lady-r0salind:

Van’s Phunky Spam: Benedict Cumberbatch: A Rare Breed Indeed

phunkyvanspam:

A recent discussion I had about Myers-Briggs personality types (I’m definitely an INTP) got me really interested in learning more about them. Of course, with my fascination with people I just HAD to look up all of them and see if I could pinpoint the personality types of people I knew.

I…

This was made months ago and I have since gotten a bit more of an in-depth understanding of MBTI personality typing. If I had the time to do it, I would definitely do a better analysis focusing on cognitive functions instead of just “cherry picking” as you put it.

However, the more I learned about MBTI and the functions, the more convinced I became that Benedict Cumberbatch is an INFJ. And not soley based on quotes from interviews, but also on personal experiences with fans, or anecdotes from people who know him personally.

There’s more on this discussion in the Personality Cafe forum here, by people who are more knowledgeable of typing and are able to put it more eloquently than I. A lot of them also believe he’s an INFJ, including those who are INFJs themselves. (I recommend the long post on the bottom of page 4)

I’m sorry you found this offensive- that certainly wasn’t my intent.

the-cat-is-called-hamish:

phunkyvanspam:

I’ve seen a few people make comments about how Benedict is “chasing fame” so much. That it’s weird that he’s signed up for so many roles and doing so many interviews and yet he claims that he’s such a private person. 

Guys. I cannot stress it enough:

Although he’s an actor it’s clear that Benedict is incredibly uncomfortable being in the spotlight when he’s off the set. He doesn’t want paparazzi, he doesn’t  want fans and autograph hounds swarming around him after shows. And, although he is incredibly grateful for his fans and absolutely loves their devotion he’d still be acting if he didn’t have as much as he does. He couldn’t care less about any of that- what matters is The Work™.

Yes, that’s right… He’s a lot like Sherlock when it comes to acting. He enjoys the puzzle of a complex character. The bigger the challenge- whether it be physical, mental, or the amount of research that has to be done, the better! I really feel like he’s doing all these jobs one right after another because he needs to work- otherwise he’s bored and being bored makes him get into a slump.

This is why, even after doing big award-winning shows and movies, he still is able to find the time for radio shows, poetry readings, etc etc. The man NEEDS to work! Some say that he;s working way too much, that some day he’s going to burn out because he’s doing way to much at once. But in all honesty? I think that to him, being out of work is like torture.

The work and roles are what’s important. He’s doing all this because he genuinely LOVES his job. I have never heard of another actor that loves (all aspects) of acting as much as he does. 

I really admire him for this. One day, I hope I’ll be able to have a career that I love as much as he does.

And he knows this period of his life won’t last forever, so he’s working hard now. He’s aware of that, and it’s very important to him, and the fact he can go back to who he was after this mad time is over is vital to him. 

[I can’t find the quote from that Guardian article that fits this and explains it way better than me.]

Just because an actor is ambitious does not mean a) they deserve to have their privacy invaded if they’re not working, especially in the manner he was with his niece, (as everyone else should be too)(or the way people trick Hiddles on twitter- disadvantage of being a idealist there, Tom, -hugs Tom-) or b) change that they are a private person. Some actors fit the stereotypical shy introvert (Andrew Scott, and I read JLM too, as they compared the behaviour of him and Benny in rehearsal, maybe Tom too, although he’s more of a ‘talkative’ introvert like Benny from what I’ve seen). Benny is very grateful for all this, and also so he makes the best use of his education ‘which [his] parents worked fucking hard for’. 

This also shows major confusion on the difference between ‘shy’ and ‘introverted’ and how you don’t have to be one to be the other, and you can still be the latter and not be the former. Also  he’s really honest, but kind and think some people are convinced he’s bullshitting because he can’t be both? I don’t know.

Also if you think things are that simple, no human is that simple especially a most likely INFJ couldn’t resist sorry and he totally is I mean oh.

Oh, I went into psychology again. I’m silly.

#INTP #one topic no such thing everything is connected

Yes, definitely that too.

And hee! Psychology, how I missed rambling about you… To be honest when I saw some recent comments and pics of him at events I was like “Ben, your introverted-ness is showing”.

Like really, in some pictures he really looks like he wants to crawl back into his cave. Like… There would be people surrounding him who look sort of happy and his face says “can we go home now?” XD

cumberbuddy:

holmmes:

pernillo:

julieftws:

ladyavenal:

cumberbuddy:

the-hedgehog-of-baskerville:

#unsure whether this makes me aroused #or fearful for my safety

*sits on hands*

He is the one who should be fearful for his safety looking like that

… meow.

