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Ernst Jünger - INTJ?

S

Sniffles

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I'm very interested in knowing the type of the German writer Ernst Jünger, whose photo I have as my avatar.

From what I know about him, especially reading his wartime memoirs Storm of Steel, I get the distinct sense that he was probably an INTJ.

I'm further convinced because of this description of him by Thomas Nevin in the introduction to Ernst Jünger and Germany: Into the Abyss, 1914-1945, which goes as follows:

"On his ninetieth birthday he characterised himself as "a field marshal of ideas", but he calls no philosophical system to attention. His mind works by intuitive flashes and synthetic imagery, with a precise diction that is frequently colored by the ordinary and apparent, and he has a perceptive interest in finding evil in seeming good, especially in technology."
-pg.4
This seems to be a good description of Ni here. Yet the very nature of his insights seem to point more towards Te rather than Fe. This is especially true in regards to some of his commentaries on technology.

This also explains my seemingly love-hate relationship with the man. On many levels I can see his point of view and agree with it, but usually with my own twist to it. This is a constant feeling I have often with INTJs: I agree with them to some extent, and I feel uneasy or sick for doing so. This is similar to my attitudes towards Nietzsche, who's often classifed as INTJ too.

Here's photage from a documentary about him by James L. Frachon:
[youtube="_vw2Qtgl_2E"]Ernst Jünger 1[/youtube]
[youtube="JaoD5aPronI"]Ernst Jünger 2[/youtube]
[youtube="sAOwM2EDKA0"]Ernst Jünger 3[/youtube]
Sadly I think the interview he did for French TV has been deleted from youtube.

His mannerisms also seem to point, IMO, towards INTJ.

Anyways....I'd appreciate anyother thoughts.
 
S

Sniffles

Guest
Well well this is something interesting, concerning the early influences on Jünger's life:
"Besides the schoolroom Greek classics, the major influences on the adolescent Jünger were French Catholic writers such as Charles Peguy, Maurice Barres, and Charles Maurras."
--Elliot Y. Neaman, A Dubious Past: Ernst Jünger and the Politics of Literature after Nazism pg.29

That's very funny. :D
 

entropie

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I hated Jünger in german literature. "In Stahlgewittern" had been one of the books, I really never got neither intrested in nor did I understand it. :D

From my best guess I would type him ENTJ, with a strong attitude towards Ni. His book "Auf den Marmorklippen", I exemplary understood as a tactictal disassembly of Hitlers Regime. Furthermore he always has that idealized image of the warrior with all the stuff needed for a lonesome raider attitude :D.

Pretty funny guy though, would've probably killed me right were I stand due to my disrespectful nature :D
 
S

Sniffles

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Thanks entropie, and I can agree to that. So we're down to XNTJ at least. ;)
 

entropie

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Pretty hard to tell you are right, I just remembered INTJ use Ni / Te aswell.

He was a highly decorated field marshall, if I remember correctly that could be misleadingly understood of him being an ENTJ. Dont know what it is with ENTJ's and writing books, I guess they would need some sort of necessity to do that. And furthermore they would need to know that their effort is well spent and will actually change something.

But as we know, books hardly change anything if noone reads them. So his irrational behaviour in nevertheless writing his thoughts down would drive him more into the direction of INTJ in my opinion.

He was definitly no INFJ that I can tell for sure. Even if my INFJ girlfriend sometimes appears to be like a field marshall, his books lack all the fantasy figures she makes up on a daily basis :D. ok this last sentence was a joke, no factual analysis :D
 
S

Sniffles

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The highest rank he achieved in the army was actually captain, during WWII:
junger.jpg

Juenger_BM_Berlin_K_400428g.jpg


This was of course before was expelled because of his involvement with the 1944 plot to kill Hitler.

He was definitly no INFJ that I can tell for sure. Even if my INFJ girlfriend sometimes appears to be like a field marshall, his books lack all the fantasy figures she makes up on a daily basis :D. ok this last sentence was a joke, no factual analysis :D
ROTFL!
 
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