US Presidents Celebrity MBTI: John F. Kennedy - ESTJ

On the centenary of his birth, we come to John F. Kennedy in our US Presidents series.

See here for profiles of Roosevelt, Truman and Eisenhower using the Novichkov method.

I. Judger or Perceiver?

A quick comparison to Novichkov's diagram shows Kennedy to be a Judger, not a Perceiver:

II. Feeler or Thinker?

Time to bring out the Bill Clinton and Jeff Sessions side-by-side photograph - Clinton is a Thinker, Sessions a Feeler. From the photograph, we can see that Kennedy (who Clinton resembles) is a Thinker.

This becomes even more apparent when we put Kennedy side by side with Khrushchev. According to Novichkov's method, Kennedy is a Thinker, Khrushchev a Feeler:

III. Sensor or Intuitive?

Intuitives have a peculiar way of sitting - or sprawling - on furniture. Take this photograph of Jarvis Cocker below:

Whereas Sensors tend to sit in a more conventional way - like these two men:

The below photographs pair Intuitives and Sensors: the stocky Mitt Romney and John McCain are Sensors, the gangly Paul Ryan and John Kerry are Intuitives:

JFK deports himself - when seated - like a Sensor. He also shows the tendency of Sensors towards stockiness and plumpness.

IV. Extravert or Introvert?

Extraverts appear to be content, happy and part of the external world; usually they display a great deal of tension and animation in their faces. Introverts, on the other hand, come across as the opposite: removed from the outer world and uninterested in it. They can seem doleful and sheepish (see Lyndon Johnson below) or vapid and expressionless (see Jackie Kennedy).

I type JFK as an Extravert.

V. JFK's type

Putting the letters we get j (Judger) + T (Thinker) + S (Sensor) + E (Extravert), or ESTj.

JFK was the second ESTj president to die in office.

A note on Introverted Sensing (Si). Introverted Sensors tend to look at you, but not really: their gaze doesn't focus on the object, they perceive things only in broad outline. According to Jung - and Novichkov - Introverted Sensing sees the world in shapes, contours, broad impressions and looks at the relations between objects and not the objects themselves. Novichkov describes the Introverted Sensor's gaze as bleary, unfocused and 'squinty'. That, I think, sums up JFK's gaze to a tee:

Mark Hootsen signing off.

US Presidents Celebrity MBTI: Dwight Eisenhower - ISFP

Continuing our exploration of the Novichkov method applied to celebrities, we now come to the third President in our series - Dwight Eisenhower (for profiles of Roosevelt, see here, Truman, see here).

Judger or Perceiver, j or p? 

Let's compare the Novichkov diagrams for Judging and Perceiving types with side shots of Eisenhower.

My conclusion: Eisenhower is a Judger. One thing that can be observed in these photos is that the line of a Judger's spinal column seems to run up through to the center of the head, and as a result, one can't see much in the way of space between the jaw and the throat.

So, for the four letter Socionics code for Eisenhower's type, we find so far: xxxj.

Feeler or Thinker, F or T? 

Juxtaposing pictures of politicians Donald Rumsfeld and Lindsay Graham, we see examples of a Thinker (Rumsfeld) and a Feeler (Graham).

The juxtaposition of Bill Clinton and a young Jeff Sessions provides us with two more examples: Clinton is a Thinker, Sessions a Feeler.

Which of these does Eisenhower resemble the most - Rumsfeld or Graham, Clinton or Sessions? Clearly, Graham and Sessions: Eisenhower is a Feeler. When we compare the Feeler's face to the Thinker's, we see that the Feeler has an expressive lower half of the face and an inexpressive upper half, shallow eye-sockets, a pug nose and a gently rounded bridge of the nose. The bones behind the eyebrows don't protrude.

So far, in the four-letter Socionics code, we have xxFj.

Sensor or Intuitive, S or N? 

Below we have John Kerry and John McCain: Kerry is an Intuitive, McCain a Sensor. Notice the difference in the body types of these two men: McCain is stocky, and of the type which is inclined to put on weight, whereas Kerry is skinny, and probably couldn't put on weight if he tried.

Intuitives tend to sprawl when sitting or lying down, whereas Sensors keep themselves in a tight enclosed space and tend to be rather stiff and rigid. See the picture of Mitt Romney and Paul Ryan below. Romney is the Sensor, Ryan the Intuitive:

I classify Eisenhower as a Sensor. His build, and his posture when sitting, reminds much more of Romney and McCain than Kerry and Ryan:

So far in our four-letter code we have: xSFj.

