MBTI: The 16 types in Star Trek: Deep Space Nine (1993-1999)

I.  Introduction

After finishing all seven seasons of Star Trek: The Next Generation (1987-1994), I moved on to Deep Space Nine expecting more of the same - and was I surprised. Deep Space Nine differed a lot from Next Generation, and I did not enjoy the pilot episode at all. I found the characters very difficult to warm to, unlike the characters of Next Generation and Star Trek: The Original Series, and some of them (Kira Nerys and Odo, for instance) seemed downright obnoxious. The business regarding the Wormhole and the Prophets confused me, and gave the impression of being overly mystical - and thereby out of place with the scientific Star Trek universe.

But after a few episodes, I concluded that the creators of the series were trying to do something different and break out of the traditional Star Trek format. Whereas the heroes of the Original Series and Next Generation cruise from one planet to the next, the heroes of Deep Space Nine stay put - and deal with the implications (political, social, economic, moral) of that decision. Often, they are forced to mediate between conflicting groups in a far away place without the help of Star Fleet. All in all, it made for an interesting series. And like Next Generation, Deep Space Nine featured an outstanding ensemble cast and writers, directors, producers who loved and revered the Star Trek mythos. Watching it filled me with great nostalgia for nineties science fiction TV, and many of the special effects from that decade still hold up well today.

If you want a broad overview of how I type characters, look at my essays on how to type superhero characters (see here) and TV drama characters (see here).

To give a quick run down of my method, let us compare two characters whose personality types are diametrically opposite (Socionics says that the two personality types have a relationship of Conflict): Benjamin Sisko and Winn Adami.

Introvert or Extravert? Winn shies away from scrutiny, and can be described as furtive and concealing; Sisko has no qualms being in the spotlight and he tends to draw attention to himself. Winn is an I (Introvert), Sisko an E (Extravert).

Perceiver or Judger? In the classic episode 'Far beyond the stars', Sisko, who time-travels back to mid-fifties America, shows he has a very pronounced sense of what the world should be and how people should behave: this is Judging - fitting people into the right slots. Winn, on the other hand, does not seem to expect reality to conform to certain principles, one of the reasons why Gul Dukat, a Judger, was able to lead her by the nose in the last episodes of the series. Sisko is a j, a Judger, Winn is a p, a Perceiver.

Feeler or Thinker? Winn pursues rationally laid out objectives in a calculating and manipulative way, whereas Sisko doesn't have a manipulative bone in his body - he is preoccupied with meanings, values. Or to put it another way: Winn is left brain, Sisko, right brain. Sisko is a F, a Feeler, Wynn, a T, a Thinker.

Intuitive or Sensor? Sisko feels comfortable in the sensory realm and isn't afraid to use his fists. Wynn dwells in the mental realm - specifically, the realm of Ni (Introverted Intuition). Ni perceives what the future will bring, what the most likely outcome will be, how one cause in the present will lead to an effect in the future. It is also associated with the mystical, the otherworldly - and it is the spirit world which is Sisko's undoing. Sisko is a S, a Sensor, Wynn an N, an Intuitive.

Putting this all together:

Sisko is an E + S + F + j, an ESFj in Socionics, an ESFJ in MBTI.

Wynn is an I + N + T + p, an INTp in Socionics, an INTJ in MBTI. (In MBTI, Introverted Perceiving types become Judgers, and Introverted Judging types, Perceivers. Throughout the rest of this essay, I will be using the MBTI notation, as that is what most people interested in typology are familiar with).

For the sake of convenience, I will be dividing up the personality types into what Socionics calls Quadras.


II.  Alphas

Benjamin Sisko - ESFJ

An Extravert and Feeler like Picard, Sisko is more down to earth than Picard - he is an Introverted Sensor, meaning that, among other things, he loves domesticity and comfort. Whereas the maxim of the ENFJ (Picard) is, 'Love your ideal', the maxim of the ESFJ (Sisko) is, 'Love those closest to you'. Throughout the series, Sisko deports himself as a family man and evokes a stock ESFJ type in popular culture, the All-American Dad. 

In Socionics, Ni (Introverted Intuition) occupies the Vulnerable Function position in the ESFJ type, meaning that Ni is missing in the ESFJ and constitutes one of his deficiencies and weaknesses. As noted before, Ni proves to be Sisko's undoing. 

Dr Elias Giger - INTP

Appears in the episode 'In the Cards' (1997), Season Five

Two types of mad scientist exist: a cold and ascetic type (the INTP) and an outgoing and maniacal type (the ENTP). The reclusive Dr Giger clearly belongs in the former category.

Amusingly enough, Giger, when meeting Sisko's son Jake for the first time, refuses to shake his hand because of hygiene. That takes us back to Socionics. For the INTP type, Introverted Sensing (Si) makes up the Hidden Agenda (or Activating Function): this means that the INTP aspires to have Si, which is an awareness of cleanliness, hygiene, physical well being.

Julian Bashir - ENTP

The character of Bashir closely resembles Dr Gaius Baltar from the reimagined Battlestar Galactica series (2004-2009): both are brilliant and vain scientists, and both are ENTPs. The dominant function of the ENTP, Ne (Extraverted Intuition), pushes a character towards the exploration of possibilities, potentialities. The secondary function of the ENTP, Ti (Introverted Thinking), gives the ENTP the ability to understand the workings - scientific, mechanical, mathematical - of the world he encounters and helps him navigate the very strange situations he frequently finds himself in.

What is Hidden Agenda of the ENTP? Extraverted Feeling (Fe). The ENTP would like secretly - or not so secretly - to be adored by the masses. That's one of Bashir's defining characteristics.

Rom - ISFJ

Rom, the bullied brother of the extraverted forceful Quark, plays the traditional ISFJ character role: the doormat. ISFJ characters mostly linger in the background and are not noticed very much. The ISFJ cherishes their family and friends, and will do anything for them, and because of this endearing quality, the ISFJ character is frequently exploited. But watch out: push them too far and the ISFJ mouse will turn into a dragon.

The dominant function of the ISFJ, Si (Introverted Sensation), means that the ISFJ can often be a complacent person and averse to upward mobility. Like that other ISFJ Trek character, Worf, Rom is told by more ambitious people to make something of himself, and he doesn't, they throw their hands up in frustration.

III.  Betas

Ezri Tigan (Mirror Universe) - ISTP

Appears in the episode 'The Emperor's New Cloak' (1999), Season Seven

I waited a long time to find a character who was an ISTP: it took until Season Seven (by which time I had almost given up).

The doubles in the alternate, 'mirror' universe of Star Trek can be of the same personality type as in the main one - the Kira Nerys character, for example, is the personality type in both universes - but more often than not, a character's personality type differs. In the main Star Trek universe, I type the Ezri Tigan as an NF (Intuitive / Feeler), and in the mirror universe, an ISTP.

