First function
❚ All abbreviated characteristics of the First function: "hammer", Result-oriented, Overabundant, Monologue-oriented, Rigid, Rough, Cautious, Confident, Independent.
1❚ The first function is the strongest side of us and our gift to ourselves.
2❚ It’s the most important and most reliable tool for perceiving the surrounding world, through the prism of which a person always begins to analyze the picture that opens before him.
3❚ It's a “hammer”, equally suitable for destruction and for creation. However, this is precisely a hammer with all the conveniences and inconveniences arising from this circumstance, a blacksmith's hammer, and not a jeweler's hammer. The products created by him do not differ in the fineness of the finish, they are rough, simple and focused more on reliability than on beauty.
4❚ People perceive information from this function as the most reliable.
• On an epistemological basis, the First clearly divides humanity into four unequal parts: sensualists (1st Physics), voluntarists (1st Will), mystics (1st Emotion), rationalists (1st Logic). Sensualists believe only in personal experience, mystics only in emotional worries, voluntarists only in personal energy, rationalists only in logic.
• The illusion of absolute reliability of the knowledge obtained with the help of the 1st function, among other things, well explains such an amazing phenomenon for our enlightened age as the mass fascination with magic, astrology and similar superstitions. The casket opens simply: all these mass believers in mysticism are emotionals (1E). Therefore, rationalists (1L) can continue even walking on their heads, trying to prove the inconsistency of the superstitions. Useless. For the 1st Emotion, a black cat on the road will always be more reliable than all the arguments of reason.
5❚ It's a function we quite unconsciously put it on the table as our trump card in unknown situations.
• For example, the owner of 1F, going to a meeting with a stranger, first (again, I emphasize - quite unconsciously) will think about whether their cleavage is deep enough, and only then about the content of the conversation, their role in it, etc. Whereas the owner of 1L will first think about the topic of the conversation, and then they will take care of their appearance...
6❚ The First function is the pillar of the personality, the foundation on which the bungalow of the human psyche, shaken by all winds, rests. However, there is a hidden and dangerous flaw in this superpower and fortress of the First. It’s not flexible. Therefore, strikes against the First function are very painful.
And human nature, apparently, is aware, or rather, “subconscious” of the dangerous lack of flexibility in the First function, since, despite the self-confidence of the First, it usually does not hurry to put itself to a test in a doubtful situation, doesn't matter what we mean by a test: a fight or a dispute.
7❚ The main feature of this function is its OVERABUNDANCE.
• If we feel that nature has endowed us with something not just enough, but even with some excess, then we can say with confidence that this is the First function.
8❚ Due to the overabundance of this function it can be used to the point of overindulgence.
• “Although a person usually amuses and cherishes his First Function, a feeling of some kind of trouble and even ugliness of the First Function doesn’t leave them, and especially other people around them.” (the result of overabundance)
9❚ It's oriented to Results, merciless in front of its opponents (if it has any), does not tolerate compromise and demands absolute victory if it got in a fight with someone.
• The 1st Physics beats the opponent, if not to death, then to complete blackout, the 1st Will achieves undivided power, absolute leadership, the 1st Logic in discussions owns only one truth - its own and, proving it, does not stop until it defeats the opponent on all points, the 1st Emotion screams, until it stuns and silences the enemy.
(editor's note: take this description with a grain of salt, it's low-key exaggerated and Afanasyev later writes how 1Ls are untalkative (+ I don't see this behavior in 1L2V) and not all 1Vs care about power.)
10❚ If the First function actually shares something with someone, it always happens only from the excess of the result that was obtained alone by the person, and, secondly, not because of the internal needs of the First function itself, but under the pressure of lower Process-oriented functions.
11❚ Selfishness, orientation to monologue, vulnerability, cruelty and roughness of the First make it the most significant and bright, but not the best side of human nature.