- I really want more of your Se
- You have good Fe
- Your Te is strong
- That’s a Te thing to say
- Ur so Fi, bruh.
- …etc. etc.
This kind of language sounds rather ignorant to me. I don’t particularly have a problem if it’s being used or not, but rather when it is used. If it’s used in a logical discussion around typology – especially when it is about diagnostics, this provides serious issues when it comes to have clarity of communication around type.
It is no secret that I am an advocate to have clear, established terms before entering a discussion that is centered around improvement or abstraction.
When we talk about Socionics, what we’re talking about is the metabolism of information — not some magic powers that you can conjure up and use to your will. #FlexOnEm
Do Information Elements Have an Agenda?
It can be said that IMEs (Information Metabolism Elements) have an agenda. But, I would argue that they inherently do not. They directly provide our experience of reality through their metabolism – and through this metabolism, since our leading function becomes our entire world view – we find that interacting with that piece of information provides us a sense of satisfaction. In other words, we enhance our experience by interacting with this element — to an extent. Generally, at some point, we start deriving more of a sense of satisfaction through our “Super-Id” Block, especially the suggestive function. That being said, just because someone values Pragmatism, does not mean that they all want to be profitable in business. Instead, someone may direct the activity of objects for maximum effectiveness toward the larger goal.
Swimming in Information Metabolism Elements
The leading function can be depicted as the most direct, conscious world in which you just participate. Everything else works to serve that. For example, if you spend all day playing a video game, you may become so involved in it that you may lose awareness of anything outside of your computer screen (or TV). For this example, we will say the game is your entire worldview. There are other world-views, but since you live in your mom’s basement and don’t have a job – this is yours. Thereby, everything you do is a way of enhancing your experience in the game.
Your preferred play-style may be to go in guns blazin’, or be more stealthy, or be strategic/tactical, or any other method. Each of these options would represent your Creative function – or your preferred way of interacting with the world. The way you’re interacting with this particular game to maximize your experience of it is similar to how the ego-block works.
So when we reflect this back to reality, one may have a worldview (Leading Function) of Telos or Introverted Intuition, and their entire perspective or “video game” would be seeing patterns, cause-and-effect, the course of events, how the past and present tie into the “grand scheme” of things, or deeper purpose and meaning of daily actions. The metabolism of this information surrounds their entire experience of life. You can imagine this like a large body of water. And much like a fish only knows water, a person who leads with Telos knows the world through Introverted Intuition.
Do You Really “Use” Information Metabolism Elements?
This idea of “using” an element is rather silly, we’re not in some place where you master life by interacting with all the elements – you’re not the Avatar. It’s not as if you suck in the energy of all Extroverted Logic around you, and power it into one strong burst of life at your opponents — resulting in a quick death.
…Give me a break.
What really happens is when an information metabolism element is digested, one’s cultural background, intelligence, upbringing, identity, and values produce output that either rejects, adapts, accepts, or produces a byproduct of that information. This is why in typing diagnostics behavior is not a good indicator of one’s TIM (type of information metabolism). Although clues can be discovered when you look a bit deeper, they aren’t absolute. There are many theoretical ways to do this, and thus far assessing motivations and semantics have been the most prevalent, while other methods like Visual Identification (Vultology) become more unreliable as new patterns are uncovered.
Let’s look at an example of a person with Pragmatism processed through the 1st Function. This person when interacting with this information, naturally looks to optimize the activity of objects (people, ideas, machines, etc.) around them. And to them, this is the only thing that really makes sense. Why would anyone do anything differently? Just like the fish couldn’t imagine breathing air when it’s swimming in a world of water. It would be more interested in learning to swim faster, or to breathe more effectively in the water.
Metabolism of The Other Functions
What about the other functions? Let’s examine the Creative Function. We interact with our worldview, attempting to fulfill our experience of it through the creative function. So if we take the EII (“Dreamer”) personality, we know that they see the world through Introverted Ethics (Relations). Does that mean they are always going to have good relations? No. Everyone might hate them, I know I do (just kidding). But they are sure as hell going to try, because that’s the only thing that makes sense. That’s the meaning of life, right? The answer is, to an extent (more on that in another article). However, establishing & maintaining these relations is so important, they need a tool to do it. They will use Extroverted Intuition (Ideas) to achieve & maintain those relations with others.
The EII is exploring the potential of others through the metabolism of Extroverted Intuition. In a sense “hoping” that these relations will unfold into something great. The EII will attempt to explore the likelihood that this person will be a good person to connect with. The EII can quickly move on to different people with hopes to find more potential somewhere else when they have seen the end of that potential.
So tying this back into “using” an element. Sure, they are using this information, but will every EII make the same judgment? No. However, unlike the Leading function, this function is a Contact function. Which means it’s more apt to learn how to digest information. Basically, in a way that better serves their use of Relations over time.
Can You Compare Metabolisms?
So, as this digestion of Ideas improves over time can you ever really say that the Ideas are strong with this person? Yes, the information is easily digested and acted upon (valued) – but it is not “used” or is it necessarily “visible” in particular behaviors. Extroverted Intuition does not mean spastic, ADHD behavior, as often stigmatized in unofficial MBTI groups.
The input does not necessarily produce an expected output of behavior.
One EII might act differently upon the metabolism of this information than another. So the diagnostician has to understand their own bias when it comes to saying something is “strong.” To one diagnostician, strong Ne might be seeing potential in others, while another might think it’s how many interests that EII has. This is measurement method is folly and too subjective to evaluate appropriately. This may cause a mistyping in one person because the other has “stronger” Ne. The best way is to see what is being used to serve or interact with their world of Relations – whether it is exploring potentials, chasing curiosities, or living the life of a wanderer in favor of the alternative — Force.
Wrapping Up
The ego is formed through the metabolism of information when combined with other aspects of personality. How well someone does a backflip isn’t a good depiction of how “strong” an information element is. However, it may allude to what that person values. In other words, you don’t summon information elements to complete a task, nor do you channel them at your opponent when you’re angry. They simply serve as a guide to the way you approach the world, which can be observable, but often it isn’t at a surface level.
…Be smart in your approach to typing diagnostics.
