As for meaningless conversations, I like to play games with people by asking them seemingly impersonal questions that make them bear their soul to me...that's a way to make meaningful connections with people in social situations without selling out and participating in meaningless chatter.

As for relationships, I think the weakness is more complex. I read somewhere that we may have ridiculous blind spots for understanding ourselves (even though we introspect on some aspects of self obsessively...). It's these blind spots that always seem to mess with my relationships--basically, there's something about myself that I don't get well enough to understand how I'm interacting with the partner. Thus the relationship becomes entirely too complex and taxing (or if it isn't complex enough, I want something different...). I've just always had the sense that I need a little bit of conflict in relationships, mostly as a means for overall improvement, and when things aren't tumultuous I wonder why I'm with someone who doesn't challenge me.

But in sum, I think that the problems in relationships are partially a reflection of some part of ourselves we don't fully understand. We express these parts and don't understand the interactions that take place as a consequence, which leads to general miscommunication and a sense of isolation. Am I ringing any bells here, or is this just me? =)

Melissa

Yeah, I just got dumped by (probably) an INFP and had a very long conversation in which I tried to tease out some REASON why she suddenly lost interest when things were going very well and hot. But there's no explanation (at least not one she's conscious of), and I believe her. It's driving me insane (on top of feeling like I'm going to throw up with the thought of her not in my life).