Robert Childan’s personality type is one of the most misunderstood in The Man in the High Castle. Portrayed by Brennan Brown, Childan comes across as adaptive, insecure, and socially awkward, but beneath the surface, he shows clear traits of an ESTJ with an Enneagram 3w4. His obsession with status, structure, and success (combined with a fragile inner identity) reveals a character driven by external achievement and internal insecurity in equal measure.
ESTJ 3w4 Characters
Why is Robert Childan from The Man in the High Castle an ESTJ? Continue reading for my argument using cognitive functions! The headers for each section are clickable, so you can easily access more information about the dominant function and the Enneagram type, or discover more characters who share the type.
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Extraverted Thinking
Robert survives in an oppressive Japanese environment by creating a business that profits off the things wealthy Japanese clientele want, namely early American artifacts. He presents his shop as legitimate, high-status, full of rare and refined items, and structured, with a respect for procedure and protocol and the honor system among his clients. He measures his success in tangible ways, such as the amount of money he has made or which important public officials frequented his shop. It’s important to him to impress people and to be seen as “refined,” but the way he does it is businesslike and socially awkward from a Fe perspective.
When a wealthy couple invites him to dinner hoping to befriend him and learn from him, Robert mistakes their intentions for wanting his true opinions on things, so he is direct in what he thinks about the things they love, rather than using flattery or showing an interest in them. He misreads the situation and interprets it from a business and personal point of view (TeFi) rather than understanding what it is they want from him. Even when he moves into the Neutral Zone for his own safety, Robert is still going after artifacts and planning how to sell them when he returns to San Francisco.
He and Frank Frink sell forgeries together because it works, makes money, and is his way of “getting back at” a social structure that sees him as a second-class citizen. But while initially he is keen on the idea, almost instantly he sees the logical ramifications of it should he be exposed; he would lose his status, no one would trust him, and he could wind up in prison. He filters even his emotionally charged decisions with logic, by asking what it is going to cost him if he follows through on it. He expects Frank and Ed McCarthy to deliver results, meet deadlines, and not cause problems. He treats his partnerships as transactional, expecting others to be timely and efficient and feels frustrated when they cannot meet his practical expectations.
He panics when things are not regimented and routine, and when change disrupts his life; a deadline is looming, they have to pay a fortune to the Japanese mafia, and have nothing yet to show for it, so where is Frank? And how soon will he have those cufflinks forged? And what do you mean you were working on something else, or exposed me, or put me at risk on an emotional whim?
He explains in a factual manner the notion of something belonging to an important person, or appearing in a battle that was significant, as making it “worth more” than an identical object that was not. Presumably, he documents all of his artifacts and proves their authenticity if possible. When Frank wants to sell two of Lincoln’s cufflinks, Robert points out that finding one would be difficult enough; finding two would be suspicious, from a purely rational point of view. But greed sucks him into the scheme.
Introverted Sensing
If anyone knows the entire history of an object, it’s Robert. He has a deep respect for American history and knows the rich history it contains, in a way that he sees reflects the Japanese tradition of respecting the deep past. While having let go of America as it used to be, his entire business revolves around nostalgia, tradition, historical meaning, and preserving the past through objects. He sees the things he sells as historical anchors of cultural legitimacy, and whenever he sells them, he appeals to his customer by coming at it from that angle; you could own a legitimate piece of the American west, which no longer exists.
Robert has a strong sense of appropriate behavior within the Japanese occupation; how things should be done, how business must be conducted, of proper etiquette, and he is instantly uncomfortable or socially awkward when others deviate from the expected patterns. When invited to a client’s house, he assumes he is there to tell them about new objects in his shop, but is caught off guard when they say no, they just wanted to talk to him and eat with him. He then adjusts his behavior for that situation, only to become confused and a little offended when they turn it back into a business transaction at the end of lunch. Robert relies on rehearsed social scripts and becomes visibly uncomfortable if others deviate from what is expected of them.
Being thrust into the Neutral Zone throws him off, and he wants to return to the structure and predictability of his own life. There, his life reflects chaos, control, and familiarity. His personal environment mirrors his need for stability. When he comes home and finds squatters in his house, using his precious items as playthings, he becomes enraged and acts recklessly and disruptively, for an instant, needing his space to once more reflect him (after he lost an entire shipment of antiques on the way home) than he is aware of his need for safety at the moment. He reacts this way because a stranger has intruded on his sanctuary, broken the lock on his door, taken over his lifestyle, and is disrupting his identity and sense of self.
