MBTI Type: ESFP

Edward turns up at the Stonehearst Asylum with no specific plan in mind, other than a general notion of finding and rescuing Eliza. He is both highly observant (noticing the strange behavior of the patients, as well as her physical symptoms of “hysteria”) and somewhat gullible, in that he believes whatever he sees—until he discovers the doctors locked in cells in the basement, Edward isn’t aware that anything strange (beyond the obvious) is happening at the asylum, or that Lamb is not who he pretends to be. Even after this discovery, Edward sticks around—risking his life to earn Lamb’s trust, find out more about him (sneaking into his office to steal documents and patient files), stealing and bringing food to the people in the basement, etc. His observational skills (such as seeing a man’s name scrawled all over his cell) enables him to survive an assault (he uses the man’s name, and turns him into a “gentle” giant); he also leaps at the chance to drug everyone en masse by putting narcotics in unopened champagne bottles. Edward does not show great Ni, in that his only plan is to get Eliza out alive; having met her once, he fixated on her and imagined their future lives as a couple. His emotions drove him the asylum and keep him there. He has developed a fierce passion for a woman he barely knows, but assumes should be part of his life – she needs rescued, after all. Edward is not good at “faking” anything – he several times makes serious social faux pas, by being blunt. He laughs out loud when a man says his name, since Edward knows that means “slipping someone a Mickey” (drug). He then must fumble to cover up his awkwardness. His tert-Te is competent in gathering information, in drawing rational conclusions, and in coming up with quick plans, but he mostly relies on his Se (awareness of immediate opportunities). Edward has learned enough medical jargon to fake being a doctor successfully and fool everyone. But, when it comes down to it, his Fi dictates most of his views, which are forgiving even toward Lamb, because he can objectively see the barbaric former methods of patient treatment and how some of Lamb’s treatments (or rather, the lack of them) have improved people’s minds.

Enneagram: 3w2 sx/so

SPOILERS. At the end of the film, we learn Edward was locked up for having a “fluid” identity. He would take on the persona of other people and live it out in such realism, everyone believed it. That’s pure 3. He thinks about becoming a doctor, he becomes it. He convinces other people that he is one, and what’s more, a competent one, because he so skillfully, competently, and calmly presents himself as one. He sees that Eliza needs a rescuer… and becomes one. He assumes identities and then sheds them, and no one really knows who he is. His 2 wing is focused on bringing love to himself, by saving Eliza from her own personal hell in an asylum. He forms an intense desire to be with Eliza and pursues that ahead of his own personal safety.