[jonathanb]

I seem to hear more about people having "emotional problems" than people having problems related to Ti/Te, Se/Si, or Ne/Ni.

Virtually ALL ISTJs and ESTJs I've met in my life (there are a lot of them) had problems with emotion. INTJs are also notorious for this for some reason.

ESTJs tend to have a problem understanding emotion, and more specifically, understanding what love is. They often think of love as "commitment" - a sort of task or mission or plan. Many will testify that they've never felt like "falling in love" with anyone or anything.

ISTJs experience emotion, but have a very hard time expressing it verbally or showing it externally via other means. For the ISTJs, very small physical cues on their part, or very minor actions (such as giving a small gift) can in their mind be interpreted as they doing a major emotional gesture towards another person (because even a small emotional gesture is difficult for them). My ISTJ father has no emotional depth whatsoever, he's completely blank. My ex-girlfriend for 5 years was ISTJ. She's a very kind person whom I still care deeply for. She feels emotions deeply, but cannot express them even when she wants to. She'd usually only express her emotions when mentally breaking down and crying (which does not happen often).

As an INTJ I have a very well developed Fi, but it is my understanding that many INTJs have issues with this function. I was lucky to have an influence of a very loving and emphatic grandma in childhood, and having grown up surrounded by animals (which I always loved and cared for), and these may have been contributing factors to my balanced Fi. I may not expose my emotions most of the time, but I am very romantic, may cry in movies, and I talk about emotions with my partners a lot (though usually not with other people).

It occurred to me that functions which don't relate to emotion are vital for survival in one way or another, so it make sense that one will have to develop them. Feeling functions, however, are social functions. They are only vital for "social survival", and under certain situations, especially in modern times, one could go through his/her entire life without developing them.

[Tactical Panda]

Feeling functions are just social functions?

I'm not sure... how would be remove a person from all animal and human life, and if we did and the threats they present were removed... why not use the F functions to enjoy life?

Hmm.

[jonathanb]

	Originally Posted by Tactical Panda To view links or images in this forum your post count must be 2 or greater. You currently have 0 posts.
	Feeling functions are just social functions? I'm not sure... how would be remove a person from all animal and human life, and if we did and the threats they present were removed... why not use the F functions to enjoy life? Hmm.

Yes, but "enjoying life" isn't a necessity for survival, at least not in the short/medium term.

[Bluesea]

	Originally Posted by jonathanb To view links or images in this forum your post count must be 2 or greater. You currently have 0 posts.
	Yes, but "enjoying life" isn't a necessity for survival, at least not in the short/medium term.

I disagree - Feeling functions are essential for survival ... consider instinct - it is a feeling; when danger is nearby the survival instinct will feel it; we get a feeling when we are around people we are unsure we can trust - who may threaten our survival - street smarts are feeling orientated levels of awareness as well as being highly aware of and making sense of behaviours.

If we could not love or feel desire we might not procreate and then where would the survival of the species be? If we had no love for our children would we take care of them and likewise where would the survival of the children be placed / gene pool of those parents?

"Trust your gut" or intuition is a feeling function alongside the suggestion to the mind.

Your body sends feeling signals when something is wrong with it, if we do not heed these we can miss early intervention and our survival be more at risk.

When negative feelings are aroused in response to making choices that make survival less likely if we keep making them, this can motivate and prompt a return to choices that are wiser, which can in turn enhance the likelihood of our survival.

Emotions are aroused outside of social contact. People can feel a response to a sunset, to a rainy day, to heights, to being alone, etc...

Plus, not enjoying life is also not a recipe for survival ... many a depressed person has committed suicide from an enduring lack of capacity to enjoy life....

[jonathanb]

Originally Posted by Bluesea To view links or images in this forum your post count must be 2 or greater. You currently have 0 posts.

I disagree - Feeling functions are essential for survival ... consider instinct - it is a feeling; when danger is nearby the survival instinct will feel it; we get a feeling when we are around people we are unsure we can trust - who may threaten our survival - street smarts are feeling orientated levels of awareness as well as being highly aware of and making sense of behaviours. If we could not love or feel desire we might not procreate and then where would the survival of the species be? If we had no love for our children would we take care of them and likewise where would the survival of the children be placed / gene pool of those parents? "Trust your gut" or intuition is a feeling function alongside the suggestion to the mind. Your body sends feeling signals when something is wrong with it, if we do not heed these we can miss early intervention and our survival be more at risk. When negative feelings are aroused in response to making choices that make survival less likely if we keep making them, this can motivate and prompt a return to choices that are wiser, which can in turn enhance the likelihood of our survival. Emotions are aroused outside of social contact. People can feel a response to a sunset, to a rainy day, to heights, to being alone, etc... Plus, not enjoying life is also not a recipe for survival ... many a depressed person has committed suicide from an enduring lack of capacity to enjoy life....

I think you're mixing two different things. When we're in pain we call this a "feeling", and when we have a value system it's also a matter of "feeling", but these are different things. If you had read Dario Nardi's research on the Neuroscience of MBTI, you'd have learned that the Jungian functions primarily reside in the Neocortex of the brain (which is uniquely human in its development and function). Survival instincts are mostly known to exist in the Reptilian Brain, or Brain-Stem, which we share with other animals.

I don't think procreation must be related to love. The sexual instincts are, again, found in the brain-stem. The human concept of love, which is a huge elaboration on nature's basic sexual instinct, is related to the functions of the Neocortex. In any case, the science doesn't matter here, because pure observation shows that numerous people reproduce in a variety of ways without any love being involved in the process. Before the age of contraception, I'm willing to bet a huge percentage of the population, if not the majority, used to come to this world by sexual acts unrelated to love.

"Trusting your gut" is not always related to Feeling functions, and is more often related to Sensing functions, especially Se.

Hormones that make you feel something don't mean that a Feeling function is involved.

As for suicide - that's a long-term thing. That's why I said that lack of emotion is not necessary for survival in the short-medium terms. In any case, not everyone require emotional appreciation of their surroundings to survive or not commit suicide.