Re-Modeling the Mind: Personality in Balance

by Ruth A. Johnston

Introverted Sensing also brings in both romanticism and symbolism. INFPs are invariably and strongly drawn to historical archetypes like princesses, knights, and heroes. They read and write about these things, but the fascination may run into external life, with costumes, re-enacting, or a touch of romanticism in daily dress. Symbolism is a normal way of thinking, since things seem somewhat alive already. Of course, things stand for or in some sense already inhabit layers of other meanings. INFP poetry and other writing is strongly centered around figurative speech, partly because it’s not merely words to them. But even when they’re dealing only with words as sound or spelling, INFPs are innately attached. They have a natural gift for foreign language partly because words seem alive and colorful. J. R. R. Tolkien, an INFP writer whose main career was in languages, chose which languages to study based only on the way their visual surface appealed to him (he loved the look of Finnish and Welsh).