*still sitting on my hands*

Oh hello there INFJ death stare~

the-cat-is-called-hamish:

INTP-
Why you want one: They’re really smart and make up for being awkward + not really sexy by having a lot of interesting things to say.
Spoiler Alert: You’ll get tired of them making jokes about ninjas and Lord of the Rings. Probable addiction to World of Warcraft.
Where to find one: At their friend’s house drinking whiskey Cokes and watching Shark Week on the Discovery Channel.
Pickup technique: Wear something slutty + talk about science/robots/the singularity.

They’re really smart and make up for being awkward + not really sexy by having a lot of interesting things to say.

I’m so shocked my brother doesn’t have a fan club. Seriously, ladies. 

Caution: do not interrupt gaming concentration. May Bite.

INFJ-
Why you want one: They’ll sit-inside-and-read-Dostoevsky-with-you-on-a-rainy-day, they’re good curators of interests and they’ll find something interesting to do and plan the whole date out (to the second).
Spoiler Alert: Icy-cold exterior.
Where to find one: Any independent or used bookstore in a trendy neighborhood on a Friday night. Typically they’ll be there before heading to a small divey but not too divey bar to have a moderately pretentious microbrew with their one other friend.
Pickup technique: Ask them about Rilke, social justice, chai tea.

spoiler alert: INFJ is my division

I don’t know why it makes no logical sense

#well there is but I don’t know it

#Ti, taking the fun from everything

 

That doesn’t help.

In other words, INTPs are nerds and INFJs are hipsters. XD

(I want an INFJ of my own too… It seems like INTPs always have a fascination with this type. Umm, opposites attract? Wtf.)

sherlockcharacteranalysis:

This is a response to phunkyvanspam (because you can’t reblog answers to asks, ugh what?)  

Ni though, seems like magic! It gets to the specific thing 10 steps ahead and then has to backtrack in order to figure out how the hell they got that idea. And then to make it even more confusing, a lot of Ni users seem to not even to know how they came to a conclusion in order to explain to other people. (Actually, looking back that’s like how Sherlock and Mycroft are isn’t it? Which would make sense since we’ve both agreed that they’re INTP and INTJ…) 

(That’s because it actually is magic, shhhhhh.)  That’s actually exactly how I would describe it. And it does often feel a bit like magic, though I don’t usually tell people that lest they think I’m crazy. But since you said it first…

So when a Ni user speaks, would you say that it’s almost like how students are taught to write an essay? Like their opening statement is this big insightful comment and then the rest of what they say is breaking down/trying to explain their original thought? I know whenever I was writing an essay in school I always had to write the body first and then come up with the introduction later once I had all my thoughts written down…

Maybe? I’m not actually sure how students are taught how to write an essay because I’ve always done it my own way with no problems… I think it’s more writing an introduction and the first two paragraphs, then jumping straight to the conclusion, and then coming back and writing the rest of the body. Oh, and when the whole paper is done, going back through and tweak everything so they fit together more cohesively. That’s exactly how I write, actually (at least when it comes to analytical kinds of things). And it’s similar in speaking as well.

Basically how you would see it is that you start talking to someone Ni dominant about some subject (and the more this subject is something complex that she is interested in the more obvious this will be), and before you think you’ve even gotten to the main part of whatever you’re saying, she’s already jumped to THE POINT. (Or at the very least, a point which attempts to wrap everything up including stuff you hadn’t even said yet!) So for me, I guess I see this a lot when my friends talk to me about people we know. They’ll be talking about what someone did, and wondering why, but before they’ve really even wondered I’ll be like “THIS IS WHY.” And then they’ll be like, “hmm, that sounds right actually, or at least plausible. Why do you think that?” And then I’m like “I have no idea…let me think about this for five minutes” at which point my Ti takes over and tries to come up with logical reasons. My Ni dominant friends do this to me too, actually; I’ll be talking about something (usually about myself) that is unclear, and they’ll be like “this is probably what you’re trying to say, except in ONE SENTENCE.” And then I’ll be like “that’s exactly what I was trying to say and I didn’t even know it!” Then the rest of the conversation is basically refining the idea and coming up with reasons for it. (Ti again.)

Also, a lot of times when Ni doesn’t know what the point is, it will keep talking about the same subject over and over but in a different way each time in hopes of finding the “ultimate” pattern that it can then condense into an abstract symbol that can be remembered. Maybe kind of like what I’m doing. If I’m talking about something I know really well though, I can be really straightforward about breaking it down, but that’s mostly Ti’s work.

