Michelle Obama’s inspirational speech on Tuesday night has been getting lots of attention and Barak himself will be taking the stage tonight.  While I was listening to Michelle, our first lady, speak about her husband and her key words to describe him got me thinking about his personality type…I think he is and ENFJ.  Here’s why.

Michelle used phrases like “make decisions based on his values” and “visionary leader”.  These are key terms for NF’s, the two middle letters of the MBTI four letter whole type.

Intuitive Types (N) are visionaries, they see the big picture rather than the small details.  They prefer concepts to details (as the Sensing types prefer)  and imagination to reality (S).

Feeling Types(F)  make decisions based on their values, feelings and feelings of others.  Rather, Thinking Types make logical, rational decisions with very little to no emotion involved.

NF are called Idealists.  Idealists have often been described as being creative, enthusiastic, humane, imaginative, insightful, religious, subjective, and sympathetic.

Although the Idealists make up only about 12 percent of the general population, their influence on the minds of the populace is massive, for most writers come from this group. Novelists, dramatists, therapists,  television writers, playwrights, journalists, poets, and biographers are almost exclusively NFs. The questions which this group asks about the meaning of life, of their own lives, and what is significant for humankind, saturate fictional literature.

Here is the four letter whole type of an ENFJ:

ENFJ-The Giver

Here is a famous saying about Idealist:

  • Becoming a Person means the individual moves towards being. Knowingly and acceptingly, the process which he inwardly and actually is. He moves away from being what he is not, from being a facade. He is not trying to be more than he is, with the attendant feelings of insecurity or bombastic defensiveness. He is not trying to be less than he is, with the attendant feelings of guilt or self-depreciation. He is increasingly listening to the deepest recesses of the psychological and emotional being, and finds himself increasingly willing to be, with greater accuracy and depth, that self which he most truly is.

-Carl Rogers, On Becoming A Person. Boston; Houghton Mifflin, 1961, p. 176

Self-realization for the NF means to have integrity, that is, unity. There must be no facade, no mask, no pretense, no sham, no playing of roles. To have integrity is to be genuine, to communicate authentically, to be in harmony with the inner experiences of self.

What do you think?  Is our President an NF?

Thanks for reading, stay tuned for more Type Talk.

Jessica Butts MA, LMHCA

p.s. I embrace my imperfection so please excuse any grammatical errors.