Analytic extraverted Feeling (Fe-A) aka The Shepherd in Relationships

Extraverted Feeling is the dominant function for ENFJ and ESFJ types. According to recent research by Dr. Dario Nardi, it can show up in two flavors. This post outlines the analytic extraverted Feeling version.

We’ll go from the broad to the specific, starting with the function, Feeling, and then the function attitude extraverted Feeling, then the flavor, analytic extraverted Feeling, and finally how it shows up in relationships.

This is post # 13 in a series of 16. If you’re following the series, you will note there’s some repetition, but in case this is the one and only post you follow, I want you to have all the information. So feel free to jump ahead.

My main references for this post are Carl Gustav Jung and Dr. Dario Nardi. Jung was a Swiss Psychiatrist who published his theory of psychological types in 1921, and Dario is a prolific researcher and author. He found evidence of psychological types in the neuroscience data captured by EEG assessments he’s been doing with people from all walks of life since 2006.

And in case we haven’t met, I’m Doris Füllgrabe, a certified coach with a masters in applied psychology, and I help people create happier, healthier relationships.

A few caveats before we begin, just to manage expectations and again in case this is the only post you follow:

1, these posts describe the functions in their purest state. Functions rarely show up in their purest state, as they interact with other functions and your brain is really active doing multiple things at any given time, like it’s regulating your body temperature and heart rate right now. So, you may not resonate with 100% of the description of this function 100% of the time, and that is normal.

2, these posts describe the function for this function type. You may not be this particular function type, which means this function may not be at the top or dominant in your consciousness. That’s ok, too, because it’s still in your system, you still have access to it, and paying attention to this function may help you recognize when it pops up out of your subconscious, so you can practice integrating it consciously. That will give you better control over it and you can reap its benefits.

The Feeling function is one of the two rational judging functions.

Rational, because it involves reasoning i.e. a process of reflection, and judging because it’s about making decisions.

The Feeling function helps us recognize shared values, consider other people’s feelings, and connect on personal levels.

It makes us empathic, merciful, and curious about human relationships.

It is adept at interpreting body language and tone of voice, committed to social and interpersonal responsibilities, but also relies on consensus and morality.

Dr. Linda Berens describes it this way:

“Feeling is a process of making evaluations based on what is important, where personal, interpersonal or universal values serve as guideposts. Using the cognitive process of Feeling, we engage personally with the information to decide according to the impact on people, appropriateness, harmony, likes, and dislikes. Weighing different values, considering ethical and moral issues, attending to personal and relationship goals, and having a belief in something all involve Feeling judgments.”

Moving on to the function attitude, extraverted Feeling, which is the dominant function for ESFJ and ENFJ.

What follows are Jung’s words, and his language from 100 years ago is a little different from how we speak today. He’s quite male-centric, so uses he/him when describing all functions that aren’t Feeling types. He also uses the word “object” to describe anything and anyone outside of you, and “subject” to describe yourself, you, the person.

Jung starts his chapter on Feeling types by saying it’s “undeniably a more obvious characteristic of feminine psychology than thinking”, and to my knowledge that might still bear out. When I did my MBTI certification (in 2010-ish) I remember hearing a statistic that 75% of men had thinking preferences and 75% of women had feeling preferences, although honestly, I’d love to take another look at more recent figures now that the public discourse about socializing girls and boys in the gender binary has evolved a little.

Jung also says that

“extraverted feeling is always in harmony with objective values, it has detached itself as much as possible from the subjective factor and subordinates itself entirely to the influence of the object, or traditional and generally accepted values and standards.”

Again, Jung using “object” in the sense of anything external to the individual, and “subject” as anything internal to the individual. The example he gives is that a feeling type might say a piece of art is “beautiful” because it would be impolite to criticize it. This doesn’t make the value judgment a lie, but it is an act of adjustment towards the greater good or harmony.

Jung continues:

“Without extraverted Feeling, a harmonious social life would be impossible. The woman of this type follows her feeling as a guide throughout life. As a result of upbringing her feeling has developed into an adjusted function subject to conscious control. Except in extreme cases, her feeling has a personal quality, even though she may have repressed the subjective factor to a large extent. Her personality appears adjusted in relation to external conditions.”

Again, men can have dominant extraverted Feeling preferences as well.

When overdone, extraverted Feeling

“may satisfy aesthetic expectations, but it does not speak to the heart; It has become sterile.” and “having lost all human warmth; it gives the impression of being put on, fickle, unreliable, and in the worst cases hysterical.”

The sad paradox is that the extraverted feeling type wants to establish connection and harmonize with their surroundings, so they might double down on fake exaggerations and estrange others even more.

Since someone’s feeling values harmonize with objective situations, Jung says

“this is seen nowhere more clearly than in her love choice: the suitable man is loved, and no one else; he is suitable not because he appeals to her hidden subjective nature, about which she actually knows nothing — but because he comes up to all reasonable expectations in the matter of age, position, income, size and respectability of his family, etc.”

Jung admits this sounds cynical, so he adds that he is “fully convinced that the love feeling of this type is in perfect accord with her choice”, so it’s not just endured or calculated, but genuine. He adds,

“There are countless reasonable marriages of this kind and they are by no means the worst. These women are good companions and excellent mothers so long as the husbands and children are blessed with the conventional psychic constitution.”

