Donnie Darko

[Totenkindly]

How can anyone not get INFJ for Donnie?

Explain where you got "J" from (aside from any rigid behavior attributed to a mental illness), and we'll listen.

Why? "The voices told me to burn down his house" seems like stereotypical Ni/Se behaviour. Especially the mysterious doomsday prophesy fulfilling itself.

Why is that Ni/Se?
He's also possibly got a mental illness. Anything said in context of that can't easily be used to justify a type read.

 

[VagrantFarce]

Why is that Ni/Se?

Well, Ni is about foresight and is associated with "mystical thinking" after all "Ni told me to Se the shit out of that statue".

 

[Thalassa]

Explain where you got "J" from (aside from any rigid behavior attributed to a mental illness), and we'll listen.



Why is that Ni/Se?
He's also possibly got a mental illness. Anything said in context of that can't easily be used to justify a type read.

Ok. I refuse to accept the mental illness analysis for Donnie Darko.

Clearly he has stepped into a hole in the space/time continuum, and he is able to change the past so that his girlfriend won't die.

I don't see the mental illness in it. It's a red herring sub-plot to build suspense, not the actual meaning of the film.

 

[Thalassa]

Why? "The voices told me to burn down his house" seems like stereotypical Ni/Se behaviour. Especially the mysterious doomsday prophesy fulfilling itself.

[youtube=VWJPa0bvWnM][/youtube]

You know what's weird? I do see the Ni now. I was actually thinking about it even before I watched this clip.

 

[simulatedworld]

Explain where you got "J" from (aside from any rigid behavior attributed to a mental illness), and we'll listen.

Underdeveloped secondary Je function. Ni+Ti, extreme introversion, etc.

J types don't have to have strong extroverted Judgment functions; they just have to fit one of the function molds that puts Je in the top two...it could easily be underdeveloped and yield to the less efficient tertiary, though.

 

[Polaris]

I thought Donnie's behavior in the Love/Fear class was pretty archetypal of Ti expressing itself through shadow Fe. He gets extremely worked up, not for any idealistic reasons but simply because he thinks the arguments are logically incorrect. Add to that his lack of poise, randomness, and aura of being in the clouds, and I think we're dealing with an INTP.

 

[Ulaes]

i tend to hover around intp for donnie

things like:
he's so aggressive about his reasoning and his thoughts. he launches into his argument in front of the class without stopping until it's finished. he does this when they're talking about the smurfs too, his friends ignorance made him angry.
he doesn't follow leaders like jim cunninghan
disrespect of the religious teacher (although i recognise not all intps are irreligious)
doesn't put his hand up in class but has a good answer when he's asked
gets aggrevated by people like jim cunninghan
awkward about asking out the girl but was very frank about it - but how quickyl he asked her out makes me think he's infp. intps dont warm up do the idea of dating someone so quickly (i don't think)
doesn't consult other people when he's making actions
has a deep relationship with frank without it being all emotive. Ts do this.
he laughed when he traveled back in time = holisitic/intuitive understanding (?)
has no respect for rules or authority
is under the radar (except for his illness) but is still a trouble maker
deep thinker, confuses the physics teacher, convinces the english teacher of his perspective of the book
not socially extravagent , when he's found on the golf course he just sort of mumbles and leaves
doesn't show much empathy and doesn't take drama, stigmas seriously, he's scolded at the dinner table for his joke reguarding his sister.
in one of the deleted scenes he kind of has a D and M with his dad and while he does it, he keeps looking down at the leaves his raking, he cant meet the dad in the eyes. when im spilling my guts (or attempting to) im like this.
he is able to empathise with cherita by putting on her ear muffs = he's not judgmental and generally open to things and simply curious.
existential preocupations

kinda sorta..

i'm open to other suggestions.

 

[simulatedworld]

Everybody keeps saying INxP, but that's an Ne type.

