#so much i could do based on the zebra mastermind episode

[devilsrecreation]

So we all lost and now have nothin to eat

Your bosses say you’re all oh so hopeless

You go home beaten even when there’s easy meat

Can’t face your friends all starved and joyless

You feel stupid, that zebra’s said “so long”

Well lemme just say you’re not wrong! :D

“Wait, what?”

You’re a furbrain, buddy

A furbrain, my croc buddy

You’re as helpful as a tiny itch (Hey!)

You’re a furbrain just like me! (Well, that’s mean!)

You’re a derp-faced moron

all your ideas are long gone

You’re two gluttons who always butt in

We’ve all been there, buddy!

[dead-fandom-society]

Contrary to popular belief, Gregory House is not an INTJ, Here’s Why: An Analysis.

I spewed this out at 1AM, so apologies for any mistakes. I’ve been thinking about his character for a while, and I finally got around to actually doing somewhat of an analysis.

TLDR: House’s cognitive functions show him to be more likely an ENTP than an INTJ.

We all know and love (or possibly hate, I don’t know) the 8-season medical drama, House MD, which follows the manic and drug addicted physician, Gregory House, and his unconventionally brilliant methods for chasing zebras while circling the drain. House is meant to be portrayed as a modern day, medical version of Sherlock Holmes— he is a prickly and arrogant genius with a penchant for solving puzzles. The personality type of Sherlock Holmes has been long debated as whether he is a judger or a perceiver, as has the personality type of House, one incarnation of the infamous mastermind Holmes. In this essay, I will analyze the personality type of Gregory House and outline reasons supporting the fact that he is not the type that he is widely regarded as.

First and foremost, House is a genius. Due to stereotypes surrounding the INTJ type, any character in the media who is portrayed as being smart, antisocial, and logical is most of the time typed automatically— and incorrectly— as an INTJ. Two examples would be obviously Holmes, and the subject of this essay, House. Due to House’s mastermind personality and quick, logical thinking, he is often dubbed an INTJ, akin to Holmes (the irony in this is that Holmes isn’t even an INTJ, he’s closer to an INTP, but that’s not the point here). There are many misconceptions due to simply the fact that he is smart and good at solving puzzles. This essay is going to focus on typing more than stereotyping to get a better look at the truth.

On the topic of his type, House is definitely an intuitive (N) and a thinker (T). He likes to come up with possibilities more than focusing on what’s right in front of him and concrete, hence why he works in such a specialized field of medicine. Usually, if a person has a high fever and a sore throat, the typical doctor will immediately think strep or tonsillitis. The typical doctor will think common, simple possibilities, whereas House immediately jumps to the rarest conditions he can think of. This is akin to the dominant Ne function, also known as Extroverted Intuition. We see in nearly every episode that House likes to brainstorm, usually using a whiteboard, about possibilities. He likes to share his ideas with others before eventually coming to an epiphany. His final diagnosis usually comes to him randomly, after the thought is set off like in a “lightbulb” moment. His ideas are spontaneous and often outlandish.

The hunch that House’s dominant cognitive function is Ne is also supported by the methods he uses to diagnose and treat patients. Firstly, he often comes up with extremely creative and inventive ideas to diagnose a disease after nothing else has worked. Instead of using the conventional MRI or blood test, House will often experiment on the patient by pushing their body to a limit in some way, elaborately tricking them, etc. in order to find the underlying condition. When he is faced with a roadblock, he is creative in finding his way around it. He is impulsive and his methods are often outlandish, which also supports the fact that he is a perceiver and not a judger. Judgers typically like to plan things out, while perceivers are spontaneous and are more prone to act on impulse.

Another fact about his character that leads to the selection of Ne for his dominant function lies in the fact that he is an extrovert. Contrary to popular belief due to his misanthropic outlook and general distaste when it comes to interacting with people, House thrives when he is with company. His character needs it, which is part of the reason why he needs his team. He needs someone to bounce his ideas off of, which is why when his team isn’t around, he is often seen consulting Wilson or Cuddy to simply share his ideas with them and look for feedback, which indicates dominant Ne. Bouncing his ideas off of people for feedback is crucial to his method, and he wouldn’t be able to solve his puzzles as effectively without it. He is at his peak when he is with company. He needs company, and he needs someone to bounce ideas off of, which is characteristic of extroverted intuition. Not to mention, he will talk to anyone that is around him if he’s not alone—he’s not shy, to say the least. Although his character dislikes people and is constantly shown to think they are all “idiots,” he thrives when with company. He is often mistaken for an introvert due to his distaste for people, but his “introversion” is rooted in his past and current problems that resulted in major trust issues. He is antisocial because he is depressed and traumatized, not because he necessarily does better alone. If it weren’t for his past, he would be seen as a more typical extrovert. Being antisocial doesn’t necessarily equate with being an introvert.

