The Apollonian Temperament

Freud proclaimed that a force called Eros drives us all from within. But many centuries earlier Hippocrates believed there to be at least four different types of personalities in which he labeled choleric, phlegmatic, melancholic and sanguine.
This idea that people can have fundamentally different personalities was adopted in this century by Carl Jung. He identified at least sixteen basic personality types and four basic temperaments in people.
In the 1950's Isabel Myers and Katheryn Briggs devised a personality test based on Jung's theories that has become the most widely used personality test to date. It is called the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator.
The Myers-Briggs Type Indicator identifies four basic types of preferences in every person. They are:

· Extraversion (E) versus Introversion (I),

· Intuition (N) versus Sensation (S),

· Thinking (T) versus Feeling (F),

· Perceiving (P) versus Judging (J)

These personality types share four basic temperaments. They are:

· The Dionysian Temperament (ISTP, ESTP, ISFP, ESFP)

· The Epimethean Temperament (ISFJ, ESFJ, ISTJ, ESTJ)

· The Promethean Temperament (INTP, ENTP, INTJ, ENTJ)

· The Apollonian Temperament (INFJ, ENFJ, INFP, ENFP)

The Apollonian Temperament comprises about 12% of the population and includes all of the NF personality types: INFJ, ENFJ, INFP, and ENFP.
NF's must discover themselves and become what they are meant to be. Their search is often circular and therefore perpetual. To find oneself to live a life of significance, to make a difference in the world is what matters the most.
Integrity is a premium virtue for NF's. To be inauthentic or phony is to lose self. Most writers and poets are found in this temperament NF's will get involved in causes. But they may not stay in them unless a deep, lasting significance can be found.
The same is true with relationships. NF's will invest generously in a relationship so long as the other person is responding in kind. They are rarely found in commercial occupations or physical sciences. NF's have an extraordinary ability to accommodate perceptions in others and appear to be whatever someone wants them to be.

David Keirsey & Marilyn Bates - Please Understand Me

NF Apollo

The NF empathy shift