The INFP Superpower: Contentment

The Self-Reflection of Introverted Feeling and the Playful Imagination of Extroverted Intuition

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The Problem of Mistypes

INFPs are frequently and unfairly portrayed as the most depressed of all the MBTI 16 types. We get this label due to social media being full of unhealthy depressed people mistyping themselves as INFPs. Online MBTI tests, which only use the 4 letter dichotomies, tend to dump certain social misfits and high trauma individuals into the INFP bucket. Afterall, people struggling with unemployment, low self-esteem, and loneliness tend to introvert (I), tend to avoid reality (N), tend to be overwhelmed with negative feelings (F), and tend to lack structure and order (P). Now before you accuse me of misunderstanding the dichotomies, remember, I’m describing the errors of the online tests. I don’t think those are the real definitions.

What’s Really Going On with Our Career Struggles

In reality, an INFP leading with Introverted Feeling has a profound ability and inclination toward joy and contentment. While I do think INFPs struggle more than other types to find a career and a good source of income I don’t think this translates into the depressed crying social outcast stereotype. It’s not our lack of skill, intelligence, or social awareness that drive our career struggles. Our struggle is that we don’t enjoy the zero-sum competition that is the foundation for most western career models, we don’t enjoy controlling others, and we don’t like to be stuck in controlled systems. This is not an indictment on any economic system, in fact I think lawful and regulated competition is the most fair and just economic structure for a society. Albeit these systems are becoming more corrupt and duplicitous as power keeps consolidating. It’s our repulsion to the dehumanizing of people to the level of a resource that demotivates us, not our lack of skill and ability. Once we come to terms with how to morally navigate and rationalize the reality of the system, and find our niche purpose, we thrive.

The Contentment Functions

The reason we have this predisposition to contentment is our proficiency in introverted feeling (Fi), extroverted intuition (Ne), and introverted sensing (Si). These three functions work together with Fi processing our beliefs and feelings, Ne pushing us forward to develop new ideas and strategies, and Si processing our memories and experiences. The combination of these functions make us one of the most internally aligned MBTI types. When these functions are all working together as well as our fourth extraverted thinking (Te) popping in to set up systems from time to time we generally don’t have long term struggles with internal conflict like regret, guilt, and self-hatred. In the short term we can struggle with these things, but we usually resolve them quicker than other types because we’re comfortable sitting with negative feelings and bad memories. We appreciate the therapeutic process of processing inner turmoil. We leverage music, art, and media to help us feel our pain and process it. Other types with lower Fi tend to avoid and suppress these negative feelings in favor of movement and action and thus prolong or postpone the burden and pain of the feelings. In the end though contentment is an inner peace accepting where you are in life (Fi), having confidence in the future (Ne), and having an appreciation for past experiences (Si).

The Warning

Keep in mind though that true contentment is done with eyes wide open and honest self-examination. Numbing and ignoring pain with escapism, irresponsibility, and addiction is not contentment. Also, being stagnant and lazy is not contentment. Extroverted intuition (Ne) is a non-negotiable for an INFP to be content. If an INFP isn’t using Ne then he isn’t content. Ne is the INFP’s most accessible form of extroversion and he must be using it to be moving forward in life. It’s our primary source of idea generation and what we show the world and no one can be content if they’re not engaged with the world.

The Key Is Extroverted Intuition

Overall Ne is a very positive, playful, and easy-going function which gives us the benefit of having heavy duty feeling and memory processors in Fi and Si combined with a positive and lighthearted extroverted function Ne. This combination makes processing feelings and memory a fun and artistic endeavor and makes moving forward and interacting with the world a lighthearted easy-going experience. We’re generally not hitching our self-worth to unrealistic or extreme world conquering goals. With Ne we just want to interact with the world in a creative way, and if we screw up, Fi and Si have our back to clean up our cringe and painful moments. So keep processing those feelings and memories and interacting with the world and you’ll unlock the INFP superpower of contentment.

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