Overview (Extroverted Sensing + Thinking)
The Combatant comes across as a hearty person, typically with a big energy, wide step and warm smile, but also some degree of intimidation behind their calculating gaze. The Combatant knows how to “break“ their opponents and scans for their weak points, may it be literally or mentally, which commonly goes along with them acquiring a great deal of muscle mass. Despite the fact that Combatants are extroverts who feel the most at home in a world that requires the application of one’s senses, many young Combatants can overanalyze social situations and be somewhat shy as a result. However, usually they naturally grow out of that predicament in early adulthood and then project a confident, hands-on attitude.
Most Combatants have an inclination towards the martial arts, bodybuilding, powerlifting, the military, or even (observational or practical) comedy – however this is not their only defining feature, due to the fact that also a lot of System Builders (their introverted “sibling“) can have the same interests and backgrounds. Generally, Combatants thrive in high pressure, high risk – high reward situations, especially when they include a physical component and a quick, sweeping logical analysis of a situation, such as firefighting (for example). A few Combatants go into the academic sphere and attain degrees, but even then their speciality usually lies in studies that deal with physical fitness.
combat (noun)
- a fight or contest between individuals or groups
- conflict, controversy
- active fighting in a war: action
casualties suffered in combat
to combat (verb)
- to fight with (battle)
- to struggle against (especially to reduce or eliminate)
- e.g combat pollution
- to engage in combat (fight)
Purpose Role: The Combatant is in their natural element when they engage in some kind of combat – a battle, conflict, contest or struggle in the external world – that they have logically analyzed and determined to be a worthy pursuit and/or for the greater good.
Main Functions (Extroverted Sensing & Introverted Thinking)
Similarly to the Performer, the Combatant is highly observant of their external surroundings and can be hyper-focused on specific areas. Differently from the Performer, the Combatant is less concerned with people’s aesthetic appearances or status symbols (even if they can appreciate such and tend to make that known with little hesitation), but rather on how strong or socially engaging they come across. Furthermore, the Combatant’s main focus is not truly on people overall (at least not naturally) – instead, their attention tends to go towards the mechanisms and contours of the world, how everything works (at a glance), where potential trouble areas lie, where they might have to apply their strength to combat a danger, attain a goal or accomplish a victory.
Combatants can be rather brutish and like a “bull in the china shop“ with their physicality and emotionality. Often they throw out comments that are overly direct or dismantle someone’s illogical statements, at times in order to put them in their proper place or disempower them, which can be highly aggravating or distressing for certain types of personalities who take such behavior personally (especially Humanists). Many people tend to underestimate the logical understanding of Combatants, deeming them to be “meatheads“ who are all brawn and no brain, but this is far from the truth. Combatants can be astute and analytical similarly to the System Builder, seeing things in terms of their logical individual components. As a result, Combatants can explain complicated topics in simple terms rather well. Having said that, they may at times forego this line of thinking if the external world makes other demands in the moment.
Strong, Unvalued Extroverted Thinking (Te)
Alongside the Administrator, the Combatant tends to have the widest-reaching knowledge of matters related to “street smarts“, general practical understanding and business acumen. Combatants can rather easily acquire and recite by memory a lot of proof, evidence, sources or accolades for the sake of their arguments, though on a personal level they don’t truly care for this.
On a similar note, Combatants can be apt to organize their external environment according to business objectives and assume leadership positions. They have a tendency to want to be at the top of command in several different situations. However, overall Combatants don’t pride themselves on this ability, for they find other aspects more crucial in life. If they feel like a leadership role constricts their movements or behaviors too much, they will discard it and focus on other goals.
Aim at Extroverted Feeling (Fe)
The Combatant feels the urge to receive positive emotions and acclaim from groups of people around them. As a consequence, Combatants try to stir and increase the fun with jokes, laughter, and even escapades, which can at times be quite wild and push people’s boundaries. Usually Combatants attempt to “fit in“ and apply the proper social skills, though they may inadvertently stand out with their physicality and/or brashness.
Weaker, Unvalued Extroverted Intuition (Ne)
Sometimes the Combatant includes outlandish, wacky ideas or anecdotes in their jokes, making absurd connections between separate topics. In those moments, people may confuse the Combatant for an intuitive type like the Experimentalist. It is not uncommon for the Combatant to make references to space (for example) or to be on the constant look out for new opportunities or ways to apply oneself (or a different technique), but often this is either short lived or merely for entertainment purposes.
