By Jesse Gerroir and Ryan Smith
Dominant Extroverted Intuition in ENTPs
At heart, intuition deals with pattern recognition. While introverted intuition tends to mull over previous experiences to recognize abstract patterns, be they elements of growth or change, using fuzzy logic and guided by observed patterns in the past, extroverted intuition looks to outer reality, noticing similarities and differences while coming up with new combinations of ideas as it does. Extroverted intuition excels at brainstorming and seeing possibilities in a multifaceted, open-ended, and tangential way. Given some basic stimuli containing potential, extroverted intuition will run wild with it, pursuing a multitude of different combinations, possibilities, and potentialities.
Having extroverted intuition as their topmost function often makes ENTPs great generalists—the archetypical intellectual jack of all trades or the conceptual counterpart to a Renaissance man. ENTPs typically like to explore a wide variety of topics, racing through them to see the connections between different fields and subjects rather than exploring each field’s depths in terms of its details. Possibilities, ideas, possible combinations, and probable connections are quickly born, rise and fall, live and die in the minds of most ENTPs—be these ideas speculative links and possibilities concerning connections never seen before, or just wild speculations that happen to tickle their fancy.
To most ENTPs, this creation and mapping out of ideas and examination of possibilities is a visceral and often intoxicating experience. Just as the extroverted sensation, dominant types (ESTP and ESFP) tend to become emotionally thrilled and physically engaged in intense physical activities like mountain skiing, race car driving, or playing soccer, ENTPs will often joyride through novel ideas and potentialities. The act of generating them and thinking about the immediate possibilities and connections inherent in them creates a sense of uplifting energy in many ENTPs.
Despite this energy, which often makes the ENTP strike others as extroverted and animated, intuition is at heart a conceptually-oriented function, focused on ideas rather than actions. When ENTPs are not in the midst of animating themselves by brainstorming new ideas, they can often come across as almost introverted or overly cerebral at times. This latter demeanor can sometimes clash with the common societal expectation that extroverts should be gregarious people persons who love to be the life of the party or who love and appreciate being with people. For many more intellectually oriented ENTPs, this expectation is not a correct one, and for this reason, it is sometimes said in typological circles that the ENTP is the most introverted extroverted type.
This is not to say that some ENTPs are not incredibly social or able to draw others in using a combination of youthful charm, outlandish jokes, and surprising observations about the external environment. It is rather to say that cognitive functions do not determine a person’s sociability in a behavioral fashion, since cognitive functions describe dispositions and patterns of psychic processes in the cognition of the individual rather than quantifying their behavior or measurable traits.
Some ENTPs can indeed be very energetic and animated, always appearing to have lots of people around them or being engaged in a thousand social activities at the same time (while appearing open to participate in yet a thousand more). Indeed, many ENTPs may appear to others as if they live lives riddled with episodic and tangential events as their desire to explore every opportunity grows in new and varied ways and blows them about now here and now there like the wind. On the other hand, more cerebral ENTPs will appear more calm and contemplative, more intellectual, and perhaps a bit quiet or reticent when around people, socializing in a manner that is much more reserved.
Regardless of the degree to which they express their extroverted intuition outwardly, almost all ENTPs have a keen sense of conceptual possibilities on account of their dominant intuition. They tend to see the big picture, almost unconsciously or without purposefully trying to do so, and mentally chase after it with an unbound and unbridled enthusiasm.
Conceptual ideas are the metaphorical fuel rods on which extroverted intuition runs and can be seen as a fundamental drive that animates the psyche of the ENTP, no matter how vague or improbable these ideas or potentialities may seem at times. Indeed, the very fact that the ideas are vague or ambiguous may unconsciously attract the ENTPs to them, as the conceptual possibilities inherent in an idea will often be greater, the less the idea is constrained by hard facts. As we have written elsewhere, ENTPs tend to leave their conceptual map of a field loose so that their findings are easily accessible and open to further exploration and analysis.
As with the introverted intuitive dominant types (INTJs and INFJs), ideas can often be seen by ENTPs as having an existence of their own. But where the introverted intuitive types tend to get pulled toward one idea, circling it like a bird of prey, slowly intuiting the missing pieces of the puzzle, extroverted intuition shoots outwards, seeking to expand its conceptual stimulation by attaching itself to more and more analogies and links to other patterns already in existence. Extroverted intuition seeks to keep its momentum going by filling the gap with analogies to other tangents and fields, rather than (as introverted intuition does) drilling deeper into one idea or theme in order to flesh that idea out to its fullest.
