Why Eminem is ISFP
May 11, 2011
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Posted by admin
There seems to be near-universal consensus that Eminem is Introverted whereas there is disagreement about the other letters.
In our view, he clearly prefers Sensing. As a world-class rapper he is noted for his use of rhyme and assonance which is to say for the sound of his lyrics rather than for any abstraction in them. Indeed, his content is highly grounded with many references to life as it unfolds around him and hardly any mention of concepts, visions of the future, or events and politics removed from his own life.
In order to make the case that Eminem is also F and P, we must invoke the cognitive functions.
Many seem to believe Eminem prefers Thinking because he can be unsmiling and cool in interviews and because his lyrics are aggressive. However, not all Feelers are friendly and people-pleasing (and not all Thinkers are hostile!); rather such disengagement is the sign of someone who introverts Feeling (Fi users) which is true of FPs and TJs. We posit that Eminem’s primary judging function is Introverted Feeling (Fi), making him one who feels deeply and passionately and inwardly, fueling the flaming intensity of his expression. Thinking is an analytical function; it has nothing to do with anger.
Introversion, Sensing, and Fi user add up to ISFP. We might add that Eminem seems like a laidback Perceiver rather than a structured Judger. Also, invoking the cognitive functions again, the above description of Sensing is really one of Extroverted Sensing (used by SPs and NJs), not Introverted Sensing (used by SJs and NPs), which again suggests P (if one accepts that Eminem is a Feeler).
Categories: Psychology
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I disagree. I think he’s definitely an intuitive. His ability to use the language and formulate ideas seems to me to be clearly that of an intuitive. Have you ever tried to write a song with a sensor? In my experience sensors are not original genius writers who can create at will. They’re more likely to be great performers or if they’re writers they have to work very hard and may accomplish things in their career but typically don’t measure up artistically to intuitives. Not that there’s anything wrong with that. Intuitives will never be as good in other fields. Writing music is in the wheelhouse of the intuitives though. Eminem is clearly a natural when it comes to musical creativity.
An ISFP is an introverted feeler and extraverted thinker. Here’s a video that shows his introverted thinking (watch him go into his head to formulate his thoughts as opposed to formulating them by talking them out) and his conceptual intuitive imagination (Watch his eyes – intuitive give away). He’s also very expressive in a way typical of an extraverted feeler:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xXV8Wd4ymCw&feature=related
He’s also clearly a judger. He’s full of judgements and likes to settle things and get on with his life. Here’s a clip of Kim Mathers talking about getting married. Typical conflict between a judger and perceiver: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lRExjF0dSQo&t=6m23s
Regarding his enunciation, that’s a result of his natural ability for musical phrasing. As someone of the same type, that’s also my strongest musical ability. I can hear original musical phrasing in my head all day long and I can create and record interesting musical phrases anywhere, any time. He’s the same way.
I can also relate to the pervasive frustration and anger that he seems to cary with him and how he channels it. Like him, when someone crosses a line with me, especially publicly, I’m very good at intuitively knowing where their soft spots are and then driving a stake through them in a way that tells people not to mess with me and shows off my ability to do it, preferably with a lot of witnesses.
INFJ all the way.
Scott,
The enunciation argument is not the one I’d make for Eminem’s preference for Se, but they’re quite right about his type. Think of Christopher Hitchens’ distinction between the literal mind and the ironic mind. In MBTI terms, that’s Se/Si versus Ne/Ni. (Head over to the INTP page and take a look at Tina Fey’s description of the ESFJ Paris Hilton as “taking herself so seriously.” That’s a good example of an ironic mind baffled by the perceived trivialness of a literal mind.)
Eminem clearly takes himself extremely seriously. He has little by way of self-deprecation, irony, or the sort of “second order” thinking that is the hallmark of preferred intuition. He takes things as they are and has little regard for intellectualizing—consider, for instance, his inability to understand why anyone would think that using the word “faggot” as an insult would make him a bigot. To him (and many others—it is surely the insult de jure of every high school boys’ locker room) it’s just a thing you say to put down men you dislike. Using it that way is “real” (as in “keeping it real”) and complaints by GLAAD and the like are just noise from sheltered people without any real-world sense.
