The Promethean Temperament


Part of a Meyers Briggs personality type are a group called NT's which means Intuitive Thinking. This type of personality trait is rather infrequent. They are also known as The Promethean but I'll get that part in a second. 

Pictured above for instance, is a character in a television series - Suits - which embodies an NT type known as the ENTJ. ENTJ character traits are clever, logical, intense, blunt, and efficient. ENTJ's are born leaders, absolutely loyal to people who are loyal to them, and are unlikely to forgive when that trust is broken. They care deeply about certain people, though they rarely show it. 

NT's are described as people who like to build things, and therefore they are also associated with Prometheus. In the Ancient Greek story, Prometheus made man more like the gods, by giving him fire, the symbol of light and energy. In harnessing light and energy he gave mankind control and understanding of nature. To understand and control nature is to possess its powers, and it is that which sets the Promethean (or NT's) apart from others. Not power over people, but power over nature.  There is urgency in this desire; and they can be obsessed by it, as if caught in a force field. (Elon Musk, Bill Gates, Mark Zuckerberg and Jeff Bezos for instance are said to be NT's)

Example of how an intuitive thinker may feel at the altar:

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"Repeat after me," said the parson. "I, Horatio, take thee, Maria Ellen—"The thought came up in Hornblower's mind, that these were the last few seconds in which he could withdraw from doing something which he knew to be  ill- considered. Maria was not the right woman to be his wife, even admitting that he was stable material for marriage in any case. If he had a grain of sense, he would break off this ceremony even at this last moment, he would announce that he had changed his mind, and he would turn away from the altar, and the parson and from Maria, and he would leave the church a free man.  "To have and to hold..." He was still, like an automaton, repeating the parson's  words. And there was Maria beside him, in the white that so little became her. She was melting with happiness. She was consumed with love for him, however misplaced that might be. He could not, he simply could not, deal her a blow so cruel... " And thereto I plight thee my troth." repeated Hornblower. That settled it, he thought. Those must be the final deciding words that made the ceremony legally binding. He had made a promise and now there  was no going back on it. There was comfort in the odd thought that he had really been committed from a week back, when Maria had come into his arms sobbing ut her love for him, and he had been too softhearted to laugh at her and too—too weak? too honest?—to take advantage of her with the intention of betraying her. From the moment that he had listened to her, from the moment he had returned her kisses, gently, all these results,  the bridal dress, this ceremony in the church of St. Thomas a Becket—and the vague future of cloying affection—had been inevitable. 

(C.S. Forester, Hornblower and the Hotspur. Boston: Little Brown and Co., 1962, p.3-4.]

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I took the MBTI test a few times, and according to the test results I'm "INTP", and my twin sister is " INTJ" . So we are both Promethean.  After my sister was given the Myers Briggs test by a company in NYC, the head of the department called her in for an interview. Maybe he was surprised by her test results. The female INTJ is unusual (.08%) of the entire female human population and ENTJ follows closely behind at (.09%) INTP females are third in place at about 1%. INFJ women are also infrequent but they are categorized as about 3%. I get along easily with my sister, and one of my closest friends is an INFJ. 

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    He tried to consider it. But he forgot. He was looking at the granite.
    He did not laugh as his eyes stopped in awareness of the earth around him. 
    His face was like a law of nature—thing one could not question alter or implore. 
    It had high cheekbones over gaunt, hollow cheeks; grey eyes, cold and steady; 
    a contemptuous mouth, shut tight, the mouth of an executioner or a saint.
    He looked at the granite. To be cut, he thought, and made into walls. He looked 
    at a tree. To be split and made into rafters. he looked at a streak of rush on the
    stone and thought of iron ore under the ground. To be melted and to emerge as
    girders against the sky.
    These rocks, he thought, are here for me; waiting for the drill, the dynamite and
    my voice; waiting to be split, ripped, pounded, reborn, waiting for the shape of my
    hands will give to them.

    [Ann Rand, The Fountainhead, Signet Books, Bobbs-Merrill Co., New York. 1943, 
    p. 15-16.

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The NT's have inquiring attitudes and values the development of will, self-control, and intelligence. They tend to be straightforward in thier dealings with others, although others reports as mentioned above; often finding the NT cold, remote, and enigmatic. The Promethean NT loves intelligence, which means; doing things well under varying circumstances. The extreme NT can even be seen as addicted to acquiring intelligence, hooked in storing up information. Tell the N that he is a fake, a liar, a cheater, lacking in responsibility and in spontaneity and he will reflect on your criticism and replay that "you may have a point there." Not that he is not perturbed or offended, for he often wonders and doubts his sense of freedom, responsibility and authority. But tell him he is foolish, stupid, or incompetent and discover the exact value he places on your warrant to say so. Only he can judge his capability and he does so with ruthless self -criticism.

NT's tend to focus on the future, regarding the past as something dead and gone. What matters most is what might be and what might happen next. The past is useful only as a means of giving direction to the future and for deciphering the lessons of history, taking head to the warning that "He who remains ignorant of history, is doomed to repeat it." 

Prometheus was punished forever for gifting man with fire, and saving him from ignorance, even though he had to rob heaven to do so.
Apollodorus wrote many short tales about Prometheus, and in one account Prometheus is saved by Herakles (a fearsome warrior) In gratitude for being rescued, Prometheus told Herakles how to trick Atlas into getting the golden apples. And what MB type was Herakles? Amazing that the internet is filled with the answer! Some say ENTP, while others say ESTP, ISTP, INFJ. Obviously It's fun to think about...


Below link takes you to free MBTI test:

https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/my-brothers-keeper/202002/in-defense-the-myers-briggs

https://personalitymax.com/personality-test/

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