Basic e*fa* (IcFuUc)

Back to Table of Contents Preface to the 64 Basic Types   What this page is a part of. Interpretative Notes to the 64 Basic Types   Read these before reading any of the types!

Behavioral activity, self-sufficiency or independence, and social-interpersonal aggressiveness are the major characteristics of this adjustment derived from the primitive IFU orientation. Unlike the e*r*a*, [IcFcUc] the e*fa* has a well developed sense of responsibility and, in most instances, can sublimate or displace his primitive emotionality into productive and less personalized channels. Thus, the self-centeredness and stubborn individuality of the e*r*a* [IcFcUc] is not nearly as marked in the e*fa*. The e*fa* tends to be broadly humanitarian and is active in seeking out interpersonal relationships. However, he does not have the individual perceptivity of the efa* [EuFuUc] and is frequently judged to be sentimental, idealistic, and naive rather than truly empathic or discerning. Nevertheless, the e*fa* is oriented toward social responsibility, cultural sensitivity, and ideological consistency. Unlike the e*f*a*, [IcRcUc] the e*fa* will not take ideas and principles on faith; he must understand and believe in order to be effective. Consequently, he has less reliance on authority and convention in determining his attitudes and beliefs. There is a definite element of "free will" or choice in his values.

As a result, the e*fa* is less likely to mirror his sub-cultural milieu than is the e*f*a*; he will seek out and try to gain acceptance to those areas or fields that interest and challenge him. He does not have the conflict of the e*fa, [IcFuAu] who feels very similar but is more prone to conform or adapt to any social milieu in which he is placed even though he may not accept or believe in it. The deceptiveness of the e*fa [IcFuAu] -- the tendency to appear more comfortable and adapted socially than is the case -- is not characteristic of the e*fa*.

This need to search out and identify ideologically or idealistically with a compatible social-ideological environment is the primary drive force of the e*fa*. In this sense, he is individualistic and self-centered. However, he has marked need to rationalize or justify his actions on acceptable intellectual of social-idealistic grounds. Because of this, the e*fa* is usually not satisfied until he can proselyte others to accept and identify with his values and ideals. The e*fa* is a crusader and advocate. Normally, he accepts and attempts to become involved with only those who have attitudes and tastes similar to him. The acceptance anxiety of the e*fa*, then, is dynamically quite different than that of the ef*a*, [EuRcUc] although the superficial overt manifestations may be similar. The e*fa* is "anxious" that his values and beliefs be reciprocated so that he 'does not have to eliminate or change his associations; the er*a* [EuFcUc] is "anxious" that his values and beliefs be acceptable so that his associates do not reject him. The e*fa* tends to be independent of his associations while the ef*a* [EuRcUc] to be dependent on theirs.

While the e*fa* is basically humanitarian by principle, he can often be ruthless in practice. This occurs because he is often more interested in what a person should be than in trying to understand what he is. The productivity of the efa*, [EuFuUc] for example, is often complicated by the fact that his individual empathy makes him more of an apologist than a realist. He becomes confused by the exceptions of individual empathy makes him more of an apologists than a realist. He becomes confused by the exceptions of individual differences and tends to over-react to them. The e*fa*, on the other hand, easily recognizes how social systems, lack of opportunity, and inadequate education may produce inefficient or inadequate people. He feels that if the social system is overhauled, the opportunities provided, the educational system is corrected, those who do not benefit because they are truly inadequate, fundamentally ignorant, and basically lazy. Such people can easily be ignored or eliminated without guilt or anxiety because they are not worthy of existence. Depending on the life experience of the e*fa*, he can be a "busy-body" who is constantly engaged in trying to change the life goals and patterns of others, a competent, creative person who is skilled at finding new and better ways of doing things, or an intensely dedicated idealistic who believes that when the right social order has been created, he is justified in eliminating the misfits and insidious influences.

In general, the e*fa* individual is an ambitious, active, often aggressive, self-sufficient person who, is one form or another, is very much dedicated to change, modification, perfection, and social control. Whatever his political, social, religious, or institutional values, from his point of view, they are precise, well-defined, and fully understood. He not only expects but demands that others accept and identify with his values and beliefs. He is rather easily disillusioned, but is more likely to project against systems -- heretical ideas, the capitalistic system, the education system -- than to become introspective and evaluative. His primary psychological problems occur when he does not have social mobility through which he can find a compatible milieu. When his mobility is blocked, as for example, when boxed in by a caste, feudal, or religious system or social order, by an institutional setting, or by family tradition, he does not accept or understand; he becomes subversive, devious, and sometimes actively revolutionary.