Donnie is dripping with Ni dominance; you just see Ti because he emphasizes the tertiary over the auxiliary.

disrespect of the religious teacher (although i recognise not all intps are irreligious)

Nor is Donnie. "Not if you follow God's path!"

 

[Totenkindly]

Nor is Donnie. "Not if you follow God's path!"

He's a character in a movie. He's also preordained to behave a certain way, and his movie character is not consistent, and he's suffering a mental illness.

Hence, typing him with certainty is not possible.

 

[simulatedworld]

He's a character in a movie. He's also preordained to behave a certain way, and his movie character is not consistent, and he's suffering a mental illness.

Hence, typing him with certainty is not possible.

Typing anyone with certainty is not possible. That's what happens when types are up to subjective interpretation.

How does it help to point this out, exactly?

 

[Totenkindly]

Okay, look (and I was coming back to post this thought anyway):

You cannot discern the difference between an Ni personality and a person who has had a real spiritual experience where something that normally is intuitive is NOT intuitive to them but a real, tangible, breathing FACT.

IOW, Donnie has "special knowledge" that most human beings do not have. What you attribute to Ni vision is actually a sensory experience for him. He's responding to that very real perceptive experience, with as much certainty as an S would responsible to a concrete experience because for him it was not an intuition but it is right in front of him, he has been given the knowledge as truth.

That's why the rules here are broken.

Even INFJs can't claim to have had miraculous experiences. They are operating directly from Ni. Donnie is operating from divine revelation that has also been shown to the audience, so we know the actual experience he gets his information from.

I mean, geez, I've had 1-3 serious spiritual experiences to me are equivalent of "fact" in terms of what I experienced, so I speak of those experiences as facts.. but it doesn't mean I'm using Ni even if I speak with 100% conviction over what I experienced and others would read it as intuition.

Everything else about him in terms of how he interacts with real life is very P. He flexes and adjusts to situations.

 

[VagrantFarce]

 

[simulatedworld]

Excellent point.

 

[ayoitsStepho]

Okay, look (and I was coming back to post this thought anyway):

You cannot discern the difference between an Ni personality and a person who has had a real spiritual experience where something that normally is intuitive is NOT intuitive to them but a real, tangible, breathing FACT.

IOW, Donnie has "special knowledge" that most human beings do not have. What you attribute to Ni vision is actually a sensory experience for him. He's responding to that very real perceptive experience, with as much certainty as an S would responsible to a concrete experience because for him it was not an intuition but it is right in front of him, he has been given the knowledge as truth.

That's why the rules here are broken.

Even INFJs can't claim to have had miraculous experiences. They are operating directly from Ni. Donnie is operating from divine revelation that has also been shown to the audience, so we know the actual experience he gets his information from.

I mean, geez, I've had 1-3 serious spiritual experiences to me are equivalent of "fact" in terms of what I experienced, so I speak of those experiences as facts.. but it doesn't mean I'm using Ni even if I speak with 100% conviction over what I experienced and others would read it as intuition.

Everything else about him in terms of how he interacts with real life is very P. He flexes and adjusts to situations.

Ah! Yes, this is the point I was going to make!
+100

Not to mention, if Donnie is in a time loop, he's already experienced the stuff thats going on so its a no brainer that he would do things differently or the same as he goes along. He knows more than others because he's done it already. There's nothing Ni about it. Its just plan ol' sensory.


As for mental illness... I don't know. He had this 'illness' before frank came along, but then again the beginning of the movie was just another part of the time loop. He's just messing with stuff to see how it goes. Like in the that clip someone posted above, he says that destruction is a form of creation. The kids in the book [and possibly himself] just want to see what it'll look like to ruin the world. Why not? He knows time will start over again, why not screw stuff up and see how it'll turn out?

All in all, he knows whats going to happen because he's lived it already. Not everything may be the same, but I'm sure its pretty close in some aspects.

 

[incubustribute]

see how Donnie spends much of his time viewing life as one large image/tapestry and trying to connect it all together. That's N.