In this way, ENTPs are often able to generate a level of enthusiasm toward an idea that can be inspiring to others, and it is frequently their enthusiasm for what is possible and untried, when the nature of these possibilities has yet to be determined, that serves them greater than the idea itself. For with a great many things that have never been mapped out before, there is no sure-fire way to know their nature, short of starting off of a conceptual possibility and developing and testing it, only then to know if it will work in the real world or eventually be proven true.
Wisely perhaps, the great majority of people tend to be skeptical or risk-average when it comes to new and improbable possibilities, and it is the ENTP’s steadfast belief in what has not yet been seen or fleshed out before; their inclination to believe that their new and latest theory might be as real or objective as anything else, that attracts others to their way of thinking and may move others to consider, act, and innovate in a way they otherwise could or would have not.
Auxiliary Introverted Thinking in ENTPs
As a perceiving function, extroverted intuition is chiefly interested in the perception of patterns and possibilities and primarily directed onto the outward reality that it perceives. By itself, extroverted intuition does little with regard to ordering reality but rather focuses on pursuing the conceptual connections and possibilities it finds in such observations. Ordering is where the ENTP’s auxiliary thinking takes over. Being the ENTP’s second most function, the role of introverted thinking in their cognition is to counterbalance the many varied and cluttered connections they have perceived by way of extroverted intuition, to ponder and regiment them, to contemplate their subtleties and the principles that govern them, and, in the end, to figure out their relative validity as not all of their conceptual ideas are created equal.
Introverted thinking seeks to isolate and analyze the properties that the conceptual ideas generated by extroverted intuition contain and to develop general inner categories, hierarchies, principles, and laws for each idea to fit into so that their relative relevance and worth may be gauged relative to other ideas or potentialities. However, since sensation is the inferior function of the ENTP, their introverted thinking tends to revolve much less around concrete objects, established facts, or real-world solutions. Rather, their introverted thinking tends to be more purely conceptual and concerned with intellectual patterns and possibilities.
In this manner, ENTPs tend to start with a conceptual connection or idea and then refine it by way of the inner principles that present themselves in their cognition by way of introverted thinking. Since neither of the ENTP’s two topmost functions are especially fettered to physical reality, there is often an outlandishness or sense of play to these efforts. Indeed, it is not just in their intellectual pursuits but also in their sense of humor that one can often observe ENTPs to apply principles from one field or walk of life to another in a way that, on the face of them, seems ludicrous or ridiculous. Indeed, this unfettered interplay between the ENTP’s two topmost functions, cogitating in a mental loop distanced from the otherwise settled realities of the so-called real world, is one reason for the outlandish or often-celebrated sense of humor of many ENTPs.
In this manner, introverted thinking differs from extroverted thinking since, rather than going by internal abstract principles, extroverted thinking sees reality itself as the proving ground: the preeminent arbiter of what is possible or impossible; worthwhile or mere flights of folly. When extroverted thinking engages with principles, it often does so by starting from the bedrock of tangible reality and then moving toward the more purely mental domain of the mind, whereas introverted thinking comes upon its principles in the free-flowing mental domain of the mind first and only then squares them with the settled facts of exterior and tangible reality.
While ENTPs are often very fanciful and playful in their development of ideas, this process nevertheless lies at the heart of their psychic lives. The imaginative process that underlines their ability to explore a multitude of options creatively is often central to their character. Introverted thinking is useful to the ENTP because it reviews and gives feedback on each connection that they have gleaned and helps them develop it further along intellectual and conceptual lines, seeing all the variables at play and reasoning out how each could be adjusted to keep its intellectual value and contribution worthwhile and innovative.
