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Fictional INTJs<br />
Why study fictional characters? Isn’t it unrealistic to study made up people?<br />
Not as much as you one expect. Montgomery (1989) wrote of “the mirror of fiction,” wherein a<br />
skilled author takes what they have observed of human nature and converts it into characters who<br />
seem like real life people. Rather than being a patchwork quilt of contradicting J, P, E, I, T, F, N<br />
and S traits, most characters have an internally consistent personality, because the author infused<br />
them with characteristics which they themselves had already observed in real life.<br />
There are of course exceptions; for example, the “Mary Sue” is a character that has every possible<br />
virtue and no flaws. Or sometimes authors will change the personality of their character as they add<br />
sequels to the original work. If you have a television series written by multiple writers, different<br />
versions of a character will sprout up because different writers emphasize different aspects.<br />
Alternately, when a character (for example, Sherlock Holmes) is reenvisioned over and over,<br />
different versions will appear over time.<br />
To avoid these pitfalls, I have chosen characters with an internally consistent, stable personality and<br />
a realistic set of virtues and flaws. The works they have been drawn from represent the first<br />
envisionment of the character by the original author.<br />
Advantages of the “Mirror of Fiction”<br />
Briefly, the advantages of studying INTJs in a fictional setting are the following:<br />
• It allows us to do is explore scenarios that would be otherwise be difficult to study in real<br />
life. INTJs are private people, and their sparse biographies reflect this.<br />
• It gives us an opportunity to dissect good examples of type-based behavior without getting<br />
sued by real life people.<br />
• It reveals some of the INTJ archetypes and how they fit into our cultural mythos.<br />
• It dramatizes INTJ traits, making them stand out clearly.<br />
Problems with the Mirror of Fiction<br />
Perhaps you have been in those endless internet discussions over what type a certain character is.<br />
There's a reason the discussions never seem to get anywhere. Here's why.<br />
A study on type and personal heroes found that although people do not always choose heroes of
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