INTJ personality and emotions

INTJs are defined by their confidence, logic, and exceptional decision-making, but all of this hides a turbulent underbelly - their emotions. The very notion of emotional expression is synonymous with irrationality and weakness to many INTJs, a display of poor self-governance and fleeting opinion that can hardly stand up to the enduring light of factual truth.
This mistrust of emotions is understandable, as Feeling (F) is the most weakly developed trait for INTJs - like any complex tool, skilled hands can use it to remarkable effect, while untrained hands make clumsy and dangerous work.

People with the INTJ personality type take pride in remaining rational and logical at all times, considering honesty and straightforward information to be paramount to euphemisms and platitudes in almost all circumstances. In many ways though, these qualities of coolness and detachment aren't the weapons of truth that they appear to be, but are instead shields designed to protect the inner emotions that INTJs feel. In fact, because their emotions are such an underdeveloped tool, INTJs often feel them more strongly than many overtly emotional types because they simply haven't learned how to control them effectively.
There is not a Truth Existing Which I Fear

This is a challenging paradigm for INTJs to manage, especially younger and more Turbulent types who are already less confident than they would like to appear. These feelings are contrary to INTJs' idea of themselves as paragons of logic and knowledge, and they may go so far as to claim they have no emotions at all. This does not mean that people with the INTJ personality type should be seen as, nor should they aspire to be, cold-blooded and insensitive geniuses living by the mantra that emotions are for the weak. INTJs must understand that this isn't the case, and isn't ever going to be.

INTJ personality and emotionsMore mature and Assertive INTJs find more useful ways to manage their feelings. While they will never be comfortable with a truly public display of emotions, INTJs can learn to use them, to channel them alongside their logic to help them achieve their goals. While seemingly contradictory, this can be done in several ways.

Firstly, INTJs are goal-oriented, with long-term ideas founded on sound logic. When something does cause an emotional reaction, good or bad, that energy can be used to further those goals, aiding rational and pre-determined plans. Secondly, emotions are figurative canaries in the coal mine, indicating that something is off even though logic can't see it yet. These feelings can help INTJs to use their logic to ask questions they may not have thought to ask. "This is upsetting. Why? What can be done to resolve it?"
Question With Boldness

In this way, emotions are not INTJs' way of addressing a decision, but rather an indication that a decision needs to be addressed. INTJ personalities' Thinking (T) trait acts as a protective big brother to their Feeling (F) trait - seeing that something has upset the less able sibling, it steps in to take action, letting logic do the talking and resolving the condition rather than complaining about its consequences.

There comes a time though, when logic is simply the wrong tool for the job, when there just isn't a rational solution to a problem, and it is in these situations that INTJs must use their Feeling (F) trait most clearly. INTJs would do well to practice this from time to time, or at least be aware of it, because however they may try, it is impossible to truly separate emotion from the decision-making process. The fact is that INTJs do feel, and deeply, and this makes them better, not worse.
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Chiranjit Bose
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Jan 06, 2015 15:21:10
Proud to be an INTJ. Logic is the best thing to have
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INTJ---Physicist
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Dec 25, 2014 19:01:57
We all struggle for one reason or another. I am an INTJ too and am very successful. The comments I have read on this site has, in the most general analysis, two main groups: pity party or over inflated ego. Seriously, INTJ's are intelligent enough to learn social rituals and adapt. Rather than complaining take action. Work on you weaknesses and make the most of your strengths. You all do have emotions or you would not FEEL compelled to participate in the discussion. Most of you actually use the word "feel" . If you didn't feel then you would use the word "think". I am a highly educated scientist/engineer who is an artist and volunteers my time for causes I find reasonable. An INTJ personality type is not a ticket to justify to yourself nor the rest of the world that you are an egotistical jerk and have no control over it. I have adapted and so can every other "unemotional" INTJ.
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James
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Dec 31, 2014 19:51:56
Your viewpoint of all INTJ's are "X or Y" is slightly shortsighted to say the least, but I agree in how you view emotions and progress. An emotional response to a situation or event is always caused by a specific reason, a less apparent form of logic that occurs within the shapeless boundaries of the human mind, one that can be universally experienced by all variants of humankind. While an INTJ and an ESFP may feel anger for different reasons, the feeling of anger is equal between them. But just as wild emotions and social drama is meaningless without logic, cold logic and strategic maneuvers are meaningless without emotion. For one to truely be worth something, they must understand that both logic, and feeling are one and the same; and are both nessisary for success.
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brecia
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Dec 11, 2014 04:04:40
its good to know i am not the only one to feel all of this.
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Shabrekia Fairley
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Dec 03, 2014 15:50:12
I feel that I'm always misunderstood and I try to make others understand me
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Marmar
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Nov 28, 2014 10:19:18
Personalities can change over time and events (one thing that I wanted to point out), but it is interesting that I ended up being an INTJ type personality. I have always why I felt like I couldn't really make many friends and that I couldn't navigate through my own feelings growing up. It explains a lot of other aspects of my life as well. I feel that I don't have it as badly though as some of the other INTJs, but I definitely know how they feel. It's amazing how descriptive and almost accurate the profiles of personalities are and how we can all relate to this personality type. I've never met someone who had the same personality type as myself as well, but I get along fine with my one best friend (probably only friend) who is an ENFP who is a free spirit and who I can really share a lot with. I get along with people fine, but am not one to really initiate anything or really make a group of friends (close or not) either. I don't really consider this personality a curse since understanding this personality really just helps us better understand ourselves. We can now try to improve ourselves, no matter how arrogant we can be, and continue to grow and learn as in our personality's nature.
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Your results

Personality: INTJ

Variant: Turbulent

Role: Analyst
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Extraverted
Introverted
67%
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Intuitive
Observant
20%
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Thinking
Feeling
8%
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Judging
Prospecting
24%
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Assertive
Turbulent
62%
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