The Lenore Thomson Exegesis Wiki

George Costanza

George Costanza, a character on Seinfeld.

Hypothesis: INTP "in the grip" of the inferior function

George is the epitome, the ne plus ultra, the zenith (or perhaps the nadir), of the neurotic INTP.

"Everyone has to like me"

Inferior extraverted feeling shows up in nearly every episode, but comes out explicitly when his girlfriend asks him rhetorically, "Does everyone have to like you?" George answers, "Yes! Everyone has to like me!" Here we see George's quixotic quest laid plain. He wants to be liked. But always on his terms, never on others'.

Whenever anyone doesn't like or respect George, he views this as a failure of reason in need of correction. The other person must be set straight so they properly appreciate George and see for themselves that he has only been doing right, only for the purest motives of respect for the right order of things. Thus he appeals to Ti. He tries to get people to see what truly makes sense--that they should like him.

This always fails because Fe is not a matter of doing what makes sense, it's a matter of finding a place for yourself in the world of mutual obligations that grow out of what people actually do like. Some people like stuff that other people don't like, and from an Fe perspective, that's all there is to it. You can't argue someone into liking something. From a developed Fe perspective, you form your identity by your choices of whom to side with. You find commonalities where they really exist. You cultivate shared values where there is a foundation for common interest. You expand your sense of value to fit in, you don't demand that people be reasonable as you define reasonable. You genuinely bare your heart to people in a way that they understand without effort. When a dom-Fe type sincerely bares his heart, it automatically comes out in a politically acceptable way, because his heart has genuinely formed to fit his social niche. When dom-Fe types express warmth, they're not faking it. They choose conventional forms of expression simply because they know that these forms convey their true feelings clearly.

There is simply no way to leap directly from a dom-Ti approach to a dom-Fe approach. When your whole value system centers around faithfulness to the causal order of things without regard for whether people like it, if you genuinely bare your heart you're going to alienate nearly everyone in your society. If you insist on proving to them that your values are better than theirs (trying to win in the communal-values world by intransigent appeal to Ti), you're also going to alienate nearly everyone you meet.

"Opposite George"

Lenore Thomson's theory that the secondary function usually leads the way out of ruts like that might go as follows. While George usually uses extraverted intuition to concoct elaborate lies and deceive people ("Art Vandelay", the house in The Hamptons, etc.), always trying to keep the situation under his control, a truly extraverted approach to Ne would lead him to take chances by trying new things to see where they lead. Genuinely leap into the unknown, in other words, by pouncing on opportunities to open up new potential.

This actually happens in the "Opposite George" episode. George observes that his instincts are always wrong. People say "trust your instincts" but his instincts always lead him to say or do the wrong thing. So he gets the idea of doing the exact opposite of his instincts. Thus is born "Opposite George". Whatever George would do instinctively, Opposite George will do the opposite. A gorgeous tall blonde in the diner has looked in his direction. His instinct would be to stay away from her--she's out of his reach. Instead, he walks up to her and says that he's unemployed and lives with his parents. She's interested.

Later that episode, he interviews for a job with the Yankees. The interview is going well. Then George Steinbrenner walks in. George would have tried to suck up to Steinbrenner (inferior Fe, trying to curry favor by announcing commonality of values). Opposite George takes control: he tells off Steinbrenner, criticizing his decisions and accusing him of destroying a once-great organization. Steinbrenner says, "Hire this man."

Developing the secondary function

Thus extraverted intuition--truly diving into the unknown, taking a calculated risk to see where it leads--is actually the solution to George's social problems, not extraverted feeling. George doesn't make a better place for himself in the world by sucking up to people or trying to follow conventional etiquette when his heart is not in it. He finds completely unexpected, unanticipatable opportunities to connect with people by trying bold, outlandish things that play to his strengths--and do not have certain outcomes. Unbeknownst to him, his previous life of curiosity, failure, analysis, even neurosis, has created capacities that he can draw upon when he pounces on an opportunity and takes a risk. Unlike in his previous introverted world, he has consciously accepted that he's not in control, that the social arena is bigger than he is, and he's dealing with it anyway.

Version 8 2004-Jul-18 17:19 UTC

Last edit by Ben Kovitz