MBTI Type: ENFP

New Amsterdam hires Max because he has so many crazy ideas about how to turn around the hospital, make it profitable, improve patient response time, etc. He marches into departments and tears them apart to figure out how to make them function better, by focusing on generating oddball solutions to their problems. For example, when he finds out a homeless man’s repeated visits to the ER are costing the hospital over a million dollars a year, he says it would be cheaper to rent the man an apartment—and then goes out and does it, having the hospital foot the bill. When the man turns up a week later in the ER for no real reason, and Max finds out he knows his way around the hospital really well, he gives him a job telling people where to find things—so that he can be in the hospital (which he loves) but not draining them financially. Other ideas include bike-messenger-ing drugs to patients (and getting arrested for it), firing the entire surgical staff and changing his mind and re-hiring Dr. Reynolds on the spot, and having a doctor who is too old to perform surgeries stay on to explain procedures to their overseas trainees (“it’s not your hands that are irreplaceable, it’s you”). Because he is a 2, Max shows a lot of “fake” Fe, but in season two and three, we see his introverted feeling come out strongly after the death of his wife. He does not “appear to be grieving” to anyone he works with, because he never talks about his pain or his wife. He refuses to go to therapy and insists nothing is wrong, while feeling internally devastated and indulging in fantasies about his wife still being alive. Later, when the hospital needs funding, Max refuses to participate in raising money by appearing in fundraiser videos because he doesn’t “want to exploit people at their lowest moment” (he is happy to think up an alternative and take part in that instead). He also refuses to do an ad that would bring people into the hospital post-Covid, because he doesn’t think it’s safe for them—funding be damned! Another instance of being stuck in his own feelings is when he tells Helen she can do anything to help that she likes, but then shuts the door in the faces of the “very expensive, non-refundable” cleaners she hired to help with his apartment. It takes him the entire episode to relax his defenses and finally make room for others and their feelings amid his own pain. Max can be stubborn and ignore the rules, but also tries to trim departments, move money around, and find creative ways to get people to pay for things. At one point, he finally networks with other hospitals so everyone gets what they need, and wonders why they hadn’t been doing this all along. He is wildly enthusiastic and optimistic, but also terrible with details. Max doesn’t think about them at all, or what so much change will do to the hospital. He signs things without reading them, he hires and fires people on the spot, he doesn’t think to ask how much something will cost, etc. And for a bunch of episodes in season two, he refuses to let go of his wife, change anything in their apartment, or even allow anyone to clean up the bloodstained rug next to the bed, showing a severe Si-driven “grip” where he cannot move forward. He is also in denial about having cancer and doesn’t think he will be run aground by it, so he insists on working as long as possible and thinks he can hide it from everyone, which shows a severe lack of attachment to his own body and energy levels (inferior Si).

Enneagram: 2w1 so/sp

Max’s famous catchphrase is “how can I help?” Everything he does, every decision he makes, is all centered around how to help the most people. He overturns programs that aren’t serving the public good and pours thousands of dollars in funding into his ideas, which are all focused on ensuring that everyone gets the best possible care, emotional support, etc, from the hospital. At times, he’s so centered on helping someone, he inconveniences other people at the hospital—such as when a woman has a stillbirth, Max refuses to move her out of her room in the EU even though they should put her in a different place in the hospital, because she’s not emotionally ready to “move.” He pulls up a chair outside of her room and sits there, so no nurses or doctors try to shift her out of that room! Max also has the 2ish pride of finding it extremely hard to accept help from anyone else—whenever they ask what he needs, he deflects, argues, and insists he is doing “fine,” even after his wife’s tragic death. If others get in his way of helping, he finds workarounds or lectures them, sometimes even faking things to get their sympathy. But he also has a strong 1 wing – it’s a moral principle to help, and everyone should be thinking along the same lines. Max will justify his actions as being for the greater good, and he also comes down hard on anyone who does anything “wrong” – such as insisting on going public with a botched surgery, even though it will cost the hospital millions in a malpractice suit. He angrily tells off people who covered it up in the operating room for being irresponsible and putting the hospital’s reputation ahead of the patient’s well-being.

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