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| Elijah Mikaelson - one of the hottest vampires on television and an ISFJ to boot! |
People now write the darndest things into my search box. It's kinda funny!
Like this latest one, ISFJs are evil.
Umm, no, we're not. The ISFJ can be conflicted sometimes like Lord Grantham in Downton Abbey or even Ned Stark in Game of Thrones, but you couldn't call either of those characters "evil."
One of my absolute favorite ISFJs in television is Elijah in The Originals, but he's not a villain despite the occasional moment of heart-ripping that he does to protect family. Nope, instead that honor goes to Klaus, a truly wicked ENTJ. Fortunately, most ENTJ's never reach his levels of manipulation and scariness.
Why aren't we evil? Because we're sensors of the highest order, utilizing Si-Fe as our top two functions. Sorry, but evil just doesn't really work for us. We care about other people too much. Oh, we try to hide it sometimes, but we can never be outright "evil" in the sense of "I'm going to take you down and your entire family with you."
Let's step back from the whole "personality type" question for a moment. One of the downsides to learning about personality types is that a lot of types now denigrate other types. That was never supposed to happen. Personality types are there to help us understand one another better, to learn the motivations behind someone's actions, not scoff at them because they use Si instead of Se or Ne instead of Ni. People are born with a certain personality type. It's not their fault, and I'm pretty darn sure that you can't change personalities.
So, no, the ISFJ is not evil.
If you don't like an ISFJ, don't be friends with one. Good luck living a life entirely free of ISFJ influence, though, because we're about 25% of the population. Good thing too because without us charities would disintegrate and the world as we know it would descend into chaos.
Dean is sickeningly evil, dude. It’s evil to hunt things and protect people, and do everything in his power to keep his family together. Dude, EVOL.
ReplyDeleteElijah can do whatever the hell he wants, and I’m fine with it. I’d be even more fine with it if he wanted to beat the crap out of Klaus once in awhile – I’d enjoy that. If anything, Elijah’s worst fault is being too tolerant of his baby brother’s evil. He forgives too much. He gives up of himself too much.
If anything, that is the ISFJ flaw – the martyr complex, the constant “giving up” of self for other people. It’s fine unless it creates a person incapable of doing what they need to do, to function on a healthy level – ie, never doing anything for themselves. The only way an ISFJ could be evil is they used past experiences to fuel their Fe into manipulating other people in order to get revenge on them. It happens… but not very often in fiction.
Yes, unfortunately there are a lot of ISFJs in the world, which means hugs, whether you want them or not, are inevitable. ;)
The martyr complex is one thing I never want to develop. That's the one flaw with Captain America. He could have stayed in his own era if he'd thought far enough ahead and found a viable option other than staying on the aircraft. I'm sure there was one. Like all ISFJs I tend to martyr complex first, think about it later, but I'd rather prefer to reverse those which is what I'm working on. This princess does not want to sacrifice herself to the volcano gods to save her village!
DeleteMy dad's an ISFJ (at least, I think so -- he won't take a Myers-Briggs test). I don't always feel like I'm understanding or relating well to him and other ISFJs, but the last thing I think of when thinking about ISFJs is "evil".
ReplyDeleteWe can be an odd type sometimes. But you should look back through my ISFJ posts and that might give you some insight into your dad and other ISFJs. We're highly traditional and defend loved ones with our dying breath. We also help others until we ourselves collapse and sometimes we have emotional melt-downs if we go throguh too much stress and anxiety. By using extroverted feeling, we're more aware of the feelings of others than we are of our own so when our own feelings overwhelm us, interpreting and dealing with them is difficult, hence the meltdowns. But we're insanely loyal, loving, and self-sacrificing on the whole. :)
DeleteI think the biggest problem I've seen with MBTI typing is that people use their type as an excuse for their bad behavior. "I'm an (insert type here) -- that's just how we are." Instead of using it to understand other people and work on their own personal flaws or weaknesses, they use it as an excuse, and that really bugs me. (Not that I can now think of a single example to relate/link to here, sigh.)
ReplyDeleteVery true! I'm actually very out of touch with my own feelings a lot of the time, and living with Fi users doesn't always help, so that's one thing I'm working on developing. I think the most well-adjusted ISFJ I've ever seen is Captain America. He is the ISFJ that we should all aspire to be! Minus all of the self-sacrifice and that jazz, because I sure would not want to die to save the world like he nearly did. Let's just say that bad behavior is universal, regardless of personality type. We can work to overcome it or stay in our little ruts. Overcoming is always the better option.
DeleteI hate it when that kind of self-excusing goes on, even in Christian circles! Just because God gives us certain strengths or weaknesses should never serve as license for sin.
DeleteThat's part of the reason why my mother theorizes that Jesus was an "XXXX." As the ultimate example of sinlessness and perfection, it would make sense that He would be completely balanced. Introverted enough for quiet reflection, extroverted enough for dealing with huge crowds of needy people; "feeling" enough to have lots of compassion, but "thinking" enough to make wise moves in His ministry; and so on. Each type lends itself to inherent weaknesses and strengths. We should always seek to work with those strengths and weaknesses, but balance and flexibility in our lives should always be our ultimate goal. Perfect adaptability.
I like how your mother thinks. And that makes perfect sense. Whatever we are in our checks and balances, weaknesses and strengths, Jesus has all the strengths and none of the weaknesses. He was the best of everything in ways we can barely even comprehend. That is truly a brilliant way to see Christ, and thanks so much for sharing it!
DeleteAs an INTJ with an ISFJ sister I heartily concurr on Charity's "martyr complex" comment (it's something very easy to take advantage of, to my shame.) But how anyone could construe an ISFJ into an evil character is beyond me.
ReplyDeleteI definitely think that our MBTIs are at least a little flexible. My INTJ mother insists that she is just a "frustrated" extrovert, even though she consistenly tests as an "I," and that she developed her "F" much more after she had children. Though we're born with leanings, I think our environtment probably has a lot more impact on the strength of our types than we might let on or realize.
I hazard a guess that a lot of the confusion about the traits of MBTI types probably stems from hasty generalizations based on individuals with weak or semi-weak type percentages. Evaluating an ISFJ with only a 6 or 7% "F" is only going to be so accurate. We'd be better suited with lots of examples with really strong percentages (90% I, 85% S, 88% F, 77% J) to be able to truthfully explore and describe those personalities.
By the way, I've tagged you for the SUnflower Blog Award, Carrissa. Participate if you dare...
http://rubydanderfluff.blogspot.com/2014/03/the-sunflower-blogger-award-another-tag.html
(but don't feel threatened - my questions really are not that bad... hopefully.)
Awww, thanks for the nomination! I was already nominated twice and answered those questions, but I'll work on yours this weekend. You're so sweet to think of me, Ruby!
DeleteThe best way to understand the MBTI is to understand the cognitive functions. Everyone uses feeling, it's just either introverted or extroverted. Everyone has 4 cognitive functions, a combo of introverted and extroverted, and the layering of those functions determines our strengths and our weaknesses. I use Fe which is totally different from Fi. Both are types of feeling, but have a totally different way of viewing the world. It's remarkable!
And yes, the ISFJ tends towards that "martyr complex." I think now that I'm aware of that tendency, I'm determined to fight it It's great to love and care for others, but not to the point of sacrificing ourselves. Although, I would sacrifice myself for my sister, without hesitation or regret. She's my one weak point, and I love her for it. She's my baby. :)