#all I need is for Katie McGrath to play a so4

[m00n-pr1sm]

Lena sp4 argument :3

I’ve been iffy on Lena’s enneagram for a while and had settled on sp1 (I was sure she was e1, just unsure on the subtype), however after growing my knowledge and reconsidering; I present you with my sp4 argument! I might throw in some points regarding MBTI & Jungian to reinforce my analysis too.

Part 1: Refuting E1

While E1 is a take I understand, after further analysis it doesn’t fit Lena beyond surface level traits such as perfectionism and self-criticism. We should first examine the 3 triads present in enneagram, being gut, heart, and head. The gut triad is the one that deals with Anger, with E1 in particular turning this anger into righteousness, they move against people. The head triad deals with fear, moving away from people; they retreat into their own head living in the world of ideas. Finally the heart triad is the one that deals with shame, with E4 being the one that is focused on their devalued image (unlike the pride of an E2 or vanity of an E3).

SP1 is a type that I think has been misinterpreted, SP1 is often described as a type that turns their anger into oneself, always striving for perfection, thus turning their anger into warmth. While this may be true, it’s still important to realize that SP1 is still an E1 (not even the countertype at that), they are still incredibly focused on outside standards, they merely mask their anger in contrast to the other subtypes. While yes Lena does fall into this, so much of her character is based on internal personal sentiments, rather than the external standards of perfection. While Lena does have strong morals she believes in, E1 should not be correlated simply with that.

Let’s compare the passions of E1 vs E4, which are Anger and Envy, respectively. The passion of anger causes the person to be critical, frustrated at the world and themselves for not living up to their expectations. They look down upon those that don’t fit into their moralistic ideas, seeing themselves as superior in that aspect. I really do think Lena lacks the crucial element of resenting the world, not just herself. Her arc in season 5, is really the only big indicator to me and even then, it came primarily from the hurt of Kara not revealing her secret, with her moralistic ideals of “fixing the world” stemming from that. It was due to her hurt of being confirmed, by the people she trusted the most, as being the bad guy. Envy will be explained shortly.

Part 2. Explaining SP4

Lena is a very interesting and complex character, however I feel like much of the analysis regarding her typology is very denying of her inherent emotionality, of her personal sentiments; in fact many of the arguments regarding INTJ on this page hinge on how “strong” her Fi is. I had also believed this and even wrote an (unpublished) analysis explaining her functions.

The tertiary is one that isn’t even mentioned in the original literature about MBTI and even so, it is a weak function. While this is not an MBTI or Jungian argument I ask for people to explain how Lena would be a thinking>feeling type, just because she is incredibly smart and capable of rational thought doesn’t make her a thinker. So much of her character is built on the sense of feeling, which as outlined in Jungian, isn’t inherently tied to showing emotion.

However let’s get back to the point.

While E4 may have the image of a lamenting character or one that’s all about creativity or identity; that is a massive oversimplification of the type. We should first examine the ego structure of an E4.

E4 has the fixation of melancholy, they feel dissatisfied and yearn for more, eventually they develop the passion of envy, which causes them to desire what others may have, they feel a deep sense of lacking.

>”In type 4 there is a deficient self: the person feels that they are worthless, that they do not have, there is an impoverished image of themselves, and there is also a strong idealization of what they would like to be.”

The self-preservation instinct is one that is focused on their own survival, thus they focus on their own security.

How the instinct manifests in E4 is that it creates a character that takes in their own envy (thus being the countertype), believing that they can take anything that comes their way. They are demanding and expect perfection of themselves. SP4’s aren’t also very expressive with their emotions, which fits Lena’s attitude of repressing her emotions. This line from the E4 book made me think of her little boxes.

>”He locks his emotions in an inner world that has no expression, to the point that it can be difficult to recognize him as an emotional character”

Here are some quotes outlining the character of an sp4.

>”Although it is not difficult to confuse the search for perfection of an conservation E4 with that of an E1, the conservation E4 accompanies this attitude with effort and dissatisfaction: the search to be perfect or to do things perfectly is the consequence of a feeling of inferiority and an attempt to compensate for the experience of being insufficient.”

>“Different from the "sufferer" (social E4) and the "insufferable" (sexual E4) is what is called the "suffered" (or “long-suffering”) in Spanish, an expression that speaks to us of a capacity for self-frustration and endurance.

