Back when I was in grad school some 25 years ago, my friends and I began “typing” each other with the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator. We would all refer to the book\u00c2\u00a0 “Please Understand Me” to try to understand each other’s personalities, but more often to use it to point out each other’s idiosyncrasies.\u00c2\u00a0 “Oh, you are such an ‘F’ …!” when one of us is acting emotionally.<\/p>\n
Through the years, I’ve often referred back to the book “Please Understand Me” in order to understand people’s behaviors, and to accept them for who they are, especially in accepting my husband.<\/p>\n
My husband and I are the best match on paper in every test we’ve taken. We are the perfect match in birth order – he is the oldest with younger sisters, and I am the youngest with an older brother; we have similar family backgrounds and values – both immigrated to the US when we were young (I think I was 7, he was 6) and both our families owned restaurants.<\/p>\n
I am an ENFP, the curious “Journalist”. “Warmly enthusiastic and imaginative. Spontaneous and flexible, often rely on their ability to improvise…”<\/p>\n
He is an INTJ, the thoughtful “Scientist”. “Have original minds and great drive for implementing their ideas…”<\/p>\n
The book says the INTJ is attracted to either the “Entertainer” ESFP, or the “Journalist” ENFP. “Lost in his abstract world of hypotheses, he finds anchorage in the person who knows what’s going on in the real world.” The ENFP is “the enthusiastic effervescent, and apparently spontaneous enjoyment and wonderment this type exudes – the very antithesis of the careful, thought exactitude of the INTJ.”<\/p>\n