Myers-Briggs Types in Sherlock (BBC): Sherlock Holmes (ENTJ)

BBC Sherlock has several main characters with identifiable Myers-Briggs personality types (colloquially known as MBTI). This one has been a long time coming, the one we held off on, because Sherlock’s personality type is highly contested. we felt it was pertinent to include as much information as possible to support our point. Please approach this article with an open mind, but as always, you are welcome to your own opinion. Hope you all enjoy!

The Myers-Briggs Type of BBC’s Sherlock Holmes

Dominant Te:

“This investigation might move a bit quicker if you were to take my word as gospel.”

“He will out live God trying to have the last word.” – Watson

“You are not a puzzle solver, you never have been. You’re a drama queen.” – Watson

The biggest thing that stands out about Sherlock (from BBC’s Sherlock) is how bossy he is. He is constantly telling someone off or telling them what to do. Sherlock has no problems taking command of those around him, and he is very black and white. He’s right, and everyone else is wrong. No exceptions. (Note the “WRONG!” text that he feels compelled to send to the entire police force in the pilot episode). Sherlock is highly arrogant and openly flaunts his genius every chance he gets. While some like to argue that Sherlock is an Ni dom, I argue that his willingness to rush into a situation without proper planning or regard to his safety points to leading with Te rather than Ni.

Sherlock is in the case solving business to be right, not necessarily for the puzzle. If he can skip steps or jump to a conclusion without completely figuring something out, he will. He attempts to do this when solving one of the puzzles Moriarity gives him while he is on a time limit. It isn’t until Moriarity refuses to accept only the answer that Sherlock bothers to figure out why it is the answer. Sherlock also rushes through his cases in his desire to solve them. He seems to tear through them as quickly as possible trying to solve everything at record speed, since he is focused on the end goal. He doesn’t bask in the experience as much as he seems to be challenging himself to solve it as fast as possible.

Like most other Te doms, Sherlock has no filter. He says exactly what he thinks all the time without hardly any exceptions. He is not concerned with insulting or otherwise hurting other people’s feelings. The amount of boredom that Sherlock always feels also points to him being an extraverted dominant. While introverted dominants can keep themselves occupied within their own headspace for a majority of the time, extraverted doms need to be stimulated by the outside world in order to not become bored. Another proof of his extraversion is his inability to keep his mouth shut on many occasions. For instance, he ends up in contempt of court during one of the episodes because he couldn’t “survive for just a few minutes without showing off” after being warned by the judge. Sherlock is NOT a background player, like an INTJ typically will be. He is a blatant show off; and while he struggles with stepping on people’s toes, he actually doesn’t appear to have any insecurities when it comes to dealing with people. This all points to extravert.

In Sherlock, we see an obvious game of tug-of-war between his dominant Te and his inferior Fi, which further emphasizes the imbalance between them. Someone with aux Fi and tertiary Te will not display this as unhealthily as Sherlock does. What we mean by this is that Sherlock is frequently showing childish displays of emotion, primarily anger. He does not have the austere, controlled, and sober temperament of typical auxiliary Te user. Watson even calls out at one point that Sherlock is a “drama queen”, choosing cases more for the drama involved in them rather than the puzzle itself.

Auxiliary Ni:

“Listen. This is my hard drive, and it only makes sense to put things in there that are useful, really useful. Ordinary people fill their heads will all kinds of rubbish, and that makes it hard to get at the stuff that matters. Don’t you see?”

“There’s something important about this. Maybe it’s Moriarty, maybe it’s not. But something’s coming.”

“The world is woven from billions of lives, every strand crossing every other. What we call premonition is just movement of the web. If you intenuate to every strand of quivering data the future would be entirely calculable, as inevitable as mathematics.”

Sherlock is definitely an Ni user. He’s shown making logical leaps time and time again from seemingly out of nowhere, but please note that it’s not necessarily the deduction that makes him an Ni user; it’s the countless times that he launches out with some sort of conclusion and then is forced to reluctantly back peddle to explain how he reached his conclusion to those around him. Sometimes, Sherlock even appears to have to stop and think for a second to gather his thoughts so he can backtrack and figure out how he came to his conclusion in order to share it with others. There are many examples of him doing this, but a good example can be found in “The Great Game” when Sherlock declares seemingly out of the blue that the painting is fake, and everyone is incredibly confused because up until that moment they had no knowledge of there being a painting involved in this at all. Sherlock then had to step back through the evidence to not only explain why the painting was fake but what painting he was talking about to begin with. That is the process an Ni user takes – intuitive leap first.

