People of this type tend to be: quiet, independent, and private; logical and unemotional; creative, ingenious, and innovative, global thinkers; curious and driven to increase their competence; casual, and adaptive; nonconforming and unpredictable.
The most important thing to INTPs is their privacy and the opportunity to solve complex problems in unique ways.
How to Love an INTP Respect her privacy and independence.
Appreciate her competencies and wealth of creative ideas.
Encourage her to spend time alone.
Don't talk too much or force an emotional conversation before she's ready.
Try not to nag her about being messy or meeting deadlines.
Above all - give her plenty of space to pursue her interests in depth and time to think things through.
Parenting INTPs The Joys and Challenges of Raising INTPs: They are curious, independent, and strong willed, but also tend to be reticent to share their emotions, fears, or worries. While they are creative, logical, and innovative, they are also usually critical, argumentative, and ignore rules or authority.
What works with INTPs: respect their privacy and look for common interests to foster closeness and intimacy
don't fuss over them, let them try to do things for themselves and learn from the consequences of their successes and failures
expect to be challenged often as they strive to achieve perfection in their arguments
SpeedReading INTPs The key to success lies in your ability to quickly size others up, and speak their language. Here are just a few clues for SpeedReading (understanding) and SpeedReaching (communicating with) INTPs.
How to Spot INTPs: private, selective, and reserved
cool, detached, and unemotional
logical, intellectual, and analytical
casual, calm, and adaptable
Tips for Communicating with INTPs: Challenge their creativity to solve complex problems
Respect their competence and expertise
Give them plenty of time to think about things in new ways
The INTP is often satisfied simply by knowing that she could do something if she wished. Hence, it is common to see INTPs dabbling at many things, achieving competency, just enough to prove to themselves that they could become more proficient if they wished, but rarely actually bothering to refine their skills further. She is satisfied with the knowledge that he has these skills but often sees no requirement to demonstrate this to others, an indication of the strong Ti nature.
*However, when witnessing the emotional response of another person, the INTP intensely resists any similar emotion of her own. An example of this is when watching a 'weepy' cinema film in which some heart-wrenching scene is being shown. The INTP despises the attempt by the filmmaker to influence her emotions and is more likely to sneer than cry.
*INTPs are usually fascinated by music and may have deep and wide-ranging tastes.
*The mystery of emotion is also evidence in the INTP's use of music. She always chooses to listen to music which suits her current emotional state, be it aggression, warmth, excitement, relaxation or whatever.
*They feel an unpleasant sense of disharmony whenever a music style clashes with their emotional state.
INTPs detest irrational emotion above all things.
*INTPs dislike being in an atmosphere of emotional disharmony. If they need to say something unpleasant to someone close to them, they would prefer to avoid this task for fear of the disharmony that may result.
*INTPs never like doing something until they know they can do it.
The INTP's typical response to helplessness is to hate the world which has produced it.
*However, the greatest fears of an INTP are usually ideas generated within his own mind. The problem is that the Ti-Ne axis is capable of conceiving very unpleasant ideas, which may be far from reality and even irrational. Ideas and possibilities assume so much importance in the mind of an INTP that they can override a common sense factual grasp on reality.
INTPs are about 1% of the general population, making this one of the rarest of types.
*The INTP is above all a thinker and her inner (private) world is a place governed by a strong sense of logical structure. Every experience is to be rigorously analysed, the task of the INTP's mind is to fit each encountered idea or experience into a larger structure defined by logic. For here is the central goal of the INTP: to understand and seek truth.
*The INTP is not interested in experiences themselves but is far more fascinated by concepts.
*The Ti-Ne axis leads to a curious overriding desire to observe from a detached position, indicating the preference for intuitive perception with respect to external things.
**Now looking specifically at first the Ti, the principle of detachment even encompasses how an INTP views herself. She may analyse her own thought processes as if her mind and body were separate from her conscious self. In wanting to understand her reactions to things, she may treat herself, even her own thoughts, as subjects for experiment.
While proficiency may not be a central goal, competence always is.
**If an INTP decides to learn a skill, then it is very important for her that she reaches a sufficient level so that basic errors can be avoided. Errors made by others are to be expected and can be criticised. But errors made by oneself attack the very root of the person, which is ultimately about rationality, logic and truth.
**INTP's put great weight on being individuals and essentially different from other people, who they often view as being too alike and too interdependent. Independence touches on many aspects.
*The INTP usually applies the word "irrelevant" to such things: that is her excuse for any lack of competency in any field. And if she originally wished to achieve something, but failed, then it must be because was in fact irrelevant!
**The opinions of others are rarely given much weight in themselves. All opinions must get filtered through an analysis procedure to test for viability. No title or claim of being an "expert" carries any weight with an INTP. All people, big or small, are subject to an identical scrutiny.
***Most respected of all are those who are not only sensible but also innovative. Intelligence is above all highly prized.If an INTP is pushed into doing something she will automatically resist. The reason for the resistance is simply that any action must first be filtered by the Ti, guided by the Ne.
*She must be given the chance to reach an independent decision, approving or rejecting the action. Hence, she must withdraw to allow the analysis process to work. If withdrawal is not allowed then stubborn resistance is the inevitable result.
