Hugh Hefner ~ Sakinorva Databank

The Sakinorva Databank

Hugh Hefner

Founder of Playboy Magazine

in Television, Film Industry, and Mass Media

Hugh Hefner ~ Sakinorva Databank

Hugh Hefner

Founder of Playboy Magazine

Television, Film Industry, and Mass Media

e

i

n

s

f

t

p

j

function

ennea

variant

socio

psyche

ISFP 1

2

3

4

5

6

7

8

9

1

h

e

x

a

c

o

total votes 1

1

Click to toggle markup guide.

bold	bold
italic	italic
hyperlink to "contextualizing functions"	[hyperlink to "contextualizing functions"](https://sakinorva.net/library/contextualizing_functions)
	(i){https://i.imgur.com/g0oL9CB.png}

You may not modify this entry's picture.

	Woll Smoth 2025/07/07 (Mon) 09:14:32 #10106
	I suggest IDRlabs move Hefner from ESFP to ISFP. The dominant function is one's bread and butter, their modus operandi, and which often operates entirely for its own sake. Hefner was not someone who was married to the outer world (as IDR Se dominant types wont to do), so to speak, but was rather more preoccupied with his inner world (like an Fi dominant type): Steven Watts: “He tended to be reserved in formal situations at school or home. ... Absorbed in his imagination, he often neglected his studies. ... In his early teenage years he continued drawing cartoon strips — eventually they would number about seventy different series — and to write and illustrate stories. He had begun to read fiction by Edgar Allan Poe and H. G. Wells and became a devotee of Sax Rohmer’s Dr. Fu Manchu tales and Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s Sherlock Holmes. ... Indeed, throughout childhood Hefner created vivid fantasy worlds in which he immersed himself, a trait that would prove to be lifelong. The boy who wouldn’t answer the telephone or venture alone to the dentist’s office a few streets away preferred to inhabit a reality he had created.” Steven Watts: "[His mother] Grace was repeatedly struck by Hugh’s insular creativity. 'As a child, he found it very difficult to make new friends. When he was in school, he was a dreamer, and sort of lived his own life in his own mind,' she observed. 'I would ask him who some of his classmates were, and he wouldn’t know the names of very many of them. ... You couldn’t always tell what was making Hugh feel unhappy, because he was very much a loner,' a baffled Grace admitted. 'He always lived in a fantasy world.' ... Often shy and insecure with other people, the boy did not like venturing out. ... Even as a kid, noted [his brother Keith], Hugh wanted 'his world to stay exactly as he made it, and doesn’t want to go anywhere else where that isn’t the reality.'" As shown, Hefner often withdrew into an internal world of thoughts and images, neglecting a lot of the aspects of his immediate outer world in the process. For Hefner, as opposed to being first and foremost oriented towards taking in or engaging with the world on its own terms, it was his inner world that took precedence. As Watts, his mother, and brother all said, he “preferred to inhabit a reality he had created”, “he was a dreamer, and sort of lived his own life in his own mind”, and that Hugh wanted “his world to stay exactly as he made it, and doesn’t want to go anywhere else where that isn’t the reality.” In other words, he was preoccupied with his own subject before moving to the object. Fi in the dominant position, since it exists almost entirely for its own sake, will often be in pursuit of an idealized sentiment-infused inner vision (and when I say “vision”, I don’t mean it in the Ni sense), even if the vision has no direct equivalent in external reality, and that “vision” will often be the primary driver of their cognition. Of course, ESFPs being Fi auxiliary, a lot of what has been said of Fi can somewhat apply to ESFPs to an extent but, all else being equal, ESFPs “immediate perceptual engagement with the outside world is much stronger and bundled up with current events and … are more inclined to let their cognitive life gravitate toward the present-day affairs” as Michael Goist put it. Hefner, in my opinion, fits the bill of dominant Fi as shown in this quote: Hefner: “I was tremendously influenced by movies and by the romantic songs of the time, and I think that in a very real way I escaped into, in childhood, romantic dreams and fantasies as a kind of the equivalent of love. And I think most of my life has been a search and