My Pet INTP

My new intrigue, Ryan* (who reads this blog and now occasionally refers to himself in the third person as Ryan, which pleases me to no end), is a Myers-Briggs personality type INTP, and seeing as how his personality is quite similar to mine as an INTJ, I am interested in his inner being and how it contributes to our interactions together. He is both dominant and very affectionate. He is up front and honest about his life and wants me to be a part of it, yet he does not really let me into his inner being. He is very independent and I am surprised when he says, “I wish I could see you all the time. I wish you lived with me.”

I have two other male friends who are INTP personality types, and while they are each unique, they definitely remind me of one another.

Incidentally, if you want to know your Myers-Briggs personality, you can find out by taking this online test.

So what is an INTP? And how do they relate to INTJ?

- INTP likes to exert dominance, and they like to be right. They do not take things at face value and often find the weakness in another’s statement or argument. They will tend to correct others if the shade of meaning is off. I am confident that an INTP will refute this point.

- INTP is not naturally tuned into other’s feelings. Their feeling function is the least developed of all four functions, with their thinking function taking the lead. Therefore, they do not naturally share their inner feelings, nor do they realize quite when another’s feelings may be hurt (even an INTJ, who is also said to have no feelings and rarely takes things personally).

- They are not naturally well-equipped to meet the emotional needs of others because they do not understand the (logical) relevance of taking subjective emotions into consideration. They do not mean to be this way and often to not realize how insensitive they come across.

- They hold back parts of themselves until the other person has proven themselves worthy of hearing the INTPs thoughts.

- INTP tends to be very faithful and loyal in relationships and has no interest in playing games. They will often call out another person’s misbehavior if tested.

- INTJ and INTP tend to “get” each other and communicate well. INTP tends to get bored easily, but will not easily be bored by the complex INTJ. Generally speaking, INTJ and INTP tend to be intellectual equals.

- Both INTJ and INTP highly value knowledge, analyze everything, and constantly imagine how things could be improved. The difference is that the INTP often abandons a project after the dreaming/planning stage, as it is already “completed” in their minds once they have imagined it. They prefer to leave the implementation to others. An INTJ is more likely to see a project to its perfect completion.

- INTP and INTJ are both highly independent, original, and complex.

- INTP has a rich and complex inner life but relatively simple and uncomplicated external life. Both INTP and INTJ can have trouble reconciling their rich and imaginative inner worlds with the actuality of external circumstances.

- Both INTP and INTJ are rare types, each comprising only 1-2% of the population. They both believe themselves (correctly so) to be special.

- INTP likes to analyze things they do not understand (like the complexity of an INTJ) and are bored by things that are too simple or easily understood. The INTJ also analyzes everything, but the difference is that the INTJ strives for mastery and proficiency, whereas the INTP is satisfied with simply analyzing.

- Both INTP and INTJ will tell themselves that they are detached, but they might be more attached (or at least drawn) to each other than they are willing to admit.

- INTJ and INTP have a natural ability to fundamentally understand and respect one another (rare for both types to find this level of respect and understanding with others).

*not his real name