Sherlock also focus on the big picture and underlying patterns behind everything. You can read the quote above concerning how everything is ultimately connected like a giant web and therefore must be predictable. Of course, he is shown being able to predict things time and time again. Sherlock is also very focused and honed in on whatever case he is working on to the point of obsession. He has displayed Ni tunnel vision, in moments like when the criminal shows up at his door and Sherlock is told that a taxi has arrived for him. Sherlock keeps trying to dismiss the message bringer saying that he did not order a taxi. He is so focused on solving the current puzzle that he initially fails to see that the killer has literally come straight to his front door.

Sherlock does not indiscriminately collect information like many Ne/Si users do. Rather, he is shown forgetting basic things that he has deemed unimportant, which is classic Ni/Se behavior. At one point, Watson is shown mocking Sherlock for not knowing basic facts about the solar system, like the earth orbiting the sun. However, as a genius, Sherlock has learned how to make up for his lack of Ne/Si by using memory palaces to store excess information or immediately irrelevant information.

Tertiary Se:

“Tell us from the start. Don’t be boring.”

Sherlock definitely does not have inferior Se, like many people want to say. Sherlock gets a thrill from being in the middle of the action. He is frequently shown rushing right into a danger-ridden area, like in that one episode when he is darting back and forth in a tunnel to save Watson in spite of the flurry of bullets coming his way. He also is incredibly quick to dismiss a case purely on the basis that it is boring. In addition, he is quick to lash out in a physical way even if inflicted by only a small amount of frustration. Much to Mrs. Hudson’s dismay, he is constantly shooting the wall, destroying furniture, and etcetera.

His various exclamations of excitement all revolve around his Se impulse. Dead body? That’s great! A string of suicides? The game is afoot! He is solving crime not to rid the world of injustice, but because it’s dangerous and it gives him a high, that rush of endorphins he’s looking for. It’s the physical sensation that helps sharpen his senses and keep him in the moment, which falls in line with the way Te-Se works together.

Sherlock also struggles with addiction. We’re not saying that only Se users will be addicts, but you can see him generally struggle with impulse control and this is just another way that it surfaces. Sherlock in some form is always addicted to something, whether it be drugs or the thrill of the case. This is hit on in Mary’s final episode summary as she refers to Sherlock as an addict looking for his next high.

Inferior Fi:

“I’ve always been able to keep myself distant, divorce myself from feelings, but you see, my body’s betraying me. Interesting, yes? Emotions.”

Sherlock has an interesting relationship with his inferior Fi. While he likes to proclaim and relish in the idea of being without emotion and without emotional attachment, you see strong inferior emotional displays from him throughout the show. When he gets stumped or a case isn’t going his way, he is quick to lash out emotionally via his Se as explained in the prior section. (IE: stabbing papers on the mantel, shooting the wall, etc.) As most inferior Fi users, he insists that he has no emotional attachments, even going so far as to call sentiment weakness when speaking with the Lady before unlocking her vault. He generally views things like love as weakness. However in spite of this, Sherlock gets involved with her and breaks the rules to save her life. He is also obviously quite attached to his best friend John and the members of his family whether or not he is willing to admit it.

Another sign of his inferior Fi is the fact that he is totally oblivious to the emotions of others, like being openly happy when there is a murder. This even extends to his powers of deduction. What others can see plainly, when it comes to emotional intention, goes right over his head. An example of this is seen early on in the show when Molly would do things like wear lipstick when Sherlock was around to try and make herself more attractive to him. While he took note of the change in behaviour, he could not deduce why the change had occurred.

He also has a looser sense of morals than, for instance, Mycroft. He willingly shoots the man who was going to expose John’s wife simply to protect her secrets. In that moment, he decides protecting her secrets, and by extension, her life is worth crossing a line and commiting murder. He has no problem using others to get what he wants, like getting involved with Mary’s friend to gain access to a facility and giving John possibly hallucinogenic coffee.