MBTI Type: ESFJ

Lionel has a warm and generalized approach to his patients which includes making himself an “equal” to whomever he is treating, even if that person happens to be the future / prospective king of England. Though he lays down groundwork of “my castle, my rules,” he is in fact quite pleasant and accommodating. He worries about what his wife may think when she finds out he kept the nature of Bertie as a client from her. When trying out for a performance of Richard III, he tells his critics that he played it once before, to “good reviews.” Lionel wants a deeper, more personal understanding of Bertie, which probes him to ask about the duke’s earlier life, his relationship with his brothers, his fears about his fathers, and his mistreatment at the hands of a cruel nurse. He’s quite adept at understanding where Bertie is coming from, and digging into the psychology of it. Lionel provokes Bertie on numerous occasions to make him angry, so that he will not stutter and clearly express himself. Out of general necessity, in a desire to help returning soldiers struggling with PTSD after WWI, Lionel became a self-taught speech therapist… but he has very little respect for PH-Ds and “credentials,” admitting he has no “letters after my name,” and pointing to his relationship with Bertie and their formative successes as displacing any formalities. Though Lionel maintains an optimistic attitude, he is hurt by criticisms of his acting talent and abilities, and also Bertie’s assertion that they are not “friends.” Lionel self-references his own successes on many different occasions, the foremost example being his suspicion that Bertie has some trauma in his childhood that caused him to start stuttering. When he admits it started around five years old, Lionel says that’s “usually” when it begins and probes deeper to learn more details about what happened. He asks numerous questions to get a broader picture of what caused Bertie’s condition. He also believes that because his techniques have worked before, they can work again, going so far as to wager on it, when he asks Bertie to read a speech aloud into a microphone. When Bertie must perform the notorious speech of the film’s title, Lionel painstakingly and meticulously helps him go through it line by line and finds ways to “ease” the difficult passages into successful verbal tricks. He uses his Ne to have fun with, being witty and likable, loving the theatre, and having a good sense of humor. Lionel is playful, but also perceptive about Bertie. He says to understand stuttering, you have to grasp “what compels it.” The underlining psychology of it.

Enneagram: 7w6 so/sp

Lionel takes almost nothing seriously. He turns everything from St. Andrew’s chair (“People have carved their names in it… I don’t care how many royal arse-holes have sat in this chair…”) to his profession into a joke. He is witty, good-natured, and self-deprecating, able to find common ground with anyone who walks through his door. Lionel has very little reference for anything; in response to Bertie confronting him over his lack of credentials, he drops to his knees and theatrically tells the king to “throw me in the Tower.” He talks about the cheap seats, and the bishop “poncing” his way up to the throne. He repeatedly teases and challenges his kids with hilarious performances of various Shakespearian characters and longs to live the life of an actor. Lionel’s 6 wing, however, does not particularly like Bertie upset with him. He will provoke him up to a point, but also is willing to apologize. His 7 overrides his 6 in the sense that he sees no reason for credentials, cares nothing for anyone’s opinion other than Bertie’s in the sense of his own self-worth as a “doctor” (which he isn’t), and is not fearful of the prospective consequences of misleading the monarchy.