The iNtuitive-Thinking (NT) Analyst — logical, competent and theoretical.
Your Insight Game Type: ENTP, ENTJ, INTP, INTJ
As an intuitive-thinker, your management style is analytical and idea-centered—first, last, and foremost. You're at your best and happiest in a working situation which allows you freedom to create, devise, design, plan, and analyze. Regardless of your chosen work field, you're probably more comfortable thinking of yourself as an architect, rather than as a builder.
The architect deals in future reality, multiple visions of structures and systems interacting, working. The builder, on the other hand, deals in a hands-on, here-and-now world of construction: working on one project at a time until it's finished, painstakingly figuring out the practical details that weren't specified on the plans; building, rebuilding, revising, fixing, making sure that the vision is translated into a workable reality.
That builder-side of any career or profession isn't appealing to most (NT)ANALYSTs except as a novelty or challenge. And you do love those challenges now and then to prove to yourself, over and over again, that you really can learn to do anything you decide to tackle with all your intellect and enthusiasm!
When you're dealing in your favorite world of the possible, tackling a new project, creating a new plan, working on a theory or idea, you're the image of energy and focused concentration. But, when the inevitable routine sets in, or when the only problems remaining are what seems to be an endless progression of small, tedious jobs, you may begin to feel bored, claustrophobic, imposed upon, and irritable.
If you can, you'll pass the remaining tasks on to someone else. Otherwise, you'll half-heartedly continue, yawn your way through a slack period of abbreviated work days and occasional sick-outs, and—as soon as possible—take off on a new idea.
As a manager, that tendency can lead to real difficulties: jobs that stay half-finished for longer than you'd like to acknowledge; creative fabrications explaining how correspondence you didn't answer somehow disappeared in the mail; phone calls you don't want to return, and don't; small problems that turn into big ones because of neglectful planning, inattentive supervision and lackadaisical trouble-shooting.
Perceptive-type ANALYSTs: take note! These problems go doubly for you!
To be sure, the picture we've painted is an extreme composite of the intuitive-thinker's darker side. Judging-type ANALYSTs rarely become so totally afflicted by this adverse managerial syndrome. Even perceptive-type ANALYSTs may show only one or two of these symptoms. And, in either case, introverted types are usually steadier workers.
Nonetheless, ANALYST managers do have some problems, and you may benefit from some careful scrutiny of the management style which typifies your temperament group. So—knowing what we know: that ANALYSTs are most comfortable at the impersonal level, let's quit talking about you and shift to a more general analysis of the ANALYST style!
In a nutshell, ANALYSTs, like all other personality temperaments, look for their own characteristics in their subordinates. In turn, these managers reflexively give their employees the kind of treatment they crave themselves. And, therein lie most of the ANALYST manager's problems!
ANALYSTs universally pride themselves on their intelligence. They like other intelligent folks around them, and they tend to devalue employees who strike them as slow-witted. Frankly, ANALYSTs tend to regard all of the other personality temperaments to be their intellectual inferiors: a narrow-minded definition of intelligence, to be sure.
ANALYST managers often hire other ANALYSTs for positions which might better be filled by folks of other types and temperaments: feeling-types for jobs requiring interpersonal sensitivity and insight into human relations, sensing-types for jobs demanding patience and careful attention to detail.
The ANALYST manager who places kindred souls in positions like these has two problems: the jobs won't be done well, and the employees won't be happy.
ANALYSTS are capable, competent, innovative managers who enjoy being regarded as multi-talented. Most of them truly enjoy acquiring new knowledge and learning new skills, and many can perform every task of their subordinates better than the employees themselves—or, if not, the manager thinks so, anyway!
Assuming that everyone shares this ANALYST characteristic, this manager is likely to "reward" favored employees with learning or training experiences. For ANALYST employees, that treat hits the spot! But what about the other types?
Unless people or the development of interpersonal skills are the subject, most (NF)EMPATHIST types will not be enthused by an "opportunity" to attend a training seminar.
For most (SP)REALIST types, school is basically boring, unless some kind of hands-on, watch-it-work, practical skill development is involved.
And most (SJ)LEGALISTs may regard unnecessary training as a nuisance: a frivolous interruption of the comfortable rhythm of work—unsettling, not stimulating.