a quest for that perfect world that was described in the films and songs." Taking everything said into account, all of this points to Hefner’s inner world determining his engagement with the outer world as opposed to the other way around. For even more evidence for Fi, IDRlabs said regarding differentiated Fi, “Just as our creative designer did not give thought to conventional notions of ‘justified vs. unjustified’ or the ‘employer’s prerogative vs. employee’s prerogative’ in dictating the use of a preconceived template, but simply fought for his values, so highly differentiated Fi types can … give their all in the service of their ideals.” Like differentiated Fi, he spent most of his life dedicated to defending and championing his values and ideals: Rolling Stone: “For the past 18 months, I’ve been studying the guy, mostly up close and personal. … The Hugh Hefner I found is more interesting than [his image], more cautious, more human. He’s fragile, romantic and full of ideals. He has given his life for a cause.” Rolling Stone: “His metamorphosis into Mr. Playboy in 1962, for all its PR value to the magazine, was never just a self-serving effort. It was also an attempt to change American ideas about sexuality, a way to challenge the stigma of sexual freedom. When Hef took on his role, blending his political rhetoric with a promiscuous lifestyle, he was trying to challenge the idea that casual sex was immoral.” Hefner: "The boy is the father of the man and so I still fight some of those same Puritan things in myself that I'm fighting in society.” Interviewer: “Do you find yourself at all uneasy fighting those things?” Hefner: “No, no, I'm just, you know, aware of it. I'm a very introspective person." Hefner: “I can see now that I was fighting the same kind of things on the playground, when I was a kid, that I do in the magazine now, in other words the kind of social inequalities and things that bothered me then have simply going on and grown and disturb me now.” Hefner: "The whole idea behind Playboy was to try and put sex back into the total fabric of the interest of man because traditionally in our society we've kept them separate. We've created a whole concept of the devil in the flesh in competition with the spirit of man, body pitted against mind and spirit, this earth and its pleasures pitted against the hereafter, it was that fundamentally that I was really fighting and it's something that, even today, is not clearly understood." Side and last note, Fi focuses on the personal values of the subject. This gives types with differentiated Fi an attitude of individuation of their own values, which can lead them to artistic self-expression: Hefner: "I withdrew into ... a lot of my own dreams and fantasies, and that's what led me to writing. I think that anyone who is interested in the creative arts, to some extent, needs that sort of detachment and that kind of introspection ... and you know, that led me into all kinds of [stuff like] writing and cartooning." All in all, everything said all points to Hefner's primary mode of operation was rooted in his internal world of values and ideals. While he may superficially seem like an extrovert, I think he is ultimately an introvert as he prioritized his own subject before moving on to the object. Even on a more behavioral level he was less stereotypical Se than his image let on: Arthur Kretchmer (former editorial director of Playboy): “Victor Lownes played a great role at the company. He was something that Hefner was not... bold, brash. He was the complement to Hef, who was, after all, a little bit shy and cerebral.” Christie Hefner (daughter of Hugh Hefner): “Victor [Lownes], in some ways, was more the image of the editor/publisher of Playboy than my father was, because Victor was someone who loved good food and wine, who loved to travel, who was more gregarious and sociable.” Rolling Stone: “Whereas Hefner was ‘shy and cerebral,’ Lownes … was gregarious and promiscuous – the sort of person Hefner wanted to be." So while Victor Lownes (as described) naturally fitted the picture of a (stereotypical) Se dominant type very well (traits that Hefner aspired to be but didn’t naturally possess), Hefner not so much. He was described as “shy and cerebral” and the like. All of which paints the picture of someone who was removed from the “flamboyant, life-of-the-party” image that he is often perceived as.

