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The Ecstatic Soul: A New Look at the INFJ Personality
Among the personality types, the INFJ stands out as a genuine mystery. The most intuitive of the intuitives, he looks like a thinker among feelers. Introverts mistake him for an extrovert. Realists mistake him for an idealist. Dreamers think he is too rational, yet the truly rational types see in him an obscure, emotional mystic. He is a prophet for some, an abstract loner for others.
After all these years, the INFJ is still misunderstood. Worse, he does not even understand himself. When he tries to grasp his material body, he loses all sense of the material. When he directs his attention to concepts, he misses the intimacy of sense perception. The metaphysical predicament of the INFJ is that he dwells at the crossing between intuition and sensation, thinking and feeling. Everyone and yet no this is how he experiences himself.
On the surface, the INFJ personality is a paradox. This book attempts to solve the paradox and uncover the true nature of the INFJ, using the method of existential phenomenology. It will be of interest to INFJs, as well as to anyone with an affinity for the work of Carl Jung, philosophy, psychology, and typology-based theories of personality.
Finally, The Ecstatic Soul is the manifesto of Jungian Existentialism, foreshadowing a new movement in personality theory.
After all these years, the INFJ is still misunderstood. Worse, he does not even understand himself. When he tries to grasp his material body, he loses all sense of the material. When he directs his attention to concepts, he misses the intimacy of sense perception. The metaphysical predicament of the INFJ is that he dwells at the crossing between intuition and sensation, thinking and feeling. Everyone and yet no this is how he experiences himself.
On the surface, the INFJ personality is a paradox. This book attempts to solve the paradox and uncover the true nature of the INFJ, using the method of existential phenomenology. It will be of interest to INFJs, as well as to anyone with an affinity for the work of Carl Jung, philosophy, psychology, and typology-based theories of personality.
Finally, The Ecstatic Soul is the manifesto of Jungian Existentialism, foreshadowing a new movement in personality theory.
- GenresPhilosophyPsychology
134 pages, Paperback
Published September 15, 2021
38 people are currently reading
143 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 10 of 10 reviews
May 30, 2022
Appreciated this look at the INFJ personality. Lovely insights, although the author recognize is multiple times it's primarily speculative. Recommended!
April 21, 2024
Very interesting. A lot of generalizations but it was a speculative essay. I appreciated his insights into the existential alienation of the INFJ and the position of “haziness” because of Fe only being able to indirectly appropriate the external world not through objects (like Te of INTJs) but of other peoples (protean and capricious subject-objects, I.e. other human beings). The way out of this predicament is through engagement with other people either directly or indirectly (abstractly through universalizing the Fe, think Dostoyevsky’s novels).
Thus the Ni insights are viewed as prescience and are communicated not in fear but in curiosity knowing that other people must be involved in the collaborative process. The fear of having the intuitive insights rejected is always present and makes many INFJs retreat or stay isolated, but any engagement means that they are taking seriously, albeit critically if rejected, which presupposes meaning and validity. The INFJ must view this process, namely, communicating his Ni’s insights to the world, as his vocation. He thereby overcomes existential alienation. This is also the way that he redeems his body from disassociation, estrangement and overcomes mind-body dualism. His functionalist theory of the cognitive functions was also very interesting. Categorizing them by gathering, processing, deliberating, and justificatory.
Good insights. Learning a lot about myself. His speculation into what a vocational INFJ monistic philosophy would look like fits well with Friedrich Schelling’s transcendental idealism and philosophy of nature (nature as actants, productive intuition, purposive I.e. “existentially open”). It’s the rise of consciousness, its birth, growth, and actualization. This is much better than Hegel. Moreover Schelling’s use of myth in his later philosophy of mythology can be reconciled with Jung’s use of archetype. More people need to read Schelling.
Brent
Thus the Ni insights are viewed as prescience and are communicated not in fear but in curiosity knowing that other people must be involved in the collaborative process. The fear of having the intuitive insights rejected is always present and makes many INFJs retreat or stay isolated, but any engagement means that they are taking seriously, albeit critically if rejected, which presupposes meaning and validity. The INFJ must view this process, namely, communicating his Ni’s insights to the world, as his vocation. He thereby overcomes existential alienation. This is also the way that he redeems his body from disassociation, estrangement and overcomes mind-body dualism. His functionalist theory of the cognitive functions was also very interesting. Categorizing them by gathering, processing, deliberating, and justificatory.
Good insights. Learning a lot about myself. His speculation into what a vocational INFJ monistic philosophy would look like fits well with Friedrich Schelling’s transcendental idealism and philosophy of nature (nature as actants, productive intuition, purposive I.e. “existentially open”). It’s the rise of consciousness, its birth, growth, and actualization. This is much better than Hegel. Moreover Schelling’s use of myth in his later philosophy of mythology can be reconciled with Jung’s use of archetype. More people need to read Schelling.