Introverted or Extraverted Sensing, Se or Si? 

The gaze of the Introverted Sensor seems bleary, out of focus - more perceiving shapes and contours of objects, not of the object directly. Take Roosevelt as a case in point:

Whereas the gaze of the Extraverted Sensor tends to be watchful and observant. The Extraverted Sensor keeps a close on the object and studies it intently:

Introvert or Extravert, I or E? 

The Extravert feels at home in the world, whereas the Introvert withdraws himself from it. This is shown by their respective facial expressions. Here we see a Nixon thoroughly swept up in his environment, revelling in it, in fact, whereas Eisenhower seems sheepish - and absent. He doesn't look as though he wants to be there, whereas Nixon does.

The Extravert's face always seems tense and engaged, the Introvert's, unflustered and unengaged.

In Conclusion

Judger + Feeler + Sensor + Introvert = ISFj in Socionics, ISFP in MBTI.

Mark Hootsen, signing off.

US Presidents Celebrity MBTI: Harry Truman - ISTJ

We come to part two of our series, which aims at typing all the US presidents from Franklin Delano Roosevelt to Donald Trump using the Rod Novichkov visual identification method. For a detailed exposition of Novichkov's method, see here; for an application of that method to Roosevelt, see here.

Judger or Perceiver, j or p? 

Let's look at the diagrams of the Judging ('Conceiving', as Novichkov calls them) and Perceiving types, from left and right sides of the head:

Now, finding a good profile shot of a celebrity and lining it up with the above diagrams can be tough. But I've found a few side shots of Truman, and I make him out to be a Perceiver:

Feeler or Thinker, F or T? 

Let's compare two middle-aged American politicians, one Lindsey Graham, who Novichkov would type as a Feeler, and Donald Rumsfeld, who he would type as a Thinker:

Now, who does Truman resemble more - Rumsfeld or Graham? Rumsfeld, obviously.

So far, we have typed Truman as a Perceiver and a Thinker: xxTp. Two letters to go...

Sensor or Intuitive, S or N?  

Again, here's a compare and contrast photo of an Intuitive and a Sensor: gangly, skinny, long and knuckled fingered John Kerry, and stocky, square-fingered and square-handed John McCain. Kerry flops and lolls in his chair, while McCain seems somewhat more stiff and centrally placed. Kerry would be typed as an Intuitive by Novichkov, McCain as a Sensor.

Is Truman a Kerry or a McCain? McCain, of course, and so we can classify Truman as a Sensor.

Which raises the question: was Truman an extraverted or introverted Sensor? The extraverted Sensor's gaze watches you, scans you; the introverted Sensor's gaze, on the other hand, is blurry and unfocussed, and hardly looks at you directly - it perceives the outlines and shapes of objects rather than the details.

Here we have two celebrities who are Sensors, Jean-Claude Van Damme and Richard Burton. From the foregoing description, we can tell which of the two has the extraverted and the introverted gazes.

Is Truman a Van Damme or a Burton? Clearly a Burton: Truman's eyes, in nearly all the photos, hardly ever seem to be focused at the camera. They look around it, not at it.

Introvert or Extravert, I or E? 

In my post on Roosevelt, I used photos of Truman and Roosevelt together as an example of an Introvert and an Extravert together. While Roosevelt always looks absorbed in his immediate environment, Truman seems detached from it; Roosevelt has a tense, weathered facial expression, Truman a withdrawn, sheepish and melancholy one.

We could also compare Truman to another dashing Extravert president, John Fitzgerald Kennedy:

The verdict

Letters p + T + S + I give us ISTp in socionics or ISTJ in MBTI. The ISTJ type tends to be quiet and reserved, lingers in the background, and goes about his business without drawing attention to himself: The type's dominant function, introverted Sensing Si, gives an impression of comfort and homeliness, while the secondary function, extraverted Thinking Te , lends itself to organisation and efficiency. The ISTJ type description fits what we know of Truman like a glove.

As we shall see, two other presidents after Truman could be typed as ISTJs using the Novichkov method. The ISTJ belongs to the category of types Paul Keirsey calls the 'Guardians', and is extremely common - in everyday life and in celebrity-land.

Mark Hootsen signing off.