ENFJ Archetype: The Cleric | UDSF
ENFJs are compassionate, self-sacrificing leaders who are propelled by their personal vision to inspire others. They seek to generate healing and build up other people through education and teaching. They're drawn to roles of teaching, mentorship, ministry, and coaching. ENFJs can express themselves in a variety of ways, from being proficient hands-on tacticians who teach survival skills or fitness to being educators, philosophers, or artists. ENFJs will find a way to make an impact.
Some famous ENFJs include:
- Martin Luther King Jr.
- Kelly Clarkson
- Rob Lowe
- Neil deGrasse Tyson
- Rosario Dawson
- Nelson Mandela
Expression Style
As is true for all personality types, the ENFJ lies at the intersection between a specific expression style and a specific worldview. ENFJs are a structure type in interaction style, meaning that they are direct, initiating, and outcome-focused.
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Direct: ENFJs often have a commanding and even domineering presence. Being a structure type makes their directness often controlling and enforcing; they say what they mean, and they don't mince words.
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Initiating: ENFJs don't wait around for people to come to them in social gatherings, at work, or in the comfort of their own home; they go to others and start interactions and conversations.
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Outcome-Focused: ENFJs are planners; they don't like disorder or leaving things to chance. Their Ni parent perceives way out into their future and invests time in making the best possible plan before jumping into action. Let them plan things out before you pressure them into starting something.
Worldview
In terms of worldview, the ENFJ is part of the Idealist or NF temperament, meaning that they are affiliative, interest-based, and abstract.
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Affiliative: ENFJs are all about doing what is socially acceptable and seeking harmony over conflict. They filter all their decisions through the lens of social acceptance. Finding an ENFJ who thinks for him or herself is rare indeed.
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Interest-Based: ENFJs look at opportunities through a cost-benefit analysis of who gets what. They're very aware of how much someone is getting out of something. Being naturally self-sacrificing, they will often shortchange themselves so that someone else gets more, but as long as there's enough to go around, their interest is usually satisfied.
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Abstract: They approach the world through a "what if" instead of a "what is" perspective. They think in terms of possibilities, looking for the best way forward for themselves and for others. They're driven by bringing their visions to fruition.
Cognitive Functions
Fe Hero
ENFJs lead with their powerful tool of empathic awareness and compassion. They're hyper-aware of how others feel and what others value. They feel the pain of others and optimistically seek to relieve that pain by providing soothing comfort and healing to those who are in difficult places. ENFJs are always looking to extract emotion, appreciation, and gratitude from others. They're constantly looking for affirmation that they are helpful, kind, and selfless.
Ni Parent
Introverted Intuition (Ni) Parent is all about what ENFJs want. Ni is a singular Focus like a laser that can cut through any obstacle to achieve its vision. Out of all the Ni users, a well-developed Ni parent is the most consistently precise and effective expression of introverted intuition. Ni is constantly looking for possibilities for its own future, and the ENFJ is accompanying any critic has high standards when it comes to weighing out different options, paths, careers, or lovers that ENFJ could pursue.
Se Child
Se Child constantly wants to make others comfortable. They want to provide not only relief but excitement by creating unforgettable experiences shared with other people. ENFJs often neglect their own comfort to innocently give others a better experience. When it comes to romance, ENFJs tend to initiate intimacy from dates to movies and to the bedroom; they want to lead. They are romantically fulfilled when their lover is reacting with their full attention to every experience shared and every touch given by their ENFJ. ENFJs are also naturally good performers; whether it's athletics, arts, or other hobbies, ENFJs have a knack for edging out the competition and making a good show of whatever they pursue.
Ti Inferior
ENFJs are very insecure about their own thinking. They're constantly worried that they're dumb, incapable thinkers, and poor problem solvers. This causes a lot of ENFJs to overcompensate by dominating conversations and talking constantly as they're always trying to prove their smarts.
