Humanitarian Socionics

Mirror relations - Intertype relations in Humanitarian Socionics

Mirror relationships get their name from the fact that the words of one person are reflected, as in a mirror, in the actions of the other. What one of the "mirror people" likes to talk about, the other unconsciously realizes by behavior. However, such a realization is never 100% complete. The mirror turns out to be curved, since everyone corrects their actions based on completely different norms of behavior than the partner. For this reason, there is confusion, and sometimes claims to each other. Everyone strives to correct the behavior of the partner, but such attempts at re-education have no chance of success.

On the other hand, if we take into account the purely verbal side of communication, mirror relations can be called relations of constructive criticism. The fact is that in a mirror pair, both partners are always either theorists or practitioners. Therefore, they will always have common topics for conversations and discussions. Moreover, everyone sees only 50% of the same problem, so it is always interesting to see what the "speculator" thinks about the same issue. As a result of joint work, there is a mutual correction and clarification. Criticism is almost always constructive, since it can actually be taken into account.

Mirror relationships are well suited for friendships based on shared interests and hobbies. Mirror people are often good friends; they are interested in working together, although there is a lack of complete frankness and warmth in communication. A truly warm atmosphere arises only when the dual of one of them appears, which is necessarily the activator of the other. Subtypes have a pretty strong effect on mirror relationships. If one of them has enhanced rationality, then the stability of the mirror pair requires a partner with enhanced irrationality. In the opposite case, they do much worse, and working together is difficult due to the large difference in pace. For family life, mirror relationships are undesirable: small goals for partners coincide, but global, far-reaching ones do not. The ways to achieve the goal are also different. This is based on the same discrepancy between the first functions — rationality and irrationality.