ANALYST managers are born innovators. Moreover, they have a hard time understanding how anyone can tolerate a repetitious job. To see someone do the same job, the same way, year in and year out, drives an ANALYST manager around the bend—especially if the manager is a restless perceptive-type who has a personal yen to sample all of life!
So, ANALYST managers "benevolently" tend to revamp and revise jobs on a continuing basis and view employee reassignment as an act of kindness.
Alas, these managers have a hard time understanding that sensing types actually enjoy the predictability of a familiar task and derive peace and comfort from perfecting their skills through practice and repetition.
Not surprisingly, then, sensing-type employees may not respond with great warmth to an ANALYST manager's continual "improvements" of their procedures, schedules, task assignments, job descriptions, and such.
This is only one of the many ways in which the ANALYST manager displays the darker stripes of the intuitive: sometimes intolerant or unappreciative of the preferences of sensing employees. In one form or another, this particular blind spot may be the ANALYST manager's most serious problem in many work situations.
Unless this well-intentioned soul can learn to recognize sensing-type people, appreciate them for their differences, and match them to sensing-type jobs, then work operations requiring steadiness, reliability, craftsmanship and precision may suffer—along with the manager's reputation and the productivity of his or her operation.
ANALYST managers are self-starters who intensely dislike being told how and when to do anything. They want to set their own schedules and do things their own way, figuring everything out as they go along. They may feel insulted and become impatient if given what they regard as too many rules and too much guidance and direction.
Once again, this pitfall is especially dangerous case for those anti-authoritarian, iconoclastic ANALYSTs who share the perceptive attitude.
Consequently, ANALYST managers are most comfortable with their own behavior when they give their employees free reign. This "no rules-no regs" life is, in fact, a real gift to like-minded intuitives, but, again, this manager's natural inclination fails to meet the needs of sensing-type workers.
Judging-type employees, in general, and (SJ)LEGALISTs, particularly, may feel uncomfortable with an absence of goals, guidelines, timetables and rules—both for themselves and for others.
Their sense of fairness may be challenged. After all, judging types respond to tough self-enforced standards of right and wrong, even when none are expressed. Without some imposed structure, judges may reflexively shoulder others' burdens without being asked. They may come to feel themselves disadvantaged and mistreated: disciplined when others are not, responsible beyond measures fairness might dictate.
Still other problems significant to management may result. More often than not, a judging-type employee, especially an (SJ) LEGALIST, may regard the ANALYST's laissez-faire management attitude to be a sign of weakness, irresponsibility and incompetence.
Perhaps most critical is the conclusion that the working situation is not just [the thinking (SJ)LEGALIST's reaction] or reasonably sensitive [the feeling (SJ)LEGALIST's attitude]. Without a conviction that the working environment is basically equitable, the (SJ)LEGALIST personality loses respect for management and, after a time, the judging tendency may cast that dark evaluation in stone, even if the manager should try to rectify the situation.
In the area of communication, ANALYSTs quickly grasp conceptual issues and dislike redundant explanations of projects or problems. Thus, the ANALYST manager is peculiarly prone to suspect that anyone wasting twenty minutes belaboring the obvious must think they're mentally defective. And an ANALYST hates to have his or her intelligence challenged, even by implication!
Assuming that others feel likewise, some ANALYST managers tend to be brief—even curt—when giving instructions or explanations. "Once is enough," seems to be the ANALYST's motto when it comes to communication. Maybe so, but the ANALYST should bear in mind that the word communication implies something other than an unintelligible transmission.
A general "good management" dictum applies in spades for the ANALYST: Explain the obvious, ask for feedback, and explain again, if need be, without grimacing or overtly suggesting that the listener is dull-witted. Make sure you are understood.
ANALYST managers are natural workaholics, and they naturally assume that work holds the central focus of every employee's life. Add to this the ANALYST's belief that private lives should be left at home, and you'll understand why many ANALYST managers rarely talk to their employees about anything other than work.
Introverted ANALYSTs, especially, don't like their work to be interrupted with idle chit-chat. They're at work to work, period, and they manifest the belief that employees should leave their socializing at the office door.
Most thinker-types of other temperament groups understand this ANALYST attitude, even if they don't agree with it totally, but most feeling types are likely to feel crushed when they try to engage their managers in light banter at work and find themselves dismissed with a curt comment or stern glance—or totally ignored.
