o_19kdfsn0q18e31dfraas1esh19vta.pdf

Analysis
but the excitement passed off in a moment." (The quick feelings would seem to indicate NF,
but the swiftly resumed calmness would be NT)
There is some question as to whether Bowditch is an
introvert or an extravert. I believe him to be an introvert,
but first let's look at his extraverted credentials and
compare them to the typical traits of INTJs. Most the
quotes in this chapter have been drawn from two
posthumous biographies here 152 153, 154
and here.
One of the things that INTJs are known for is a serious,
calm temperament. They are not given to exaggerated
facial displays or emotionally extravagant exhibitions.
Thorne and Gough's 1991 adjective survey found that
observers perceived male INTJs as being "serious" and
"reserved," while females were perceived as being
"emotionally bland, has flattened affect." INTJs do not
have a reputation for playful mimicry and humorous
impressions. Nor do they have a reputation for quick
emotional jumps, a bright, cheerful countenance, or a
smiles-and-sunshine disposition.
Bowditch, however, displayed all these behaviors. For instance, here we have him acting out a
scene with such pathos that it drew onlookers:
Dr. Bowditch enjoyed most heartily any laughable incident which occurred, and often, by his amusing
comments or anecdotes, awakened a like hilarity in others. Thus, upon one occasion, a person who called
to buy a life annuity moved so feebly, and made so many grimaces and contortions and groaned so
dolefully, lamenting his ill health, and the short time he had to live, that it was very evident that he was
acting a part, with a view to make as good a bargain as possible. Dr. Bowditch enjoyed the affair highly,
and, after the applicant had retired, he was describing the incident to a friend with so much comic effect,
"suiting the action to the word, and the word to the action," that he even surpassed his original; and the
two officers of an insurance company in the room immediately beneath his own, came running up stairs
with some anxiety to know the cause of such sounds of distress and such piteous ejaculations."
Comical exaggeration is not "serious" or "reserved." In the same vein, another interesting thing
about Bowditch is that he was capable of quick emotional switches. Again, this trait is typically
associated with the EP preferences.
It was indeed wonderful with what facility Dr. Bowditch could in an instant divert his attention from any
subject to another of the most opposite character; at one moment engaged in the every-day detail of the
business of his office, at the next abstracted from all around him by the most elevated investigations of
science; and then, again, displaying either the utmost cordiality of friendship, or almost the wild hilarity
of childhood, and apparently finding from each change an equal degree of relaxation.
It is very easy, of course, for INTJs to switch from the everyday details of life to the abstraction of
scientific questions. If the outer world bores them, they drift with ease into their inner world. But
152 Bowditch, 1841
153 Bowditch, 1839
154 Since the biographies were written by Bowditch's children, they have a somewhat eulogistic character. The 1941
biography was intended to hold up Bowditch as a role model for the youth, at whom the booked was aimed. If his
biographers seem to be laying it on a bit thick, this is why.