Bob Dylan – INFP

In this profile we’re going to take a look at Bob Dylan, who is of the INFP type. INFP‘s dominant and most efficient cognitive function is introverted feeling, which assesses information based on how it feels to them.Their secondary process is extraverted intuition, which perceives possibilities and is able to intuitively assess relationships between people, concepts and things in the external world.

INFPs are primarily oriented towards internal alignment, authenticity and how they feel.

What’s money? A man is a success if he gets up in the morning and goes to bed at night and in between does what he wants to do.

INFPs are rarely exceptional technical musicians and are typically more oriented towards creating music with a meaning or message.

I consider myself a poet first and a musician second. I live like a poet and I’ll die like a poet.

As many frustrated journalists found out, Dylan, like many INFPs, prefers to reject labels and to see the world more subjectively.

I define nothing. Not beauty, not patriotism. I take each thing as it is, without prior rules about what it should be.

INFP‘s primary method of perceiving information is through extraverted intuition, which recognizes real-time patterns in the external world. This tends to manifest in exploration, experimentation and uncommon insight. Whether it was spontaneously deciding the night before the Newport Folk Festival in 1965 to hire a band and play an electric set, holding concerts without tickets or singing about change, Bob Dylan has always been about exploring possibilities rather than sticking with the ‘tried and true’.

I’m more of an adventurous type than a relationship type.

Much of what the public sees of Dylan is colored by his contentious relationship with the press whom he seemed to resent for asking him to make categorical statements and buy into his public perception. In their private life, however, INFPs are typically quite easy going. They do tend to have strongly held beliefs, however, and violations of those beliefs are taken very seriously.

They say that patriotism is the last refuge to which a scoundrel clings. Steal a little and they throw you in jail. Steal a lot and then they make you king.

A quick communication tip – If you’re trying to persuade an INFP then logic will only be effective if it’s aligned with their feelings first. Changing their feelings is usually more effective than trying to change their minds.

For more about INFPs: INFP Musicians.