The mirror Ezri strongly resembles Han Solo (another ISTP) in dress sense and general demeanor, and her redemption arc follows that of Solo's in the first Star Wars movie - mirror Ezri makes the transition from selfish mercenary to selfless hero.

I also see a concordance between mirror Ezri and that other ISTP heroine, Marvel's Black Widow.

Taylor at the Zombies Ruin Everything blog is always remarking on how ISTPs convey a sense of physical ease, even laziness. That's true in Ezri's case. Socionics would attribute this to Si (Introverted Sensing) being the Demonstrative Function of the ISTP type.

Alixus - ENFJ

 Whereas Picard is a good ENFJ, Alixus is a bad. The writers of Star Trek based the Alixus character (at least in part) on real-life ENFJ Jim Jones, leader of the People's Temple cult. Parallels exist between Alixus' regime and Pol Pot's in Cambodia; eco-primitivism and communalism make up the themes of the episode.

The dominant function of the ENFJ, Extraverted Feeling Fe, sweeps up those around the ENFJ and melds them into a community (no matter how small). If the particular ENFJ is persuasive and demagogic, the ENFJ's rhetoric brings the formed community into the ENFJ's inner world of Ni (Introverted Intuition), the world of absolutes and eternal ideals. This gift of the ENFJ's can be used for good (in the case of Picard) or evil (in the case of Alixus). 

Jadzia Dax - INFJ

I found Jadzia a tough character to type, but finally settled on INFJ. The two main functions of the INFJ are Ni (Introverted Intuition) and Fe (Extraverted Feeling), and Jadzia leans a little more to Extraverted Feeling, meaning that she is an instance of what Socionics calls the Fe-dominant subtype  of the INFJ.

Ni-dominant characters such as Jadzia can be quite ethereal - one gets a sense that they are not fully there. As a result, they can be appear to be quite fluffy and intangible.

The inferior function of the INFJ, Se (Extraverted Sensing), means that they can be drawn to environments where Extraverted Sensing (along with Extraverted Feeling) prevails. The INFJ, deep down, wants to feel strongly connected to the physical world. In this description of the INFJ, we find:

He strives for beauty, which may be – poetry, arts, even nice trinkets. He himself strives to be refined. He adores communication with artists, poets, bohemians, and in general with exotic people.

That explains Jadzia's odd attraction to Ferengi, who she spends most of her spare time socialising with.

Interestingly, Jadzia's evil alter ego - the murderer Jaron, one of her previous incarnations - I type as an INTJ. Both Jadzia and Jaron are Ni dominant, the difference is one is a Feeler, the other a Thinker.

Quark - ESTP

The archetypal ESTP, Quark's dominant function Se (Extraverted Sensing), which represents force of will, volition, is channeled through his secondary, Ti (Introverted Thinking), which allows himself to understand the workings, the inner mechanics of others. The combination of Ti and Se allows the ESTP to perceive and take advantage of weakness and gullibility. (ESTP characters often make good con-men).

Quark shows all the typical attributes of a larger-than-life ESTP: a love of hierarchy, status, upward mobility, and an easygoing charm and manipulativeness.

As with Bashir's type, the ENTP, Extraverted Feeling (Fe) plays the role of the Hidden Agenda function, meaning that the ESTP has a secret desire to be loved and adored by all. That's true of Quark.

IV. Gammas

Gul Dukat - ENTJ

The leading function of the ENTJ type, Te (Extraverted Thinking) denotes the accumulation and manipulation of empirical data and the desire for efficiency and organisation: the typical Te dominant character is the Organisation Man. That would imply that the ENTJ type works as a force for stability, but in the case of Dukat, this is not so.

Dukat undergoes several transformations throughout the series and experiences a number of reversals. He falls from grace again and again, but always lands on his feet. Socionics writes at length on the entrepreneurial quality of the ENTJ: he is a businessman who starts up one enterprise, and if that fails, he will star another after picking himself up and dusting himself off. Extraverted Thinking Te works differently in the ENTJ than it does in the other Te dominant the ESTJ. Whereas the ESTJ will run in a business in a prudent and conservative manner, the ENTJ will go about it in a spendthrift and risky way.

One finds it hard to dislike Dukat, the quintessential charming rogue, despite the fact that he's the villain for most of the series.

Kira Nerys - ESFP

The dominant function of the ESFP - Se, Extraverted Thinking - means force of will, volition. When accompanied with the ESFP's secondary function, Fi (Intoverted Feeling), that Se expresses itself in a different fashion than the Se of the ESTP type. ESFPs express themselves emotionally more than ESTPs and are more sensual - they revel in their bodies and the sensory realm. That side of Kira Nerys is more pronounced in the Intendant (Kira's evil alter ego from the Mirror Universe).

Introverted Intuition Ni - which stands for (among other things) the perception of time, absolutes, the spirit world, and the certainty that comes with the endurance of things over time - occupies the Inferior Function position in the ESFP type. Socionics calls the Inferior Function the Suggestive Function, and in Socionics, a type will want - often on a subconscious level - that function to fill their lives. We see a great deal of this in Kira, who pursues religious certainty and the spiritual.

Being a TV series which plays out over many seasons, Deep Space Nine allows more character development than in a movie. You don't often see the Suggestive Function in a character unfold as it does with Kira Nerys.

Winn Adami - INTJ

One would assume that as a priestess, and an Ni (Introverted Intuition) dominant, Winn would posses a rich spiritual life. But in the last episodes of the series, Winn confesses that the Bajoran religion never really evoked an emotional response from her - she looks at it and feels nothing. It turns out that she was looking in the wrong direction, and it is the evil spirituality of the Pah Wraiths which fulfills her.

According to Socionics, types belonging to the Gamma Quadra can be vindictive - certainly, this is true of Winn. The combination of Introverted Intuition (endurance over time) and Introverted Feeling (feelings of attraction and repulsion) means that once something upsets a Gamma type, they can brood over it for a long period of time. Extraverted Te in turn has them calculate as to how to take revenge.

V. Deltas

Odo - ISTJ

Arguably, out of all the characters in the series, Odo evolves the most, and the Socionist Gulenko says that the types of the Delta Quadra can be more spiritually evolved than other types.

Unlike Spock, Data and Tuvok - the other most prominent ISTJs in Star Trek - Odo does not play the straight man, the foil, to a leading character with a more extraverted (and emotionally reactive) personality type. Instead Odo gives us an example of the ISTJ as law man, law enforcer, judge, and loyal servitor of a higher authority - think of Judge Dredd or even Darth Vader.