Brent
March 14, 2022
I was interested in this because I’m an INFJ & I read it quite quickly, which for me it allowed via a conversational style which belied (& elucidated) the intellectual content. Also, because I’d already got a sense of the cognitive functions of the INFJ (& their centrality to understanding any of the 16 personality types) I was just about able to keep up with most of what was said… but in places it was a bit beyond me too!
I felt seen somehow though & loved the idea of moving from ‘alienation-haziness-anxiety-disembodiment’ (all of which I can see in myself at least at certain times in my life, if not now) to ‘world reaching-clarity-vocation-embodiment’. I recognised how I get stuck in the Ni-Ti loop & liked the idea if a collaborative attitude as a way through it. It might bear reading again for me to properly digest it all!
I felt seen somehow though & loved the idea of moving from ‘alienation-haziness-anxiety-disembodiment’ (all of which I can see in myself at least at certain times in my life, if not now) to ‘world reaching-clarity-vocation-embodiment’. I recognised how I get stuck in the Ni-Ti loop & liked the idea if a collaborative attitude as a way through it. It might bear reading again for me to properly digest it all!
October 31, 2022
2,5 stars
I’ll be honest, I don’t know what to think of this book.
I’ve read plenty of information about INFJs, mainly to try to understand myself better (assuming that the subject of personality typing is relevant at all). Other books that I’ve read were in general full of the usual cliches about INFJ (the «mystic») that feel caricatural.
This book certainly has a more scientific and philosophical approach and a more serious tone.
But it is very VERY abstract and theoretic. It feels academic. It has some interesting reflexions but I’m not sure if what I’ve read has any relevance at all. By that I mean that I understand his reasoning but it’s difficult to grasp any practical application (like his theory about alienation from the outside world and how an INFJ can’t realize on his own how he is separate from objects or other people).
More concrete examples wouldn’t have hurt because it’s very difficult to understand how what the author says/theorize could translate in everyday life. By the way, the author admits towards the end that he didn’t feel the need to provide exemples because his work is a speculative essay.
The book is rather short and that’s a good thing because it’s not an easy read.
It left me with a mixed impression. Whether you like it or not will depend on what kind of information you research about INFJs. You have to be aware that this is a theoretic work so to not have misplaced expectations (like I probably had).
That said, the advantage is that the author undeniably has a different approach than any other book on this subject.
I’ll be honest, I don’t know what to think of this book.
I’ve read plenty of information about INFJs, mainly to try to understand myself better (assuming that the subject of personality typing is relevant at all). Other books that I’ve read were in general full of the usual cliches about INFJ (the «mystic») that feel caricatural.
This book certainly has a more scientific and philosophical approach and a more serious tone.
But it is very VERY abstract and theoretic. It feels academic. It has some interesting reflexions but I’m not sure if what I’ve read has any relevance at all. By that I mean that I understand his reasoning but it’s difficult to grasp any practical application (like his theory about alienation from the outside world and how an INFJ can’t realize on his own how he is separate from objects or other people).
More concrete examples wouldn’t have hurt because it’s very difficult to understand how what the author says/theorize could translate in everyday life. By the way, the author admits towards the end that he didn’t feel the need to provide exemples because his work is a speculative essay.
The book is rather short and that’s a good thing because it’s not an easy read.
It left me with a mixed impression. Whether you like it or not will depend on what kind of information you research about INFJs. You have to be aware that this is a theoretic work so to not have misplaced expectations (like I probably had).
That said, the advantage is that the author undeniably has a different approach than any other book on this subject.
May 16, 2023
TW: Chapter 5 deals with ideas of suicide.
I have mixed feelings about this book. While I think Contini has some insightful and perhaps likely ideas about the INFJ, ultimately this book is a thought experiment with little to back up his ideas. This isn’t necessarily a bad thing—Contini, in fact, addresses this issue and his choice of approach, which I think is smart—but I’m afraid an unhealthy INFJ might pick up this book and walk away with some unproductive and futile ideas about the INFJ mind. The end is hopeful but only if you make it to through the highly abstract reasoning, which may be difficult for an INFJ struggling to find his or her place in the world and make sense of why they don’t fit. These are often emotionally charged questions in reality with real life consequences, making Contini’s detached reasoning hard to swallow at times. Ultimately, I think this book has a particular audience, and that audience may not be the average INFJ looking for personal insight, but instead a psychologist or researcher looking for a new approach to MBTI theory with more emotional distance from the material. Still, I applaud Contini’s interdisciplinary approach and for undertaking this worthwhile endeavor. I think overall this is a beneficial contribution to type theory.
