SFJ vs NTP: A Brief Look at Richard Castle and Kevin Ryan

There are quite a few differences between SFJs and NTPs, but I'm actually going to focus on a similarity for this very brief post. And the only reason I'm doing this is because someone popped the query into my search engine this week.

A great television example of the two types is Richard Castle (ENTP) and Kevin Ryan (ISFJ) from Castle.

Look at Castle. He's all about possibilities and wild scenarios and a million possible answers to the cases he solves with Beckett. You can ask him, at any given moment, to come up with a theory and he will give you the most insane, impossible, implausible theory of all time . . . and then give you a second, even more insane theory that happens to be right only five minutes later. He's amazing that way. NTPs in general are amazing that way. It's how Ne and Ti work together as the top two functions.

Then you have Ryan, a guy I absolutely love. His top two functions are Si and Fe. Everything about Ryan screams order and tradition and a love of the past. He follows tradition in marrying the woman he loves, having children, worrying about how to pay for college for his kids, etc. He is loyal to his friends, but almost more loyal to the law he upholds which is why he kinda betrayed them once, or at least, he did in their eyes. As a stickler for the law and for a certain way of doing things, you'd think he'd be unbendable . . . but he's not.

Castle and Ryan are also a fabulous example of how the two types work together. Let's be honest. SFJs don't always like living the same, content little lives that they live. They use Ti and Ne too, albeit a lot lower down in the food chain. SFJs love the idea of possibilities. Of answers that almost don't make sense. Of this idea and that idea being plucked out of thin air and not minding following that rabbit trail wherever it might lead. Castle is the man with the ideas and Ryan is the guy intrigued by those seemingly whacko ideas. Ryan wants to see where they might lead . . . if they're correct. So he will and has sided with Castle because he loves hoping that maybe, just maybe, those ideas might be true.

Don't get me wrong. The two types are totally different. NTPs can be a little cluttered in their daily lives, and SFJs usually can't stand clutter. But if we're talking about the world of ideas, an NTP can usually get an SFJ to go along for the ride.