For feeling-type employees—and intuitive-feeling ones, especially—the personal and professional lives are inseparable. Feelers believe that people must know each other as people, not as job descriptions and Social Security numbers, if they are to understand each other and work together in harmony and happiness.
To these types, the ANALYST manager may come across as cold, mechanical, and uncaring.
It is typical of an ANALYST manager to discover weeks after the fact that an employee is divorcing, or that a co-worker's family member has had a serious accident or illness, or has undergone major surgery.
More importantly, the interpersonal climate of the work place may always remain somewhat of a mystery to the ANALYST, and the office-harmony-needs of more feeling personality types may remain wholly beyond this manager's personal comprehension.
Since ANALYSTs are uncomfortable receiving compliments, especially personal ones, these folks simply tend not to give them, reasoning that no comment is required unless something is wrong or someone does a particularly remarkable or creative piece of work.
Strokes of appreciation just don't come naturally to ANALYSTs.
By the same token, ANALYSTs assume that employees should be able to take "objective criticism" if it's sensible and logical. But feeling types don't think that way!
For feeling-types, silence translates to disapproval and rejection, and—for the sometimes hypersensitive (NF)EMPATHISTs, especially—the ANALYST's unconscious attitude toward their creativity, accomplishments and sensitivity may be crushing and destructive to their motivational system.
ANALYST managers judge employees only by the quality of their work, and they make their decisions to hire, promote or fire on that basis alone, trying to ignore all personal or emotional considerations.
For other thinking types, such "objectivity" may be seen as laudable. For feelers, these managerial traits may be taken as cruel and heartless.
In general, ANALYSTs are willing collaborators. Surrounded with or supported by other intelligent, competent people, this type may do well in cooperative problem-solving. In a work group of "mixed" temperamental types, the ANALYST will participate happily only if ANALYSTs are in the leadership roles—especially if the group's task involves research and analysis.
But, in any case, the ANALYST functions well only if the meetings are kept to the point and to a bare minimum. You'll keep this managerial type happiest when tasks or problems can be sorted out intelligently and assigned to various participants—and the meeting is adjourned! The ANALYST will do his or her part—maybe even more than the "fair share"—just to avoid too many meetings that take up too much time and accomplish too little.
Introverted ANALYSTs may be just as happy to skip the meeting completely and circulate memos!
Stuck in a meeting, the extraverted and perceptive ANALYSTs may seem unable to avoid meandering discussions. Extraverted judging ANALYSTs reflexively create more structure. Introverted ANALYSTs listen for the majority of the meeting before saying a word. But no ANALYST can easily tolerate the style of other types: particularly of the (NF)EMPATHISTs or the (SJ)LEGALISTs. The former type seems intent on introducing extraneous (people-related) topics, and the latter type tends to impose a structure too rigid for any ANALYST's comfort. And, once again, these tendencies are most evident with the extraverts of each species.
When the ANALYST feels that no freedom for creativity or self-determination exists, you may witness some strange behavior in meetings. Introverted types may just tune out. Judging—and particularly extraverted judging ANALYSTs may become contentious and try to take over. Extraverted perceptive analysts may find the situation somehow ludicrous and actively disrupt the meeting by changing the subject or "Mickey-Mousing" around in adolescent style.
As an ANALYST manager, you may need to become more conscious of your preferences in such cooperative ventures, especially in committees.
If you're wise, you'll want to steer clear of assignments to committees which meet regularly—whether or not there is work to be accomplished—or committees which are populated by "sewing circle" types who like to chit-chat, and committees whose mission is sorting out endless details or drafting rules and regulations.
It may be appropriate to point out here that the average ANALYST is basically non-competitive with others. Instead, this type's competitive relationship is with him- or herself, with the status quo, or with ideas. The classic model of the ANALYST scientist is a good one to keep in mind when describing this managerial type: driven by the work itself, by the goal of understanding and creating, rather than by the institution or the person who signs the pay check.
The ANALYST manager must feel that the work is really important, valuable in some transcendent way. When the work isn't, or when it suddenly seems devalued by some administrative rearrangement or bureaucratic shuffle, this manager is in jeopardy for "burn-out."
ANALYST managers are idea people, and—unless their roles in organizations let them exercise their intellect—this type can become conspicuously disgruntled and divisive. Needless to say, with all the intelligence ANALYSTs possess, it's a troubled organization that finds its ANALYSTs counted among the opposition!
