To mold his adult personality, the [IFU] depends heavily uponthe guidance and direction of external events. Initially, he resistsauthority and direction. However, if contact is made and the initialresistance mitigated, the [IFU] is potentially very creative and veryproductive. He is not imitative, nor does he assimilate and applyinstructions in rote fashion.
Since social-interpersonal involvementis no problem for him, he expends little effort finding time forindividual or personalized activity. Initially, he is in danger ofbecoming so autistic and nonresponsive that he risks never makingcontact with reality. The [IFU] is soobviously non-responsive that rarely does he escape pressure todevelop responsiveness. Unlike the [IFA], it is very difficult for the[IFU] to cover his schizoid activity by superficial role playingability, so the pressure tends to be unrelenting and consistent. The[IFU] rarely can make a superficial social-reality adjustment; he mustconstantly prove that he is perceptive, alert and responsive. Once thecontact is established, the curiosity inherent in the [IF] adjustmentwill take over and the [IFU] will actually relate to reality eagerlyand will find considerable psychological satisfaction in hisversatility. Since a great deal of his energy is not dissipated insuperficial social relationships and since he is fairly untroubled byabsence of reciprocal emotional involvements, there is often anexcellent chance that the [IFU] individual will develop extremelyversatile and highly competent interests that have real socialrelevance. Depending upon his background and experience, these may beeither mental-intellectual activities or manual-manipulative ones. Ineither case, the [IFU] is likely to excel because he has to prove hiscompetence before he is let alone.
The [IRU] usually has to be takenstep by step because he learns by imitation and rote, but the [IFU],once he gets started, is capable of considerable imagination andself-sustained inspiration. In other words, he is capable of learningby implication, principle and insight. In fact, one of the primaryproblems of the [IFU] is that he may become so involved in theimplications and subtleties of his interests that he gets lost in hissubject at the expense of other interests. This is not the same as theperseveration of the [IRU], but in many ways the effects are similar.It is often necessary to force the [IFU] to abandon one activity foranother before he has a real sense of closure. As an adult, he isprone to become the highly specialized individual who finds greatpsychological satisfaction in exploring the nuances of his subject.
The maturation rate of the [IFU] is erratic. On the one hand, if hisintellectual curiosity is stimulated, his intellectual maturation maybe very rapid. On the other hand, social maturity for the [IFU] isprobably the slowest of any group. The combination of thepreoccupations of the [IFU], plus his own lack of need ofsocial-interpersonal interaction, plus his relative lack ofimpressionistic attractiveness, results in only slight acquisition ofsocial-interpersonal skills. To a certain extent, the inherentcreativeness and imaginativeness of the productive [IFU] leaves hiscontemporaries and authority figures in awe of his intellectuality orperformance, and they therefore tend to overlook hissocial-interpersonal immaturity. Many odd and unusual individuals comefrom this pattern, because the [IFU] generally is indifferent andinsensitive to involvement with others. This is the pattern of the"absent-minded professor," and "the long-haired intellectual." He isunconventional, not because he is defensive, self-protective ornegativistic, but because he is insulated against the need to be anydifferent. However, it should also be emphasized that since the [IFU]is so indifferent to social convention, he sometimes encountersextreme pressure for modification. Consequently, some [IFU] s becomeextremely fastidious and exact in their social behavior. Some of themost vivid social stereotypes will also come from this group.
The[IFU] begins life as behaviorally a very passive but mentally a veryactive individual. He engages in considerable spontaneous ideationalactivity. His ultimate adjustment is a function of the extent thisspontaneity is channeled and controlled. Although he has little realneed to communicate in the [E] sense, he does have considerable needto symbolize or organize the chaos of his initial mental activity.Also, he has fundamental succor dependency needs that, initially atleast, must be recognized and responded to. The "doll baby" quality ofthe [IFA] is not present in the [IFU]; thus, to a high degree, thecare and treatment of the [IFU] comes from a sense of responsibilityand duty, rather than from love and affection. He never receives thegeneralized pampering of the [IFA], but will frequently come in for aspecific type of pampering.
The task-oriented individual will find the[IFU] very responsive to direction. The same is true of the [IRU],except that the spontaneity and creativity of the [IFU] not onlyembellish and color what he learns, but will also attract theattention and devotion of those who are interested in creativeactivity. The [IRU] tends to reflect faithfully the milieu from whichhe emerges; the [IFU] is less willing to mirror his experience andthus will show more mobility and more individual preference. Forexample, in learning languages, the [IFU] does not have a compellingneed to communicate, but he does have a need to symbolize. If he growsup in an environment rich with vocabulary, he will acquire a richvocabulary. If he grows up in a culture barren in language, he willnot only learn the language required, but will also invent a languageof his own to embody the nuances he feels a need to symbolize. As avery small child, there may be some delay in learning acceptedlanguage forms because his own inventiveness may satisfy hissymbolizing need. If his mother can understand his private languageand gives him the succor dependence he needs, he may be unusually slowin learning standard language forms. Later in life, the highlyintelligent [IFU] may have considerable language or symbolic facility;this pattern produces such specialists as cryptographers andlinguists. The symbolic language of mathematics and science are alsoof particular interest to this group. In more primitive societies, the"strange tongues" of religious ecstatics and mystics may come from[IFU]'s of lower intelligence.
One of the most dramatic examples ofthe difficulties in establishing communications with an [IFU] and anequally dramatic example of the potential for communicating, onceeffective contact is made, is to be found in the life of Helen Keller.