The ISTJ's leading function Si makes the type deeply satisfied with its position in life and extraordinarily complacent, while the secondary function Te ensures that the ISTJ's existence is smooth, continuous, regular. The ISTJ, in a position of authority, becomes a stickler for following rules.

ISTJ characters such as Dredd, Vader, Cyclops and Orion wear headgear which makes them look anonymous and featureless. ISTJ characters are stamped with a lack of individuality. On that note, Odo's name is a Cardassian word that means 'nothing'.

Garak - ENFP

The word that best describes Garak is oleaginous. Garak, with his flair for diplomacy and getting along with different people of different backgrounds, reminds me of Game of Thrones' Lord Varys, another ENFP. The dominant function Ne gives the character an ability to scent out any opportunity, the secondary function Fi, to empathise or tune in with anyone they come across in their journey.

Superficiality lies at the heart of the ENFP character: there's no 'there' there. Garak has no mission to fulfil, no great idea to bestow on the world, but this does not mean that Garak, like Dukat, is not charming and likeable - he is.

Natima Lang - INFP

Appears in the episode 'Profit and Loss' (1994), Season Two

Members of a Cardassian dissident movement, Professor Natima Lang and her two students Hogue and Rekelen are clearly modelled on the White Rose Society.

An INFP character allows us to see an important aspect of the INFP's dominant function, which is Fi (Introverted Feeling). Here we see what in Socionics is called positive Fi, or +Fi. This is defined as:

+Fi = positive, warm relationships. Psychological factors play a vital role for them. Without recognition of ethical values such as individuality and the uniqueness of others, religion and spirituality, non-interference in others lives, concrete humanism, etc., the stability they strongly desire is hardly possible.

Also:

+Fi - good relations, love, friendship, affection, attraction, warmth in relations, sociability, close psychological distance, goodness, compassion;

Interestingly, Natima Lang has a romantic relationship with Quark, an ESTP, which does not turn out well. This should not surprise anyone. Socionics identifies the relation between the INFP and ESTP types as one of Conflict.

Shakaar Edon - ESTJ

Shakaar, a Bajoran resistance leader and later First Minister of Bajor, appears quite a lot in the series, but does not leave a deep and lasting impression. I mark him out to be a generic ESTJ jock character, much like Next Generation's Ryker, but without Ryker's redeeming quirks.

VI.  Extra Characters

Miles and Keiko O'Brien - ISTJ and ENFP

A dull, bland character, Chief Engineer Miles O'Brien nonetheless plays an important role. Keirsey calls the ISTJ type a guardian, meaning that they perform essential services in any society but are not as overly interesting or 'out there' as some of the personality types. Indeed, the typical ISTJ character lurks in the background and gets things done, and is often unacknowledged and underappreciated. The quirky, cute, outgoing Keiko, on the other hand, represents the opposite to Miles.

The adventurous ENFP exists in a complimentary relationship to the stolid ISTJ: the Socionics relation between the pair is one of Duality.

Vic Fontaine - ESFJ

The holographic lounge-singer and nightclub owner Vic Fontaine acts as a mentor and nurtures certain characters on the series. One would think that an INFJ type would do this job, but the earthy, folksy Vic is a Sensor, not an Intuitive, and an Extravert, not an Introvert. The dominant function of the ESFJ, Fe (Extraverted Feeling) allows the type to 'read the room' and shape and form an emotional atmosphere. Certainly Vic does that throughout the show.

VII. In Conclusion

I have gone through all the types here except for one - the ISFP. I tried, but could not find an instance of one ISFP on the show. (Still, I will give this article the title 'The 16 types in Deep Space Nine' as opposed to 'The 15 types' - the latter does not have quite the same ring...).

Mark Hootsen Signing Off

MBTI: Why Bold and the Beautiful's worst ever storyline is like the Spiderman Clone Saga

 I. Bold and Spiderman


In past posts, I have compared the world's most popular soap Bold and the Beautiful (1987-) to a comic book, and recently, while watching an excellent video by Comic Tropes on Spiderman's famous Clone Saga story arc from the nineties, I was struck by the parallels between one of the sub-plots of the Spiderman story and the current main plot of Bold and the Beautiful.

In the Clone Saga, Peter Parker's wife Mary Jane Watson, carrying Peter's child, miscarries - or so she thinks. The truth is that, after blacking out in hospital, Mary Jane has given birth to a healthy child which is stolen from her by the supervillain Norman Osborne (the Green Goblin). On waking, she is told that she has miscarried. As to what happened to the child - after being abducted, it is placed in the care of an evil nanny, and is never heard from again; it disappeared from Spiderman continuity.

The writers and editors of Spiderman at the time may have decided to ditch the child abduction storyline because of an adverse fan reaction: the Clone Saga had proven to be highly unpopular with Spiderman readers, and so, in order to prevent any further alienation of the Spiderman fan base, Marvel opted for discarding the child abduction plot. Thereafter Marvel pretended that it had never happened.

Marvel probably made the right choice. But supposed it hadn't? Suppose it had persisted with it, and, to rub salt into the wound, focused on nothing else but Peter and Mary Jane's grief for an entire year? In this 'grimdark' iteration of Spiderman, the traditional Spiderman superhero fare - fighting Doctor Octopus, the Vulture, the Green Goblin - is neglected, and the readers are treated, over and over, to the sight of Peter and Mary Jane sobbing over their (presumed dead) baby's ultrasound photos. Because of the tragedy, Mary Jane and Peter divorce, and the baby winds up in the hands of one of Peter's ex-girlfriends (maybe Felicia Hardy or Liz Allen or Betty Brant or a reincarnated Gwen Stacy), who, having no idea that the baby belongs to Peter, adopts it (after paying a hefty fee) and raises it as her own. Not knowing that her baby survived, Mary Jane spirals into a depression and descends into madness - and becomes so crazy that, by the end of the arc, she becomes engaged to a supervillain. Meanwhile, Peter, in search of a family to belong to, ends up moving in with his ex-girlfriend and her adopted baby. Desperate to resume her relationship with Peter, his ex-girlfriend tells him that he should consider the baby to be 'his'. (Irony of ironies!)

As stated, the traditional Spiderman themes - superheroing and crimefighting - are to take a back seat in this storyline. To make matters worse (in the eyes of the fans), veteran characters such as Flash Thompson, J. Jonah Jameson, Robbie Robertson, Aunt May, Harry Osborn, are sidelined, and new, inconsequential supporting characters take their place. The new characters (interns at the Daily Bugle?) purport to be Peter and Mary Jane's friends, but one by one, discover the fate of the baby - and resolve to keep it a secret from the couple. Mary Jane and Peter mustn't know because, 'It is for the greater good', 'The baby went to a good home, after all', 'Peter and his ex are happy with their new family', 'If Mary Jane wants to break up with Peter and marry a monster, it's her own decision - she's an adult'. Later, the excuse becomes: 'We've kept the baby-napping secret for such a long time, we could all go to jail for not telling the police'. In effect, the new characters who are privy to 'the secret' blackmail each other into keeping quiet. In addition, as a quid pro quo, Norman Osborn bribes them with money.