Tertiary Extroverted Feeling in ENTPs
Extroverted feeling is ENTP’s tertiary function. As with all tertiary functions, it exists semi-consciously in the ENTP and is the gateway to the unconscious for them. Extroverted feeling in ENTPs serves to counterbalance the coldness and remote, sometimes impersonal nature of their intellectual processes, often putting a human face on a mental core that is by itself not very concerned with other people. By way of their extroverted feeling, many ENTPs are able to elicit positive social attention and enthusiasm from others, even if perhaps this process sometimes unfolds a bit awkwardly (with them being perceived as acutely relatable as well as unusual and slightly mysterious at the same time). By way of their tertiary extroverted feeling, the social graces of ENTPs often come across as unexpectedly genuine, innocently, and candidly youthful (regardless of their actual age), and allows them to charm and create a lighthearted playful atmosphere that is often contagious to others.
This duality and the semi-conscious nature of their extroverted feeling can sometimes create an inner conflict, where the ENTP can appear socially dazzling or suave to others while on the inside, they feel as if they do not really know what they are doing, or where they inwardly feel socially awkward while, paradoxically, to others, they may come across as suave and in control; as the masters of the social situation.
As extroverted feeling develops more consciously in ENTPs, typically in adulthood, ENTPs tend to become more aware of the effect their conduct and demeanor have on other people. Without a conscious connection to extroverted feeling, young ENTPs can often act in ways that are abrasive or insulting to others, ruffling the feathers of pleasantries, social norms, or societal dogma. If stuck in their conceptual idea loops, suspended between extroverted intuition and introverted thinking, many ENTPs will not feel particularly obliged to avoid stepping on the toes of others—some may even say purposefully provocative things just to see how others will react as if other people’s emotions were an experiment or game.
On the other hand, as extroverted feeling begins to emerge more consciously, ENTPs will often grow to see interactions as less of a game and start appreciating others more as ends in themselves, perhaps even going out of their way to assist others in their doings or empathize with what they are going through.
The semi-conscious nature of their extroverted feeling can also mean that ENTPs can at times feel unsettled by the attention they garner or see it as a detriment. Most ENTPs do not like to feel pinned down, and if others seem drawn toward them and try to push what feels like alien expectations or demands on them, the ENTP may rebel against what they see as pushes for unsolicited commitment and wonder how they provoked such a strong impulse toward would-be friendship or fellow feeling in the other person to begin with. Particularly in younger ENTPs, it is also often seen that since they prefer to be free to adapt to changing circumstances and do not feel that the other person’s attempts at commitment were warranted, they may say or do things with good intentions but then change their priorities when the circumstances change or find some lawyerly way or rationale to get out of such commitments.
When extroverted feeling is poorly developed in ENTPs, their introverted thinking tends to work defensively to rationalize away the promises, actions, and commitments of the ENTP. Like a lawyer pouring over the letter of the law, introverted thinking will identify technicalities and aspects inherent to the circumstances to essentially find a loophole that allows them to do what they find most enticing, regardless of what was emotionally understood to be the case by everyone when a prior agreement was made. Every circumstance is thus seen with an impersonal logic and degree of abstraction that allows the ENTP to come up with reasoning to justify and get out of almost any prior commitment that no longer tickles their fancy.
On account of the verbal acuity possessed by many ENTPs, some ENTPs with unhealthy or poorly-developed extroverted feeling may also twist discussions about what they did wrong in quite an ingenious manner where they will push or provoke others to react with undue aggression, or where the ENTP lures them into logical traps, leaving the ENTP as ostensibly the flexible and reasonable party who holds the moral high ground when in reality, since we are speaking of immature or unhealthy ENTPs, the opposite will often be true.
In terms of functions, this seeking-out of the moral high ground, or seeking to appear as the rational party who did not do anything wrong, demonstrates how ENTPs, no matter how much they think of themselves as rational actors indifferent to the opinions of others, are actually predisposed to care about commonplace social standards, precisely on account of their extroverted feeling.
On the other hand, ENTPs who manage to integrate extroverted feeling in a healthy manner gain a greater understanding and appreciation of the emotions and needs of others, coming to see emotional distress, conflict, and provocation as things to be minimized in order for them to lead meaningful and productive lives. Such ENTPs may also move beyond their introverted thinking auxiliary, coming to the realization that other people’s opinions and needs need not be justified according to the impersonal principles of the ENTP’s own logical systems but can be esteemed as outgrowths of the people they care about and in fact be appreciated in their own right.