>”Instead of being a very tearful person, the sufferer is one who does not complain and avoids crying in front of others, and who has learned to swallow a lot and endure pain without blinking.”

>”One of the most obvious differences between the E4 conservation and the other subtypes of envy is the lack of expression of this passion: conservation is the subtype where envy appears most denied, and it is difficult to recognize it because the person does not stay in the lack and in envy towards what it does not have, but through effort it transforms in a compensatory way what it lacks, thus defending itself from the envious feeling.”

Think back to moments in the show, how Lena tries so hard to be different from her family's legacy, she feels this deep shame of being a Luthor, desperately trying to redeem the name, to try and do something good. We see her put on a stoic, hardworking mask, being overly consumed in her work. While in moments of vulnerability (and mild alcohol inhibition) she reveals her true feelings, such as the scene Lena has in S3E05.

>”Because I did it.

Kara, I did it.

You know, all I ever wanted to be was good.”

>“In the real world, my last name is bin Laden and everything I do hurts people.

Hey, you know, it's...

it's in my DNA, okay?

So, please, just...

just...

just stop.

Stop believing me, okay?

I am not worth it.”

These lines are so indicative of Lena’s deep shame in her name, how she truly views herself as below others and less then. Despite her view of herself being very negative, calling herself a bad person on many occasions; she strives for altruism and tries desperately to show that she is different from her family.

What she tries to do with L-Corp, by reforming it, wasn’t to fit her own expectations and to aim for the idea of perfection.

No, it was reformed out of a sense of penance, a fact that Lena literally states in the first episode she’s in.

>”I won't have a life if I can't make this company into something positive.”

More sp4 coded quotes lol

>“You know, I...

I just thought if I could make this work, I would prove to the world and to my mother that I was as good as the golden boy.

I think most of all, I just wanted to prove it to myself.” (S2E20)

>”I knew something was wrong, but I did nothing. I just watched her die.

And afterward, I was brought to this terrible family.

And I have spent my life fighting their legacy, and their crimes and their evil deeds, but I've always known that...

That deep down inside, that I belonged with them.” (S4E07)

Childhood:

The childhood of a sp4 also matches up extremely close to Lena’s own, she lost her mother at a young age, blaming herself for her death, following that she was taken in by the Luthor family. From this Lena grew up with a poor self image, feeling rejected by Lillian, while also undergoing the guilt that still plagues her into adulthood.

>”Physiological and emotional deprivation at an early age, which may be due to the loss of the mother due to death, illness, depression, abandonment or temporary absence-”

>”In the most general case, when the mother remains by the child's side but stops attending to him, taking care of him and giving him a safe environment, the child introjects the hostile figure, giving rise to his bad internal image and the experience of lack and longing for the good mother The mother is left as great and idealized and the child feels very small and helpless. This way of seeing others as superior is going to be repeated in their relationships throughout their lives.”

>”The experience of children is waiting for someone to be there for them, take care of them and protect them. They constantly need to convince themselves that they can be loved and liked as they are.”

>” As one E4 conservation patient puts it: “Whatever I did, nothing was ever right. My mother criticized me a lot, she told me that I was very selfish...>>”

This deprivation of affection and loss results in a character that believes they are at fault, thus leading to their tenacious and masochistic attitude. Lena took all the terrible things in her childhood, introjecting them and thus believing that she is a bad person. We see her channel these beliefs into her efforts of being a better person, to try and always do right.

also so>sx instinct as I see Lena being incredibly aware and attentive of social norms, rather than the focus on one-on-one relations/competition the sx instinct is about. Although I would be willing to change my mind on this.

Conclusion:

Lena is an sp4 as she lacks the world resentment and external standards of perfection that an E1 would have. However she does fit the feelings of deficiency, she has a strong ideal of who she wants to be, striving for that image with tenacity and effort; this matches up with how the passion of envy is twisted in combination with the self-preservation instinct. Her themes of trying to be perfect and swallowing pain, are a near textbook reflection of an sp4.

This page is very much dead and I really need to stop caring so much about the typology of Katie McGrath’s characters but I cannot stop (Saskia PY argument soon???)

3. Sources

ENVIDIA ABNEGADOS, ODIADORES Y MELANCÓLICOS translation

27 Personalities in Search of Being