The story concentrates on the minor characters to the exclusion of all others (except for Mary Jane and Peter), and the minors engage in endless debate as to whether or not to reveal 'the secret' and repeat, ad nauseam, the same arguments, the same catchphrases.

All of this would be met with hostility from readers, on the following grounds:

• The usual fun and bright tone of the Spiderman series has been replaced with a dark and serious one. Most people don't enjoy reading stories about grim subjects - miscarriage and a woman's descent into post-partum depression. Spiderman readers buy the series because they want to see Spiderman do superheroics - e.g., battle Doc Ock, Electro and Mysterio, and thwart bank robberies.

• The fact that the baby nappers (Norman Osborne and his gang) and their accessories after the fact (the minor characters) got away with their crimes offends the readers' natural sense of justice. The wrongdoers benefit from the crime while Peter and Mary Jane suffer: immorality is rewarded and goodness is punished.

This hypothetical Spiderman baby-snatch storyline follows the current Bold storyline to a tee. The story on Bold has gone on for eight long months - a record for Bold - to the exclusion of all others on what is usually a multi-storyline show. A grim tone now pervades what has always been a light, fluffy, camp and colourful TV series, and the central theme of Bold - the fashion industry - has been cast aside, as have veteran characters. The budget has been cut to the bone, and only a few sets - and a few actors - are used, over and over. Minor, new characters, have come to the fore. Longtime Bold watchers have been forced to endure them and their extraordinarily repetitious dialogue (which has been virtually the same day after day). Because of the change in tone, subject matter and characters (some of whom are acting out of character), Bold fans are leaving the series in droves, and while many fans may disagree as to which character is their favourite, all of them are united in hatred of the baby snatch storyline. And the makers of the show seemed to be oblivious to this. It is only recently that they show signs of waking up: they are bringing the baby snatch storyline to a juddering halt, and are wrapping it up prematurely, finishing it in August when they intended to string it out until November.


II.  Some background, some MBTI

Bold and the Beautiful revolves around two families: the Logans, a working-class family from the Midwest, who move to Los Angeles, and the Forresters, a wealthy Californian family (also originally from the Midwest) who run a fashion house called Forrester Creations. A third, smaller family, the Spencers - who run a publishing conglomerate, Spencer Publications - interweaves with the two main families.

This YouTube video gives a quick summary of the entire Bold saga, and the intermarrying and intercoupling of the three families, in six minutes. It covers the years from 1987 to 2008.

The above may make Bold seem complicated, but Bold really does make it easy for the viewer to understand what is going on. For one, Bold colour-codes the families for your convenience. You will notice that most of the Logans are blonde:

Ridge FORRESTER, the hero of the show, for most of the series is caught between two women - Brooke LOGAN, who is blonde, and Dr Taylor Hayes (née Hamilton), who is brunette. The family Ridge has with Taylor is brunette:

Hairstyle and accessories help differentiate a family as well. Bill Spencer II, the head of Spencer Publications, wears a goatee and so does his son, Liam. Two of his sons wear dagger medallions.

The Bold series shows a remarkable stability: four leading characters were played by the same actors for the first twenty-five years. During that time, two wilful and passionate women stood at the center of the Bold saga: Brooke LOGAN and Stephanie FORRESTER.

Brooke LOGAN leads the Logan family, which is from the beginning of the series female-dominated. In the first season, five of the family members are female and only one is male; the father - Stephen LOGAN - is absent, and has been absent for some time.

Brooke, an earthy, womanly and nurturing type, is portrayed as a slave to her passions - she has five children by four different daddies. I type her as an ESFJ.

Stephanie FORRESTER, mother of four children, leads the Forrester family. She is married to the gentle, dreamy and vacillating fashion designer Eric FORRESTER, who leaves her not once, but several times, for a woman who is much younger.  Each time Stephanie swears vengeance. Stephanie displays all the worst qualities of an ENFJ villain character: she is brooding, vindictive, controlling,  manipulative, bullying, temperamental, waspish and, in the words of Brooke, 'cruel'.

The rivalry - or enmity - between Brooke and Stephanie lasts for twenty-five years (Stephanie dies of cancer in 2012). Stephanie disdains Brooke, not only because Brooke marries Eric and bears him two children, but because Brooke marries Stephanie's two sons, Ridge and Thorne FORRESTER, as well. (In Bold, romantic partners are shared by father and son, brother and brother, sister and sister).

Brooke and Stephanie's personality types share the same leading function - Extraverted Feeling (Fe). Two types who share the same dominant function enjoy what Socionics calls a Kindred relationship.

The other long-standing rivalry, between Taylor Hayes and Brooke LOGAN, is called the 'Triangle of Doom' by Bold fans. Taylor, a psychiatrist, therapist and counselor, has for years competed with Brooke for the same man - Ridge. Taylor, who is somewhat unbalanced mentally and is forever catastrophising, sees herself as a downtrodden woman who is forever being taken advantage of. I type her as an ISFJ.

(Brooke, an ESFJ, and Taylor, an ISFJ, share the same personality functions but in a different order. The two types stand to one another in what Socionics calls a Mirror relation).

Since the 2000s, Taylor invented a narrative - which she repeats to all and sundry - that Brooke is a homewrecker who broke up Ridge and Taylor's marriage and stole Ridge. This reverses the truth: Taylor broke up Brooke's marriage, not the other way around. In 2002, Taylor dies (in what was the third of her three 'deaths' in the series - as in Marvel comics, death of a character is not forever) and Brooke is left to raise Taylor's three children by Ridge. After coming back to life in 2005, Taylor takes back Ridge (after thanking Brooke for helping raise the children), but soon cheats on him by kissing fireman Hector Ramirez. Because of this, and because Taylor confessed to a past infidelity with Dr James Warwick, Ridge leaves Taylor, who then plunges into an affair with Ridge's brother, the recently widowed Thorne FORRESTER. (Thorne's wife Darla died after being run over in a hit and run incident; the driver of the car was - Taylor).

Brooke's rivalry with Taylor, Taylor's narrative that 'Brooke wrecked my family with Ridge', Taylor and Stephanie's shared pathological hatred of 'The Logans', lit the fuse of the current baby-napping storyline - as we shall see.