Fi Nemesis
Fi Nemesis causes the ENFJ to be constantly worried about their self-worth. They experience their emotions and values with worry, often unsure how to process feeling useless. The selflessness in ENFJs is especially caused by their Fi Nemesis; they are so caring in part because they feel so worthless and useless. Being caring is how they try to compensate for their internal fear of being useless.
Te Demon
Te Demon makes the ENFJ very critical of other people's decisions and intentions. Whenever someone else decides on a career path, a school, a lover, or a hobby, the NFJ often feels critical toward that decision. They're critical about other people's choices because the NFJ themselves are so painstakingly careful about the decisions that they make. When they see or project carelessness into other people's decision making and intentions, it makes them cynical and critical. Te Critic can be utilized by the ENFJ to respect the fact that people need to learn from their decisions. Sometimes they should step in and be critical of others' choices, but other times it is better to let them stumble and learn how to walk on their own.
Si Trickster
ENFJs are completely unaware of their personal experience. They have no internal source to perceive their internal sensations or any capacity for internal long-term memory. Their long-term memory is made possible only by having shared experiences with others and storing memories in external objects. They have to create totems to hold the memory of the places they've been, the people they've been with, and the things they've done.
Te Demon
Te Demon is the basement that sits under the fragile floorboards of Ti Inferior. If the ENFJ feels their Ti Inferior is not being listened to or other people are regarding them as stupid, the Te Demon might come from the basement to protect Ti Inferior. Te Demon takes away everyone's voice when it's activated. The ENFJ's perspective is as follows: "If I don't get a voice, then no one gets a voice." Te Demon also ravishes the reputation of others and will put other people down often by social deprecation to get others to listen to it. Be careful with the ENFJ's Ti Inferior and Te Demon; they may look like compassionate angels, but like all types, they have their demons too.
The Four Sides of the Mind
ISTP Subconscious
ENFJs can find their path to responsibility and maturity through their ISTP Subconscious. Developing disciplined habits and embracing the responsibility of duty can help mold their Si Parent into a strong and enduring aspect of their personality.
INFP Unconscious
The INFP Unconscious reveals the ENFJ's path to wisdom. ENFJs can develop wisdom by focusing on appreciating their own values, moral philosophy, and physical expression. It's about embracing their worth and recognizing that their self-worth doesn't solely depend on others' appreciation.
ESTJ Superego
The ESTJ Superego is where the ENFJ's path to love lies. ENFJs can learn from their Superego by listening more, processing information from other smart people, and developing their own intellectual capabilities. This can lead to others valuing and listening to them.
Octagram
Unconscious Developed, Subconscious Focused (UDSF): The Humble Accommodators
UDSF ENFJs are the most adaptable and accommodating of the ENFJ variants. Having faced disabling environments early in life, they learned to stretch their empathetic and understanding nature to survive. As adults, they are open to learning and seeking out perspectives different from their own. Their humility allows them to be flexible teachers, counselors, and friends. They strive to understand the unique needs of individuals, hoping to be seen and empowered in return. Their maturity lies in their ability to balance their accommodating nature with healthy boundaries.
Summary
One of the hardest things for an ENFJ to learn is that their compassion is not always helpful. ENFJs have to search within themselves and realize that they often believe that their compassion will warrant their appreciation, and they become entitled to others' appreciation and other people's listening ears. They want to be brilliant; they want to think of things that no one has ever thought of and want the whole world to listen to them. This is possible for the ENFJ, but it begins when they accept that maybe they don't know the answer, maybe their intellectual tools are not as sharp as they want them to be, and especially perhaps they haven't read, researched, or listened enough to know anything about the topic.
But the ENFJ can be bold and brilliant leaders who fight for the people who have been oppressed and left out of systems—systems of education, government, or even rejected from their families. Their compassionate mentorship produces great minds and people of tremendous moral courage.
Of the four structure types, the ENFJ leads humanity in social vision and ethical conviction. Think of Martin Luther King; there's a little bit of him in every single ENFJ. Help your ENFJ extract out that bold and brilliant part of themselves, and you have the world to thank you for it.