Btw, out of curiosity, are most of your posts just written once? I get the impression that is the Ti dominants who have some point they want to make (or better, some question they want to answer), and they can just start there and logically link themselves to the end. My posts (the put-together theoretical ones) take me forever to write even though I more or less already know what I want to say. It’s just finding a way to say it is so difficult, because as it exists in my head, it’s like this fuzzy cloud.  And it’s always that part between the intro/early-body and the conclusion that I have to go backwards to do that’s the most difficult.

I didn’t see this post until just now!

Hmm… Still not sure if I understand how I could point out Ni but I’m so glad I seem to understand the concept! Thanks.

RE bolded part: I don’t know… Do I do that? ;)

I’m quite the obsessive linker and while I don’t like repeating myself I over-edit my posts constantly so everything is coherent. I’m absolutely terrified of sounding like a dumbass.

I’m going to include your other ask since they’re both connected:

“It’s hard to detect Ni unless the person having it tell you about it, I think. In some ways, unlike Fi, Ti, and Si, it’s like my Ni is something completely independent of myself and *I* don’t even understand half the time how it works/what its’ trying to tell me. So usually INTJ’s/INFJ’s present themselves with their auxiliary/tertiary functions unless you know them well.”

Yeah, I’ve looked in quite a few forum threads on PC where Ni users were trying to explain the function and they said pretty much the same thing. It seems to be a very abstract concept. I can detect something like Ne since I use it myself, so when I see a Ni user all I can say is “they don’t use Ne so it must be Ni”, but then again Ni can sometimes look like Si and so on… It’s all so confusing.

I’ve heard Ne be described as something like deductive reasoning. Like, you see this whole big concept and then break it down into tiny bits of information, eliminating the impossible until you get to the specific thing you’re looking for.

Ni though, seems like magic! It gets to the specific thing 10 steps ahead and then has to backtrack in order to figure out how the hell they got that idea. And then to make it even more confusing, a lot of Ni users seem to not even to know how they came to a conclusion in order to explain to other people. (Actually, looking back that’s like how Sherlock and Mycroft are isn’t it? Which would make sense since we’ve both agreed that they’re INTP and INTJ…) 

Anyway, although I sort of know how to describe what it is I still don’t know if I’ll ever be able to actually see it in use.

Usually I’d say a sure sign is that often INTJ’s/INFJ’s will say something insightful, but the insight is something that wraps together a bunch of seemingly disparate things into “a point.”

So when a Ni user speaks, would you say that it’s almost like how students are taught to write an essay? Like their opening statement is this big insightful comment and then the rest of what they say is breaking down/trying to explain their original thought? I know whenever I was writing an essay in school I always had to write the body first and then come up with the introduction later once I had all my thoughts written down…

Okay, you know what? One of these days I need to re-make my MBTI analysis of Benedict Cumberbatch. When I did it last time I hardly knew what I was doing. And now that I know the cognitive functions, I look back and see that my article is an absolute mess.

However, all that research I did just further proves my assumptions about him. As a hardcore Ne user, I still don’t have a good grasp on how to understand and detect Ni but he is ABSOLUTELY a Fe and Ti user. And, although he is definitely a feeler, Ti is certainly not his inferior function. (I’ll get into that some other time.)

I’ve also noticed that INFJ and ISFJs both share auxiliary and tertiary functions. But I know how an ISFJ is because my best friend is one. They’re so practical and hardworking and to an intuitive person myself- yeah, they can be a bit boring. Their extreme loyalty and dependability make up for it though.

Yeah, so… Benedict, being a perpetual learner who always seems to have a deep insight to everything and analyzes his characters like crazy, does not strike me as ISFJ whatsoever.

kronman:

Quite possible. I’ve had this suspicion as well.

I can never make up my mind about Tom… Either INFJ or INFP. He’s SUCH a huge dreamer. Definitely NF.

(Benedict too, for that matter. I’ll listen to your arguments about INFJ, INFP, ENFJ, or ENFP but you CANNOT tell me he isn’t an intuitive feeler. Actually, he definitely is a Fe and Ti user. And his Ti is stronger than an ENFJ’s, so…)

(Source: infjconfessions)

Yes, Benedict is most definitely an INFJ.

I wrote quite a few posts about it and got into a pretty big discussion about it on PersonalityCafe where I was able to convince a few who disagreed.

It could be an INFJ pushed too far, but I can’t know for certain because I’m taking that article with a grain of salt.

Hopefully another interview (possibly Radio Times?) will put this Mirror mess in the right context. Judging from comments to another post that site is not to be trusted.