MBTI Type: ESTP

Damon is the ultimate hands-on, sensory opportunist. While human, he showed an interest in participating in vampire activities and learning how to feed, in a way of becoming closer to Katherine. Damon sneers at his brother’s refusal to engage with the sensory world, saying “eating bunnies” will not keep him strong enough to defend himself. He likes to prove his point by beating on Stefan given half the chance, but will also recklessly throw himself into danger to save his life. When bored and seeking external stimulation, he snatches a girl off the street, and takes her home for boundless fun. He sees the chance to use Elena to get a book from his brother, and threatens her life to get his hands on it, so he can free Katherine from the tomb. Damon’s first instinct is to rush in and use violence to get things done, which often backfires in disastrous ways. When moody and self-punishing, he turns to physical activities to alleviate his darker moods (sex, alcohol, hunting). He thinks – and acts. There’s no discussion in-between. Damon doesn’t let morality stop him, either. If killing someone saves the people he cares about, he does it. His decisions are often rational but hurtful to others – like when he uses Lexi, Stefan’s oldest friend, as a scapegoat for local vampire murders and kills her. In his eagerness to destroy the Originals, Damon underestimates their healing and regenerative abilities. He enjoys pointing out the irrational flaws in other people’s thinking (“No, no, no, did I mention no?”). Even though Damon swears it’s untrue, he really does care how other people see him. He’s impacted by their emotions. His tendency to lose his temper and do things to intentionally provoke hatred in others is part of his self-loathing; he feels that if they hate him, his own hatred is vindicated. Damon will admit to his feelings easily, once he’s under enough stress (“I swear, Elena, I didn’t know Jeremy had the ring on, but I’m glad…”). Even though he has doubts about drinking human blood at first, Damon tries it because Katharine convinces him it’s alright to do so. His inferior Ni often underestimates a situation, assuming an easy, quick fix (that he can kill an Original and expect him to stay dead) will solve the problem… which doesn’t take in the variables present in anything he has never before encountered. He fails to see that Katherine was just using him, and abandoned him as soon as she lost interest.

Enneagram: 7w8 sp/sx

Damon exhibits the same tendencies throughout all the seasons (easily bored, seeking stimulation, taking risks) but in the earlier seasons, he’s more careless about how he uses and discards people – taking Vicki home for a weekend of partying, then snapping her neck, turning her into a vampire, and setting her loose in Mystic Falls to cause trouble. Typical unhealthy 7 “I need stimulation” mentality – use them, and lose them. He is actually running away from every and anything that has ever hurt him — Damon does not want to deal with his emotions, his mistakes, or his problems. He will distract himself in whatever way possible to avoid confronting his demons. His 8 wing brings on aggression and grounds the 7, making him insightful, practical, and aware of the need to maintain strength and power in dealing with their enemies. It also lends him a streak of hedonism. He exhibits extreme disintegration to 1 behaviors under stress (rigid morality, the desire to inflict punishment and harm on wrongdoers or those who hurt his people), but he also shows growth into 5, when he’s able to come to recognize his own mistakes and self-destructive impulses and dial them back.