It is in this state that ENTPs have the potential to develop into truly charismatic and sympathetic people, with their infectious enthusiasm and inspiring ideas given freely to others and their “big picture” thinking helping to guide and support others through the challenges they are facing.
It helps them treat social communication as something that is not a complex and rigid system, like a system of laws or lines of computer code, instead seeing social interactions as organic processes where every person and circumstance requires attention in their own right, thus giving the ENTP an increased awareness of how the other person is communicating emotionally and how to address those emotions to return the greatest interpersonal results.
Inferior Introverted Sensation in ENTPs
While their flights of fancy and spontaneous intellectual style may belie it, ENTPs have an inner, unconscious drive for lasting and perennial meaning. This desire comes on account of their inferior (and hence largely unconscious) function, that of introverted sensation.
When ENTPs have no healthy interactions with their inferior introverted sensation, the treasure trove of possibilities they perceive all around them can cause inner conflict and paralysis in them. Such ENTPs will often feel lost in life, unsure of what path to take and stifled by the realization that committing to one pursuit or path in life is at the same time a shutting of the door on others. Without contact with their inferior sensation, ENTPs will remain in a stifled state of indecision, wanting to explore every possibility life offers and rebelling against life’s natural restrictions.
Unhealthy polarization of introverted sensation pushes this function further into the unconscious and creates a counterforce in them where ENTPs will falsely see exploration of tentative potentialities as the core of their character. Their extroverted intuition is thus swallowed up by their introverted sensation, leading them to rigidly reject anything that lies outside of their narrowly-defined bounds of “free exploration.” In other words, their introverted sensation takes the form of an unhealthy pseudo-extroverted intuition, ruining both the constructive inputs of healthy sensation and healthy intuition.
Such ENTPs will drift through their lives, unable to accept or realize the human or sensible limitations life places on us all; unable to listen to facts that fail to stimulate them or pay attention to details that bore them but which may be necessary for them to realize their goals. In such a state, many ENTPs will start to see life in mythic terms and blot out what they see as the dull minutiae of reality.
Like the introverted intuitive types (INTJ and INFJ) when they fail to make contact with their inferior extroverted sensation, such ENTPs will withdraw into increasingly grandiose and unworkable ideas of their own making, finding fault—not with the ineffectual ideas themselves—but with practical reality, blaming society or “the great mass of people” for not getting on board with their ideas. From there, it is only a small step before they become morose and start to aggrandize themselves in compensation (since nobody else seems to listen).
When ENTPs attach too rigidly to unworkable ideas on account of unhealthy introverted sensation, they will often react defensively toward even well-meaning feedback that could help them move on from this state. Since they have attached so strongly to the ideas, even constructive or helpful counterpoints may be seen as personal attacks, or (finally!) a chance to prove that one was right all along by aggressively obliterating whomever or whatever they may see as “resistance” to their unworkable scheme.
At the culmination of this unhealthy state, their unintegrated inferior sensation may even become a parody of healthy introverted sensation, as the ENTP seeks to ridicule or humiliate their interlocutors by attacking their personal credentials or lack of authority instead of engaging with their arguments.
On the other hand, when their inferior sensation is healthy and developed and allowed its due, introverted sensation can function as a much-needed inner point of stability and perennial reference for the ENTP. It helps them look inward and answer the questions needed to flourish: What do I want to be known for? What do I want my life to be like? What do I stand for as a person? What are my limitations? Understanding that their inferior sensation cannot be defeated or blotted out helps ENTPs engage with these questions, realistically and slowly, and steers them clear of the unhealthy pitfalls mentioned above.
A better relationship to their sensation gives ENTPs an inner, intransigent set of facts or life lessons that they know they can rely on at all times, which counterbalances their usual flexibility. There is a sense of stability and self-assurance to be gained here—the secure knowledge that no matter how much things change or how many options the ENTP is presented with, some values and choices should always be valued and honored regardless.
In this manner, introverted sensation can act like an unconscious code of honor. It helps give the ENTP a sense of discipline where they are able to act with a true sense of purpose. Instead of being caught up in the perception of potentiality itself, introverted sensation makes them stand more firmly, grounded in the details of things, aware of the tradeoffs involved in choices, and able to usher in the reality of their ingeniously envisioned ideas—not just for themselves but for everyone.