The best way to get an INTP to do something is to suggest the idea as an option and let her sleep on it. Ultimately, the INTP must always believe that it is her decision. Once she is satisfied that the decision was independently reached, then she is content.
The INTP thinks, "To know is everything, to do is a lower order necessity, if it is necessary at all."
***INTPs detest facades and particulary dislike people who exhibit them. Equally, those kind of people also dislike INTPs and avoid them at all cost, for they know that the INTP will see right through them.
****The INTP's serious nature also makes them almost immune to mockery and being made fun of, at least when face to face with their mocker. If someone attempts to make a sarcastic, mocking comment about an interest of an INTP, the latter will defend herself with a pure, almost naive seriousness, explaining her position with a severe exactness, wielding her words like swords. This almost always disarms the mocker who does not expect such a penetrating defence. The INTPs defence usually also contains a subtle but biting attack thrown back in the mocker's face, chiefly because the INTP cannot entirely hide the fact that she believes her opponent to be stupid.
If the INTP played life as chess, she would keep wishing to modify the allowed-move-properties of her various pieces to optimise her strategy, find that that isn't allowed, and ask to start the game afresh!
****In contrast to INTJs, an INTP will often make controversial, speculative points of argument, often annoying the discussion-partner, and make them in such a way as to leave the impression that she is very serious about what she says. In reality, the INTP is not actually even certain herself whether she really stands by what she is saying, but her Ne strongly suggests that there must be a core of truth there. The purpose then of her outspoken style of argument is to sharpen her own intuitive understanding by testing the reaction of the listener, and indeed to examine the logic of her own arguments in real time while speaking them out.
*If she is to be noticed at all, then she must be centre stage. If she can't be centre stage in an area of interest, then she must withdraw and resort to vitriolic criticism
*****Taking things out of context is the chief source of humour and many an INTP is a Monty Pythonite. Needless to say, the humour of an INTP can be pretty zany and warped and may not be understood easily by others. If you see someone smirking and laughing at some private thought, without any obvious reason, he's probably an INTP.
*The preference for intuitive perception means that INTPs dislike having their lives planned. They feel a distinct unease before most fixed appointments and cannot fully relax until the scheduled event is over, or at least in progress. However, the dreaded event is usually far less of a problem than had been imagined and usually brings with it a sense of satisfaction. Action is therefore the saving grace of an INTP, for a sense of achievement usually outweighs the earlier apprehension.
****INTPs dislike making the first move and tend to mirror the emotional content of the other person. A jolly person will quickly bring the INTP out of her shell, as much as that is possible, while a serious person will find a serious INTP looking back at her. The INTP can fit into many different modes of behaviour, even contradictory ones, in order to get into the mindset of the other person. The goal is to gain enough intuitive data to analyse and assess the person. In doing this, the INTP remains somewhat reserved, never wholly identifying herself with her surroundings.
*One-to-one conversation is preferred in almost every situation. In a group situation, INTPs are sensitive to whether they believe they will be listened to or not. If a dominant (strongly extraverted and loud) person is present, the INTP will withdraw and sulk, believing the dominant person to be a brute. If an INTP speaks, she must be listened to, for she believes her spoken opinions to be important. If not, she withdraws (at least in spirit) and assumes that the people who do not listen lack intelligence.
*If she has been free-spiriting for any length of time, she soon feels duty bound to analyse her behaviour and systematise it. While if she has been in an analytical mode for a while, she will soon decide that she can do what he wants freely after all.
****Sequences of past events can assume a remarkable solidity in their thinking, while most INTPs have very good memories.
*INTPs are usually oblivious to external details unless something forces them to take notice. When an INTP goes into a new room, or walks through a city street, she is blind to much of the detail that people with an Se function would see immediately. The INTP always tries to get a feel for the big picture, using her Ne, and habitually ignores all detail. Of course, objects of interest will be seen as a matter of course and she can choose to concentrate and focus on them, but it is remarkable how much she still overlooks. And those objects she does happen to notice will belong to a small set of things that she is interested in anyway. Many other objects would only be noticed if another person points them out to her.
**The one thing that will force an INTP to tidy her home radically, even when alone, is when the clutter eventually gets in her way and hinders some activity. Often, however, the offending objects will merely be moved into another corner where they can spend some more weeks being invisible.
****When she visits a place, whether new or already known, her Si function gives an overriding concern for the atmosphere or mood of the place. In her subconscious, she connects the present experiences of her surroundings with memories of her past, sometimes deep past. A sense of history, of universality, is almost always invoked.
Feelings and emotions are regarded with suspicion and perhaps fear by the INTP and she may be keen to avoid considering or showing them.
*At the same time, she may experience a certain fascination for the emotional world, but she is desperate to de-personalize any thoughts on that area. She is compelled to subject her emotions to continual analysis, the Ti core literally suppressing the Fe shadow, attacking Fe with accusations of irrationality. She resists letting her feelings go, fearing that to do so would be to relinquish control to an unknown force. She believes emotions to be of a lesser substance than logic and her natural goal would be to conquer her emotions with pure rationality.
***Since the INTP normally wishes to hide her emotions; when they do come out, they do so in outbursts with an almost childlike innocence. There is a sense of all-or-nothing and, when visible, there is nothing enigmatic about the feelings of an INTP: indeed, shadow functions always seem pretty raw and basic.