In corporate and other organizations committed to "continual improvement," you'll find ANALYSTs spear-heading the efforts, and the heads which may start rolling will belong to the other temperament groups! The NT leader needs to bear in mind that the best functioning teams are just that: teams, not clones. Effective change management requires the participation of the imaginative, sensitive NFs, the game-playing, action-oriented SPs and the conservative, stabilizing SJs.
The (NT)ANALYST employee needs recognition—but, please, not at the personal level! Congratulate this person for his or her ideas, imagination, competence, capability, intelligence and drive.
But make sure your compliments are well deserved, and never make the mistake of overdoing your rave reviews. If you lavish praise on an ANALYST-type for merely passable performance on a routine task, this type won't take it well at all. In fact, this employee might conclude that you're not too bright for remarking on a mediocre accomplishment! And, to earn the respect of any self-respecting ANALYST, you must be seen as intelligent.
Introverted ANALYSTs show the most extreme behavior—neither giving appreciation nor receiving it graciously—but even extraverts of this temperament type just don't respond well to general social expectations when it comes to praise or thanks.
Give your ANALYST employees a pat on the back if you're doubtful. Chances are good they'll shuffle their feet, cast their eyes downward, and mumble an embarrassed "Uh-huh," "It's OK," or "Oh, that."
More often than not, the ANALYST will acknowledge your remark only by telling you what's wrong with whatever you complimented. Why?
First of all, many of these folks (especially introverted ones) can get along fine with their own reinforcement system. They don't need any from you, thanks.
Then, too, ANALYSTs are their own toughest critics. They continually evaluate their own competence, measuring their accomplishments against abstract perfection, rather than against others' achievements, or lack thereof. So, when you appreciate your ANALYST-type employee, don't be surprised if you wind up with some criticism for your compliment!
As awkward as this type may be at accepting compliments or gratitude, these folks are even worse when it comes to appreciating others! First, they're hypercritical, so they're not likely to find many things that meet their high standards. But, perhaps more importantly, it's hard for this type to understand how much others need and value recognition, or to what extent praise motivates other personality types.
As a rule, the ANALYST says nothing when a job's satisfactory and criticizes defective performance as need be. So, silence is as close as the ANALYST usually comes to appreciation! Needless to say, this "silence is golden" pattern of behavior may pose real problems when these people have to deal with more feeling types. Working with ANALYSTs can be a draining, depressing, and unrewarding experience for others who need and want strokes of approval, gratitude and support.
Now and then, ANALYSTs may need to be reminded that thanking or complimenting a fellow worker for a piece of work well done isn't inappropriate behavior, even if the task is just part of the job assignment.
It's generally true that people give others what they crave themselves. So, it follows that ANALYSTs do appreciate others' ideas, intelligence, and competence.
Just as (NF)EMPATHIST-types can't stand insensitivity, ANALYST-types can't bear stupidity and incompetence. They're the world's original intellectual snobs!
Listen to an ANALYST talk about his or her pet idea. You may hear an incomprehensible discourse packed with multisyllabic jargon. You may notice that the listener doesn't give any evidence of understanding this word salad. You may also notice that the ANALYST doesn't seem to care.
Some ANALYSTS seem to have an annoying knack for using language to distance themselves from the bulk of humanity, rather than to communicate. Sometimes, they seem to talk just to hear themselves speak! That's a favorite ANALYST tactic for congratulating themselves on their brilliance—one form of appreciation this type actually does value, because the source is so intelligent!
Even when this type really tries to get the idea across, communication may never occur. In the effort to be faithful to the idea (the exact idea!), ANALYSTs may clutter up their explanations with too many facts or confusing examples, meander off the point to "interesting side issues" and fail to emphasize the central points. (Perceptive ANALYSTs are particularly prone to such problems, and the extraverted ones are worst!)
Other times, in an effort to avoid redundancy (one of the ANALYST's "seven deadly sins"), this type may resort to a terse, nearly telegraphic, style of speech.
In either case, if an earnest listener asks too many questions in an attempt to unscramble the message, the impatient ANALYST may conclude that the listener is stupid (the deadliest sin of all!). Needless to say, ANALYSTs know that other ANALYSTs think this way, so often one won't ask another to clarify a statement, for fear of appearing not to understand.
The paradox is that, by nodding the head and giving the illusion of understanding (in order not to seem stupid), the ANALYST listener, in fact, fails to understand. And that, of course, really is stupid!