I have mixed feelings about this book. While I think Contini has some insightful and perhaps likely ideas about the INFJ, ultimately this book is a thought experiment with little to back up his ideas. This isn’t necessarily a bad thing—Contini, in fact, addresses this issue and his choice of approach, which I think is smart—but I’m afraid an unhealthy INFJ might pick up this book and walk away with some unproductive and futile ideas about the INFJ mind. The end is hopeful but only if you make it to through the highly abstract reasoning, which may be difficult for an INFJ struggling to find his or her place in the world and make sense of why they don’t fit. These are often emotionally charged questions in reality with real life consequences, making Contini’s detached reasoning hard to swallow at times. Ultimately, I think this book has a particular audience, and that audience may not be the average INFJ looking for personal insight, but instead a psychologist or researcher looking for a new approach to MBTI theory with more emotional distance from the material. Still, I applaud Contini’s interdisciplinary approach and for undertaking this worthwhile endeavor. I think overall this is a beneficial contribution to type theory.
February 25, 2025
This is an unusual book in its scope and reasoning. I consider myself reasonably well-read in philosophical matters, yet Contini’s particular brand of 'existential phenomenology' strikes me as distinctly idiosyncratic. By adopting that moniker, he naturally aligns himself with thinkers like Heidegger and Merleau-Ponty. However, I find relatively little substantive overlap with that lineage.
Instead, the book’s Jungian antecedents are far more evident. What surprises me, though, is the analytical tenor of Contini’s argument, which feels somewhat at odds with the more associative and symbolic nature of Jungian thought. Contini presents himself as an engineer of the human soul - or more precisely, of a specific subset of human souls: those associated with the INFJ personality type (which, according to various online and offline tests, I also seem to have a stable affiliation with).
The book begins on an odd note. On the very first page, Contini announces that he will “proceed on the assumption that the reader has sufficient familiarity with the cognitive function stack of the INFJ.” Given his clear pedagogical zeal elsewhere in the book, this omission seems puzzling. A concise, two-page primer on the four cognitive functions would have been both straightforward and helpful. Instead, the reader is forced to look up this foundational information elsewhere. It's a minor quibble and fortunately there are ample online sources, but the absence is nonetheless striking.
What follows is a highly speculative - yet undeniably fascinating - attempt to reconstruct the foundational patterns of the INFJ’s experience of the world, along with the more or less helpful strategies typically deployed to navigate its idiosyncrasies. I won’t be the first INTJ reader to recognise an uncanny resonance between Contini’s speculations and my own lived experience. But unlike a merely anecdotal fit, I amassed deep and extensive evidence to substantiate this observation.
My fundamental life projects and preoccupations resonate strongly with the INFJ’s quest to resolve a deep-seated sense of alienation. For decades, in my professional capacity as a facilitator, I have immersed myself in, elaborated upon, and operationalised theories of social learning - which, I suspect, is precisely what Contini means when he foregrounds communication-as-collaboration as the INTJ’s path to achieving world-reaching, clarity and vocation. Likewise, I recognise the trajectory toward an 'open monism' as a central theme in my inquiries, including my doctoral research in recent years. It feels like a return to the twilight intuitions of my 'romantic' adolescence - except now in a far more analytical and actionable form.
That said, I must also acknowledge the less helpful cognitive patterns Contini describes: the occasional Ni-Ti looping, the dismissive mode of prescience, and the struggles with embodiment, all of which are uncomfortably recognisable aspects of my own consciousness. One dimension the author may have overlooked, however, is the foundational tension between puerile and senescent elements in the INFJ’s psychological makeup (à la James Hillman). While Contini does highlight its childlike Ti persona, this broader dynamic remains underexplored.
Ultimately, I found Contini’s speculations very illuminating - a generative platform for unfolding an exploratory 'practice of imagination' both to expand and refine these insights and to enact them in ways that feel personally meaningful.
Instead, the book’s Jungian antecedents are far more evident. What surprises me, though, is the analytical tenor of Contini’s argument, which feels somewhat at odds with the more associative and symbolic nature of Jungian thought. Contini presents himself as an engineer of the human soul - or more precisely, of a specific subset of human souls: those associated with the INFJ personality type (which, according to various online and offline tests, I also seem to have a stable affiliation with).
The book begins on an odd note. On the very first page, Contini announces that he will “proceed on the assumption that the reader has sufficient familiarity with the cognitive function stack of the INFJ.” Given his clear pedagogical zeal elsewhere in the book, this omission seems puzzling. A concise, two-page primer on the four cognitive functions would have been both straightforward and helpful. Instead, the reader is forced to look up this foundational information elsewhere. It's a minor quibble and fortunately there are ample online sources, but the absence is nonetheless striking.
What follows is a highly speculative - yet undeniably fascinating - attempt to reconstruct the foundational patterns of the INFJ’s experience of the world, along with the more or less helpful strategies typically deployed to navigate its idiosyncrasies. I won’t be the first INTJ reader to recognise an uncanny resonance between Contini’s speculations and my own lived experience. But unlike a merely anecdotal fit, I amassed deep and extensive evidence to substantiate this observation.