III. Into the 2010s

In the next phase of Bold - after the 2000s - we meet the next generation of Logans, Forresters and Spencers. Brooke and Taylor's children from the 1990s, Hope LOGAN and Steffy and Thomas FORRESTER, reach adulthood, and Hope and Steffy go on to repeat their mothers' Triangle of Doom. You'll notice below that Hope (a Logan) is blonde, Steffy (a Forrester) is brunette:

What are the pair's personality types? Hope, a dreary, by the book martinet, turns her fashion line 'Hope for the Future' into a morality campaign, the objective of which is to persuade young women to save themselves for marriage. Because she practises what she preaches, her relationships with Oliver Jones and then Liam SPENCER suffer. Her sexually-frustrated fiancé Liam becomes an easy target for the predatory Steffy. I compare Hope to the Vulcans on Star Trek and type her as an ISTJ (like Spock).

Steffy, a vivacious, forceful, headstrong young woman, I type as an ESTP. (She reminds me of Lois Lane, another ESTP ). At the time that the adult Hope arrives on the scene, Steffy begins a relentless campaign to drive the Logans out of Forrester Creations. To that end, she lies, manipulates, bullies and seduces. She tries to steal Hope's boyfriend Oliver Jones and then Katie LOGAN's husband Bill SPENCER II (Katie is Hope's aunt). Failing both times, she succeeds with Hope's new fiancé Liam SPENCER (Liam is the son of Bill).

What are the relations between the ISTJ and ESTP types? Socionics calls them Contrary or Extinguishment relations. And on that note, there is another famous Contrary, ESTP-ISTJ pair: Captain Kirk and Mr Spock.

The overbearing and sanctimonious Hope and the dynamic and beautiful Steffy go to war over Liam, who, like Ridge before him, could be accused of vacillating - and playing the two women against one another (at least unconsciously). And so the second Triangle of Doom begins. Both women end up marrying Liam several times. Eventually, Hope, tired of Liam's lack of commitment (at some level, she senses that Liam isn't really into her), turns to Liam's half-brother Wyatt Fuller-SPENCER. She ends up marrying Wyatt in fit of pique with Liam (after Liam turns up ten minutes late for an appointment!) and becomes pregnant, but miscarries (in tried and true soap opera fashion - she falls down a flight of stairs). It is then the actress who plays Hope, Kim Matula, leaves the series.

IV.  A New Hope

Did that mean the end of the Hope Logan character? Not at all: after a few years, Hope was recast. And - as often happens when a character is recast - the personality type of the character changed.

In 2018, Liam had remarried Steffy just as his father, Bill Spencer II, was embarking on what is called in wrestling the 'Heel Turn': that is, Bill shifted from being a hero to a villain. After weeks of mutual flirting, Bill and Steffy enjoy a one-night stand. Remorseful, Steffy returns to Liam but keeps the encounter a secret, and the blissfully ignorant Liam renews his wedding vows with Steffy that same evening. Later, she takes a paternity test in secret (the child is proven to be Liam's) but Liam discovers the test after Steffy accidentally leaves the results hanging out of her purse. Shattered, Liam leaves Steffy and moves in to a roach motel. It is there that the new Hope, played by the lovely Annika Noelle, finds him - and nurses him through his trauma.

Hope's type has been change from a drab and humourless ISTJ to a warm and nurturing ESFJ, and we understand perfectly why Liam gravitates towards Hope and abandons Steffy. The 'Lope' relationship (the Liam and Hope relationship, as it is called by Bold fans) starts again but this time with a clean slate, as if Hope were a brand new character (which she is). 

Liam annuls his marriage to Steffy and becomes engaged to Hope - but, bizarrely enough, breaks off the engagement after he is persuaded to return to Steffy, who in the mean time has given birth to a girl, Kelly (named after Liam's deceased mother). Trouble comes in twos in soaps, and it turns out that Hope has become pregnant too. Hope and Liam marry, and at this point, tragedy strikes.

Taylor has returned to Los Angeles from one of her periodic absences, and is filled with fury that 'The Logans' have won again - that Hope LOGAN, daughter of Brooke LOGAN, has succeeded in winning Liam once again from Steffy. For whatever reason, Steffy has decided on having another child - a sibling for Kelly - and is expressing a desire to adopt. Taylor meets and has an affair with a gambling addict and crooked doctor, Reese Buckingham, who owes money to loan sharks who are threatening his and his daughter's lives. Taylor lets slip that she's prepared to pay big money for a baby for her daughter.

Liam and a heavily pregnant Hope prepare to travel to the resort island of Catalina. Liam misses the plane because - on Hope's insistence - he is to attend to his sick daughter, who is being looked after by Steffy. Storms and a blackout hit the island, and Hope goes into labour and gets taken to a deserted hospital where the only doctor on duty is - Reese Buckingham. In a grueling and nightmarish scene, Hope delivers a baby and passes out, and wakes up to find Liam (who has made his way to Catalina through the storm) by her bedside. The child was stillborn, Liam tells her, and Dr Buckingham hands them the baby's corpse. Liam and Hope hold it and collapse sobbing. The producers of Bold, for the show's 8000th episode, gave us one of its gloomiest ever.

V.  The Babynapping

In this episode and subsequent ones, the veteran Bold viewer will pick up on a few clues and begin to suspect that all is not as it seems; he may begin to wonder if Hope's baby may have somehow survived and the writers are steering Bold towards a classic baby-swap storyline. The changeling story - where one baby is stolen, or substituted for another - runs through the history of soaps like a motif.

Our suspicions are proven correct when it is revealed that Dr Buckingham switched Hope's baby Beth with the stillborn baby of another woman patient at the Catalina hospital that same night. Buckingham solicits the aid of an accomplice, Flo Fulton (a casino dealer from Las Vegas), to pose as a birth mother to the kidnapped child, who is sold to a gullible Taylor and Steffy for $250,000. ($50,000 goes to Flo as a payment for services rendered, the rest goes to the loan sharks).

The show takes a dark tone as Liam and Hope's marriage falls apart and Hope descends into an almost suicidal depression. She tells Liam to give up on her and go to Steffy, who is now the single mother of two baby girls and is dangling in front of Liam the prospect of a ready-made family. The subtext of Steffy's actions is, 'Why be with a woman who has suffered not one but two miscarriages when you can be with a woman who has two adorable little baby girls?'. Steffy keeps on telling Liam, over and over, that he is the 'father' of the little girl she has adopted (Steffy has named her Phoebe, after Steffy's deceased twin sister, Phoebe FORRESTER), that he should treat Phoebe as his own...

Steffy's brother Thomas FORRESTER returns to the series, and is recast. Just like Hope's, the character's personality type changes as a result. The new Thomas - the fourth adult version of the character - exhibits all the attributes of an INTJ bad guy: he is brooding, manipulative, dark, controlling - all in all, a stock villain type and a master planner, like Star Wars' Palpatine. This marks a dramatic change in Thomas. In his previous incarnations, Thomas showed moral lapses; in his latest, he becomes the soap's villain.