Managing ANALYSTs may require being an editor for their communication from time to time. If one of these characters is going to make a verbal presentation for you or the organization, you'll want to give the talk a few trial runs first, preferably before a small audience that the speaker respects.
Likewise, if your ANALYST employee is drafting an important report or letter, cooperatively editing a couple of rough drafts may be in order, to simplify and amplify the message. (NF)EMPATHISTs may be particularly helpful in this process.
First of all, (NF)EMPATHISTs generally have excellent verbal skills, and, unlike ANALYSTs, (NF)EMPATHISTs actually do speak and write to be understood!
Secondly, an (NF)EMPATHIST reflexively will tread gently on the ANALYST's feelings, especially if it's understood that ego and ideas are one and the same thing to ANALYSTs. Criticize this type's ideas or expression of them and you've kicked this person in the teeth.
Understanding that the ANALYST identifies the self with ideas, you won't be surprised to hear that this type does not identify the self with physical appearances. ANALYSTS, especially the introverted ones, regard the body as a convenient vehicle to move the brain and the sensory systems from one location to another. And clothing? The ANALYST often regards clothing as a covering for the vehicle, nothing more.
Consider the stereotypical image of the science professor: shaggy hair, semi-shaved, dressed in a shirt which may or may not be ironed, draped in an ill-fitting suit from another decade, wearing a tie decorated with souvenirs of meals long forgotten.
Now, certainly, not all ANALYSTs dress that unconsciously, but some members of this eccentric breed do share an attitude of arrogant disregard for clothing and a blithe unawareness of the impact apparel may have on others in the professional environment.
An ANALYST—especially an introverted perceptive one (the most internally focused of all)—would be insulted to find that a stranger had given a short-hand description of him as "that nicely dressed man" rather than "that brilliant fellow".
Clearly, there are management implications for such a blase attitude about appearances—especially within a large bureaucratically run organization. As bright as ANALYSTs typically are, they'll usually turn a deaf ear to unsolicited advice about how to improve their attire, and anything more subtle than an overt insult or a direct order is unlikely to have any impact.
If appearance really is important for a particular job, or for an upcoming seminar or presentation, don't beat around the bush with your ANALYST employee. Tell the employee exactly what's expected in the way of dress. Otherwise, your wishes probably will be ignored.
Understand, the ANALYST's response to these directives may not be positive. You won't hurt this type's feelings, but you probably will leave this person convinced that you're stupid for worrying about such silly things.
Many ANALYSTs are independent, rebellious characters who don't take orders well. Double the problem for perceptive ones. So, to the extent that you can, justify your request in terms of logic.
The traditional appeal, which succeeds with the (SJ)LEGALIST ("That's the way things are done around here."), will not have an impact.
Neither will the aesthetic approach that touches the (NF)EMPATHIST: "You look so much nicer when you're dressed up."
And, finally, you're unlikely to sway the ANALYST by saying what you'd tell the SPending (SP)REALIST: "Wouldn't you love to treat yourself to a new wardrobe?" since most ANALYSTs regard shopping as a waste of time and money. Good luck.
Who is the ANALYST, and where do you put this individual to work?
The ANALYST's strengths are in theorizing, speculating, researching, investigating, contemplating and describing the way things work, the way life is. The ANALYST is intellectually curious and relates to all of life as an extended learning experience.
Like all intuitives, ANALYSTs show great energy and enthusiasm at the beginning of each creative project, when the ideas are fresh and there are lots of problems to be solved. As soon as the major problems have been solved and the end can be imagined, the ANALYST begins to get bored, drift off, and lose interest. Extraverted and/or perceptive ANALYSTs, especially, succumb to this kind of intuitive "burn out."
Without a handy sensing type to tackle the endless details, the ANALYST employee may turn attention to new problems—new intellectual frontiers—and start conjuring up a series of logical reasons why the project should be: (A) abandoned or (B) finished by someone else.
As a manager, you'll be smart to take the latter suggestion. ANALYSTs are not detail people. They're brilliant planners and idea generators, but, basically, they may be sloppy and negligent with facts, figures, and miscellaneous loose ends.
(Once again, all ANALYSTs are not equally prone to this pitfall. It snares perceptive and/or extraverted ones readily. Introverted and/or judging ANALYSTs show a bit more drive toward completion, but they, too, benefit from having a sensing-type sidekick, assistant, or "go-for".)