My fundamental life projects and preoccupations resonate strongly with the INFJ’s quest to resolve a deep-seated sense of alienation. For decades, in my professional capacity as a facilitator, I have immersed myself in, elaborated upon, and operationalised theories of social learning - which, I suspect, is precisely what Contini means when he foregrounds communication-as-collaboration as the INTJ’s path to achieving world-reaching, clarity and vocation. Likewise, I recognise the trajectory toward an 'open monism' as a central theme in my inquiries, including my doctoral research in recent years. It feels like a return to the twilight intuitions of my 'romantic' adolescence - except now in a far more analytical and actionable form.
That said, I must also acknowledge the less helpful cognitive patterns Contini describes: the occasional Ni-Ti looping, the dismissive mode of prescience, and the struggles with embodiment, all of which are uncomfortably recognisable aspects of my own consciousness. One dimension the author may have overlooked, however, is the foundational tension between puerile and senescent elements in the INFJ’s psychological makeup (à la James Hillman). While Contini does highlight its childlike Ti persona, this broader dynamic remains underexplored.
Ultimately, I found Contini’s speculations very illuminating - a generative platform for unfolding an exploratory 'practice of imagination' both to expand and refine these insights and to enact them in ways that feel personally meaningful.
January 7, 2023
If you’re an INFJ and are interested in understanding your condition and the associated struggles it brings, then read this book.
If you’re not familiar with the INFJ function stack it would help to do some research on this first.
The book is a speculative (aren’t all works on MBTI?) and presents a new way of framing the conditions an INFJ finds themselves in. Calling on deep abstract ideas, the book develops an idea of the circumstances that cause a sense of isolation, and a way to address this, by re-connecting with the world of people.
The book is well written, the arguments presented in easy an accessible way, and it delivers an important new way of approaching the problems all INFJs face.
We’ll worth a read and some serious consideration of the arguments presented.
Also, be sure to check out the authors YouTube channel, where he presents more of his thoughts and experiences of being an INFJ: https://m.youtube.com/@RensRoom
If you’re not familiar with the INFJ function stack it would help to do some research on this first.
The book is a speculative (aren’t all works on MBTI?) and presents a new way of framing the conditions an INFJ finds themselves in. Calling on deep abstract ideas, the book develops an idea of the circumstances that cause a sense of isolation, and a way to address this, by re-connecting with the world of people.
The book is well written, the arguments presented in easy an accessible way, and it delivers an important new way of approaching the problems all INFJs face.
We’ll worth a read and some serious consideration of the arguments presented.
Also, be sure to check out the authors YouTube channel, where he presents more of his thoughts and experiences of being an INFJ: https://m.youtube.com/@RensRoom
December 18, 2023
Fascinating and unique insight into the INFJ’s consciousness. It put into words what I intuitively knew about this personality type… I recommend it to everyone who is interested in the INFJ, but especially to INFJs themselves.
May 17, 2024
Tedious. If you are not an academic, already well versed in Jung, Kierkegaard, Heidegger, AND INFJ, skip this. This does not feel like a book. It feels like a thesis written for academic psychology professors. There are tidbits that can be gleaned from the extremely verbose jargon pile of words. But if you're an INFJ, they're not new pieces of information.
The author makes so many assumptions, not even defining the INFJ abbreviation. He doesn't define Latin phrases. I felt like I was in an upper division psych class reading a tedious text. So many references are made that are not needed in a non-academic text.
This read was not worth my time & mental focus required to decipher what the author was rambling about. Felt self-indulgent & so pretentious. I thought about offering it to my very academic friend, with a degree in philosophy, until I realized there wasn't much of value for him in here that he didn't already know.
The author makes so many assumptions, not even defining the INFJ abbreviation. He doesn't define Latin phrases. I felt like I was in an upper division psych class reading a tedious text. So many references are made that are not needed in a non-academic text.
This read was not worth my time & mental focus required to decipher what the author was rambling about. Felt self-indulgent & so pretentious. I thought about offering it to my very academic friend, with a degree in philosophy, until I realized there wasn't much of value for him in here that he didn't already know.
May 31, 2025
Ecstatic Soul has crystallized so many of my personal understandings of myself and my path into a social understanding shared with other INFJs, giving me hope I've never truly had before, that it is possible to find easy unforced understanding with really a rather large, albeit elusive group of beings. It is not only written by an INFJ, it is written through our favored lens, metaphysics, and honors the INFJ tradition of taking a subject, in this case ourselves, and connecting it into a wider and wider context and ultimately All. That gives me such a depth of trust for Renaud as an INFJ scholar, certainly enough to leap into the sequel, Infinite Soul.
Displaying 1 - 10 of 10 reviews