Editing post #10106 by Woll Smoth I suggest IDRlabs move Hefner from ESFP to ISFP. The dominant function is one's bread and butter, their modus operandi, and which often operates entirely for its own sake. Hefner was not someone who was married to the outer world (as IDR Se dominant types wont to do), so to speak, but was rather more preoccupied with his inner world (like an Fi dominant type): Steven Watts: “He tended to be reserved in formal situations at school or home. ... Absorbed in his imagination, he often neglected his studies. ... In his early teenage years he continued drawing cartoon strips — eventually they would number about seventy different series — and to write and illustrate stories. He had begun to read fiction by Edgar Allan Poe and H. G. Wells and became a devotee of Sax Rohmer’s Dr. Fu Manchu tales and Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s Sherlock Holmes. ... Indeed, throughout childhood Hefner created vivid fantasy worlds in which he immersed himself, a trait that would prove to be lifelong. The boy who wouldn’t answer the telephone or venture alone to the dentist’s office a few streets away preferred to inhabit a reality he had created.” Steven Watts: "[His mother] Grace was repeatedly struck by Hugh’s insular creativity. 'As a child, he found it very difficult to make new friends. When he was in school, he was a dreamer, and sort of lived his own life in his own mind,' she observed. 'I would ask him who some of his classmates were, and he wouldn’t know the names of very many of them. ... You couldn’t always tell what was making Hugh feel unhappy, because he was very much a loner,' a baffled Grace admitted. 'He always lived in a fantasy world.' ... Often shy and insecure with other people, the boy did not like venturing out. ... Even as a kid, noted [his brother Keith], Hugh wanted 'his world to stay exactly as he made it, and doesn’t want to go anywhere else where that isn’t the reality.'" As shown, Hefner often withdrew into an internal world of thoughts and images, neglecting a lot of the aspects of his immediate outer world in the process. For Hefner, as opposed to being first and foremost oriented towards taking in or engaging with the world on its own terms, it was his inner world that took precedence. As Watts, his mother, and brother all said, he “preferred to inhabit a reality he had created”, “he was a dreamer, and sort of lived his own life in his own mind”, and that Hugh wanted “his world to stay exactly as he made it, and doesn’t want to go anywhere else where that isn’t the reality.” In other words, he was preoccupied with his own subject before moving to the object. Fi in the dominant position, since it exists almost entirely for its own sake, will often be in pursuit of an idealized sentiment-infused inner vision (and when I say “vision”, I don’t mean it in the Ni sense), even if the vision has no direct equivalent in external reality, and that “vision” will often be the primary driver of their cognition. Of course, ESFPs being Fi auxiliary, a lot of what has been said of Fi can somewhat apply to ESFPs to an extent but, all else being equal, ESFPs “immediate perceptual engagement with the outside world is much stronger and bundled up with current events and … are more inclined to let their cognitive life gravitate toward the present-day affairs” as Michael Goist put it. Hefner, in my opinion, fits the bill of dominant Fi as shown in this quote: Hefner: “I was tremendously influenced by movies and by the romantic songs of the time, and I think that in a very real way I escaped into, in childhood, romantic dreams and fantasies as a kind of the equivalent of love. And I think most of my life has been a search and a quest for that perfect world that was described in the films and songs." Taking everything said into account, all of this points to Hefner’s inner world determining his engagement with the outer world as opposed to the other way around. For even more evidence for Fi, IDRlabs said regarding differentiated Fi, “Just as our creative designer did not give thought to conventional notions of ‘justified vs. unjustified’ or the ‘employer’s prerogative vs. employee’s prerogative’ in dictating the use of a preconceived template, but simply fought for his values, so highly differentiated Fi types can … give their all in the service of their ideals.” Like differentiated Fi, he spent most of his life dedicated to defending and championing his values and ideals: Rolling Stone: “For the past 18 months, I’ve been studying the guy, mostly up close and personal. … The Hugh Hefner I found is more interesting than [his image], more cautious, more human. He’s fragile, romantic and full of ideals. He has given his life for a cause.” Rolling Stone: “His metamorphosis into Mr. Playboy in 1962, for all its PR value to the magazine, was never just a self-serving effort. It was also an attempt to change American ideas about sexuality, a way to challenge the stigma of sexual freedom. When Hef took on his role, blending his political rhetoric with a promiscuous lifestyle, he was trying to challenge the idea that casual sex was immoral.” Hefner: "The boy is the father of the man and so I still fight some of those same Puritan things in myself that I'm fighting in society.” Interviewer: “Do you find yourself at all uneasy fighting those things?” Hefner: “No, no, I'm just, you know, aware of it. I'm a very introspective person." Hefner: “I can see now that I was fighting the same kind of things on the playground, when I was a kid, that I do in the magazine now, in other words the kind of social inequalities and things that bothered me then have simply going on and grown and disturb me now.” Hefner: "The whole idea behind Playboy was to try and put sex back into the total fabric of the interest of man because traditionally in our society we've kept them separate. We've created a whole concept of the devil in the flesh in competition with the spirit of man, body pitted against mind and spirit, this earth and its pleasures pitted against the hereafter, it was that fundamentally that I was really fighting and it's something that, even today, is not clearly understood." Side and last note, Fi focuses on the personal values of the subject. This gives types with differentiated Fi an attitude of individuation of their own values, which can lead them to artistic self-expression: Hefner: "I withdrew into ... a lot of my own dreams and fantasies, and that's what led me to writing. I think that anyone who is interested in the creative arts, to some extent, needs that sort of detachment and that kind of introspection ... and you know, that led me into all kinds of [stuff like] writing and cartooning." All in all, everything said all points to Hefner's primary mode of operation was rooted in his internal world of values and ideals. While he may superficially seem like an extrovert, I think he is ultimately an introvert as he prioritized his own subject before moving on to the object. Even on a more behavioral level he was less stereotypical Se than his image let on: Arthur Kretchmer (former editorial director of Playboy): “Victor Lownes played a great role at the company. He was something that Hefner was not... bold, brash. He was the complement to Hef, who was, after all, a little bit shy and cerebral.” Christie Hefner (daughter of Hugh Hefner): “Victor [Lownes], in some ways, was more the image of the editor/publisher of Playboy than my father was, because Victor was someone who loved good food and wine, who loved to travel, who was more gregarious and sociable.” Rolling Stone: “Whereas Hefner was ‘shy and cerebral,’ Lownes … was gregarious and promiscuous – the sort of person Hefner wanted to be." So while Victor Lownes (as described) naturally fitted the picture of a (stereotypical) Se dominant type very well (traits that Hefner aspired to be but didn’t naturally possess), Hefner not so much. He was described as “shy and cerebral” and the like. All of which paints the picture of someone who was removed from the “flamboyant, life-of-the-party” image that he is often perceived as.
Replying to post #10106 by Woll Smoth

date	username	vote
25/07/07 09:14	Woll Smoth	ISFP