Question from Emailer:
I noticed the typing of Snowden as an INFP but he seems like a clear INTJ. He certainly has Fi and Te but above all he has Ni (not Ne).
In this video interview he has a deeply held conviction that surveillance and oppression are wrong and never feels he needs to justify it except for when he is directly asked (Ni). He also thinks about it in a very “straightforward” way, where a logical chain of events leads to a bad conclusion (surveillance -> suspicion -> oppression).
Glenn Greenwald has said that Snowden “judged his life not by the things he thought about himself but by the actions he took in pursuit of those beliefs” (25:50) and that he “had been looking for a leader… And then one day he realized there’s no point in waiting for a leader, that leadership is about going first and setting an example for others.” (26:26).
While having strong beliefs is certainly Fi, judging people by their actions and being comfortable with leaders are very INTJ traits, as is having lots of Ni as opposed to Ne. It seems much more likely that Snowden is an INTJ with very developed Fi rather than an INFP with very developed Ni.
CelebrityTypes’ Response:
First Argument:
- Edward Snowden has a deeply held conviction and never feels that he needs to justify it except when asked directly.
This is actually more Fi than Ni. His conviction is a judgment, not a perception. Around the internet you often hear the slogan that Ni “just knows”. Well, this slogan should actually be broken down into subsets. If we accept the wonderfully nondescript catchphrase of “just knowing”, then Ni’s ability to “just know” should be confined to the domain of perception.
That is to say, while Ni can “just know” whether something is the case or not, only Fi can “just know” whether something is right or wrong, moral or immoral. (Or as David Hume would say: Ni just knows that something is the case; Fi just knows that something ought to be the case.)
One is a descriptive perception; the other is a moral judgment. When Snowden “just knows” that surveillance is wrong, he is concerned with a moral judgment. On the whole, the argument that Snowden has a deeply held moral conviction that he does not feel that he needs to justify is thus an argument for Fi, not Ni.
Jung hints of these same tendencies in Psychological Types when he says:
… introverted feeling … can establish universal and permanent values. (§154)
… [introverted feeling] is there of itself, rooted in the man’s deeper nature; it wells up out of itself, having itself as its own aim; (§272)
Second argument:
- Snowden posits a logical chain, consisting of (surveillance -> suspicion -> oppression).
Well, yes, this is true, but so did George Orwell. Kierkegaard, too, has his progressive stages of existence (aesthetic -> ethical -> religious). And on the other hand, you have Nietzsche, who didn’t have any stages or logical progressions in his reasoning, but rather a wild merry-go-round.
Generally, we will say that Ni types tend to have a personal stake in their “visions” (or “primordial images”) whereas Ne types do not. Snowden’s chain, as described above, is impersonal – it is a personal moral standard, applied to an impersonal observation.
This is in accordance with Jung who says that the extroverted functions are fed off of the environment, whereas the introverted functions are fed off of the person’s own dispositions.
Third Argument:
- According to Glenn Greenwald, Edward Snowden “judged his life not by the things he thought about himself but by the actions he took in pursuit of those beliefs.”
We don’t think that this is an especially pertinent piece of evidence either way. It reads too much like something that you have to say no matter what simply to avoid sounding like a douche. To take the opposite example, what if Snowden had said: “I only care about what I think about myself; I don’t place much stock in whether I actually do something about it.”
We do agree that Fi types, especially ISFPs, can withdraw from the world and can be caught in a self-referencing loop of internal feeling, but that doesn’t mean that they would necessarily say so about themselves. And according to Jung, Ni types can also be caught in a self-referencing loop of descriptive fantasies (as Jung himself possibly was). So as we said, we don’t think that this is an especially pertinent piece of evidence either way.
Final Argument:
- According to Greenwald, Snowden “had been looking for a leader … And then one day he realized there’s no point in waiting for a leader, that leadership is about going first and setting an example for others.” … being comfortable with leaders is a very INTJ trait.
It seems that there are actually two things that are merged into one here:
- Looking for a leader to lead one
- Wanting to be a leader oneself
What you are quoting above is actually that Snowden was looking for a leader to lead him. He didn’t naturally want to be a leader. Your argument is one from statistical probability, so we will answer with statistical probability: Do INTJs tend to go around “looking for a leader”? Or do they tend to want to be a leader themselves?
Finally, we get Snowden’s take on leadership, namely that “leadership is about going first and setting an example for others.” That doesn’t sound like a typical INTJ’s take on leadership either.
Let’s look at how INFPs traditionally do in a leadership position:
- They dislike hierarchy and traditional forms of authoritative leadership.
- They lead in unconventional ways, by encouragement and idealism more than by command and decree.
- They allow subordinates the freedom to go their own way and contribute individually as they see fit.
And then how an INTJ typically tackles the role of leader:
- They are not idealistic in the leadership role, but goal-oriented. They define the goals that must be reached, and push for them.
- They typically have novel ideas that they thought up themselves. They want these ideas implemented in the world, and they are extremely resolute and decisive in fighting to get exactly their ideas through to the world – the “individual contributions” of others can go jump in a lake.
- They enjoy the hierarchy when they are on top, but unless their superior is exceptionally competent they dislike the hierarchy when they are subordinate.
Thus, in the passage you quoted above, Snowden’s attitude to leadership is actually far more INFP than INTJ.
And thus, by our own research, as well as by the arguments examined in this post, we believe Snowden to be INFP.