The Analyst (NT) and the Legalist (SJ): what draws them together, the predictable crises, the possible benefits.
There's no question as to what attracts ANALYSTs and LEGALISTs to each other: work. These are the two most work-identified temperaments.
Many ANALYSTs and LEGALISTs fill up all the nooks and crannies of life with work. Especially if the ANALYST is a judging one and the LEGALIST is a thinking one, both of them may trip over the daily lists they live by!
But, in a general sense, what are the critical mating characteristics of the LEGALIST/ANALYST combination?
Both LEGALISTs and ANALYSTs are PRODUCT-ORIENTED. Life should produce something, make something, accomplish something. What should be done and how? That's another matter open to discussion when LEGALISTs and ANALYSTs are involved!
Most ANALYSTs are anti-authoritarian iconoclasts, continually questioning how and why things are done in a particular way. The ANALYST sees life's journey as architecture and invention: "building the better mousetrap." ANALYSTs are revisers, critics, planners, boat-rockers, changers, idea-people, innovators.
LEGALISTs are solid traditionalists, accepting values, religions, political philosophies, institutions, rules, laws, procedures, and goals. LEGALISTs maintain society and its institutions, and they squirm with discomfort as the ANALYST runs around like a squirrel "improving" things!
LEGALISTs hate change. ANALYSTs love change.
ANALYSTs see work as a mission. LEGALISTs see work as a duty.
Therein the two types differ, and the difference may be a mighty one, when it comes to WORK.
LEGALISTs are steady workers, organized workers, habitual workers. They tend to plan carefully and follow a schedule, whether theirs or someone else's. ANALYSTs work without a hard-and-fast game plan of how and when their goals will be achieved.
ANALYSTs pride themselves on their creativity, flexibility, innovation. LEGALISTs pride themselves on their steadiness, stability and traditional orientation.
ANALYSTs are intuitive workers, working in bursts of energy which pay no heed to 9-5 scheduling, slacking off in valleys that ignore the proscription that one should be producing Monday through Friday.
The LEGALIST's list of commitments extends beyond work. Even the rather hard-nosed thinking LEGALIST takes the time to schedule in family and personal time: time some ANALYSTs often feel they can't "invest" (read: "waste"). Especially if the ANALYST mates with the feeling-type LEGALIST, this difference may lead to problems and accusations that the ANALYST lacks sensitivity and a sense of commitment to the relationship.
ANALYSTs are independent characters who sometimes lack a sense of propriety and manifest a stubborn unawareness of the consequences of flaunting authority, showing disrespect, and refusing to follow rules, orders, procedures and etiquette (especially perceptive-type ANALYSTs).
In bureaucratic institutions, ANALYSTs often tend to get into trouble for "bucking the system," while LEGALISTs seem to toe the line and thrive.
ANALYSTs rarely hesitate to point out to LEGALISTs that even the best of organizations is far from perfect and can be improved.
LEGALISTs waste no time in explaining to the errant ANALYST that life goes along a lot smoother when one accepts the status quo and undertakes only carefully planned, winnable battles, especially in institutions.
ANALYSTs are rarely awed by title or rank, money or magnitude. LEGALISTs obey the hierarchy and respect authority, figuring that leaders deserve to be followed.
ANALYSTs are idealists, often battling and suffering ones. LEGALISTs are realists, sometimes stubborn and inflexible ones.
TRADITION and INNOVATION become focal points in the relationship between ANALYSTs and LEGALISTs.
The LEGALIST mate assumes that the ANALYST can be counted on to appear at the nephew's high school graduation. The LEGALIST partner takes it for granted that the ANALYST will attend the birthday party for Aunt Minnie and the anniversary party for the grandparents.
Surprise! ANALYSTs (not even the most responsible judging-type ones) rarely are as attentive to family rituals as LEGALISTs. Especially when some familial obligation interferes with work or some creative enterprise, you can count the ANALYST out of the festivities or expect to see only half-hearted participation.
And, if the LEGALIST has always spent a favorite national holiday picnicking at a particular beach, the ANALYST may decide to surprise the partner by arranging a new way to celebrate. The real surprise may be the ANALYST's—as the LEGALIST refuses (perhaps contemptuously!) to break with tradition. "That holiday has always been spent on that beach, eating the same food with the same group of family or friends. And that's that!"
Especially if the LEGALIST is a feeling-type, the ANALYST's desire to disrupt tradition may be taken as evidence of gross insensitivity and lack of caring.
It's unlikely that the ANALYST would describe the interaction in those terms. It's just that doing the same thing in the same way with the same people, year in and year out, is any intuitive's idea of torture. By comparison, change and unpredictability are the LEGALIST's idea of hell.
And MONEY again rears its head as an issue in the ANALYST-LEGALIST loving partnership. ANALYSTs are idealists. They aren't necessarily practical and realistic about money, and conservative financial management is definitely not a typical ANALYST characteristic!
Then, too, many ANALYSTs aren't really into tangibles, except for books and computers and other NT-type possessions they see as necessary to continue their intellectual pilgrimage through life.
LEGALISTs are a different breed. These folks budget, conserve, invest, purchase, own and pass down possessions to the children. The LEGALIST doesn't rent or charge unless there are no other reasonable options. For some, this characteristic is so strong that "scrimp and save" becomes an unspoken motto for life.
More so than the typical ANALYST, the LEGALIST borrows as little as possible, for as short a time as feasible, pays bills on time, avoids living on credit—or suffers guilt and worry as a price for not doing so.
The LEGALIST tends to purchase household goods as investments: good furniture, good appliances. One buys a "good" car. One pays attention to resale value, whether or not the piece ever will be sold ("You just can't tell about these things!" the LEGALIST reminds). One takes care of one's property.
And that's that.
Not even the judging-type-ANALYST is as dogmatic as the LEGALIST, except in being dogmatic against dogmatics.
Perceptive-type ANALYSTS, especially, may find the LEGALIST's awesome number of rules, plans, attitudes, prejudices, prescriptions, schedules and programs to be totally abhorrent.
The ANALYST may react to the LEGALIST's manifest and subliminal parenting, preaching and teaching behaviour by becoming a "bad little kid," rebelling overtly or ignoring the LEGALIST's well-intentioned criticism and guidance.
When it comes to SEX, the conflicts between the LEGALIST and ANALYST are predictable. For the LEGALIST, sex carries with it a sense of duty and decorum. You ought to make love, at a certain frequency, in a certain way, in certain places, under certain circumstances. LEGALISTs may vary, from one to another, in how they fill in those variables, but the typical LEGALIST does have particular expectations about the rhythms of the love life.
Especially the perceptive-type ANALYST doesn't see things that way, and the control-loving LEGALIST's tendency to use sex as a punishment or reward may become a source of conflict in this relationship.
Looking at sex in another way—as in sex-role expectations, LEGALISTs have a lot of those. ANALYSTs have few.
For many LEGALISTs, woman's place is in the home, especially when children come along. The male is expected to be the chief breadwinner, unless "putting hubby through" some educational or other training process is on the agenda. And financial gain or status enhancement had better lie at the end of that road if the LEGALIST spouse is to be convinced.
Feeling-type LEGALIST women, in particular, often believe that it's OK for the female of the species to be "taken care of"—an unwritten part of the marriage contract.
These expectations may surprise the ANALYST male.
And, in reverse, when the LEGALIST husband assumes that the ANALYST wife will curtail education or professional activity to stay home and play "mother," protracted negotiation may be in order!
NOTE: All of these predictable crises are more likely when the partners have different preferences for the introverted or extraverted attitude, and/or thinking-feeling function.
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