Function Order: Ni-Fe-Ti-Se

Helen doesn’t show a strong dominant function except in her glossing over of details and in how she is always trying to structure her life and think about the future, the implications of her involvement with her patients, how she interacts with Max, and where their romance might be headed. She focuses more on fundraising when the series opens than seeing patients, because she sees the big picture of how she needs to raise money for the system she is in, rather than being attentive to the patient needs—something that changes as she re-engages her Fe and becomes emotionally invested in her department. For a while, Helen was avoiding the pain of loss and frustration of cancer research, but Max jolted her back into caring about her patients and focusing less on “her career” as a spokeswoman. The more she shows up for the emotional aspect of her job, the more Helen finds it easy to connect to, reassure, and be there for her patients. She is also very open and wants Max to share with his wife his cancer treatments, so that she is better-informed. She is honest about her feelings most of the time, and confides regularly in Lauren (wondering if she is making the right choice with Max, etc). Helen also plays it safe career-wise, and cares a lot about how people perceive her, but she’s very creative in thinking her way through problems and coming up with unusual solutions. It takes her outside her box to wonder “what would Max do?” and apply that. She also shows a lot of low Se – one of the best times in her romantic life was when she was involved with an ESP type, and “we were reckless and impulsive, and we didn’t think about things—we just did them!” Under his influence, she flew illegally to another country for a vacation on the spur of a moment, risked her life to paint a mural on a two-story bridge, etc. She confesses that having his surgery be “out of control” was “thrilling” for her.

Enneagram: 1w2 so/sp

Helen is very proper and focused on doing “right” by her patients. She flat out refuses to film a video encouraging people to come back to the hospital for screenings after Covid, because she goes into a rant about how none of them are safe, or feel safe, and they shouldn’t be lying to people just to profit financially off them. It bothers her when Max isn’t honest about his illness and refuses to take “down time” during his treatments. She will occasionally get into shouting matches for the sake of her patients, and is devastated if she does anything wrong, such as when she moved funds from one department to another, causing cancer screenings to be minimized, which winds up hurting one of her patients. Helen gets after her sister for being irresponsible, and is angry at Iggy for denouncing the idea that people can retain vivid childhood memories, even when he proves her own memory of an incident is wrong. She’s actively involved in people’s lives, often “helping” them when she’s not been invited – such as when she turns Lauren in for pill-popping and even searches her purse for meds, despite that causing friction between them. Helen is warm and loving to those she meets, always supportive, and echoes Max’s desire to put the patient ahead of the bottom line.

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