Thomas comes back to Los Angeles from New York after his partner, Caroline SPENCER (Liam's cousin), dies off-screen. Thomas has been left alone to raise their child, the five-year-old Douglas FORRESTER. Looking for a new wife, Thomas becomes obsessed with Hope, and putting on a mask of sorts to attract her, he plays the grieving widower part to the hilt. Hope, meanwhile, develops an attachment to the boy, and soon treats him as a substitute for the child she has recently lost. Hope - who is steadily becoming more and more crazy - becomes convinced that she must marry Thomas for the sake of 'that poor little boy' and that Liam must return to Steffy to be a 'father to the girls'. (This line of thinking is encouraged by Thomas, who pulls off plenty of tricks to gaslight Hope into marrying him).

Flo Fulton remains in Los Angeles after the baby has been adopted, and in quick succession, four (!) other new minor characters discover the truth about the baby swap. They engage in endless debate as to the rightness or wrongness of withholding the truth from Liam and Hope. Suffice to say, the truth is never told, as that would bring the story to a close.

The message of the storyline - and perhaps this is not one that the writers and producers intended - is that immoral behaviour is rewarded. The minor characters benefit by keeping quiet, Steffy gets her ex-husband back, Thomas gets a new wife. (Thomas becomes one of the people who discover 'the secret', and resolves, naturally, to keep that information to himself). Hope and Liam, meanwhile, are - like the Stark family in Game of Thrones - punished for their goodness.

VI. The end?

For eight long months, and a 150 episodes, the series has focused on the baby swap storyline. Normally, two or three storylines run in Bold simultaneously, and each of these is wrapped up fairly quickly. But this hasn't been the case here. All characters aside from Hope, Liam, Steffy, Thomas and the new, minor ones have been relegated to walk-on roles (if they are to appear at all), and the story has hardly moved on since the 8000th episode. We the viewers are subjected to the same conversations, day in, day out, regarding 'the secret', 'the girls Phoebe and Kelly', 'that poor little boy Douglas'. (The budget axe must have hit the show hard, as all these conversations take place at the same limited number of sets and actors). None of the characters appear to do any work, and the business side of Forrester Creations has been forgotten completely - in fact, it wouldn't surprise me if the company in this time has gone broke.

The two themes of the past eight months - miscarriage and post-partum depression - touch a sore spot for many of the show's viewers, particularly women, and it is here that the writers have displayed a remarkable insensitivity. The story could have been better handled if the phony miscarriage had been dropped down the memory hole as soon as it had happened, just as the writers of Spiderman did the same with Mary Jane Watson's. The characters could have then been moved on to something else.

The writers also missed an opportunity by not revealing the truth of baby Beth's abduction (and sale) until the last minute. Flo Fulton's character could have been taken at face value as the when she first appeared as the baby's birth mother; the audience did not need to be let in on the baby-swap scam straight away. But the writers instead took the same route as the old detective show Columbo, in which the identity of the murderer in every episode is known from the outset (see 'Inverted detective story').

But now, at last, the eight-month baby swap story has come to an end. The writers may have finished it sooner than they would have liked, but at some point, the makers of the show came to the conclusion that the series could not survive after alienating the loyal fanbase to such an extent. Were it that today's publishers of Marvel had such wisdom.

Mark Hootsen signing off.

MBTI: How to type TV characters in four easy steps - Bold and the Beautiful, the first season

1.   Introduction

You can type comic book characters fairly easily using my method, because the comic book medium works the same way as a cartoon: a comic book deliberately exaggerates personality traits and caricatures them, and, what is more, it embodies those traits in a visual form. This means that a superhero or supervillain character's degree of Extraversion or Introversion can be guessed, for instance, from his costume and his base or hideout.

In addition, comic book heroes and villains possess super-human abilities and powers which help determine a character's personality type. This aspect of the comic book genre, particularly the superhero genre, can give us a short-cut to typing a character. And because the characters in a good many TV shows in the science fiction and fantasy genre (Star Trek, for example) are super-powered, they can be easily typed using the methods you would use to type a Marvel or DC character.

What about soap opera characters? Here we face an uphill battle. Because the soap opera genre demands more realism than sci-fi or fantasy, soap opera characters do not use telepathy or super-strength, nor are their personality traits revealed in a conveniently cartoonish, exaggerated visual form. But here, I think, I have developed a viable method - one which makes use of the character's appearance, but also, their dialogue and actions. This will help work out a whether a character is a Judger or Perceiver, Intuitive or Sensor, Thinker or Feeler, Introvert or Introvert.

In this essay, I will illustrate how this method works by making use of the characters in the first season (from 1987) of the most popular daytime TV soap in the world - Bold and the Beautiful. The show has enjoyed its success - it is still running over thirty years later - because of its portrayal of attractive people living a wealthy, glamorous and leisurely lifestyle in Los Angeles, but also (and here it shares some qualities with the comic book medium) because of the accessibility and simplicity of its format and the cartoonishness and colourfulness of its characters.

The first season of Bold sets up the characters, and the formula, for the remainder of the series: when you watch the first season (and it can be found on DVD and on YouTube), you will see that the show in its present incarnation has hardly moved on from 1987. Bold concerns two families: the wealthy but unhappy Forresters, who run an élite fashion house in Los Angeles, and the struggling but happy Logans, who have emigrated to Los Angeles from the Midwest. A third family - the Spencers - weave in and out of the story. They consist - in the first season - of the widowed billionaire and owner of Spencer Publications, the bitter, brooding William Spencer I, and his sheltered, virginal daughter Caroline. While Bold, like all soaps, uses an ensemble cast - if it were a superhero comic book, it would be called a team book - two characters in particular stand out. The young, arrogant and handsome Ridge Forrester plays the hero role, and the young, beautiful and maternal Brooke Logan, the heroine. As the first season progresses, Brooke becomes fascinated by the Forresters' wealth and fame, and inveigles herself in their circle - and the rest is history. Members of the two families meet and intermarry, but no-one in Bold stays faithful for long - they cheat, are found out, break up and then move on to the next affair. But all this happens at a slow pace. Because of this slowness, and the excellent story-telling, you can stop watching Bold for six months, and then, after resuming, pick up on the storyline as if you've never been away.

A few of the key characters are played by the same actor for years, but inevitably, over the passage of time, a character will be recast, and as a result, the character will change his or her personality type. For example, I type Brooke's younger sister as an ISFJ in the first season and an ISFP in the current. Generally, if a character is played by the same actor, it will stay consistent. Brooke Logan and Eric Forrester have been played by the same actors for 32 years, and have retained their personality type from the first season.