Don't expect totally smooth sailing between your "initiator" ANALYST and your "follow-up" (SJ)LEGALIST or (SP)REALIST. They see the world through very different eyes, and each basically rejects the other's viewpoint as an invalid and incomprehensible reality. Nonetheless, they're a natural alliance, meant for each other.
To the extent that these two partners really understand the logical basis of their incompatibility and essential "cooperatibility", the smoother their sailing will be as a team.
When selecting a couple of employees to attend a training course using a conventional lecture format, you'll do well to send your ANALYSTs. But don't be surprised to see them return with a list of criticisms about how the training might have been done better.
Hope that the trainer doesn't make any mis-statements of fact obvious to your ANALYSTs, and hope that the presentation is logical. If the information communicated is all of the facts and figures sort, neglecting the development of global insights, your ANALYSTs may walk out halfway through the program, bored and annoyed.
Even if the training doesn't relate directly to what the ANALYST employee does on the job, your intuitive-thinker won't mind picking up some slightly unrelated information, so long as the program is intelligently presented. When it comes to theories and concepts, ANALYSTs never mind learning.
If the learning experience is a distinctly hands-on-type training, you may find that your ANALYST won't relish the process quite so much, particularly if the individual is a perceptive, and not a judging type.
For a practical learning experience, you'll do better to send your (SP)REALIST instead.
And, if the training is one of those "let's all get in touch with our feelings!" experiential seminars, count on any ANALYST type you send to be squirming in the chair and checking the time every ten minutes until it's over!
From her Connections series. Read her introduction first if you want the frame.
At heart, you're a lover of the ANALYST stripe, and you probably tend to approach mating, as all other life pursuits, from a logical standpoint. To an ANALYST, relationships must make sense.
One way or another, the affectionate connection must allow work to go on, uninterrupted. And, in the case of many folks like yourself, work may not be defined merely as a 9-5 necessity. To the ANALYST, work may often be a 24-hour-a day, 7-day-a-week obsession with ideas.
When the paying job is over for the day, the ANALYST may just shift gears and move on to other "jobs" or all-consuming hobbies: writing, creating, inventing, designing, programming, studying, learning, puzzling, reading—each one tackled with overpowering energy and a sense of driving importance. A lot of ANALYSTs even work at exercise!
If the ANALYST is to commit to a private life at all, it must be undertaken with the understanding that, to many folks with this temperament, work is life and life is work.
More so than their perceptive-type cousins, most judging ANALYSTs usually add home, family, and relationships to their list of life's "duties." But even those more rule-oriented ANALYSTs aren't always cheerful about the demands placed on them by the domestic scene.
Some ANALYSTs, in an effort to close the gap between work and home, merge the two. More often than any of the other temperaments, ANALYSTs seem to mate with business partners, professional colleagues or other career-focused types.
This tactic is most often used by ANALYST women who are driven not only by their characteristic respect for competence in a mate, but also by the culturally programmed desire to mate with a man "at least as smart" as they are, and from an ANALYST's critical perspective, only another ANALYST may fill that bill!
Run the numbers if you have any doubt whatever that the ANALYST woman significantly restricts her field of choice by limiting the group of acceptable partners to other (1) available, (2) known, and (3) equally competent (4) ANALYST men. With intuitives outnumbered about 3:1 by sensing-type folks; and with thinkers and feelers more or less evenly represented in the population, that figures out to about one in eight people falling into the (NT) ANALYST category: slim pickings, indeed.
ANALYST men don't necessarily have the same fatal attraction for mating with ANALYST women. (And that's certainly understandable and adaptive—when you consider that this temperament is even rarer among women than among men!)
In general, ANALYST men are content to mate with partners neither so bright, motivated, nor competent as they, just so long as the partner will leave them alone and let them get their work done!
Unfortunately, one of the most typical behaviors for any ANALYST who mates "down" (intellectually speaking), is habitually stewing or actively complaining about the deficiencies of intelligence and accomplishment of the non-ANALYST partner!
To understand the ANALYST's attitudes on sex, consider this temperament's behavior in the kitchen. That's right. The kitchen.
Of course, there are many ANALYSTs who can't scramble an egg, because they never considered cooking to be very important—a waste of their valuable time.
