Inferior Ne from the Mind of an ISTJ

There are a lot of stereotypes about bad Ne or inferior Ne out there. Some are true, others not so much. Inferior Ne can manifest itself in more ways than one. I guess this doesn’t come as a surprise considering everyone views Ne as the function that can’t just focus on one thing. So I am going to attempt to describe my personal dealing with my own inferior Ne. I hope for this can lend some clarification to how inferior Ne manifests and someone can learn something from it. Also, we’d love to expand this series, so if anyone reading this wants to submit an article about their relationship with their own inferior function, please shoot us an email! Of course, the author will get credit for the article and a link back to any site/blog that they run themselves.

My Inferior Ne

I am easily overwhelmed when things become too open ended. If there isn’t at least some sort of direction, I feel like my entire brain shuts down and I can’t function. In short, giving me a single sentence instruction for something new and is anything more than a simple task will probably result in my inferior Ne misconstruing what you want. It’s not that I can’t work with that, it’s that I know full well, unless I gather more information, what I produce probably won’t be what you wanted. Even when making choices in my own life, it takes a considerable amount of time for me to process the overwhelming amount of options and to narrow it down to what I feel would be the best choice.

At its worst, my inferior Ne produces any and every possible bad scenario I can think of. If left unchecked, I will basically become super paranoid that some random outlandish sequence of events will happen, ultimately spelling my doom. I won’t be able to stop thinking about all the possible ways something could go wrong and obsessing over all of them. This leads to a complete mental lockdown. Anytime not spent completing necessary tasks is spent fretting about the inevitable doom that the future holds. Now, this is by no means a normal state and would be what we consider being “in the grip” of your inferior function.

For instance, my inferior Ne logic can go something like this. I am going to make a mistake at work which is going to lead to me getting fired. Once I am fired, money will start running out and I’ll contract some rare incurable disease. After being diagnosed, all the rest of my limited funds will be spent on medical bills. While driving back and forth to the doctor, I am going to get into a car accident that will destroy my vehicle and injure the other party. Then the other party will sue me. I will lose everything, and then my parents, the only people I can reach out to for help, will die. I will then end up in a cardboard box on the side of the road slowly dying, penniless, alone, and disgraced.
(As ridiculous as that scenario sounds, when in the grip it all seems completely logical to me. However, the person I was spouting it to was looking at me in such complete disbelief because I was actually serious which left me wondering how improbable my scenario actually was.)

In normal day to day life, inferior Ne makes me slow to make decisions. It just takes me a long time to process and think over the possibilities. This is one of the reasons why inferior Ne users are known for sticking with the tried and true or repeating the past. It is much easier and quicker to stick with something you know works rather than having to process all the new possible ways of doing things. Even though this trait is almost always tied to being a dominant Si user, it’s really caused by Inferior Ne. Although, the two are more or less inextricably linked. Speaking of traits that are attributed to dominant Si, disliking new and unknown situations is another one. This again is more of an attribute of inferior Ne.

In a real life situation, if I am presented with a task or situation that I have never done before and there is some expectation for me to complete the task well, it causes me anxiety. Any situation I am not prepared for stresses me out, for the most part. This is why I will strive to be as prepared as possible for any situation that I know is coming. It also means that I don’t think well under pressure. Since I have a hard time processing possibilities in the first place, pressure just makes it that much worse. For the record, it is a common misconception that inferior Ne users fear the future. I do NOT fear the future. I fear the unknown, or what I’m unprepared for.

On a more upbeat note, my inferior Ne can also manifest itself in some positive ways. When being utilized in a no stress situation, it can manifest as sudden bursts of inspiration. I have on occasion been able to write songs, poetry, etc. Sometimes out of the blue, my mind will feed me some random information that will give me some sort of epiphany or greater understanding about something I’ve been mulling over. So really my Ne works best when I use it subconsciously. Most of the time though, it just makes me start singing random songs based off of some statement I’ve heard someone make. A few examples for the fun of it: “I want to know” (Can you show me?), “Tell me what you want” (what you really really want), or when learning spanish “Cuando” (Tell me quando, quando, quando). So many trigger phrases….