2.   Judging or Perceiving: Town Hall Man versus Theseus

Jung makes a distinction between the Judging (or 'rational') type and the Perceiving (or 'irrational'). More or less, the Rational type follows a well thought-out, highly structured world view (even if he is not inclined to self-reflection), while the Irrational type does not. The dichotomy is signified by the letters J (Judging) or P (Perceiving). (Confusingly, MBTI goes by a different definition of Perceiving and Judging, and categorises the Introverted Judging types in Jung as Perceivers and the Introverted Perceiving as Judgers. In this section, I will be following Jung's definition, not MBTI's).

How do we tell a Judging from a Perceiving TV character? I compare a Judging character to the man in the Norman Rockwell painting who comes to a town hall. He arrives armed with an agenda and wants events to go in a certain way and expects them to go a certain way. Mentally, he works with a highly detailed and elaborate system of protocols which details how events will unfold and how he should react to them. In other words, he relies heavily upon his Judging function, which, as we shall see later, is either a Thinking or Feeling one.

In contrast, the Perceiving character follows his Perceiving function (Sensing or Intuiting) through the maze of life, like Theseus groping his way around the Minotaur’s maze using the thread given to him by Ariadne. He relies upon, and trusts, his Perceiving function.

The questions to be asked when typing a character are: does he follow a system of protocols which he rigidly adheres and rarely, if ever, deviates from? Does he take the position that most things in life must be done in a certain way, and there is no other way? Or does he follow his Intuiting or Sensing function wherever it may lead? Does the character expect events to unfold in a certain sequence, to which he has a pre-programmed list of responses, or does he take life as it comes?

In the first season of Bold, Extraverted Judging characters, such as Brooke Logan and Ridge Forrester, impose their Judging functions on others in an immediately noticeable manner; with the Introverts, such as Conway Weston and Margo Lynley, the imposition is far more subtle.

The private investigator Conway Weston, for instance, doesn’t talk much, but we see his Judging quality at work when, after discovering (and recording) Ridge’s infidelity, he doggedly persists in his attempt to bring the news to his boss, William Spencer I, who has hired Conway to dig up dirt on Ridge. This is even after Spencer begins to avoid Weston and makes it clear to him that he’s changed his mind on Ridge: having become convinced (erroneously) of Ridge's good character, Spencer wants to renege on his contract with Weston and no longer wants to hear bad things about Ridge. In Weston’s world view (and all Judgers have a world view), a contract is a contract, and you deliver what’s originally been paid for – and that is that. No exceptions exist to the rule. Hence Weston's doggedness and persistence.

In Margo, we see a similar obstinancy, but in her case, it consists in holding to clear moral judgments once they are made. After she decides that Ridge is a morally bad person – who should be treated as such – she continues in upholding that evaluation, even after she comes under pressure from others (such as William Spencer I) who try and persuade her that she is mistaken. She subscribes to a world view in which one simply doesn’t do what Ridge does, and that world view comes first. Judging pertains to an order of priority: the Judging function and its judgements come before the Perceiving function and its perceptions.

One should not think, from the above, that unlike the Judging characters, the Perceiving characters do not try and assert themselves and control others: two of the Perceiving characters in Bold, William Spencer I and Rocco Carner, are continually trying to do both. The difference between their types and the Judging type is that the Perceiving characters do not act according to an overarching world view. In this, William Spencer I presents a contrast with his son, Bill Spencer II (who is to first appear on the show twenty years later). Bill Spencer II, a Judger and an Extravert, expounds his worked-out, highly elaborate world view at tedious length to anyone will listen.

To sum up: in order to type a character as a Judger or Perceiver, we need to ask, how do they want to live their life? Do they assiduously follow a 'prime directive' (to paraphrase Star Trek) or do they

i) pursue enthusiastically whatever possibilities and opportunities that arise (Extraverted Intuition);

ii) stay in their comfort zone (Introverted Sensing);

iii) defend territory, acquire wealth and influence, become upwardly mobile, and pursue the good things in life (Extraverted Sensing);

iv) engage in morbid brooding and introspection on the past and how it leads to the future (Introverted Intuition).

3.   Thinking or Feeling: The Mechanic versus the Empath

Thinking and Feeling characters differ in their approach to reality. Thinkers tackle life events like a mechanic or a surgeon – they try and operate on it, and stand detached from it. They look at life from the outside and try manipulate it and bring about a certain result. Whereas Thinkers stand on the outside of reality, Feelers try and get inside: they want to know what it looks like from that perspective and put themselves in the shoes of others and experience their emotions, feelings, dreams, fears. (This in turn leads to a preoccupation with customs, mores, manners, ethics, morals). They want to live all this and experience meanings and values at first hand, whereas a Thinker tries to pursue an objective and asks himself what is the most quickest, efficient and rational means of attaining that objective.

None of this means that a Thinking character is unable to feel, nor does it mean that a Feeler character is unable to think. Determining whether a character is a Thinker or Feeler involves working out a character's priorities - which Judging function, Feeling or Thinking, do they go to first and most habitually.

We see the Thinker versus Feeler dichotomy at work in one of the earliest episodes, in which Storm Logan, Brooke's brother, and Dave Reed, her fiancé (and police detective) argue. Storm’s sister, Brooke, has nearly been kidnapped and raped (!) in the first episode by a pair of roving thugs who drive a van. Storm, a Feeler, explodes in rage against Dave, a Thinker, because Dave talks about the incident in a cool, collected manner. In a rather clinical way, Dave puts forward the idea of catching the two criminals by setting them up in a sting – and using Brooke, his own girlfriend, as bait. Storm is offended by Reed’s apparent coldness and feels (and displays) anger for what happened to his sister; Reed assures him that ‘I want to catch those two scum as much you do’, but to him, being rational and being methodical takes priority.

At their worst, Thinkers give the impression of being cold and manipulative, Feelers, emotional and reactive.

4.   Sensing or Intuition: Appearance versus Essence

How does a character receive information, and what does he do with it? A Sensor character restricts himself to things as they are appear, and is quite content with the surface of reality; an Intuitive wants to penetrate that surface and view the essence of things. The question becomes one of either living in reality, the material world and the present or wanting to go beyond them.

A textbook example of this dichotomy turns up in the very first episode. After the Forrester fashion show, Ridge tells his father Eric that he is dissatisfied with Eric’s designs for the collection: they lack sex, sensuality, they have no ‘sizzle’. Eric responds by delivering a classic monologue – on the true meaning of fashion and what clothes ultimately mean to women. He speaks in terms of absolutes and tries to explain the essence, or Platonic Ideal, of women’s fashion to Ridge – and fails. Sensor and Intuitive here do not see eye to eye, and never shall the twain meet.

