Sherlock Holmes (RDJ) Series: Sherlock Holmes (ENTP)

Ne:

“Watson, I am in the process of inventing a device that suppresses the sound of a gunshot.”

“In fact, I may well have reconciled thousands of years of theological disparity. But that’s for another time.”

“It’s so overt, it’s covert.”

“Be careful what you fish for.”

“I, using musical theory, have created order out of chaos.”

Right from the beginning of the first movie, this version of Sherlock appears scattered and all over the place. Within the first five minutes, while in the middle of a dangerous investigation, he has a conversation with Watson where he admits to forgetting his revolver and forgetting to turn the stove off before he left home. He doesn’t seem too concerned by either of these things. Sherlock merely remarks, as they are choking out a guard, that it felt as if he had forgotten something. This demonstrates the spontaneous and impulsive nature of a dominant extraverted perceiver, or Ne, in this case.

The Ne characteristics continue as the movie jumps forward some months to a scene where Watson hears gun shots coming from Sherlock’s study. Watson goes in to investigate, only to find the completely darkened room in a state of absolute disarray. Sherlock starts rambling to Watson about how he is developing a device to silence a gunshot. The mess in the room displays the many projects Sherlock has been jumping between over the past several months of not having an interesting case. Due to one such experiment, the dog appears to be dead because of some serum Sherlock is testing. This pattern remains throughout both movies.

While some of Sherlock’s projects are relevant to his work as a detective, others seem completely random and disconnected, like experimenting with the effect of music on fireflies. This all portrays Ne’s penchant for leaping from one idea to the next, never settling on one for too long.

Sherlock also completely loses track of both the date and the time, due to his caseless solitude. When Watson insists that he needs to get out of the house, Sherlock says, “There’s nothing of interest for me, out there, on earth, at all.” This shows that he has completely lost touch with the world outside, consumed by his own scattered experimentation.

Ti:

“It’s a matter of professional integrity! No girl wants to marry a doctor who can’t tell if a man’s dead or not!”

“Blackwood’s method is based on a ritualistic mystical system that’s been employed by the Temple of the Four Orders for centuries. To fully understand the system, to get inside it, I reenacted the ceremony we interrupted at the crypt with a few enhancements of my own.”

“Besides, the girl’s parents hired me, not the Yard.”

“There’s nothing more elusive than an obvious fact.”

Sherlock Holmes displays Ti quite prominently. For starters, he displays no sense of external order (Te), yet insists there is an order to his chaos. That is often the sign of an introverted thinker, since their rational or system of organization is subjective, rather than having a recognizable structure to it. The most obvious example of this is shown when he tells Mrs. Hudson, “Don’t touch. Everything is in its proper place,” while they’re both in his room, and the place is in complete chaos.

Sherlock demonstrates a need to fully understand systems by immersing himself in them. The clearest example shown is when he reenacts the ceremony that Blackwood had attempted to perform earlier in the movie. Of course, true to Ti, Sherlock also adds “enhancements” of his own, essentially tweaking the process in ways that make sense to him.

Sherlock uses subjective logic, which he often weaponizes against others. This often result in snarky comments and quips. However, other time, he sucks them into a circle of reasoning that has detached from objective reality. He then uses the rules of this system against them. For instance, when him and Watson are in jail, he invites him to go to Mycroft’s country home with him. Watson retorts that if he’s going to go on vacation to the country with anyone, it’ll be with his fiancee. Sherlock reluctantly says that she could come along too. To which, Watson snaps that they’d be going alone. Sherlock feigns confusion, and reminds him that it’s his brother’s country home. Why on earth would they go without him?

Sherlock also likes to use other people’s reasoning against them, as a means of manipulation. For instance, he is constantly trying to get Watson to work more cases with him. In one such instance, knowing Watson values integrity, he specifically points out that no woman (such as his fiancée) would want to marry a doctor who can’t tell if a man is dead or not (after Blackwood had seemingly risen from the dead).

Fe:

“This musn’t register on an emotional level.”

This version of Sherlock is somewhat less direct than other versions. For instance, he prefers to use light Fe manipulation to sway and coerce Watson into helping him, instead of being commanding or direct. In one such instance, in an effort to get Watson back on the case with him, Sherlock proclaims that no woman would want to marry a doctor who can’t even tell if a man is dead. He also attempts to make Watson appear less appealing to Mary by highlighting his gambling habit in front of her. He also has a habit of giving underhanded compliments or delivering witty jabs to the police that highlight their incompetence.

When confronted with the idea of Watson getting engaged, Sherlock chooses to avoid the topic altogether. He refuses to acknowledge the relationship and gives all sorts of reasoning for why Watson would rather stay and work on cases with him rather than be saddled with marriage. When Watson invites him to dinner, he initially accepts until he finds out Watson’s girlfriend would also be attending. At which point, he quickly changes his mind and attempts to decline. This is in spite of the fact that Sherlock had already admitted to being available for dinner just moments before. These all point back to a form of low Fe: trying to implement a weak level of manipulation with a focus on swaying public perception or someone’s image in order to suite his personal desires.

Si:

“Shall I answer chronologically or alphabetically?”

“It’s not in your face. It’s in my hand.”

Sherlock uses a low form of Si that mainly manifests as his very nit picky nature. While managing to completely disregard standard sensory details like the date or time, he will get very hung up on small technicalities or specific details that people get wrong. When Watson refers to the man they are looking for as a dwarf, Sherlock quickly corrects him, calling the man a midget. He rattles off the differences between the two in the process. He gets hung up on this minor detail, and it comes up several more times throughout the film, even though its significance is negligible at best.

Another example of his Si use is highlighted in a conversation he has with Irene. She asks him to name a reason why he doesn’t trust her. He quickly responds by asking whether she would like them listed chronologically or alphabetically, showing that he has a very detailed recollections of all her slights to him.

Lastly, his Si surfaces via his tendency to get caught up on technicalities as a way to be argumentative or contrary. This specifically demonstrates Ti in combination with Si. For instance, when Watson tells him to get that cane out of his face, Sherlock retorts with: “It’s not in your face. It’s in my hand.”