But, then there are others among the ranks who are accomplished chefs—ANALYSTs who have turned all their intellect and drive toward finding out everything there is to know about the culinary arts, the mysteries of diverse cuisines.
ANALYSTs can become great artists in the kitchen.
That tells you something about ANALYSTs and sex. Convince an ANALYST that sex, like all other fields of knowledge, is a fascinating subject to study, experiment with, and master—then, look out! The scientifically-minded ANALYST will try everything, and may very well become a bedroom impresario.
Unless it's apparent to the ANALYST that fidelity makes sense and is logical, this type is unlikely to feel totally tied down to a monogamous lifestyle. For those who choose not to roam, the typical ANALYST explanation goes something like this:
"Oh, I used to mess around, but I ended up late for work wearing yesterday's clothes, and I was always having to make up stories and dodges of one sort or another, and it just took too much time and energy away from my creative life."
So much for the romance of fidelity!
Work is the main sexual rival for the ANALYST—doing work, thinking about it, or worrying about an unsolved problem. A work-distracted ANALYST isn't likely to be "all there" when the lights go out.
All the other types may find this behavior a little hard to understand, and understandably so!
Skepticism, criticism, intellectualism: Ah! That's always part of the picture when two ANALYSTS mate.
Intellectual strength, competence, and accomplishment usually draw these two together for a relationship in which learning, either together or independently, plays a continuing role of importance.
Whether or not the ANALYST couple stays together for a lifetime, or even a long time, you can bet that each will learn from the other and actively teach the other. Knowledge is the coin of the realm when two ANALYSTS get together.
Typically, ANALYST mates will encourage each other to continue the formal education process, and you'll find a disproportionate number of ANALYST couples doing the "working their way through school together" trip, especially in highly technical or specialized fields, such as science, medicine and law.
ANALYST couples will scrimp and save to buy toys and tools that support their intellectual needs: tuition, books, journals or (yet another!) computer. To these pairs, such expenses and tangibles rank high on the roll of life's necessities (higher, often, than new clothing, a new car, vacations, home furnishings, or owning a house).
Not surprisingly, these kinds of purchases also hold a high position on this couple's "luxury" list (and ANALYSTs usually do love to give and receive these "goodies" as gifts).
The ANALYST pair may regard mutual self-sacrifice in terms of supporting each other's work or accomplishments rather than supporting the other as a person or as a mate.
And, if that sounds a bit impersonal, you've gotten the point! Impersonal, logical patterns are most comfortable for any ANALYST, and doubly so for the ANALYST couple.
To ANALYST mates, ideas are real, and they matter. When both hold compatible views, they can spur each other on to high levels of commitment and achievement in many areas of life. And when their principles are in conflict, you can be sure they'll have ample opportunity to refine their rhetoric and presentation under each other's critical scrutiny!
When the natural course of life as a couple obliges ANALYSTs to wrestle with difficulties and conflicts outside the logical realm, this pair sometimes runs into trouble.
They may postpone dealing with emotional issues out of personal embarrassment (as in: "That's not logical! I don't want to bring that up!"), and they may ward off each other's overtures to unwieldy "feeling" concerns with similar, curt dismissals.
Over the course of time, this kind of ostrich behavior may build a wall of blocked communication between these two, or it may allow small problems, like small splinters, to fester into major conflicts and resentments.
When talk can no longer be avoided, new difficulties may arise. Namely, ANALYSTS may be great lecturers, but they're often poor communicators, especially when the topic of conversation touches on emotional issues.
Remember, as thinkers, ANALYSTS are all more or less uncomfortable when they're forced to deal with their neglected feeling side.
So, when the ANALYST couple, fired by emotions they dislike in themselves, as well as in each other, finally sit down to hash out their feelings and emotional concerns, they're walking on foreign turf and speaking a language they've never mastered.
The ANALYST couple invests more time analyzing, talking about, or otherwise rationalizing their feelings than they spend actually experiencing them and sharing them with each other.
And, if these two resort to the ultimate impersonal interchange about the relationship—making outlines and lists or writing letters to each other—another of the ANALYST's personal weak spots is likely to rear its ugly head.
As intuitives, ANALYSTS aren't usually very sharp at the sensing tasks of keeping facts and data straight and keeping details in reasonable perspective.
With emotions at the steering wheel, an out-of-control ANALYST may turn into a shameless nit-picker, dredging up trivial actions and interactions from eons past—little annoyances that never were cleared from the balance-sheet of the relationship because they never were talked about when solutions were more reasonably accessible.
