Mark Hootsen Left Book Club: CELEBRITY MBTI / SOCIONICS: Bold and the Beautiful cast (current season)

I've written an article on the MBTI types of the Bold and Beautiful characters here; in this article I will be looking at the MBTI types of the actors who play the characters using the Rod Novichkov Socionics typing method.

Of the 27 actors, 13 belong to what Keirsey calls the 'Guardians' (types with Introverted Sensing Si as a dominant or secondary function - ESTJs, ISTJs, ESFJs, ISFJs), 8 to the 'Artisans' (types with Extraverted Sensing Se as dominant or secondary - ESTPs, ESFPs, ISFPs, ISTPs). Only two actors number among the 'Idealists' (NFs, types who are Intuitives and Feelers) and three among the 'Rationals' (NTs, Intuitives and Thinkers). That accords with Novichkov's own findings. Looking at the massive number of celebrities typed in his book, we see most are either Guardians or Artisans; Idealists and Rationals are rare.

And, just as in Novichkov, we find a lot of ESFP actors on Bold. Keirsey didn't call that type 'The Performer' for nothing: many ESFPs become famous in music and acting...

For the photos of the actors, I prefer to use profile shots, as these reveal whether or not someone is a Perceiver (p in Socionics) or a Judger (j in Socionics). (But instead of using Socionics notation, I will stick here with MBTI. So, for instance, an ISFj in Socionics becomes an ISFP in MBTI, a Judger a Perceiver...). When you use Novichkov's method, you should start with the question, 'Is the person a Judger or a Perceiver?'; then you work out whether he or she is a Thinker or Feeler, Sensor Intuitive, Introvert or Extravert. In my experience, once you get the Judger or Perceiver task out of the way, the rest becomes easy. Hence my using the profile shots: my readers, once they confirm to their satisfaction that the actor is a Judger or a Perceiver, can go on to complete the typing using other photos not shown here.

A few of the characters - Katie Logan, Julius Avant, Vivienne Avant, Wyatt Fuller-Spencer - are played by actors of the same type. In other words, the actors are playing themselves. This happens now and then. According to Novichkov, both Harrison Ford and Sean Connery are ISTPs, and according to Taylor, their two most famous roles - Han Solo and James Bond respectively - are ISTPs as well.

The Forresters

(Characters who are blood relatives of Eric and Stephanie Forrester)

Thorsten Kaye - ESFP

(Ridge Forrester)