Ram Shankar Nikumbh

Ram Shankar Nikumbh (from Taare Zameen Par / Like Stars On Earth) comes closest to the EN(F) personality type which has extroverted intuition as the dominant function & introverted feeling as the auxiliary function. Only source used is Carl Jung's Psychological Types. Ne (Dominant function): Intuition is a perceiving function which focuses on unconscious images, meaning focus goes more to what the unconscious mind catches before the conscious mind can fully grasp something. And extraverted attitude orients more towards the objective conditions than the personal standpoint relating to a function. Together it produces Ne, where the unconscious images are perceived objectively. Being a dominant function, it is the most trusted and habitual orientation in Nikumbh. This is evident from his strong emphasis on imagination to his students. For example, on his debut to Ishaan's boarding school a student asks, "Sir what shall we draw? There is nothing on the table." Nikumbh replies, "Why don't you draw the table itself? Or anything around you? Or even something from your imagination? This world is too small against your imaginative brains, kids." It is different from sensation as it focuses on inspiration than concrete representation of art subjects. And it is detached from personal standpoint regarding intuition, being in tune with objective ideas and adapting self to them to represent it in art. Fi (Auxiliary function): Feeling is a judging function which is concerned with values and affinity, meaning preferences or taste towards something. It could be positive, negative, good, bad, beautiful, or ugly. And introverted attitude orients more towards the personal standpoint than objective conditions. Combining both, we get Fi which is a function where values are oriented with personal standpoint. And being an auxiliary function, it positively aids the dominant function instead of opposing its functioning. We see throughout the movie even sometimes with small detailing how Nikumbh is affected by his childhood parenting. Ishaan's father reminds him of his father and his strict parenting where he was neglected of his condition similar to Ishaan's dyslexia. This led his to develop deep empathy towards kids with special needs. And as he was a substitute teacher, before coming to Ishaan's boarding school he taught the special kids in his own school for his personal standpoint and advocacy for such kids. How is it connected to Ne? While his primary orientation is towards Ne, his values (Fi) push him to recognize potential hidden in kids through their specialty like Ishaan's art showing he has above average intelligence. And he later fosters recognizing them through what they can do. Si (inferior function): Sensation is a function that is concerned with sensory stimulus. And combined with introversion, it forms Si which is orientation towards personal standpoint when experiencing sensations. Inferior function is an unconsciously repressed function which is undeveloped, and is opposed by the dominant function (which is Ne here). We see a lack of concern with sensation in Nikumbh, as he is seen neglecting his own bodily needs and intensely pursuing Ishaan or other kids at the special school. Nikumbh is never seen focusing on comfort that sensory environment produce, and even his art style endorses an abstract approach to ideas, imagination, drawing in general. We can compare him to a previous teacher who beat-up Ishaan for being lost minded in class and threatening his students to hit their fists with scale for having imperfect design, where sensation is highly valued and taken to the extreme. On the contrary, when Nikumbh saw Ishaan being lost minded before searching his dyslexic history, he instead motivated Ishaan to take more time and come up with a good imaginative idea for his drawing, giving freedom to other students than seeking perfection is symmetry of drawing. Counter-argument against popular argument of EF(N): Nikumbh is very often typed as EF(N) or ENFJ / EIE in MBTI or Socionics circles. Reason people provide is that Nikumbh is kind-hearted and tolerant towards the shortcomings of kids against the rigid social expectations. But this hypothesis completely neglects the meaning behind functions and misapplies it. EF(N) has dominant Fe which is a function dealing with objective standpoint in terms of values. And because all of us agree that Nikumbh is raised within same social structure as Ishaan, Fe becomes contradictory type for Nikumbh. Because with Fe, people orient and adapt to the objective values, which in this case is the social values preached by teachers and parents towards relentless success, compliance to authority, maintaining strict discipline - which all are exactly what Nikumbh was against when confronting teachers and Ishaan's parents alike. Moreover, with auxiliary Ni in EF(N) is about personal standpoint when perceiving unconscious images. But Nikumbh was highly inclusive to ideas and imagination which are coming from various places, and not special to his own standpoint. From the day one in school, he is seen as a very inclusive teacher who is open to ideas and fosters drawing the most absurd images that come to mind.