Good observation! I would say that's specifically Ni. Ne wouldn't be as concerned with deep understanding of complexities; it would probably just want to take simplicities and expand them infinitely in order to explore the possibilities. That's not very Donnie. However, I also see a very strong Ti which also tries to structure and simplify everything; I think the difference between those two functions is that Ni attempts to observe implications and connections, whereas Ti attempts to synthesize a structure into which these things fit. NiTi would explain his detachment from reality and apparent social awkwardness. I think ISTP is almost equally possible; it would just mean that his introverted judging gets higher preference than his introverted perceiving. So he generates a structure before applying an input rather than allowing the input to form the structure itself.

I feel like I'm speaking in parables...

I think Frank as an INTJ works out fine. I think Gretchen is pretty obviously ISFP though.

 

[incubustribute]

Going back and reading your posts though (everyone), I think the actualized S experience read is possible. It's a seemingly spiritual thing for everyone else, but if the person experiencing it experiences it as an actual experience, then experientially, we must consider that it is an experience.

I think it's well worth pointing out that any read you get on Donnie's character depends entirely on how you analyze the film.

 

[simulatedworld]

Ah! Yes, this is the point I was going to make!
+100

Not to mention, if Donnie is in a time loop, he's already experienced the stuff thats going on so its a no brainer that he would do things differently or the same as he goes along. He knows more than others because he's done it already. There's nothing Ni about it. Its just plan ol' sensory.


As for mental illness... I don't know. He had this 'illness' before frank came along, but then again the beginning of the movie was just another part of the time loop. He's just messing with stuff to see how it goes. Like in the that clip someone posted above, he says that destruction is a form of creation. The kids in the book [and possibly himself] just want to see what it'll look like to ruin the world. Why not? He knows time will start over again, why not screw stuff up and see how it'll turn out?

All in all, he knows whats going to happen because he's lived it already. Not everything may be the same, but I'm sure its pretty close in some aspects.

This is completely wrong, no offense. He hasn't experienced it before; he's in a "tangent universe" that has split off from the main timeline of the primary universe and he has to go back in time in order to eliminate the tangent universe and keep the real universe from collapsing.

It's all in The Philosophy of Time Travel which is included in its full (but brief) text on the DVD of the movie.

Donnie has no factual/concrete awareness of what's going to happen to him until the very end of the movie when he pieces it all together (finally realizing his destiny via Ni) and returns the Artifact to the primary universe. He hasn't experienced it before because he's not in a time loop; he's in a separate timeline that has branched off from the "main" timeline, in a parallel tangent universe that will end in 28 days.

The Donnie in the primary universe died from the jet engine falling on his house at the beginning of the movie.

Going back and reading your posts though (everyone), I think the actualized S experience read is possible. It's a seemingly spiritual thing for everyone else, but if the person experiencing it experiences it as an actual experience, then experientially, we must consider that it is an experience.

I think it's well worth pointing out that any read you get on Donnie's character depends entirely on how you analyze the film.

This movie makes 20x more sense after you read The Philosophy of Time Travel mentioned above. The actualized S experience explanation is totally off.

 

[Jaguar]

 

[Thalassa]

I think it's well worth pointing out that any read you get on Donnie's character depends entirely on how you analyze the film.

That's true of virtually all art, literature, and film.

 

[raissaroars]

Definitely INFJ for Donnie. Gretchen is most likely an ISFP/ISTP.
Donnie sees the big picture, but also tries to understand the truth behind things. He doesn't think things can be simply understood or categorized (do you remember that scene about fear vs love?).
INFJs are known for having inherent comprehension of the human mind. He can't stand it when someone tries to simplify and categorize human beings and their emotions, and that can easily be seen, also, when he interferes and give "real" advices to those kids (right before the "antichrist" scene). He also recognizes the mean motives behind Jim's actions. Gosh, he's an INFJ to the core. Best representation of INFJs going through a Ni-Ti loop I've ever seen. The Ni-Ti loop happens mostly through adolescence, so, yeah. Donnie Darko is an INFJ.