Generally we can tell if a character is a Sensor or Intuitive from the dialogue. Conway Weston, in his first appearance, speaks in simple, concise and declarative sentences which state what is the case. Grandma Logan, in her first appearance – in a conversation with her grandson Storm – immediately touches upon the subject of the past (the disappearance of her son Stephen, Storm’s father, from his family’s lives) and how this relates to the future (could Storm end up being true to type and being like his father?). For the Intuitive, the world of the present, of surfaces, is disregarded: the Intuitive is preoccupied with what could be or what has always been and will be.

The Intuitive, from the outset, is always trying to burrow beneath the surface of reality. Usually we see this at work in the establishing scenes for a character. In her first appearance, Stephanie, in her exchange with Eric, skips over the small talk and tries to work out what is truly going on, beyond the surface and behind the scenes, with their marriage, which she fears is in decline. And even Donna Logan’s first lines – sparse as they are – deal with what would be and could be.

Compare this to one of Storm's first lines - a command to his younger sister, Katie: 'How about being a good kid sister, go get your brother a sandwich'. The Sensor character lives in the material world, and that, to him, is all there is. The Introverted Sensor in particular (and Storm is one) likes things as they are and likes his material comforts.

Here some rules of thumb for telling what type of Intuitive or Sensor a character is in a soap opera:

i)  The dialogue of the Extraverted Sensor, and the general attitude, is marked by a certain aggressiveness and territoriality. This can manifest itself in terseness or snarkiness, or a desire to impose one's will on others - pushing things to see how far they can go - for its own sake, which in turn leads to cajoling or bullying. In terms of life choices, the Extraverted Sensor wants to acquire material resources, and appreciates the finer things in life - an appreciation which can lend itself to aestheticism and sensuality.

ii) The Introverted Intuitive likes to brood a lot on what the future will bring, and usually does this (in best soap opera tradition) staring out of a skyscraper window or into a fireplace, often while nursing a stiff drink from a nearby whiskey trolley. When stressed - and the soap opera character is often stressed - the Introverted Intuitive is filled with suspicion and paranoia, and anxiety regarding the future. In terms of dialogue, the Introverted Intuitive speaks in terms of absolutes, essences, what endures over time. He types people, makes predictions of their future behaviour on the basis of their past, states what they are and how they will wind up becoming what they always have been.

iii) The Introverted Sensor - one of the most common types, in soaps and in real life - values domesticity, comfort, harmony, and domestic order and hygiene. He prefers to stay still, and opts for the traditional and conservative. But this latter preference does not translate into a rejection of pleasure: he likes bodily comfort and enjoyment. But he takes pleasure only in the present, the here and now, the close to hand, and does not want to progress beyond that - that is, he does not want to acquire more, he lacks all sense of upward mobility. Habitually, he thinks small. This is the reason why Donna Logan decides to move out of the Logan home - she is fleeing the cloying embrace of her Introverted Sensing (Si) family.

iv) Whereas the Introverted Intuitive thinks and talks in terms of what will be, the Extraverted Intuitive talks and thinks in terms of what could be and what would be - a subtle but important distinction. He sees the potentiality in things - how an acorn can become an oak tree. Tasked with finding a finding a boyfriend for her shy, reclusive sister Katie, Donna Logan stumbles across the brash, loud-mouthed Rocco Carner in the school library and instead of writing him off, she sees a potential love match between Katie and Rocco almost at once, and then tries to sell Rocco on her sister. Opportunism and entrepeneurialism characterise the Extraverted Intuitive. In Bold, the Extraverted Intutitive character can see the potentiality for a new relationship, a new fashion design or (when the Extraverted Intuitive is a predator, as is the case with the criminal Ron Deacon) a new victim.

As with the preceding sections, none of the above rules out a character from using a certain function;  the descriptions above cover the Perceiving function a character feels most comfortable with. On that point, a type which gravitates towards a particular Perceiving function will cancel another Perceiving function out. For instance, the Introverted Intuitive does not value the domestic comfort, harmony and traditional of the Introverted Sensor, and the Introverted Sensor rejects any gloomy forecasting and philosophising, and drama, of the Introverted Intuitive. Likewise, the Extraverted Sensor lacks the Extraverted Intuitive's creativity and perception of the hidden connections between apparently disparate phenomena, whereas the Extraverted Intuitive lacks the Extraverted Sensor's willingness to use force to defend territory and effort to acquire material things.

This explains the differences between characters who share a same function. Take, for instance, the difference between the two matriarchs of the Forrester and Logan families - Stephanie Forrester and Beth Logan. Both of them are Judgers, and Extraverted Feelers, but could not be more unalike. The brooding and paranoid Stephanie shows a real flair for the dramatic; the homely and down to earth Beth, for housekeeping, cooking and taking care of her family. The two differing characters illustrate the difference between Introverted Intuition and Sensing respectively. (One gets the impression that Stephanie has never washed dishes in her life).

Another example: Kristen Forrester and Margo Lynley. Both of them work at Forrester Creations as fashion designers, and both are Introverted Feelers. But the snarky Kristen continually asserts herself whereas the drippy Margo comes across as a doormat. Again, the difference in Perceiving functions explains the difference between characters: Margo is an Extraverted Intuitive, Kristen, an Extraverted Sensor.

5.  Introvert or Extravert: Center Stage versus a Life in the Shadows

A character discloses their Extraversion or Introversion through his environment and how they position themselves in relation to it. Introverted characters most frequently appear in dark, enclosed spaces – see Katie Logan in her bedroom, Conway Weston in his private investigator’s office, William Spencer in his penthouse and Margo Lynley in her designer’s studio. They prefer darkness and seclusion, whereas Extraverts like brightly-lit environments.

How do Extravert and Introvert characters use space?  Extraverts seem to dominate their environment and use it as a stage in which they occupy the center. In the first episode, at backstage at the Forrester fashion show, Ridge, an Extravert, dominating the space, calls attention to himself, whereas Thorne and Eric, both Introverts, lingering in the background, hide themselves in what is a dark and shadowy set. Thorne in particular lacks all charisma and strikes us from the beginning as being pleasant and affable enough but a non-entity. His mother, Stephanie, on the other hand, exudes charisma and with a commanding presence (and brightly-coloured, stylish clothes), she occupies center stage at the brightly-lit, sumptuous Forrester mansion. Brooke also likes brightly-coloured clothes and shines in every scene. She glows, in contrast to her sister, Katie, who views herself as being disfigured by her severe acne and tries to hide herself away. She lives as a recluse, as do two of the other Introvert women characters, Caroline Spencer and Kristin Forrester.

Mark Hootsen, signing off.