The Opposing Personality is an archetype invented/created/discovered by John Beebe in his research on the roles the psychological functions play. With my own recent observations, I see the Opposing Personality as being a bit like the Hero’s dark twin — the figure symbolising the result of the making the wrong choices in life.

In an ENTP, the Opposing Personality is played by Introverted iNtuition (Ni). Ni recontextualises and reinterprets the data of perception; for Ni, everything is just another interpretation. In short, Ni is the function of “spin”.

In Brazil, the character who epitomises both “spin” and the “dark twin” concept is Sam’s friend Jack. Jack is the man Sam would be if he were to embrace the system, and, not coincidentally, he has no qualms about spinning the fate of Buttle so as to reduce his own accountability:

Information Transit got the wrong man. I got the right man. The wrong one was delivered to me as the right man, I accepted him on good faith as the right man. Was I wrong?

This is the darker side of Ni, where anything can be rationalised by a perspective shift.

Next: the Senex/Witch as Extraverted Thinking (Te)…