UPDATE – 01/02/2018: This article was published on January 20th 2017. Over time, my thoughts have shifted. I now believe that Hitler is an INFJ. This is based on my personal observations with INFJs and their correlated facial features. Since this cannot be objectively proven for now, I will leave this conclusion here and keep my previous reasoning/theory up online regardless.
According to Carl Jung, Hitler was hinted to have INxJ qualities, with a “deep intuition”. This leads some to think that Hitler was an INFJ.
However, Hitler may actually be an INFP. Here is the reasoning:
An INFP predominantly uses the Introverted Feeling (Fi) function, which will give them very strong stances on ideals even if they are not rational. Introverted feeling is heavily associated with stances that are based on emotional foundations. When an INFP speaks with pure introverted feeling, their emotions can move entire crowds. However, this can become dangerous if the INFP believes his/her values are more important than the well-being of individual people because he/she will do what it takes to fulfill that vision.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XPU6uxNxeNQ
This becomes problematic since the INFP with introverted feeling (Fi) at their disposal will naturally be able to understand the feelings of people but will not care about others over their own values. This is especially evident when you hear Hitler’s speeches, where you can see how Hitler tugs at the soul in the moment with his ideals, even if they were extremely flawed in implementation. This is profoundly different from extroverted feeling (Fe) which an INFJ would possess as their auxiliary function. An auxiliary extroverted feeler is more focused on how others feel over their own values being expressed. You could say that the INFJs dominant introverted intuition’s vision of the world should surpass his extroverted feeling, but at the same time, it wouldn’t explain both his irrational hatred for certain groups of individuals and his adoration for the “aryan race”. The emotional categorizations of preference for different groups is an introverted feeling function process whereas extroverted feeling is focused on impacting as a whole.
Paradoxically, when an introverted feeler is expressing their values in a very controlled way, they can actually seem more honest and convincing than an extroverted feeler who uses voice inflections to convey emotions in their words. This is not to say that an INFJ is not going to be convincing (Martin Luther King Jr. was certainly a moving public speaker) but an INFP can be a serious force to be reckoned with well developed introverted feeling.
If you also take into consideration the INFPs inferior function of extroverted thinking, this function tends to arise in two different ways for the ISFP and INFP types. The IxFP tends to either be completely lazy with their extroverted thinking or they become stressed out to the point of over-planning and overthinking as a result of their inferior extroverted thinking. When you take into consideration that Hitler was known to be overly paranoid and a good strategist, it may be because of this inferior extroverted thinking function being out of contro . This ability to strategize and plan contingencies is not to be confused with introverted intuition + extroverted feeling functions working in pairs. While introverted intuition is a forward-thinking function, it has a strategic component when it is paired with extroverted thinking. However, with introverted intuition + extroverted feeling, the vision for the future is more intuitive and broadly based than strategic choices that are made from a logical standpoint arising from extroverted thinking. This would also add onto the rational that Hitler had an inferior extroverted thinking.
Combining these different factors for Hitler’s type analysis, the conclusion would be that Hitler was in fact, an INFP over an INFJ.
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Comments
7 responses to “Was Hitler an INFJ or INFP MBTI Type?”
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For all the reasons pointing to Fi dominance and inferior Te, why is he not ISFP?
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His vision was far too profound and abstract to be produced by a Sensor.
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It only explains Fi and Te, and any type that has those two functions can be Hitler’s type too, then. There is also possibility that Hitler may not be INFx. The article stated itself that strategies are build when Ni paired with Te, isn’t it more possible to name INTJ, rather than calling the Te in INFP which is far from being easily accessible as it is only inferior function? Idk, but I think it needs more solid explanation rather than basing it though a personal speculation. Just because you think A isn’t actually A doesn’t mean we can automatically assume A is B.
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I agree. It didn’t explain why he is INFP and not say ISFP or INTJ. Where is the Ne or Si for example?
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Don’t forget that Hitler’s true influence came from his book Mein Kampf, which he wrote while isolated in prison. INFPs have made some of the greatest writers throughout history, and I beleive that this is where Hitler truly managed to focus and organize his motivations and beliefs. Hitler was an impassioned albeit failed artist and a vegetarian. He thus had idiosyncratic convictions which are another INFP trait. He also designed the Nazi memorabilia himself. Finally, his speaking style was of relating complex ideas with conviction rather than bombasty.
Everything about Hitler to me screams of the hidden passions of a war torn INFP who sacrificed himself for his countrymen, and exposed his true feelings for the world to see. An eloquent and profound monster.
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I think it is only possible to type Hitler through his autobiographical work (Mein Kampf) as it is a work written to not only provide a concrete foundation for Nazi ideology but also dispel any hear’say or rumour about Hitler’s past. He didn’t do it AFAIK to wow the audience: he was in prison and likely saw it as a perfect opportunity to articulate his thought process. Analysing speeches etc. doesn’t work as you don’t know how much of his stage persona is image and how much is the authentic self.
That being said I did not relate to the work’s structure, language, narrative, flow etc. which as an INFP I would do to varying degrees. If he had been an INFP (a 36 year old who would have inevitably developed his inferior functions to certain degrees) then the work would have been better structured (best of luck finding a specific passage in the work as it is a poorly structured mess). For example an INFP would have been guided by unconscious Te to design the work via categories e.g. a section for propaganda, a section for nationalism, a section for anti-antisemitism etc. even if they deviated into other topic areas due to Ne. A framework would have at least existed (even if it had been bare-bones and poor at containing the information). Mein Kampf has no such structure at all: the various themes are woven across the whole work and the only logical progression underpinning the work is in Hitler’s recitation about his youth e.g. a teenager Hitler inevitably precedes an adult Hitler within Hitler’s writings.
Secondly, there is a lack of FiNe in his work: where is the artistic sophistication and the emotion? Much of the work is mostly matter-of-fact and is written that way (with the occasional reminder that the leaders of Germany are idiots). I imagine that 99 out of 100 INFPs would inevitably turn their auto-biography into an artistic masterpiece (or at the very least a work which captures their deep felt ethics and emotions). Hitler has created no such work and is not only described as “horribly written” but also “terribly dull” (and not just by myself either).
Thirdly, Rudolph Hess helped Hitler write Mein Kampf (though the degree to which he did was debatable). I imagine that an INFP would not trust another with such a task: they would write the work themselves. Whilst Hess’ involvement potentially discredits my aforementioned points Hitler would have inevitably possessed an intimacy with the content which was being written (a set-up where Hitler dictates and Hess writes) and any Ne would have reared itself sooner or later within Hitler’s speech (it is the type’s auxiliary function after all) and thus within the work.
tl;dr version: I don’t think Hitler was an INFP. I suspect he was a type 6 and an unknown MBTI type. Possibly an INFJ but he could have just as easily been a sensor (Himmler was supposedly an ISFJ and he supposedly came up with a lot of the mysticism behind Nazi ideology).
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I am infp and i too didn’t believe he’s infp because infp is so different. However i also considered some of your points to be true. In idrlabs i also took a villain test and i ended up as Hitler. I am infp through and through, based from the mbti exam, and all other online tests i took. Never once did i get a different mbti type.
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