Suits: Jessica Pearson (INTJ)

Ni:

“We are going to swallow our pride, and we’re going to wait until we can make a move from a position of strength.”

“I’m saying that I’m not rushing this decision.”

“So you can think of this office as a reminder of what you did to Harvey, or as a symbol of what you can accomplish at the firm.”

“Because I look at the future like an adult.”

Jessica Pearson is a long term thinker. She emphasizes being patient, not rushing into decisions, and looking to the future. She sees future potential and uses it to guide her decision making. She sees most things as actions leading to an end goal. For example, when speaking to Harvey, she refers to the first five partners she named as the first five major moves that she made. She views every action as a part of a calculated plan, in that sense. Every move she makes is leading to somewhere. Her focus on seeing long term potential also is suggested when it’s revealed that she takes new associates out for dinner sometimes in their first year, and then they eventually end up becoming senior partners down the line. Harvey is an example of this.

Daniel Hardman makes a comment at one point that Jessica is playing chess, while everyone else is playing checkers. She tends to make decisions and strategies based on how she predicts that people will act. For instance, when she’s at risk of losing her firm to Hardman, she sends Harvey to attempt to win over Louis first, knowing full well that she’d eventually have to deal with him personally. However, she knew that if she approached Louis right away, that if he didn’t have to work for the outcome that he wanted, he wouldn’t believe it. This all supports being a high introverted perceiver.

Jessica tends to operate in a fairly indirect manner, which points to Ni. The information in the previous point supports this, considering that she wouldn’t just approach Louis directly. In addition to this though, she also prefers people to read between the lines, to essentially infer what she really wants without always outright stating it. For instance, she’ll make statements like “I am explicitly telling you not to do this” while heavily implying that she actually wants the person to do whatever it is.

Lastly, we see a hint of Ni symbolism when she is discussing Mike’s new office with him. He’s seeing it as a reminder of his betrayal to Harvey. She encourages him to essentially let go of his past action, and see the office as a symbol of what he can accomplish at the firm. This also points to the more abstract way that Ni users interpret or perceive their past actions.

Te:

“This firm? You mean my firm.”

“I know they said I couldn’t control you. You’re going to learn that I can.”

“This is about my power. And the stakes are everything.”

Jessica’s Te shows up in her blunt, assertive, and outcome-driven nature. She periodically reminds those that she’s in charge, and that the firm is her firm. Someone fairly early in the show compares Harvey to her, essentially saying that they both tend to be direct and get straight to the point. Harvey is quick to add that he just does it with more charm, which infers the opposite about Jessica, suggesting that she tends to be a bit more blunt or abrasive. This points away from higher Fe for her and suggests Te.

While Jessica’s Te use is fairly clear, it specifically appears to be auxiliary Te. While she is certainly interested in controlling, she takes a slightly more passive approach. A major indication that her Te is not dominant shows up in the way she lets Harvey operate in gray areas, until he crosses a line that she doesn’t like. Once that happens, she gets extremely angry with him, reasserts her control, and demands that he fix whatever he has done. Later on in the show, we see her really try to lock down on Harvey, as a reaction to people claiming that she can’t control him. As a Te user, this accusation would be extremely frustrating, and she responds to it essentially by attempting to assert her power and authority, both verbally and through action.

Similarly, there are many instances where she’s fully aware that he’s crossing lines, but she’s okay with it, so long as it produces the result that she wants. She doesn’t actually get angry with Harvey until it back fires. Once again, she then demands that he fix whatever he has done. This outcome oriented focus suggests high Te. An example of this can be seen at the beginning of the show when Harvey lies to the client to provoke a certain action. She doesn’t get angry until the client finds out and fires them. She then tries to deny him his promotion, claiming she can’t justify giving it to him considering what he’s just done.

Fi:

“You and I share the same trait of keeping our personal lives personal.”

“I’m not gonna buy your vote because that’s not who I am.”

“For all his faults, Quentin has never lied to me before.”

Jessica’s Fi specifically appears to be in the tertiary position, which is the reason we leaned toward INTJ rather than ENTJ, which some believe her to be. Emotionally, she is always calm and collected in addition to be extremely private. She shares nothing about her private life unless it becomes directly relevant to their firm. This is common for low feelers, and tertiary Fi specifically.

However, moving onto more critical evidence, while Jessica seems to be fairly loose with her lines, she has certain boundaries which she outright refuses to cross. Of course, we’re not saying that inferior Fi users can’t have boundaries, but where Jessica chooses to draw her lines seems to more indicate higher Fi. For instance, she is more than willing to let Harvey cross lines to get the job done. However, when it comes to winning over the votes of the partners so she can keep her firm, she refuses to buy people’s votes, even though that would bring her the outcome that she wanted. She claims that it is not “who I am” which is anecdotally an Fi thing to say. She wants their sincere loyalty, rather than simply buying their favor.

Jessica also seems to have a blind spot toward those she trusts. For instance, she refuses to consider that her ex-husband, Quentin, may be hiding something from them, and subsequently refuses let Harvey look into Quentin. She essentially won’t let Harvey treat him like everyone else they work for, wanting to give Quentin the benefit of the doubt. This ends up backfiring on them later.

Se:

“This happened today. Today. We just took the hit. We suffered a loss, and you don’t make major life decisions when you’re reeling from a loss.”

Jessica’s inferior Se surfaces in her avoidance of impulsive decisions, and the regret that she tends to feel when she does make impulsive decisions. When dealing with Harvey, she is constantly emphasizing patience and thinking ahead, especially during the time when they’re at risk of losing the firm. Harvey wants to essentially flee and start over, while she strongly urges patience, saying that one should never make life decisions when reeling from a loss. At one point, we do actually see her sign a contract with Daniel Hardman on spur of the moment, to get him to leave, because it sounds like a good deal. She later ends up deeply regretting that impulsive action.

Lastly, her inferior Se surfaces in her frustration over Harvey’s impulsiveness. While she does find him amusing at times, she infers at one point that his shortsightedness is causing him to act childish, and that he will never truly be leadership material. This shows her more negative outlook on Se, which is a common perspective that people tend to have on their inferior function.