Let G be a group. An automorphism of G is called intense if it sends each subgroup of G to a conjugate; the collection of such automorphisms is denoted by Int(G). In the special case in which p is a prime number and G is a finite p-group, one can show that Int(G) is the semidirect product of a normal p-Sylow and a cyclic subgroup of order dividing p?1. In this paper we classify the finite p-groups whose groups of intense automorphisms are not themselves p-groups. It emerges from our investigation that the structure of such groups is almost completely determined by their nilpotency class: for p > 3, they share a quotient, growing with their class, with a uniquely determined infinite 2-generated pro-p group.