Cather "Cath" Avery MBTI Personality Type
Personality
What personality type is Cather "Cath" Avery? Cather "Cath" Avery is an INFP personality type in MBTI, 6w5 - sp/so - 694 in Enneagram, RLUAI in Big 5, EII in Socionics.
I believe I found a lot of „evidence“ for strong Fi, so I’m going to quote from the book and comment on these snippets (There probably will be grammatical and stylistic errors, and lots of expressions being repeated, sorry for that, I'm not a native speaker): "I don't want to feel like I have to look different for him all of a sudden. It'll seem lame (...) He already knows what I look like. There's no point in being tricky about it now" She is worried that others will perceive her as inauthentic or a showoff, she refuses to change for other people, it’s very important for her to be „real“ Cath: "That night in the bowling alley? You flirted with every human being in the building. I'm surprised the shoe guy didn't give you his number" Levi: "I was just being nice" C.: "You are extra nice. With everyone. You go out of your way to make everyone feel special" L.: "Well, what's wrong with that?" C.: "How is anyone supposed to know that they are special? How was I supposed to know you weren't just being nice?" (...) If you smile at everyone, how am I supposed to feel when you smile at me?" This seems to be a (dominant) Fi – (dominant) Fe clash. Cath is concerned about the genuineness of Levi’s niceness, she doesn’t understand why he tries so hard to impress everyone. About her Fiction Writing-assignment: "Once I realized that it wasn't right for me, I couldn't bring myself to do it anymore" The reason why she doesn't write the assignment is not only that she's scared of stepping out of her comfort zone but also, that she struggles immensely with doing things she is not passionate about or doesn’t find value in. I would say this is very much an Fi thing. “It’s just... everything. There are too many people. And I don’t fit in. I don’t know how to be. Nothing that I’m good at is the sort of thing that matters there. Being smart doesn't matter—and being good with words. And when those things do matter, it’s only because people want something from me. Not because they want me.” When I started reading the book I could see her as an Si dominant - and a thinker type as well. Now as I've finished the novel, I think I understand her personality more deeply - on the surface level, she may seem an Si dom, because she really does value comfort and familiar things, but even though she uses a lot of this function, I'm not sure she uses it the way an ISXJ would, I just don’t think it’s that nuanced. Still, to be honest I had a difficult time distinguishing whether some of her actions and fears come from her having (unhealthy) Si or from her childhood trauma and anxiety. Or both. But...in my opinion, we can rule out the possibbilty of ISFJ and ISTJ also because: Cath is very private about her feelings and often finds it hard to express them. She doesn’t really need that much feedback from others, she doesn’t really care what other people in general think about her. She is not very outwardly friendly or initiative. She values authenticity more than meeting the expectations of others. Plus, she doesn’t pick up on others emotions as well – she doesn’t recognize that Levi is flirting with her. So...yes, her Si is high, but I see no signs of (conscious) Fe...instead a lot of Fi... Although she mostly keeps them to herself, she definitely navigates through her emotions and values: she does what she feels like, or what she feels like is right. She is very sensitive, gets easily upset and holds grudges. She tends to procrastinate + as I’ve written has difficulty doing things she isn't passionate about and is quite disorganized - these are the reasons, I can’t really see her as an ISTJ either. Cath is also hesitant to take action and lives in her own little fictional word rather than in reality... Yes, her Ne is not very obvious, but she seems to be an INFP to me too, who may rely on her Si more because she's an enneagram 6 (absolutely not a 4 - @raonu explained it perfectly- , rather a 9, if anything), plus – at least in the beginning of the story – she may as well be in a Fi-Si loop. I still have to learn a lot when it comes to typing, though I think I can recognize the functions that I use quite well – especially Fi. What do you say?