Think of the way he stormed out of that awards show when Sacha Baron Cohen (playing an over-the-top gay Austrian) fell into his lap during a comedy skit. Think of the clichéd and romanticized way he portrayed himself in 8 Mile. Think of his many humorless, personal, trivial feuds with rappers and other celebrities over things that amount to “so-and-so talked shit about me”—something in which I find it difficult to believe an Ni-dominant person could engage for very long. Think of his inability to tolerate even the slightest mention of his daughter in insults by others, no matter how clumsy or fatuous they may be. This is plainly a literal mind, not an ironic mind—Se, not Ni.
You say he knows how to find and hit others in their soft spots; I disagree. His insults, however amusingly worded in his lyrics, are ultimately very crude—men he dislikes are faggots and pussies that would get their asses kicked in a fight; women, bitches and sluts who are crazy, diseased, or otherwise tainted. I see little evidence that Eminem has the sort of insight into other people’s minds that someone with a preference for Ni and Fe would be likely to have, or even that he has any particular interest in trying to develop such insights.
Most significantly, he demonstrates no concern whatsoever for things that transcend his own experience of life. The salient feature of dominant Ni is the belief that one “sees through” the assumptions of others and the temporary facts of one’s environment to something more true, more profound, and more eternal/universal than what anyone else thinks (or what any facts indicate). Transcending the mundane and repressing the common, the immediate, and the sensual are the inescapable features of an Ni-dominant personality (for better and for worse). Eminem does very little of this. He is basically a professional high school student whose concerns are limited to what’s going on in his life at the moment—his family, his circle of friends, the people he’s arguing with because they “dissed” him somehow. His most prominent characteristic is expressing what’s going on inside himself through his music and telling his own story (again, think 8 Mile), not seeing through to some new, cosmic understanding of concepts or people—Fi with Se, not Ni with Fe.
All of these things strongly point to ISFP and make it very unlikely that he is an INFJ.
I think he’s an ESTP. Thinking preference does indeed indicate increased likelihood of expressing anger. Thinkers don’t express much emotion other than anger, just as boys tend to express more anger than girls. Boys are not more likely to be feeling oriented than girls. Women tend to be Feelers, Men tend to be Thinkers and, yes, this is part of the reason why men are six times as likely to do prison time as women.
Besides that, the studies of children in the book Nurture By Nature describes the ISFP as one of the least assertive temperaments, competing closely for the passivity title with the ENFJ. If you know a doormat, then you probably know an ISFP. They rarely express anger, even when they have been royally screwed. At least in childhood, ISFPs are much more likely to cry about it and then try to forget it happened. Thinking-orientation is an expression of the types of behavior we associate with boys – logic AND aggression. Feeling orientation is expression of the types of behavior we associate with girls – kindness, passivity, and emotionality (sometimes to the point of irrationality).
Look up this book on amazon.com and read about the ISFP child and see if you still think Eminem was like that. It would fit his mother’s accusation that he was actually a “momma’s boy” and is now trying to hide this, but I do think she was just trying to embarrass him.
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For the record, I retract my assessment of INFJ. The previous comment was before I had any legitimate training in profiling and I thought I knew more than I did. I haven’t looked into him since, but ISFP does seem like a legitimate possibility. I also apologize for being a dick. Cheers.
This attitude is what the typing community needs! Not more chestbangers who are “always right.” And for that same record, we try to exhibit that attitude ourselves to the best of our ability. We move our typings when we become aware of better arguments and (if applicable) we credit the person who brought them to our attention.
Close with the ISFP and INFJ guesses… I’d say INTJ. (Same cognitive functions as ISFP.) He’s got the whole “evil genius” thing down, doesn’t he? His massive internal creative linguistic world points directly to a dominant Ni. His self-aggrandizement, need to win “dissing battles” and relentless anger in serious relationships also remind me of every INTJ I’ve ever known. The way he strategically rallied the audience in that rap battle in 8 mile, “predicted” his opponent’s lines, plus his lyrics seem very NT.