Let’s talk stereotypes for a bit. House is prone to arguments, there’s no doubt about that. He often says whatever is on his mind to whoever will listen, simply for shock value and effect in a conversation. This is stereotypical to dissenter/debater types like ENTP. When he does argue with someone, he is quick to his point and logical, and he often uses creative metaphors to support his points— another characteristic of dominant Ne that is often seen in ENTP.

As mentioned before, House is also a thinker. This is obvious. He never acts based on his feelings, and in fact, he is often shown to not care for feelings at all. He acts purely on logic— while it is impulsive, it is based on facts that he knows rather than “gut” feelings. He always has an explainable reason behind his outlandish methods, which supports the fact that he is clear-cut facts over feelings— a reason why there is the recurring inner conflict with his character and religion. House has to find a rational explanation for everything, and when he does, it is clear that he did not take his feelings into account when formulating the aforementioned explanations. He always has a reason that he can back up. His secondary function is most likely Ti, introverted thinking.

His logical thinking and search for truth is also crucial to him solving his medical “puzzles,” and unlike in an INTJ, is often the second step to his method. In introverted intuitive types like INTJ, the subject looks at the main problem before brainstorming solutions, whereas extroverted intuitive types like ENTP brainstorm a bunch of possibilities for what the problem could be before coming up with reasoning and solutions for them. Think of a tree: an INTJ (dominant Ni, secondary Te) starts with the big picture, the trunk of the tree, and works upwards brainstorming other ideas that eventually branch out into possible solutions. An ENTP (dominant Ne, secondary Ti), however, starts with the branches and works their way towards the trunk. This is seen in House— he starts with a bunch of ideas and then narrows them down to one solution as he discovers more information.

House’s tertiary function is Fe, extroverted feeling. Tertiary Fe is the function that allows its user to connect with others and be able to read them, in a sense. Tertiary Fe often includes “social strategizing,” which can be summed up as the ability to “read” a social situation, understand how others feel, and use it to an advantage. Once again, although he exhibits antisocial tendencies, House is very good at reading people, and he is very persuasive when need be. House does this with his patients. He picks up on small clues about a person— whether it be the way they move their fingers, or they way they do their hair— and uses it to sum up the patient’s entire life and motives. Once he has assumed enough about a person, he uses what he has picked up about their lifestyle to aid in his diagnosis, and to manipulate them. House has demonstrated multiple times that by using his knowledge of the patient’s lifestyle, he can conclude things about their personalities and motives, and he can often pick up on their feelings towards a certain situation and use those feelings to persuade and manipulate the patient into a treatment that they initially refused.

Lastly, is the inferior function, which in House’s case, would be Si (introverted sensing). In a subject with dominant Ne, inferior Si manifests itself as resistance to conformity, which is something that we definitely see in good old Dr. House. His inferior introverted sensing prevents him from being satisfied with obeying rules, as we see a lot in his unconventional methods that often land him in trouble with the hospital’s administration, or even the law. House’s Si never developed fully, which leaves him with the refusal of settling down and obeying societal norms or set rules. He just doesn’t care, and often questions or argues the reasoning behind the rules that keep him from doing whatever. Subjects with inferior Si often are eccentric in their ways of life, as is House. He has trouble with rules and set boundaries, and he would rather do whatever the fuck he wants, and while being aware of the rules, he simply disregards them in favor of his own interests. He is also incredibly reckless and has no regard for possible consequences he may end up facing. He is also never seen doing anything that doesn’t interest him, and he tends to only focus on things that he is passionate about.

In conclusion, although Dr. Gregory House is often typed as an INTJ due to his knack for solving puzzles, his character is much deeper than that and his type ends up aligning more with that of an ENTP. I’ll leave this open to discussion: what do you, my imaginary followers, think about his type?