MBTI Type: ESFP

Elvis’ main problem is that he trusts Colonel Parker to be sincere in his intentions, and he doesn’t think about him beyond the obvious fact that Parker is managing his career and making him a lot of money, which he spends as soon as he gets it, in an extravagant lifestyle (a mansion, expensive cars, and in taking care of his relatives). As he puts it, he can’t sing without moving his hips! His dance moves are an international sensation and start riots, and his risk-taking behaviors (getting arrested for public indecency at a concert for swinging his hips, in his many one-night stands on the road, in his drinking, and his popping of pills, which eventually causes his wife to leave him, and gives him heart failure) are a huge part of his overall behavior, which tends toward self-indulgence and hedonism. At his worst, Elvis doesn’t think about the consequences of his decisions, such as when he starts receiving death threats and becomes paranoid enough to shoot up the walls in his hotel room after getting spooked (never thinking he could kill an innocent bystander on the other side of the wall). He also fails to see through Parker, and doesn’t suspect any of his behaviors as being underhanded until other people plant ideas in his mind about him being an illegal alien without a passport, and that’s why Elvis cannot travel internationally (Parker is keeping him in America for his own profit). As time goes by and Elvis becomes ever more unhappy, he starts over-eating and drinking to cope with his miseries, causing himself to have an ‘expanding waist line.’ Elvis struggles between a 3ish need to please everyone around him, and to be “true to myself.” He is rebellious and anti-cultural in his decision to sing black music, to socialize with black people, to swing his hips and risk getting arrested, and his deliberate going-against his manager in what he chooses to sing (it’s not what’s on the program, but it’s how he feels). He is quick to address his feelings, and deeply emotionally affected by events unfolding around him—the assassinations of Robert Kennedy and Martin Luther King. In the latter case, he tells his manager that it does affect them, and he feels responsible to say something about it. Elvis feels like he has to look after all of his relatives, even when they drain him of money. He has ideas about what he wants from his career, but leaves most of the management to Parker. Elvis is poor with money—he doesn’t pay attention to how much he takes in or how much goes out, causing him to be shocked to find out that Parker has taken 50% of his profits throughout his career. His inferior Ni is strong. Elvis does admit to his manager that he has dreamed of being famous, and an actor, and buying his parents a pink Cadillac, and all of that comes true. He is also naïve and idealistic, trusting those around him too much to have his best interests at heart.

Enneagram: 3w2 sx/so

Elvis dreams of becoming successful and making a name for himself in show business, but is also over-adaptive to the people around him. Again and again, he defers to what other people want from him—he goes along with his manager’s demands, he says that what he is doing can’t be wrong if his mother approves of it, and he thinks he ‘owes’ his international fans an international tour. He adapts to whatever role he thinks they want from him—a sensation, a star, a lover. He goes around kissing the women in the audience who long to be kissed, and has to learn to break away from what others want from him, to be free to be “myself.” (He has to be talked into it by a friend, but then he defies the police and cases a riot at his own concert in a spectacular fashion.) With his parents, he sees himself fulfilling the role of a natural provider—and it makes him angry when others leech off him without appreciating it. He has a lot of 2 wing behaviors; being generous to his family and fans, taking them into his home and allowing them to spend his money, arguing that he always wants his parents to have a nice place to live. He can also become livid at people who want to take too much advantage of him, such as his manager for financially cheating him for so long and keeping him from a world tour to retain control over him.

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