in the 60’s about after- school directions. After my desire to be a doctor was shut down I chose to develop my love for portraiture by studying art teaching: this choice led me through many places of study, jobs and ultimate disillusionment in the art and the health industries. My 15 year-old self was very sure of what I wanted. At 72 I am now free to continue what has been the theme of my life, healing and artistry, creativity and authenticity and an appreciation for all and every human being and the uniqueness of the created world of humans, animals and the whole earth indeed the universe. I decided creation has mostly devolved from Edenic perfection rather than the accepted narrative of evolution towards nirvana. We must never give up the ‘seeker’ mentality ; " seek and you shall find, knock and he door will be opened to you..’ eventually!

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  • Jennifer
  • March 22, 2022 at 11:33 pm

  Dana! Oh my goodness, thank you so much for putting your experience out there. INFP here, same age, and I’ve never before felt that I had a long lost twin…but I think you might be her! I related to everything you said and that the three of you talked about. What landed especially hard for me was how INFPs can get pushed into their tertiary and inferior functions by family or society, and then have to find their way ‘home’ to Fi and Ne. That pretty much sums up my entire journey right there. I have a graduate degree and a good job, am pretty organized, and people generally think I have my stuff together. They have no idea how daydreamy and sensitive and distracted I am inside. It wasn’t until I had a profiling session with the wonderful Ines, who suggested INFP, that I started to consider that I wasn’t just a messed up INFJ. She helped me see things about myself I took completely for granted, or had dismissed as weaknesses — I thought my Ne was flakiness and an inability to focus, and that my Fi was emotional oversensitivity, etc. It took me awhile to process the change, because I’d always felt that I didn’t know who I was or what I wanted. Yes to the depression and the apathy in an unfulfilling environment. And like you, I thought I had Fe, just wasn’t much good at it lol — definitely feel the relief of “oh, that’s not in my stack, let’s go at it another way.” I also laughed out loud when you lost track of the question a couple of times because I had done the same thing… was so interested in what you were saying, who cares where it had started?! Your story really reinforces the direction I’m going in now at midlife, having made some big changes, and getting ready to make more… being able to organize my life unconventionally and with the kind of space and freedom you describe feels not only appealing but like a matter of survival at this point. Very grateful for your openness and willingness to share…thank you so so much.

  And to Andrea above, I think you and I have a lot in common as well. That grief for the lost self, the suffocated authenticity, is so wrenching. Especially when we don’t know what it is or why it’s happening. Wishing you all the best as you find your way home…

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  • Kathie Boyer
  • March 19, 2022 at 5:02 pm

  Hi Lisa,

  I really enjoyed reading your comments—I am quite similar in that I am also an older INFP (66) who, through life circumstances, has developed a successful “against type” career path as a higher-ed academic teaching business information systems. Helping students explore and develop their skills and knowledge has been a real privilege and very fulfilling, but even in academia there are mundane tasks that need to be performed, difficulties in setting boundaries with work colleagues and time management challenges. Like you, I have struggled throughout my work life with conflicting internal voices, one advocating “responsible” choices and the other arguing for projects and initiatives that reflected my need to explore new ideas and possibilities.

  For these, and other reasons, I decided to retire at the end of 2021. I believe it was the right decision for me, but I am currently feeling a bit at sea without research and student interactions during the semester to organize and provide meaning. I also feel trepidation mixed with excitement at exploring the external world in new ways that resonate with my inner perceptions and vision of future possibilities. Your story gives me courage! I am glad to hear that you have given yourself permission to be “selfish” (in the most altruistic sense of the word) and wish you many future joys—as well as opportunities to increase your strength and resiliency—in your work as a lay minister.

  Kind regards,
  Kathie

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  • Margaret Newcombe
  • March 16, 2022 at 2:47 am

  At age 5 I had an incident of exploration to get out from the tight controls I FELT…. they got the police to look for me thinking I was lost….. story of my life……when I was found by God He rescued me to fight this huge battle of being me.Thank you all…enough said for today.from Margaret… many triggers keep coming out there…… to expose world truth…… This is the shorter version…. it would take the book of Margaret to explain it all.( INFP describes some parts of me and helps my soul to be)……..Thank you thank you

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  • Lisa Michelle
  • March 15, 2022 at 4:51 pm

  I am an INFP. My story is rather unconventional for INFPs. I have been a lawyer for 35 years. I have been employed by two law firms during that time, the most recent for over 25 years. I have represented one client, a water and power utility, for the majority of my 35 years of practice. I’m the oldest child in my family, and hard work and striving for excellence were heavily emphasized values growing up. I understand well the struggle that Dana shared, as a young person and into adulthood, hearing the voice in my head telling me what I should do, what was the practical or “best” thing to do, always picking the most challenging path, even if it was not the path I was most inspired by.

  I have an undergraduate degree in human development and counseling. I am a very good lawyer. I have three children. I have lived most of my adult life as a single person. As an adult, captaining my own ship and having many responsibilities, I have struggled with two competing voices in my head. One telling me what I had to do, and one trying to get my attention, telling me what I truly cared about doing. What consumed me, not with guilt because I should do it but am not crazy about doing it, but instead with joy and a oneness with the subject matter because this truly is “me”. When we do not listen to that voice that is calling out to us, it does not go away. Over the years, I found that the conventional tasks became more wearisome. I still found fulfillment in them, but it took more and more effort for me to do them. At the same time, I have used my introverted feeling skills (fueled by extroverted intuition) to help people in crucial ways. I have been a source of strength for family members and friends. My stable lifestyle has been an anchor for them. But I also have the yearning to simplify. To just be, just live in a way that makes me happy. I still have one young adult child living at home and going to school. I have lived much of my life in the “responsible” way, but in the next few years, I see a chance to make some changes. There is both joy and a little bit of fear that come with that realization. I can relate to the feelings Dana shared about her life decisions. All these years of listening to extraverted thinking and introverted sensation, pushing down as “selfish” or impractical the desires I have. But almost without me pursuing them, I can see the horizon opening up.

  Recently, I was asked to participate in a training program at my church to become a lay minister, to help others in times of deep difficulty, illness, bereavement or other crises. I began the training and was amazing at how at home I felt with the subject matter. The discussions energized me and I felt drawn to this role. As an attorney, I have always enjoyed making a difference, providing wise counsel and using my writing skills to be persuasive. But this is different. We are seeing people at their most vulnerable. There is a common human element that we all share when times are tough. I am not afraid of that. In fact, I move towards people on those difficult moments, because they are real. In doing that, I am changed and become a better person. I will keep looking outward and I believe the path forward will become brighter. I’m not sorry I have taken the path I did, because it gave me some strengths I would not have possessed. I am a very resilient person. But it is okay, and a good thing for the world, for me to do what I want to do.