Given these difficulties, mediation through a third party—a counselor or advisor of some sort—might seem to represent a logical recourse for a couple that so readily respects education, credentials and "expertism."
But—not so fast! Neither partner may be willing to trust the counselor's judgment unless the intermediary's intelligence passes the routine ANALYST scrutiny.
And, of course, that usually requires that the counselor, too, be an ANALYST type, who may fall right into believing the couple's persuasive intellectual defenses and never expose the fears and other emotional concerns at the root of their well-disguised conflict.
Whether they compare their achievements and ideas overtly or covertly, ANALYSTS can't help but drift into a report-card mentality with any other ANALYST—even an ANALYST mate.
With an (NF)EMPATHIST, a (SP)REALIST, or an (SJ)LEGALIST, it's hard for the ANALYST to feel threatened intellectually. These diverse types are intelligent in different ways from the ANALYST, and, frankly, the ANALYST usually regards their intelligence to be of an inferior variety. Ah, but when you put two ANALYSTS together, in love or in any other relationship, both of them, consciously or unconsciously, slip into keeping score.
And that may not be entirely bad.
One ANALYST couple I knew enrolled in a tough Ph.D. program together—in the same rigorous science department. For four years, the two of them teeter-tottered back between #1 and #2 position in their classes. They registered for the same classes, worked together, studied together, did research together, and finished their dissertations together.
They talked research for breakfast, lunch and dinner. They traveled to national scientific meetings instead of taking vacations. And when they did finally get away for a vacation, they usually brought along a couple of scientific colleagues, so the intellectual interchange could be enhanced.
They carried scientific journals to read on airplanes, and they drafted manuscripts on legal pads as they ate meals in restaurants. They never took breaks, either from their work or from each other.
Professors, mentors, and colleagues were impressed by their dedication and single-mindedness, and everyone agreed that they'd go far in their chosen research field.
Naturally, there was some amazement when the couple divorced after graduate school. At the time, they attributed the break-up to a grab-bag assortment of acceptable excuses.
But, years later, they acknowledged to each other that their intense ANALYST relationship had simply worn each other out. In the blinding illumination of hindsight, they agreed that their habitual parrying for "top dog" position probably never would have ended, if they had stayed together!
Taken to this level of extreme, ANALYST couples may let their relationship with work handicap their relationship with each other.
Then there's the case of the ANALYST attorney who married the ANALYST physician. In this case, their different fields of knowledge, their separate offices, schedules, and professional demands separated their working and private lives so much that each came to feel closer to professional colleagues than to each other.
Or there was the ANALYST couple where one was highly educated and credentialed, and the other wasn't. On one or both sides, the ANALYST preoccupation with formal education made the "ignorant" mate feel defeated and discouraged. The inertia of this partner became intolerable to the other, who was unable to recognize that the ANALYST interaction was at the root of the problem.
These are some of the troublesome, typical pitfalls of the ANALYST-ANALYST pairing, but we've only been looking at the aspects that are generated by the "temperamental cornerstone" of iNtuition and Thinking. These are important characteristics, but not the only ones.
First of all, the partner whose preference for intuition is stronger may see the other as a sensor! And the partner who's most comfortable with "pure" thinking may regard the other as an emotional feeling type.
In other words, ANALYST couples who differ markedly in the strength of their preferences for thinking and intuition may actually regard each other as "foreign" types!
Other important conflicts and misunderstandings may revolve around the dimensions of judging-perception and introversion-extraversion.
For example, an ANALYST who prefers judging may consider a perceptive type partner to be indecisive and disorganized. The perceptive, in turn, may call the judge narrow-minded and rigid. In either case, they may minimize their areas of compatibility and focus on their differences.
By the same token, introverted ANALYSTS may find their need for peace, privacy and personal territory continually violated by extraverted ANALYSTS, whose requests for socializing, contact, conversation and feedback are frustrated by introverted partners. Neither may recognize the other as a kindred soul because their needs for interaction are so different.
The significance of differences along the introversion-extraversion dimension cannot be overstated. Even though they're both ANALYST temperamental types, an ENTP and an INTP represent vastly different personality styles in a close relationship. And an ENTJ and an INTJ may have to work very hard at understanding each other's needs—even though they have three out of four of the personality factors in common.