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Vigya Saxena

Shinobi Insights: Exploring MBTI In The World Of Naruto


Misashi Kishimoto, the creator of the brilliant anime series Naruto. It is a story about the protagonist Naruto and his world of ninjas where he wants to bring peace and become the head of the village, Hokage. This series is a doorway to another universe where characters come to life, each having their own stories to tell.

In today’s post we will be unravelling the significance of different personalities through the lens of the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI), showcasing the layers of character development which makes this anime truly special. We will also be portraying the connections between personality and criminal behaviour. What caused the “villains” of this series to become what they’ve been shown.


The Myers-Briggs Type Indicator is a personality test which assesses the characters of an individual and tells about their personality. This assessment is an important tool for self-awareness and improvement. Many institutes, companies and MNCs use this test to understand more about their employees. It is one of the reliable tests in psychology to help understand the personality of a human being.

 

Now the question here is; how personality and criminality are related? Well, there are many theories given by various psychologists, researches etc., explaining the connection between personality and criminal behavior. Personality may not be the only factor behind the criminal behavior, but it is indeed one of the important factors behind the criminal minds.

 

Psychology explains the relation between personality and criminal behavior like no other. According to records most of the serial killers and high profile offenders suffer from personality disorders, like schizophrenia, border line personality disorder, anti-social personality disorder. Development of these personality disorders maybe because of the traumatic childhood experiences.

 

MBTI categorizes personalities based on four dichotomies: Introversion/Extraversion, Sensing/Intuition, Thinking/Feeling, and Judging/Perceiving. Most of us have heard these terms quite often, but those who don’t know about it; let us help you broaden the horizons of your knowledge.


Extroversion and Introversion are the measures of a person’s capability of giving and receiving energy. Like Jiraiya and Itachi—While Jiraiya is all about fun and is the life of a part, Itachi is more of a lone wolf who likes his own company and solitude.

Sensing and Intuition are the measures of a person’s ability to perceive information. Our kunoichi Sakura shows a sensing trait where she relies on practical observations in a fight. While the yellow flash Minato is the master of intuition. He makes decisions at the speed of light, predicting outcomes before they even happen.

                                                                                                                        

When it comes to understanding thinking and feeling we have our thinking ninja—Sasuke! Every decision, every move, is calculated to precision. On the other hand, our protagonist Naruto is a feeler, as his decisions are mostly driven by feelings, bonds and desire for harmony. He is feeler to such an extent that he sees “villains” as someone whom he can change with his words.


Now Judgers are fans of plans and order and sudden change is such a drag for them. Shikamaru! His every move, every plan is meticulously thought out. Remember how sudden change feels like a total drag to him? On the other hand Rock Lee seems to be more like a perceiver since he is more into flexibility. He might not have Shikamaru's love for plans, but his adaptability and flexibility are legendary.


Interesting, isn’t it? The permutation combination of all these traits together make up 16 personality types in MBTI and these individual personalities make up the difference between a non-criminal and a criminal. However, MBTI is not the only way to assess the personality and it is not that reliable, but it is still used in various settings because it can be accurate as well.


Now, let’s discuss more about some of the “villain” of the series. First up is our very own and powerful, Pain, being an INFP (Introverted, Intuitive, Feeling, Perceiving) he was a strong minded ninja, who used his powers to destroy the whole leaf village in just matter of few minutes. But what made him hate the village so much to destroy it? The answer lies in his childhood, where he was growing in an environment of war between two nations and being a part of abandoned kids, he had to look after his friends. To some extent he was able to maintain his sanity, but when he saw his friends dying in front of him, he couldn’t bear it and at that point of time he decided to take revenge on everyone who was connected with event in one way or the other. Death of his friends made his childhood traumatizing and made him take the path of criminality.


Second up is Deidara, and ESFP (Extroverted, Sensing, Feeling, Perceiving) a rogue ninja, who left his town because his greed to achieve more in his art was not being satisfied as the part of Explosion Corp of his village. He stole some more techniques and left the village to join the most powerful association, called Akatsuki. 


Additionally, there are many other “villains” with some or the other background story. It is observed that on interviewing high profile offenders, that majority of them had a traumatic childhood. Neglecting the child, physical abuse, emotional abuse, severe bullying etc, help in shaping the personality of an individual. People have individual differences, and it is important to note that not everyone in this world can be categorized on the MBTI personality basis, but trying to understand them is what really matters. Sometimes even criminals also, wish to be heard and seen. On lacking of such an attention during the crucial part of their life, they resort to criminal behaviour.

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