MBTI Type: ESFP

ESFPs give themselves over freely to whatever they feel in the present moment, which means they can often lose themselves beneath their desire to sample everything the world has to offer. They are also good at adapting to the moment and living only for that, which Benedict does in how easily he adopts a sensual lifestyle. He enters an artsy orgy in the first season, where he wastes no time in making love to two beautiful women—at the same time. He comes across his host having a sexual encounter with another man, and is curious about it, but it doesn’t bother him (Fi) so he has no opinion on it. Throughout the second season, he continues to spend time bedding women / having casual sex, staying out far too late drinking and socializing (he tells Colin that the cure for drunkenness is to keep drinking; it only catches up to you if you sober up), and living the life of an artist—or at least, as much as he can without leaving the comforts of home. He doesn’t care what society wants from him, so much as he likes to pursue his own interests. Fi is more concerned with living according to what it wants than adapting to other people—and Benedict sets himself apart from society by not caring about its standards. (Society wants him to be responsible, and he wants to live for the moment.) The most Te he shows is acting on what he feels. He also has poor intuition; he doesn’t realize that the only reason he got into art school was that his brother gave them a sizable donation to accept him, and then he’s upset about not having earned his way into it on the merits of his artistic achievements. His emotions are bruised enough that he doesn’t want to continue in something that he didn’t “earn.”

Enneagram: 7w6 sp/so

Self-preservation 7s want to taste the world, and indulge in pleasure wherever they can find it. They are somewhat hedonistic, and like to avoid the unpleasant things in life through distractions—which Benedict does all the time. He is over-indulgent and Anthony considers him to be immature in his excessive pursuit of pleasure rather than duty; this never becomes more apparent than in their chat about Benedict being “the second son” and never acting like it. He doesn’t take on enough responsibilities, as Anthony feels he should. Instead, he paints, he dabbles, he drinks, he does snuff, and he beds random artistic women he meets during his nude painting classes. He only wants to hear about things that are interesting or scandalous (he wants to know what has happened with Kate, but maybe “just the things only I should know” – meaning, Anthony’s sexual exploits). He has a tendency to leave the room when things become too intense, or to run out of a boring family event to go to a club where he can drink, or stay out late with his friends. He feels somewhat protective of his family, but also doesn’t go out of his way to defend them unless they are threatened.

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