check this out

Here's the thing, Ben, in my opinion, it's all about the rule of seven. I've had her book for 3 years, and before that I had been brain-washed by the Keirsey/Bates "temperament" theories. So the first time I read it I loved it, it seemed to make more sense than what I already knew, but it was still rather confusing conceptually. The second time I read it I decided that temperament theories were sadly misguided, but I still couldn't explain why this "new" way was so much more enlightened. Around the third and fourth times I got so overwhelmed with the terms and trying to delve into each function that I gave up on it for quite a while, feeling like I just didn't "get" it enough. Then after a year or so, a problem that needed solving prompted me to pick it up and read it again, cover to cover, and that's when it started to click.......like, really click. That's when I realized I wasn't INXJ, or what I had thought was a homogenization of my dominant function - I was in actuality an INFJ living between my dominant and tertiary functions. From that revelation onward, over time I reread pieces/parts here and there which I would qualify as my sixth reading, and then most recently, due to a friend's question which I ever-so-shockingly could not answer, I have read the first 13 chapters again for the SEVENTH time. I can honestly say that every time I pick it up and go over those same familiar sentences, I continue to have my perspectives broadened and my understanding deepened. An acquaintance of mine who once took a complimentary course in psychology (I shouldn't mock, I've never taken a lick myself) said that the brain must ingest new information seven times in order to not only understand it ourselves, but be able to explain it to someone else. I'm a big believer in that. These theories have been subjects of immense passion, meditation, study, discussion, and sometimes argument in and around my world for some 10+ years, and with every new discovery I continue to surprise myself with, all I can say is, when it comes to understanding there is no substitute for repetition. The only question I have for you after considering so many of your questions is, how many times have you just plain read it through? I don't think this is an INJ thing. From what I've studied about the brain and how we learn, how we remember, this seems to be a universal law beyond function (if you're interested in such studies, I highly suggest The Synaptic Self). It's my best guess that your many quandries would slowly dissipate upon continuous investigation, and spacious lapses of observation. And just as a side note, Introverted Thinking has been as puzzling to me in its abstraction of form as I would suppose Introverted Intuition is to you, or perhaps a lot of people (even some INFJs seemed confused by themselves), based on what I've read here - but - I can guarantee you that how she describes it seems much more technical in its definition than how it is in real life, and I can only assume that is also true for the rest of the functions. More than assume, really, I've come to realize it through reading and observing and rereading and reobserving. When we are at our most real and raw and humble, it all becomes maddeningly simple. Thanks for reading, I know we INFJs don't always make it easy. I've enjoyed this Wiki thing.