Extroverted Intuition
If someone does not want to buy an object, Robert struggles to know how to reframe the situation and is impressed when Ed tells a bald-faced lie about the history of the object, its emotional significance, and makes the sale on the spot. Robert would not have thought of that in the heat of the moment, and would merely have shifted his focus to other objects in the same room. His Ne is weak although he opens himself up to alternative lifestyles and possibilities when forced out of his comfort zone. And he opens himself up to endless opportunities to make deals, even if he doesn’t take them all. He tentatively considers things, then reconsiders them, reflecting his overall cautiousness when moving forward.
He sees the potential in Frank for making counterfeit artifacts, and rather impulsively shifts from respecting his clients to wanting to exploit them. In several minutes, Robert reverses his own position a handful of times. Let’s do this. No, it’s stupid. Maybe we should think about this more. No, let’s do it. This is typical of Ne changing its perspective on a whim; but his cautiousness also shows that he knows this could have serious repercussions and do him harm. Unlike Juliana Crain, with her higher Ne idealism, Robert has no illusions about this turning out fine. But once something works once (Si), he becomes bolder in wanting to duplicate it; we sold one fake and got away with it, we could earn a lot of money doing this! Leave finding new objects to me!
Introverted Feeling
Because Robert sees what he is doing as “necessary” for his own survival, he has divorced himself from a certain level of authenticity. He doesn’t really think his Japanese customers are superior beings to himself, but he pretends to feel that way and constantly references it as a way to achieve what he wants (financial stability and a small amount of respect). He maintains outward compliance while inwardly harboring deep resentment, which reflects a disconnect between his true feelings and his behavior. It’s only in unusually emotional moments, when his feelings are hurt, that they truly surface; he resents being looked down on and treated like dirt, and he wants them to pay for this.
When he finds out squatters have taken his shop, Robert has an emotional meltdown; he becomes abrasive, emotional, and unrefined, chasing them around the store, yelling at them, and winds up arrested for causing a disturbance. But he also has enough Fi not to betray Ed or his friends, once taken by the Resistance. He will give others information, but it won’t be hurtful to his friends. He is also appalled that Frank risks HIS life to further his cause. And he can become quite selfish under stress; all of his references to safety primarily concern himself, rather than Ed and Frank at first.
The Enneagram 3
Robert is all about how things look, status, and fitting in with a regime that has no respect for him, as a strategy for his own survival. He adopts his identity to align with what others reward and admire. Robert knows what the Japanese expect (deference and boot-licking) and supplies it to them because he knows that is the only way for him to succeed. The benefit of this is that he gets to live a lavish lifestyle at home, surrounded by “quality” objects (fine furniture, lamps, and precious things) that remind him of his worth, status, and quiet wealth.
He can be overly cloying to important officials by bombarding them with useful information and details, taking generosities as a sign of acceptance and friendship, and wanting to be useful. He feels proud of what he has accomplished and is angry at Ed and Frank for threatening it because he has put all this time, effort, and hard work into creating something useful and meaningful and impressive, where others folded to the regime.
The 4 Wing
Robert is an elitist snob who looks down on people for their lesser tastes. He sees them as inferior, with “meh” common attitudes and behaviors. Beneath his ambition lies a quiet envy of those who can afford what he cannot, and who do not need to please anyone else. But his need to be honest also jeopardizes his relationships. His Japanese client is excited to talk to him about jazz music, but Robert answers that he prefers the refinement of classical composers instead. He has no interest in trite things like baseball, unless said ball is worth a lot of money. He wanted to be authentic to his inner self, but only wound up offending them instead. When they reject him, he has a moment of vindictive “I want to make them pay.”
He can be melodramatic about his own pain, suffering, and losses, while devaluing other people’s; yes, Frank lost his sister, but this is my business we are talking about. What about me, and how you ruined my life? It’s typical of a 3w4 to wrap up their self-worth in their craft or accomplishments, and when he loses those things and has to flee to the Neutral Zone, he feels displaced and unhappy.
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