In this essay Peter Goldmark, former publisher of the International Herald Tribune, describes and reacts to the personality type classification he has chosen for President Obama in early 2012 using the Meyers-Briggs Type Indicator: The Myers/Briggs is, “The most widely used tool for understanding personality types….Most philosophers and psychologists have concluded that there are four basic types of human temperament, and for over 2,500 years they’ve described them in surprisingly consistent ways. …these categories are: traditionalists, experiencers, idealists and conceptualizers.” These are the modern labels or equivalents of the following medieval typology:
- phlegmatic—unemotional and of a sluggish temperament
- melancholic—sad or depressed; gloomy or subject to sullenness
- sanguine—cheerful, confident, and passionate
- choleric—easily angered, bad-tempered; showing or expressing anger
Goldmark chooses a description from one of many books written using Meyers/Briggs, in this case the authors Tieger and Barron-Tieger. “It looks to me as if our president is in the “idealist” category, which the authors describe as “on a perpetual search for the meaning of life…often excellent communicators and can be thought of as catalysts for positive change. [Idealists] generate enthusiasm for their ideas and actions. At best, they are charismatic, receptive, and accepting…Sometimes they are too idealistic…not particularly good at disciplining or criticizing others. They value harmony and do not flourish in a competitive or divisive arena.”
From a P-A rather than Goldmark’s P-B perspective we might say that President Obama favors cooperation over competition, compromise over conflict, and compassion over winning.
Getting more deeply into the details of the Myers/Briggs, Goldmark chooses ENFJ from among 16 such four-letter combinations. The letters stand for extraverted, intuitive, feeling and judging. Fans of Simple Reality will notice intuitive and feeling as key words in that type. Our definition of those two words, of course, differs in profound ways from the conventional definitions found in P-B typologies.
The ENFJ sub-group are: “people-lovers; live by their values; energetic and enthusiastic, responsible, conscientious, and persevering; even-tempered and tolerant; good at promoting harmony; good communicators, usually using their expressive gift verbally; conflict avoiders. ENFJs need to keep their eyes open, as well as their hearts.” As we can see ENFJs have a high degree of awareness and probably spend a fair amount of time in the present moment considering that their behavior is controlled by their relatively unconscious false self.
One of the problems facing ENFJs is that they have to deal with the reactions of less conscious and less compassionate people like Peter Goldmark, who proceeds to project his anger and disappointment onto the President as a disappointing other. “You don’t need Myers-Briggs to see that Obama is so detached, so unwilling to defend himself and his causes against partisan obstructionism or raw hatred, that he often appears not to know where the line between useful compromise and meaningless accommodation lies. He treats demagogic opponents in the Tea Party and in Congress with the forbearance a family elder might reserve for fractious relatives.” Which is exactly what they are—fellow members of the “one” human family.
In this case Myers-Briggs was used to rationalize a projection of the author’s false-self afflictive emotions expressed unconsciously and bolstered by the ever-present intellect. It might all sound impressive but it is nothing but the hot-air emanating from the P-B balloon, a release of gas. The political arena is not the best environment to practice response over reaction or to work on our false-self conditioning on the way to Self-realization but if it were, we can see that our current president is doing pretty well considering the fact that he is surrounded by “zombies.”
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References and notes are available for this essay.
Find a much more in-depth discussion in books by Roy Charles Henry:
Where Am I? The First Great Question Concerning the Nature of Reality
Simple Reality: The Key to Serenity and Survival
