INFP – the Healer, the Dreamer, the Clarifier
(aka: Jervis Tetch)
When I first started this blog, I made a chart of the Batman Villains and slotted one into each of the 16 Personality Types. Because Mad Hatter was obsessed with his fantasies, I plopped him in the “Dreamer” spot of the INFP. Not a very accurate way to go about it.
Now, a long while later, after I’ve had the time to learn my cognitive functions and give the villains a proper analysis, I’ve discovered that…oh, look at that. I was right in the first place.
It’s an INFP villain, everyone! And true to form, when an INFP goes villainous, we load up the crazy truck and take it for a ride.
Dominant Function: (Fi) Introverted Feeling, “The Deep Well”
Mad Hatter fits the Mad Scientist tropes of many an INTP (like a couple of Batman’s other villains do), being that he’s working on electronic chips to control people’s brains. However, he’s clearly running on dominant Fi, not Ti. He’s deeply romantic, keeps a rich inner fantasy life, and is driven by passion and the need to connect with another kindred outsider like himself.
He just turns to mind-control experiments rather than emo poetry to express his angst.
Jervis loves him some Alice in Wonderland, and would rather live there than in the real outside world. He feels special and awkward, and believes that he sees the same thing in Alice, his co-worker. He can be quite gallant and charming with her, but once their romance doesn’t pan out, he grows resentful and bitter.
At first, Jervis draws a careful moral line against using his mind-control devices on Alice, not wanting to be the kind of man who would harm her—not like the creep she’s been dating. But when she turns him down in favor of said creep, he loses all empathy for her. On the witness stand in “Trial,” Mad Hatter blurts out in a fit of rage that he would have killed Alice rather than let her simply choose for herself.
That’s Fi at its most sick—wanting only its only own desires and unable to comprehend the needs of others.
(And honestly, it could be an example of inferior Fe in an unhealthy INTP, too; whenever an Introverted Judging dominant has to face the fact that not everyone is following along with the plans in our head, we’re prone to lose it.)
Auxiliary Function: (Ne) Extraverted Intuition, “The Hiking Trails”
Mad Hatter’s active imagination leads him to relate everything in the real world to his favorite fantasy tale, Alice in Wonderland. It’s eerily convenient that the pretty girl working in his office is a blonde named Alice, so of course he’s going to make that connection. Batman and everyone else he meets become characters in the story, too—usually bad guys.
Jervis’ Ne disconnects him from reality, but it also drives his healthy curiosity. I mean, the guy did examine the human brain enough to understand how to control it. His broken morals led him to nefarious purposes, but he’s still brilliant.
Tertiary Function: (Si) Introverted Sensing, “The Study”
Mad Hatter’s lack of proper Sensing keeps him lost in his fantasy world, taking the everyday details around him and translating them through the filter of the stories he loves. Wonderland is very real to him, in a way that suggests he read the books at a young age and kept them in his memory like one might a real place (don’t know any of us nerds who do that, no sir). When he creates a literal dream world for Batman to live in—where his parents are alive, and he’s engaged to Selina Kyle—Mad Hatter can’t understand why Batman wouldn’t want to stay there rather than the ugly, sad Gotham he really lives in. Hatter’s reality kind of sucks, especially after he’s caught and sent to Arkham, so it’s no wonder an INFP like himself would hold on to his fantasies (I certainly have no idea how that feels, nope).
Inferior Function: (Te) Extraverted Thinking, “The Workshop”
Jervis feels controlled by others, notably his angry boss Marcia, and the owner of his company, Bruce Wayne. Even though the latter is actually quite nice to him, Mad Hatter sees any entry into his personal work space as an intrusion. He tries to stand up for himself, but he never gets his way until he slips his brainwashing devices onto his victims, granting him the power he can’t seem to grasp in his normal life.
On the witness stand in “Trial,” however, he refuses to take responsibility for his crimes, claiming that his hand was forced by Batman.
When Jervis’ mostly innocent attempts to woo Alice fail, he resorts to mind-control. Before, he would only control others, and he kept himself from crossing the line of forcing the relationship onto Alice. Batman has to point out to him that his girlfriend is nothing more than a puppet before he breaks down and releases his grip on her.
Mad Hatter’s mind-control technology is a great example of the magic-like powers many an Fi-dom would like to get their hands on. For any type, the inferior function feels like a mysterious force they can’t understand. Learning to wield this strange side of our personality can feel like (wait for it) going through the looking glass, but in the end it will keep us from losing our head (you’re welcome).
Heroes & Villains of MBTI 