Fixes vs. Lines

[a2jc4life]

For discussion:

When one has a fix that is shared with a line (for instance a 9 with a 6 fix) how do you differentiate the influence of the "normal" fix and the stressed disintegration line (or, I guess, the unstressed integration point, although that doesn't seem to become an issue as often)? Does it even matter?

And, along similar lines (ha!) how do you avoid confusing a line with a fix? Like, for instance, how do you determine someone is a 9 with a 6 fix, not a 9 with a 5 fix and just displaying a good bit of stress activity?

[Daeva]

That's tricky, yeah. 6 with a 9 fix here, and I used to type at 9 core for quite some time. How to tell the difference...

My personal story is that I went from 9 to 6 by reacting against the status quo of what our contemporaries thought was "9" and "6." Hereby exhibiting a more 6 attitude, though this in itself doesn't show the difference as both types tend to have a for-against type of thinking and doing going on. Mind that before typing at 6 core, I had never even considered 6 fix! I was at 974 and 973.

What did it for me was that, over time, more and more "small" details kept on creeping up on me that just didn't mesh with the typing. I eventually went back to the books and went really deep on type 6, which I was starting to eyeball more and more anyway.

Ultimately, what makes me a 6 and not a 9 can be really trying to describe because, as you say, there is a great deal of overlap going on, especially when describing emotional states or behaviors. Even motivation will show overlap. Anxious, mistrustful? 6 or 9->6? Procrastinating? 9 or 6->9? Many many issues like this. I also think that I was attributing many type 5 (my wing type) elements to type 9 where they didn't belong. Issues such as feeling easily overwhelmed and other, more embarrassing, things...

One big clue would be the difference between the centers of intelligence, which works for disentangling 6 from 9 and 1 from 4 and others, but not for 5 and 7 or 4 and 2. My energy is STRONGLY centered in the Head. It isn't limited to overthinking, though, as this can once again be considered a 9->6 type of thing. It is that under stress my energy increases more and more and goes straight to thought and anxiety and anger related to these things. I become immensely reactive and frustrated and panicky. Do I dig in my heels? No. If anything, I loose my grounding altogether and start questioning existence itself. "To Be or Not To Be?" Enter racing thoughts and more and more. I require STRUCTURE and I NEED to be able to predict and KNOW what is what and WHY. This is where my ego is identified with the Head center the most and the most 6ish 9 won't have this level of desperation with these heady concerns. Theirs is a different fight at base.

As for types who share both a connected line AND a center of intelligence (Head, Heart, Gut), that complicates things even further. Here I rely most on my readings of the person's body language. I already use body language a great deal, and recently I have upped the ante and intent to make a working model based on this to better identify type, but I see it as essential for myself to differentiate between types that would appear so close together with both the line and the center. My energy is HIGH up around my chest and head, which matches 6 and 5, whereas the 9's find their energetic center between the shoulder blades on the back, making them appear much less stiff and controlled in movement than a type 6. I wasn't privy to this knowledge back when I changed my typing from 9 to 6, but it's good to see my type confirmed and I do wish that I understood this earlier so I wouldn't have felt so betrayed by other people's ideas. It's a work in progress, the body language thing, and some signs and types still prove difficult for me to spot, but at least I know where to look and am able to employ a more objective method to typing, much to my 6w5 ego's relief.

[a2jc4life]

That all makes sense. I think that once you've correctly identified all the pieces of your type, you start to notice and suss out the subtle differences. (I believe I'm a 5-fixed 8, for instance, and I can see some differences between my general application of 5-ish tendencies, and what happens when I'm highly stressed -- although, like you said, they can be a bit difficult to describe.) But it's more difficult to see subtle differences in order to identify all the pieces.

[Qassim]

I personally have been in this situation. Can't elaborate right now, but I initially mistook a connecting point as a fix.

Tritype descriptions were the first hint that I did not have said fix--the tritype did not apply to me at all. Later it became obvious that my emotional patterns don't reflect the presence of this type, nor was it in my values system.

I find that people on forums are too enthusiastic about tritype. I mean, sure, it's a thing. But they often overlook the core mechanics of a type in diagnosing other boardies in favor of "fixes"...eg, a 1w2 uncertain of their type is seen as 2 with a strong 9-fix and a 7-fix (or whatever)...rather than as someone residing between 2 and 9, with a line to 7.

I personally maintain that we shouldn't be looking at tritype to explain our dynamics at all--everything we need is to be found in the core, wings, and connecting points.

Don't get me wrong--I'm still a huge proponent of tritype. I just don't like that it's being used to supersede central parts of the theory, often to the confusion of the typee.

I find that fixes are centers of intelligence. They influence our values systems and outlook on life. We partly perceive life through those filters. They give us a predictable emotional pattern. They're usually not conscious. Your wings will be clicking away in the background of your thoughts all day...the fixes are deeper somehow. And the connecting points are almost more like a "resemblance" to the type--you can look and behave like that type, say things just like it...and yet, it's not really there in any motivational sense when you dig.

That's just how I see it. May not make sense to anyone else.

[a2jc4life]

That all made sense to me. And I think I'm with you on over-reliance on tritype. I feel the same way about intinctual variants and any other form of variation. The core is the core is the core is the core. And if you have to manipulate it with additions to make it fit, it's probably just not right.

Wings and tritype and intinctual variants "flavor" the core, but they shouldn't turn it into something different.

[[redacted]]

I see instinctual variants as more essential though.