Enjoying Fantasy Is Weak Intuition

Over the years, I’ve seen all kinds of different logic used to justify one’s personality type. People take associations between certain dichotomies or cognitive function, create absolute rules, fail to recognize nuance, and end up with a poorly justified conclusion. Of course, poor logic doesn’t automatically mean an incorrect conclusion, but poor logic bugs me. I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again. Typology enthusiasts often lose sight of the bigger picture. They lose sight of reality. They trap themselves within the narrow confines of a personality system, and forget all the nuance and context of real life. The subsequent result is a bunch of unrealistic, shallow, caricatures.

One such example is the association of the love of fantasy with intuition.

Is Fantasy Associated With Intuition?

Realism is typically associated with sensors, and fantasy (as it’s opposite) gets associated with intuition. So, the question becomes, is that correct? Well, generally speaking, sensors are focused more on concrete. People like to describe this as sensors being focused on “what is” or the present. That generalization can be a little misleading, because SJs aren’t always focused on what is. Some SJs lean future oriented, and some get stuck in the past. The ESJs are more likely to describe themselves as being present-oriented than ISJs, but there’s some variance here. The SPs, however, are typically in the present-oriented camp, with perhaps some future projection happening as they mature. Of course this was a slight tangent, but I said all of it to justify the “realism” association with sensors. Sensors, as a whole, tend to be more focused on reality.

Inversely, intuitives focus more on possibilities or potential, which can feel as real to them as the chair they’re sitting on. That’s where they get disassociated from realism. They’re essentially bypassing it to focus on something that could be (but technically might not ever be). This can surface as future projection or prediction, mentally speculating on possibilities, experimenting with new things in order to discover new possibilities, etc. That’s where fantasy comes in.

Fantasy is “a genre of speculative fiction that involves supernatural or magical elements, often including completely imaginary realms and creatures” (Wikipedia).

The key word there, of course, is “speculative.” Fantasy media serve up possibilities, and the focus on possibilities is certainly associated with intuition, as I explained above.

However, there’s a catch… or perhaps two.

1. Enjoying Someone Else’s Fantasy World Is Lazy

Everyone is capable of everything. We all have an intuition, sensing, thinking, and feeling function, and we are all capable of exercising all four of these cognitive functions. Being a sensor doesn’t mean you can’t exercise intuition, and being an intuitive doesn’t mean you can’t exercise sensing. So, the difference between being a sensor or an intuitive is not the ability to exercise or enjoy said function, but has more to do with the type of priority and we give it, and the level of control we have over it.

So, what am I trying to say?

Well, creating a brand new fantasy world is on a different level than simply watching a fantasy movie and playing a game. In the former, you’re generating possibilities that run contrary to reality, and weaving together a world based on these. In the latter, you’re merely consuming someone’s work. Or to a put a little different, they labored to make the world, and you’re just taking advantage of it for your own entertainment. Is the fantasy world appealing to your intuition? Sure. But is it really exercising your intuitive function in a way to suggests dominant use? No. Any personality type can lose themselves in a fantasy world designed to entertain them.

2. Most Fantasy Isn’t Even New Anymore

Let’s be honest here. The world is flooded with fantasy themes, stories, games, etc. None of it is new anymore. It’s all just a rehashed, slightly different combination of the same stuff. I’m certainly not going to trivialize the work that goes into writing a book. It’s not easy building a world, with consistent, believable characters, and a solid plot. I’m not saying that. But, the association of fantasy with intuition because fantasy represents possibilities beyond the real world starts to break down a bit when you take into consideration that most of it isn’t new anymore. Most people aren’t really generating something brand new. They’re just mixing things around in a slightly different way, and adding their own personal touches. Perhaps some of the original fantasy authors were intuitives, but these days, I don’t think it’d be necessary to have a strong intuition function to write fantasy. With that being said, I’m not eliminating the possibility that a sensor could produce something brand new in the realm of fantasy. Sensors aren’t incapable of perceiving possibilities, seeing potential, and using their intuition function in a productive/creative way. But, what I’m trying to do here is focus on the general trends to prove a point.

In Conclusion…

Perhaps in a previous generation, one could argue that enjoying fantasy was more characteristic of an intuitive. After all, once upon a time, there was a lot less of that around, and a much stronger focus on being practical and realistic. But that’s simply not true anymore. Fantasy media has become so normalized that the majority of people enjoy and probably even prefer the genre. Like I said, assuming fantasy is appealing exclusively to the intuition function, everyone has one of those, and consuming fantasy media does not take work on the part of the intuition function. It’s a lazy, largely brainless activity. (Some exceptions can be made for games that require you to think, or maybe a movie/show that makes you do a lot of puzzling over what’s going on.) As such, enjoying a genre that whisks you away from reality says basically nothing about your personality type. Some people want to get away from reality because their reality sucks. Other people just want a pleasant diversion. That can be the case for any personality type, intuitive or sensor.