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school she attended. Besides this, she wrote poetry—romantic poetry—about her future husband,
but reportedly did not date much. (Fantasizing about one's true love in poems, but not actually
pursuing numerous relationships screams INF.) She was good at English Lit, an NF favorite, but
weak in Algebra, an NT favorite.
Monk's incredible ability to make instant connections between widely separated details came out
unexpectedly when it came to his wife. After her death, he was walking down the street when he
noticed something significant—he couldn't figure out what—about a woman he had never met
before. It was only later that he realized what had struck him about her. Trudy was an organ donor,
and when she died, her corneas were implanted into the other woman. The stranger actually had
Trudy's eyes. Monk could recognize them anywhere.
Monk grieving process offers another window into the INTJ psyche. He talked to his wife as
though she were still alive, and frequently imagined scenes of his old life with her. INTs have an
excellent imagination, and when they are in love they can play out long, vivid scenes about dates or
intimate encounters with their beloved. 283 In Monk's case, he continued to vividly remember his life
with Trudy.
Intuitives, with their penchant for abstract thinking, find it easier to imagine that their beloved is
still around, but perhaps located on a different plane of existence. 284 Trudy, who was probably also
an intuitive, understood this way of looking at death; her last words were "bread and butter," a sort
of in-joke between her and her husband which indicated that though they might be apart
temporarily, they were not actually gone from each other forever.
Less characteristic of the intuitive preference is Monk's habit of hanging onto all kinds of large and
small mementos of his wife; for instance, a key ring, a Christmas present, etc., that reminded him of
her. Keeping around the possessions of the deceased is more of a sensor trait.
Sharona, the ESTP Foil
One of the interesting things about characters is that they tend to come equipped with an ESP
sidekick who serves as a foil. All of the INTJ detectives I have profiled have had an SP partner, and
ESTPs were particularly favored. (This includes two more INTJ detectives who I did not list here.
If you're curious, check out A.J. Simon, an INTJ private detective from the show Simon & Simon,
and Jupiter Jones, the INTJ leader of a boy's detective club from The Three Investigators series.)
Naturally, we are curious why all these ESPs (and particularly ESTPs) keep popping up. It can't be
a coincidence, can it? The answer to this question lies in the concept of "foils." A foil is a character
who has a nature opposite that of the hero. The foil serves several purposes: to make the hero's
personality stand out more; to balance the hero's strengths; and to compensate for the hero's
weaknesses. In this case, the letters ESP compliment and compensate for the letters INJ. But why
ESTPs, then? Shouldn't the ideal INTJ foil be an ESFP?
If I had to guess, I'd say that ESFPs are considered a little too "soft" to handle a TJIN. ESTPs are
the most dominant of the Artisans, and they won't be pushed around or overawed by their INTJ
counterpart's abilities and thinking tough streak. Besides this, the crime genre has many uses for
ESTP skills, i.e. fighting, schmoozing, acting, etc. In other genres the T/F conventions may be
different. In Pride and Prejudice, for example, Mr. Darcy had an ESFP foil, his friend Mr. Bingley.
(And Bingley did indeed defer to Darcy.)
Monk's foil was Sharona, an ESTP and his nurse. She didn't take much from him, and was never
283 Kroeger & Thuesen, 1994
284 Tagliaferre & Harbaugh, 1990