Joseph Campbell MBTI Personality Type
Personality
What personality type is Joseph Campbell? Joseph Campbell is an INFJ personality type in MBTI, 5w4 - sx/so - in Enneagram, in Big 5, ILI in Socionics.
While I think the ENFP arguments are pretty interesting, I found it very difficult to see evidence of this type’s cognitive processes even with minimal exploration into his actual work. Perhaps there is some misunderstanding that I hope to clear up so naturally this comment will be more source heavy than some of my others. For one, his psyche suggested introverted intensiveness and oneness over extraverted extensiveness and multitude. Though he referred to himself as a “generalist”, much of his work was dedicated to integrating different ideas into his narrow and lifelong obsession with mythology. Even the concept of the monomyth would suggest a dominant Ni attitude, as he peers through the universal narrative that underpins all myth. ¶ “Whether we listen with aloof amusement to the dreamlike mumbo jumbo of some red-eyed witch doctor of the Congo, or read with cultivated rapture thin translations from the sonnets of the mythic Lao-tae; now and again crack the hard nutshell of an argument of Aquinas, or catch suddenly the shining meaning of a bizarre Eskimo fairy tale: it will always be the one, shape-shifting yet marvelously constant story that we find, together with a challengingly persistent suggestion of more remaining to be experienced than will ever be known or told.”[1] Moreover, there is evidence of a collectivist, holistic view that sees all things and all people as merely a part of a greater whole, as within the psyche of each human on earth there rests the “inexhaustible energies of the cosmos”. Essentially, every human is innately endowed with universal myths in the form of dreams, which is highly characteristic of the NFJ attitude; ¶ “…both Ni and Fe incorporate a lot of information into their analyses in order to take a holistic, overarching view of the entities and occurrences under consideration… Compared to Si and Fi, Ni and Fe take a broader, more universal view of the world, where the smaller disparities between entities, events, and people are fused together to form fewer but more interdependent and interpenetrating wholes.”[2] ¶ “…the flavor of the ocean is contained in a droplet or the whole mystery of life within the egg of a flea.”[1] With the Ne/Si axis, there is still the desire to seek that which is timeless in spite of the capricious nature of reality, like an oak tree that endures the harsh blizzard. This causes Si types to be somewhat guarded in response to current circumstances, whereas the Se type is more likely to assert that they are a reflection of their times. It seems somewhat strange to characterize the Ne dominant type as meticulous and reliable, but before the wild conjecturing and divergences can begin, one must launch from certain ground. ¶ “…if a person has an Si/Ne axis… The person will… be more careful and meticulous (Si) because there is an unconscious striving to contribute one’s observations to building a system which is valid, not just here and now, but true in general.”[3] ¶ “…the ISFJ has a much more genuinely timeless quality to their insights and descriptions, while the INFJ is often rather more contemporary and timely, their work much more rooted to what is happening in their own time and society”[4] ¶ “Today many scientists are contributing to the analysis of [mythology]. Archeologists are probing the ruins of Iraq, Honan, Crete, and Yucatan. Ethnologists are questioning the Ostiaks of the river Ob, the Boobies of Fernando Po. A generation of orientalists has recently thrown open to us the sacred writings of the East, as well as the pre-Hebrew sources of our own Holy Writ…”[1] I also think the "Follow your bliss" adage is somewhat taken out of context. Campbell developed this notion later in his life from his studies in Sanskrit as a mode of transcending consciousness (Ni) and later disseminated this wisdom to others as an antidote (Fe), not as a means of mastering his own selfhood (Fi). I believe in this sense Campbell resembles Prometheus by taking the fire from the Gods for the rest of humanity. In fact, Campbell properly defined that "A hero is someone who has given his or her life to something bigger than oneself."[5] ¶ "I'd have an individual conference with every one of my students... suddenly you hit on something that the student really responds to. You can see the eyes open. The complexion changes. A life possibility has opened there. And all you can say to yourself is I hope this child hangs on to that, you know?"[6] References: 1. Joseph Campbell, “The Hero With A Thousand Faces” 2. Ryan Smith et al., “Function Axes in Jungian Typology” Ch. 5 3. Ibid. Ch. 2 4. Michael Pierce, “The ISFJ Revisited” https://youtu.be/-muxe46t4Us?t=616 5. Joseph Campbell & Bill Moyers "The Power of Myth" Ep. 1 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Byli-Y8KonY 6. Ibid. Ep. 4 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s28rwnz18j4
Biography
Joseph John Campbell (March 26, 1904 – October 30, 1987) was an American professor of literature at Sarah Lawrence College who worked in comparative mythology and comparative religion. His work covers many aspects of the human experience. Campbell's most well-known work is his book The Hero with a Thousand Faces (1949), in which he discusses his theory of the journey of the archetypal hero shared by world mythologies, termed the monomyth.
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