So much for the function and the function attitude, now we’re moving into the analytic flavor.

• The analytic flavor is focused on a goal, it filters out distractions, and it looks like clarity and confidence.
• That’s not to say it’s simplistic, it considers the complexities of a situation and includes relevant variables.
• Its approach is top-down, so it’s driving the situation with a point in mind.
• People with this style like to solve problems quickly using familiar tools, and can be unaware of their own biases.
• It’s often more visual.
• It pays attention to what is being said, like facts, figures, rules, methods, and labels.
• Thinking is often literal to the specific context, and they often describe using analogies.
• In business, it’s more comfortable with hierarchy, defined roles and leadership.
• Likely careers for those with an analytical style include business, engineering, finance, law, the military, hard sciences and tech.

Dario calls the analytic extraverted Feeling Type the Shepherd.

They’re the ones who announce values and prescribe the best actions, so there’s a lot of “should’-ing in their vocabulary and strong opinions on what is appropriate.

Shepherds also in that literal sense encourage people who’ve left the group to rejoin again, which Dario calls “corralling the outliers”. It’s about making everyone aware of what the rules are so everyone can behave accordingly for their own good and the good of the group.

Relationships and connections are very important to extraverted Feeling types, and the Shepherd will actively work to fix relationship issues.

These types are often inspiring speakers and leaders, and they’re willing to make sacrifices for the greater good. Because their underlying belief is that in coming together, compromising, cooperating, and aligning with the best-for-everyone values — any and all problems can be solved, they likely expect sacrifices from others as well.

Caveats for the relationship information:

I want to clarify that all types can and do have relationships with all other types. Just like you wouldn’t hire an employee based on their type, you shouldn’t choose a partner solely based on their type either, because yes, it explains a lot, but people are much more complex than that. Still, type is the best framework I know to understand, and then bridge our differences, no matter who you’re with.

Also, to my knowledge, there is no reliable statistical research into people’s types and sexual preferences as yet, so what I suggest may or may not resonate. However, if you’d like to take part in such research, please email me.

in dating

you might meet shepherds at social justice rallies, or at a mutual friend’s party. You probably think they’re flirting with you when actually they’re just being their usual open friendly self. These types enjoy meeting new people, smiling, laughing, chatting away — it doesn’t necessarily mean they’re romantically interested. However, if they are, they’re likely to be fun and engaging, possibly touchy-feely, very much interested in learning everything about you, and not just the superficial stuff. These types will likely want to “figure you out”, because if they understand you better, they can take care of you and love you better.

in mating

Generally, sex is considered a great way to connect with your partner, so they’re likely to have a rich and fulfilling intimate life. They might be willing to try new stuff if you say it’s important to you.

However, young shepherds who grew up in mononormative and heteronormative societies may well cling to traditional ideas about sex, when you should have it, how many partners are too many, or which position is too naughty. Over time, they might relax the rules and norms as they get to know people who do things differently, and expand their values to include others. Or if they’re one-sided, they become more rigid in their insisting on one particular moralistic view. It really depends on the diversity of people they’re exposed to, because again, these types take their cues from their group and community.

in relating

as partners, these types will be loving and supportive, happily telling you what you should be doing to live your best life. Incidentally, this is also a great reflection back on them. They usually come with a large number of friends and acquaintances, they’re probably members of many clubs or societies, so there’s always someone to entertain or an event to go to.

Extraverted feeling types are very sensitive to criticism and tend to take things personally. Although they value harmony in general, they will fight you over what they feel is the right way. Dario describes it as “remaining the same in terms of values and behaviors. Their agenda is clear to all, and in general they are far more talkative, even taking the soapbox.” Since they think about their feelings and their reasons for sticking to certain values are based on supposedly universal appeal to the group, they can might even look like thinking types.

You can support them by using positive and encouraging language, and remember they always mean very well. follow out for emotional manipulation though; since they know you to your core, an immature version of this type might try and use your vulnerabilities against you.

Again, this information is meant as an overview of the function and its flavor, it cannot describe all the nuances and individual idiosyncrasies — but I hope you now have a better idea.

If you think you are an analytic extraverted Feeling type, or have a partner of that type, I’d love to hear from you!

In addition to my own experiences and interpretations, these are the resources I quote and/or reference:

Berens, L. V. and Nardi, D. (2004) Understanding Yourself and Others, An Introduction to the Personality Type Code, p.11 https://amzn.to/3Glt53J

Jones, J. H. and Sherman, R. G. (2011) Intimacy and Type, p. 33 https://amzn.to/47NHe5k

Jung, C. G. (1976 edition) Psychological Types (The Collected Works), p.368ff https://amzn.to/46CJGuy

Nardi, D. (2023) Decode Your Personality — Go Beyond Myers-Briggs With 64 Brain-Based Subtypes, p. 345ff https://amzn.to/3GoU6mL

Thomson, L. (1998) Personality Type, An Owners Manual, p. 39ff https://amzn.to/4a3mxEy

Originally published at https://www.dorisfullgrabe.com on December 25, 2024.