Extraverted iNtuitive Thinking Perceiving
by Marina Margaret Heiss
Profile: ENTP
Revision: 1.3
Date of Revision: 15 Oct 97
-------------------------------------------------------------------
"Clever" is the word that perhaps describes ENTPs best. The
professor who juggles half a dozen ideas for research papers and
grant proposals in his mind while giving a highly entertaining
lecture on an abstruse subject is a classic example of the type. So
is the stand-up comedian whose lampoons are not only funny, but
incisively accurate.
ENTPs are usually verbally as well as cerebrally quick, and
generally love to argue--both for its own sake, and to show off
their often-impressive skills. They tend to have a perverse sense
of humor as well, and enjoy playing devil's advocate. They
sometimes confuse, even inadvertently hurt, those who don't
understand or accept the concept of argument as a sport.
ENTPs are as innovative and ingenious at problem-solving as they
are at verbal gymnastics; on occasion, however, they manage to
outsmart themselves. This can take the form of getting found out at
"sharp practice"--ENTPs have been known to cut corners without
regard to the rules if it's expedient -- or simply in the collapse
of an over-ambitious juggling act. Both at work and at home, ENTPs
are very fond of "toys"--physical or intellectual, the more
sophisticated the better. They tend to tire of these quickly,
however, and move on to new ones.
ENTPs are basically optimists, but in spite of this (perhaps
because of it?), they tend to become extremely petulant about small
setbacks and inconveniences. (Major setbacks they tend to regard as
challenges, and tackle with determin- ation.) ENTPs have little
patience with those they consider wrongheaded or unintelligent, and
show little restraint in demonstrating this. However, they do tend
to be extremely genial, if not charming, when not being harassed by
life in general.
In terms of their relationships with others, ENTPs are capable of
bonding very closely and, initially, suddenly, with their loved
ones. Some appear to be deceptively offhand with their nearest and
dearest; others are so demonstrative that they succeed in shocking
co-workers who've only seen their professional side. ENTPs are also
good at acquiring friends who are as clever and entertaining as
they are. Aside from those two areas, ENTPs tend to be oblivious of
the rest of humanity, except as an audience -- good, bad, or
potential.
Some Famous ENTPs:
Alexander the Great
Confederate General J. E. B. Stuart
Sir Walter Raleigh
Fictional:
Mercutio, from Romeo and Juliet
Horace Rumpole, from John Mortimer's Rumpole of the Bailey series
Dorothy L. Sayers's detective Lord Peter Wimsey
-------------------------------------------------------------------
A Functional Analysis
by Joe Butt
Extraverted iNtuition
ENTPS are nothing if not unique. Brave new associations flow freely
from the unconscious into the world of the living. Making,
discovering and developing connections between and among two or
more of anything is virtually automatic. The product of intuition
is merely an icon of process; ENTPs are in the business of change,
improvement, experimentation.
The attraction Extraverted iNtuition has toward the real and
physical amounts to a cosmic non sequitur: theory is drawn to
practice. Such encounters are clearly puzzling. Both parties--the
intuitor and the realist--are aware of a xenic quality in their
meeting, with reactions ranging from recoil to reverie.
Introverted Thinking
Thinking is iNtuition's ready assistant, an embodiment of the sort
of logic found in laws, boards and circuits. Thinking's job is to
lend focus and direction to iNtuition's critical mass. The
temporary habitations of changeling iNtuition are constructed of
Boolean materials from Thinking's storehouse. Ultimately, Thinking
is no match for iNtuition's prodigiousness. Systems lie in various
states of disarray, fragmentary traces of Thinking's feverish
attempts to shadow and undergird the leaps of the dominant
function. One can only suppose that Thinking must continue to work
during REM sleep pulling together iNtuition's brainchildren into
integral wholes.
Extraverted Feeling
To the extent that Feeling is developed, ENTPs extravert Feeling
judgment. As a result, it is not uncommon to find affability and
bonhomie in members of this species. Tertiary functions are
potentially utilitarian. Their limitations appear in their relative
underdevelopment, diminished endurance, and vulnerability. ENTPS
may harness Feeling's good will in areas such as sales, service,
drama, humor and art. ENTP loyalty often runs high and can be
hooked by those the ENTP counts as friends.
Introverted Sensing
Like a tail on the kite of iNtuition, Introverted Sensing
counterweighs these beings drawn to nonconformity and anarchy.
These shadowy sensory forms, so familiar to SJ types, serve as
lodestones which many ENTPs employ Herculean measures to escape.
"Question authority! (then do exactly what it tells you)" sums up
the dilemma in which ENTPs may find themselves by attempting to
best the tarbaby Sensing. Occasionally acknowledging awareness of
norms and abnormality could, in theory, be potentially freeing.
-------------------------------------------------------------------
Additionally, I've noticed that ENTPs...
1. have the need to have areas of expertise/excellence/uniqueness
in which one is second to none. I've never beaten an ENTP at
his/her own game--not in the final analysis. (e.g., just
tonight, my neighbor who is recuperating from an illness
received a call from an ENTP friend offering his special
recipe for tea. The instructions required only the finest
ingredients, a particular brand of orange juice, tea made with
a ball--none of those horrid teabags--..., which will of
course make the best tea of which he himself drinks 50 gallons
each winter!)
2. are of the species intelligensius anarchus.
A Few More Famous ENTPs
U.S. Presidents:
* John Adams, 2nd US president.
Adams appears to have been competing with
Thomas Jefferson to see who would live the
longest. ("Jefferson surv...")
* James A. Garfield
* Rutherford B. Hayes
* Theodore "Teddy" Roosevelt
Thomas Edison
Lewis Carrol (Alice in Wonderland)
Sir Winston Churchill
Julia Child
Suzanne Pleshette
Bill Cosby
Valerie Harper
Tom Hanks
John Candy
John Sununu
Weird Al Yankovick
Marilyn Vos Savant
Alfred Hitchcock
Fictional Characters:
"Q" (Star Trek--The Next Generation)
Bugs Bunny
Wile E. Coyote
Jon Davis's Garfield
Copyright © 1996 by Joe Butt and Marina Margaret Heiss