Weak, Unvalued Introverted Feeling (Fi)
Occasionally the Combatant’s attempts of “amping up“ the emotional atmosphere or establishing “logical behavior“ is unintentionally offensive to some individuals, because Combatants lack a stronger tie to their own inner sentiments on matters (which impacts how they understand the internal selves of others). For Combatants, most things either make sense, or are fun, or are the way they are – hence they tend to struggle with understanding how people can have deep personal feelings and ideals, especially if those differ widely from the status quo and are not shared by the majority. The Combatant usually devalues such personal sentiments, unless they can be logically justified and tied to the greater good of humanity in general.
Seeking Introverted Intuition (Ni)
Due to the fact that Combatants are strongly tethered to the tangible and logical realities of the world, they find it difficult to take note of the hidden meanings of life and human interactions. Additionally, the Combatant can at times struggle with being overly combative or striking too early, rather than waiting for the best moment or even knowing when not to strike at all. The Combatant would welcome an overarching symbolic or metaphorical explanation to life occurrences, even if they have a spiritual bent, and knowing the most timely behavior with their actions towards people, which the Psychospiritualist or Inspirer can best provide.
Stronger, Unvalued Introverted Sensing (Si)
Because of the Combatant’s main focus on the external environment and challenges, they tend to disregard their own inner physicality, which often leads to broken bones, overextension of energy and not enough rest. Having said that, Combatants can be quite aware that they are pushing themselves too far, they often just deliberately push themselves to self-destruction if that seems to aid them in their goals. As the Combatant grows older, they realize they cannot continue doing so in old age, so then they become more cautious and a bit more appreciative of creature comforts. Even so, the Combatant won’t shake off their reckless “daredevil“ attitude entirely.
Combatant Celebrities: Click here
Note: Of course there are combatants who possess a different personality type, so please do not assume that all combatants in the world fit this personality type! I call the Extroverted Sensing + Thinking personality type “The Combatant” not only because they are usually combatants, but also because this personality structure personifies the archetype the best.
Type Compatibility
Most compatible:
- The Psychospiritualist*
- The Combatant
- The Inspirer*
- The System Builder
Least compatible: The Humanist
*Note: These types can be occasionally less compatible due to mismatching Enneagram Trifixes.
Functions
The Ego of the Combatant
The Super-Id (valued but weak)
The weakest Functions:
The strongest Functions:
Correlations:
ESTP (MBTI), SLE (Socionics)
Note: Both MBTI and Socionics include Big 5-related aspects in their types, especially MBTI is mostly a variation of Big 5 nowadays. My version of the Jungian types does not use Big 5 traits, hence the conventional 4-letter idea of “ESTP” might not fully apply. Based on the letters, you might count as “ESTP” but not as The Combatant with Se and Ti as their first functions. Read this for more on this issue.
Subtypes
There are 3 specific subtype variations of the Combatant.
Those variations can be grouped into (Te) Extroverted Thinking and (Si) Introverted Sensing subtype.
Se Subtype (Classic Extrovert)
Se subtype Combatants share most of those traits:
- Stereotypically extroverted
- High energy
- More emotional and charming
- Often interested in entertainment or visual arts
Can be mistaken for ESFP / SEE.
Ti Subtype (Introverted Extrovert / “Ambiverted”)
Ti subtype Combatants share most of those traits:
- “Ambiverted” (can be mistaken for an introvert)
- Tends to be more scientific and theoretical
- More calculating
- Can be more enterprising
Can be mistaken for ENTP / ILE, ISTP / LSI, INTP / LII.
Note: Don’t mistake Jungian “ambiversion” with asociable Enneagram instinctual stackings, like Sx/Sp, Sp/Sx. If you are an extrovert with one of those stackings, you’ll come across as “ambiverted”, even if you don’t have that subtype!
No Subtype (Standard Type)
A Combatant who falls into both categories more or less is mostly likely the No subtype kind.
Enneagram Types
If you are not a Type 7, then you are most likely not The Combatant. But make sure you are correctly typed. You can get a typing from me here.
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