Eames MBTI Personality Type
Personality
What personality type is Eames? Eames is an ENTP personality type in MBTI, 7w8 - sp/so - 738 in Enneagram, SCUEI in Big 5, ILE in Socionics.
Eames is really a composite type: both ESTP and ENTP at the same time. What these types have in common is a Ti/Fe middle axis. Tertiary Fe, with its immature but clever take on sentimental elements in the objective world, shows up very distinctly in his roguish and playful humor, a trait that is shared by both of these types. A good example of Ti is one of his lines in his first meeting with Cobb: "It's not just about depth. You need the simplest version of the idea in order for it to grow naturally." Ti likes to shape an idea or formula into its most elegant version (something simple, yet deeply explanatory). It has a tendency to shave off or coerce parts of an idea that increase its complexity and tie it to immediate real-world context. Te, on the other hand, tends to favor the version of an idea that ties it to a real-world existence, whether that version is complex or not. Because human psychology is very complicated, an Eames with Te would probably try to import as much complexity as possible into the idea so that it would appear more realistic to the target. As for the argument between Ne or Se, it's a toss-up, in my opinion: If we just focus on Eames's skill-set and actions, we see Se more than Ne. It would be much more likely for an Se type than an Ne type to be skilled at studying and mimicking the body language and mannerisms of a target, to be a skilled and practiced pickpocket, and to show the kind of spacial improvisatory skills that Eames displays in the 3rd dream level, where he does all of the heavy lifting in dispatching Fisher's projections and rigging explosives. On the other hand, if we just focus on Eames's dialogue, we see Ne more than Se. Eames, more than any other character, easily picks up on and expands the ideas of the other characters, effortlessly fusing them with his own contributions. It is Eames, not Cobb or Arthur, that takes the lead in brainstorming the conceptual framework of the plan, in multiple scenes. For the sake of brevity, I can't list all the specific examples of Ne, but here are two, from his first scene with Cobb: Cobb: "...Inception. Now before you bother telling me it's impossible, let me– " Eames: "No, it's perfectly possible, it's just bloody difficult." Cobb: "Interesting. 'Cause Arthur keeps telling me it can't be done." Eames: "Hmm...Arthur...You still working with that stick in the mud?" Cobb: "He is good at what he does." Eames. "Oh, he's the best. But he has no imagination." Cobb: "Not like you." (and later:) Cobb: "We need the heir of a major corporation to dissolve his father's empire." Eames: "Well you see, right there, you have various political motivations and anti-monopolistic sentiments and so forth." With regard to the first exchange: Ne dominants will rarely dismiss possibilities out of hand, and all things being equal, they are certainly more likely than other types to have the richest imagination, and also to look down on other people for lacking imagination. Se types are rather similar with regard to both of these qualities, but they tend to emphasize persistence and a direct seizure of information instead of possibilities and imagination. With regard to the second exchange: When confronted with a novel idea, Ne will explode the immediate perspective into several ideas that are adjacent to the initial idea. This is what gives it an edge over the other functions when it comes to brainstorming. In the end, I will side with the majority here and go with ENTP. It is possible to learn and practice various skill-sets, even ones that collide with one's cognitive preferences; but it is much harder to falsify a cognitive preference in normal conversation, when one is laid back and not expending much mental energy. Ne cognition, in this case, seems to be the more natural inclination for Eames.
