The Hunger Games, Suzanne Collins

Factors to keep in mind: PTSD

Dominant Ne: Peeta understands people’s true motives, even when they don’t speak them. He’s alright with the fact that Katniss isn’t sure how to respond to his love and doesn’t pursue her incessantly because he knows that she wouldn’t want him to. Peeta looks more toward the future than he does at the past (until PTSD that is). Contrary to popular (selective) belief, Peeta strategizes in the games, making deals with Haymitch and bringing up new ideas to try to help out with arena planning. He comes up with out-of-the-box solutions for problems –such as telling everyone that Katniss is pregnant in his interview. Katniss notes frequently that Peeta is excellent with words. He always knows what to say, and understands that Katniss does not share this strength. Peeta appreciates symbolism and likes to draw the connections between everything, no matter how unalike two things may seem.

Auxiliary Fi: Peeta finds the most joy in life when he holds true to what he believes is right. He knows what he wants and what he doesn’t want (“I don’t want them to make me into something I’m not”). He can see when others do not share his sympathies and kindly accommodates them at his own expense. He cares deeply about the people that he loves and his loyalties hold firm unto death. Peeta hides his suffering because he doesn’t want others to worry about him, instead playing off the positivism of his Ne. He is more interested in helping other people cope with their struggles than he is with his own experience. Though he rarely talks about his suffering, he goes through just as much of it as Katniss does.

Tertiary Te: Organizing others isn’t Peeta’s strong point any more than it is Katniss’s. However, he stands up to challenge the injustice that the games present to the districts. He doesn’t want to be controlled by other people or changed by circumstance. He strategizes in the arena by joining with the careers because he knows that by doing so, he can help Katniss. He comes to the logical conclusion (based on the evidence he sees before him) that nobody needs him, and that it would be better that he died and Katniss lived. Even though Peeta isn’t necessarily the best of fighters, he’s good at following through with detailed plans in the arena and doesn’t have any problem taking the initiative in the capitol.

Inferior Si: Peeta has a good long-term memory. He can explain in detail the initial birth of his crush on Katniss and how it developed into love. He uses his past knowledge in conjunction with Ne to help him cope with PTSD. Decorating cakes morphs into art, and baking bread to sell becomes baking bread to help others. When Peeta thinks about the past, he relives the emotional experiences associated with those memories. This is a likely reason for why Peeta chooses only to divulge his good memories, but never brings up the bad ones of his own accord.

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For some odd reason, a large proportion of people seem to think Peeta is an introvert. Not sure why. Apparently they don’t understand the concept of introvert. On the other hand, loads of other people seem to think Peeta is a heavy Fe user simply because he puts other people before himself.

Hold on a sec. I need to go tell my family that because I’m an INTJ who uses tertiary Fi that I’m no longer going to put their needs before mine. I think they would fall off their chairs and die from that surprise.

Secondly, people assume that because Peeta is an artist, he must also be an Se user. Sorry, but the Ne in him is too hard to miss… It’s a dominant function in Peeta, whereas his sensing function is inferior and much less visible. Just because a person notices beautiful things does not make them an Se user.

Some may argue that I’m stereotyping him as Si because he suffers from PTSD, however, this doesn’t go into full effect until after the first book, and he uses Si plenty before that…so the balance of probability says Si-user.