Introverted Intuition (Ni): Dominant INTJ Cognitive Function Explained
Have you ever wondered why you are so obsessed with finding patterns everywhere, getting these AHA moments about a problem, which occurred a couple of weeks ago and always seeking to see a big picture? Then introverted intuition is probably the main cause of that.
INTJ functional stack
Each MBTI personality type uses four of the eight cognitive functions that line up by their relative strength and comprise a so-called functional stack. Introverted intuition is dominant INTJ cognitive function, followed by auxiliary extraverted thinking, tertiary introverted feeling, and inferior extraverted sensing.
What is introverted intuition?
Introverted intuition is a perceiving function that subconsciously analyzes your past experiences and thoughts, connects everything together and instinctively lets you understand something or reveals a future vision of what is going to happen. Let me say that this is not some kind of magical ability – it’s just an ability to correctly put all puzzle pieces together without even realizing that you are doing so.
Being an INTJ personality type, you probably often notice that you know something and have no idea where it came from. This is how introverted intuition works – it unconsciously processes every piece of information and experience, saves it somewhere deep and when something familiar occurs – it strikes with a so-called gut feeling!
As an INTJ, you also probably get tired of explaining things to people which you see as super obvious but they still can‘t get it. Other people just can‘t see a big picture so easily. They usually prefer to remember exact details and unlike INTJs, can’t naturally process information to its core.
Out of all human senses, vision is usually considered the most important one. INTJs rely on their vision even more than other types, because they use their vision not only for external sensing but also for internal. It is very common for INTJs to associate their vision with introverted intuition and start thinking of images instead of words. Thought visualization often helps INTJ create clearer internal idea maps and make better insights (source: Personalityjunkie).
Introverted intuition vs extraverted intuition
According to Jung and Myers-Briggs, there are two sorts of intuition: extraverted intuition (Ne) and introverted intuition (Ni).
| INTROVERTED INTUITION | EXTRAVERTED INTUITION |
|---|---|
| 35% Ni users worldwide. | 65% Ne users worldwide. |
| Rarest dominant function - only 3-7% users (INTJ+INFJ). | 8-13% use Ne as dominant function (ENFP + ENTP). |
| Ni users are big-picture driven. | Ne users are creativity driven. |
| Ni users tend to go deeper into same idea and analyze it at depth. | Ne users to tend to to go broader by linking from one idea to another. |
| Ni users process idea to its core. | Ne users ad info to idea. |
| Ni users create routine that helps them achieve their goals and are really dedicated. However, they take everything too seriously and are perfectionists. | Ne users get bored by routine and are prone to procrastination. They are flexible, but bad at day-to-day tasks. |
| Ni users make excellent insights. | Ne users are excellent brainstormers. |
Benefits of having dominant introverted intuition
- You have an ability to analyze yourself and your actions from a 3rd person perspective;
- You are able to master many different disciplines and become a “jack of all trades”;
- You can predict the future pretty well;
- You can take pieces of abstract information and make sense of it;
- You can easily see patterns everywhere;
- You are consistent on achieving your future goals;
- You either know the answer to a question or not. But if you know it – it’s always the right one;
- You always know how to improve everything until perfection.
Drawbacks of having dominant introverted intuition
- You can’t concentrate on doing boring things because your inner world seems as real as your outer world and when you get bored in the outer world – you just switch between them and start daydreaming;
- You can’t ignore the flaws and must criticize everything;
- You can’t relax and enjoy the present time – you always need to calculate everything and make plans for the future;
- You visualize much more than actually do – you can’t start doing anything until you have planned every little detail of it;
- When you get curious about something, you crave an insane amount of knowledge depth and can never get enough of it;
- You have different learning styles – you consume large amounts of knowledge and can’t remember any of it until your brains digest it and produce a big picture of how it all works and connects.
How to strengthen your introverted intuition
The last thing to mention is that introverted intuition develops as you get more life experiences. And the more knowledge and experience in the selected area you get, the more accurate gut feeling or future event predictions will come. Just deepen your knowledge in different fields, listen to other people insights and push yourself out of your comfort zone to get into unfamiliar situations to challenge yourself.
