The Adventurer, The Dynamo, The Promoter
As the man of the house, Gomez’s passion for life—and for his lovely wife—never abates. He leads his family into one great escapade after another with cheerful zest. He’s a great dad to have around—if you’ve got a pair of earplugs and some safety goggles.
Dominant Function: (Se) Extraverted Sensing, “Experience the Experience”
Gomez Addams’ life explodes with fun every day. His favorite pastime is blowing up his model trains, and each blast must be bigger and better than yesterday’s. When not setting off detonations in the home, he sword-fights with his wife, fires the crossbow at apples atop his family’s heads, relaxes by being stretched out on the rack, and practices an extreme form of yoga.
Like his wife, Gomez is a Sensor-dominant personality, but he’s Extraverted rather than Introverted. Morticia enjoys Sensory experiences as well, but her hobbies are carefully practiced over time. Gomez goes for broke with every experience, getting the most out of each moment with a maniacal glee.
Together, they create a home that’s rich in Sensory experience for anyone who visits.
Gomez supports his lifestyle by being independently wealthy, but he doesn’t actually know how much money he has, or what bank it’s in. He’s a licensed attorney, but he’s never practiced law until about halfway through the first season, when he decides to take a crack at it to defend Grandmama in court. His multiple business ventures fail more often than they succeed—and spectacularly so—yet he keeps enough of them spinning to be able to pay the family’s bills with sacks of gold coins rather than plain old checks.
Gomez’s aggressively optimistic approach to life means that no failure ever lasts long, and the cash keeps pouring in. Because he cares about the challenge itself and not the outcome, he can lose or gain money without it bothering him much at all. He impulsively takes on new ventures, and tomorrow he’ll find something else to pursue.
Unless his wife speaks French to him, in which case he’ll be entirely distracted by mad desire.
Auxiliary Function: (Ti) Introverted Thinking, “Analyze the Experience”
Gomez follows his own weird, inner logic. He builds a computer with a programming language only he can speak. He never remembers where his money is or how much he has, but he can do math in his head (with sound effects), and takes chances on horse races and the stock market that don’t add up the way you’d expect. He has a strange theory about skydiving, that if you keep jumping out of a plane with a smaller and smaller parachute, eventually you won’t need one.
Gomez is brilliant in that he somehow manages to remain ridiculously wealthy despite his multiple failures, using schemes and systems that appear baffling. In that sense, the workings of his Introverted Thinking could be called irrational. It’s a Thinking function, but it’s an Introverted Thinking function, so it only has to make sense to the user himself.
Just like an Fi-user’s values need only be relevant to that person, an Introverted Thinker can design whole systems of thought in their head that works for them, but might be completely opaque to outsiders.
Gomes buys stocks at exorbitant prices, and then loses it all by selling them for pennies, and yet somehow this works for him. It’s similar to what happens when my INTP dad sets up a new entertainment system. No matter how proudly he demonstrates his brilliant layout to the rest of the household, he’s going to be the only one who knows how to change the volume.
It’s logical, but it may not be strictly sensible. It’s what makes Ti-users so apt to be cast as mad geniuses.
Tertiary Function: (Fe) Extraverted Feeling, “Relate to the Experience”
Like his ISFJ wife, Gomez loves visitors, and wants everyone to join him in his fun. He follows Morticia’s lead in being hospitable and gregarious with their guests, and in helping family members in need, freely sharing his wealth and resources—or, in Lurch’s case, his dance skills. Gomez’s many pursuits mean that he knows lots of people all over the world—he always has a connection to call in time of need, or a business associate to contact when a new idea strikes him that he must share.
Inferior Function: (Ni) Introverted Intuition, “Anticipate the Experience”
Gomez’s inferior function is similar to his wife’s, too, except it’s Introverted—just like their dominant functions are the I/E Sensor counterparts of each other (see why they’re such a great match?).
Gomez is so focused on the experience of the moment (Se), his latest oddball scheme (Ti), and in sharing it with others (Fe), that he misses out on the not-so-subtle hints that people are scared of him. He weirdly interprets his visitors’ reactions as all part of the fun. He concocts hare-brained explanations for people’s behavior rather than recognize that they’re not up for the game.
Gomez will also get carried away with long-term plans that aren’t actually that practical. When he feels that the usual family outings are boring, he decides that they’re going to the moon. He calculates that this will cost about 1 billion dollars and immediately sets about earning the money through gambling. He thinks he’s planning ahead, but his wild vision is obviously not achievable.
Nevertheless, Gomez has fun trying. When the plan doesn’t work out, he forgets all about it and enjoys what he has. With a family like his, it’s easy to never get bored.
Heroes & Villains of MBTI 