Elsa – Frozen: ISTJ


Si: Elsa is perpetually in a self-made cage haunted by the past. Even after she professes to having “let it go” she’s really still holding on to it. Elsa is afraid of what her people will think of her for being different and practices social graces with astute determination to try to hide it. She is often so detail oriented that she fails to recognise the big-picture implications of current events as well as her own actions. For instance –freezing the entire kingdom goes beyond her notice because she’s so focused in on the minute details of her own circumstance. She has the tendency to make assumptions about circumstances and people before she’s reviewed all the evidence and to stick to those beliefs until undeniable evidence slaps her in the face.

Te: Elsa is a person who knows how to take action (except when overcome by her emotions). As soon as the people discover her secret, she doesn’t hesitate to weigh out the details (she’s already done that); she runs. She’s good at finding the most immediate rational solution and then jumping on it before it’s too late. At times, her emotions can overwhelm her, making her unable to utilise this great skill of hers, and she simply does nothing, or acts without thinking carefully.

Fi: Elsa keeps her suffering a secret for years, and is reluctant to talk about it even after it’s out in the open. Her emotions can make her irrational in stressful situations, but rather than expressing them in words, they burst forth in her actions (sometimes surprising even herself). Elsa dislikes feeling controlled or stifled, and would rather bear solitude as a sort of freedom than endure company while in a cage. She’s not very good at understanding other people’s motivations or emotions, thus her firm reluctance to ignore everything her sister says to try to convince her to come back. Of course, this is also due to her firm moral aversion to putting people in danger when there’s a possibility of preventing it.

Ne: Elsa’s intuitive side is rather weak (which is another reason I can’t understand why people think she’s INTJ). Her assumptions about people and situations under stress are not usually accurate, and she’s not particularly good at predicting the future. Instead, she catastrophizes, thinking up all the worst outcomes as inevitable facts, while ignoring all the positive possibilities. Furthermore, she doesn’t have firm beliefs in a good future for herself.

Frozen. Gross.

I’ve seen Elsa frequently typed as an INTJ, but typically by people who stereotype all distant-T-types as INTJs. Elsa is way too obsessed with her past to be an INTJ. Se users don’t really look back all that much.

Elsa is the most Si character ever to Si.

16 thoughts on “Elsa – Frozen: ISTJ

  1. I legit feel like the only INFJ who doesn’t see Elsa as an INFJ. She, in my opinion is a ISTJ who fits many INFJ tropes, such as being “unique” and “misunderstood”, but she doesn’t actually fit any cognitive functions for INFJ, while many INFJs get so offended when someone types Elsa as anything other than INFJ, because they relate to Elsa…even though I’ve seen ALL types relate to Elsa. Relatability doesn’t automatically make someone your type.

    That being said, I think so many people are so hesitant to type Elsa as an ISTJ, because of the ISTJ stereotype that they are emotionless. This could be said about any thinker type, and it’s important to realize thinkers, even xSTJs HAVE emotions. Everyone has emotions, but some show their emotions better than others.


  2. just a question, I don’t mean to make anybody upset or anything. I am an INTJ and I relate to Elsa in many ways. So, I’m just wondering why that is?


    • Because Elsa is a relatable character in general, because many people (of all personality types) can relate to being fearful, having anxiety and being emotional about their past experiences (even intuitives can feel this way). It’s not necessarily a type thing that makes her relatable, because a lot of types relate to her.


  3. First of all, Elsa is such a FEELER. Seriously, she is so clearly not an ISTJ. ISFJ is a far closer fit.

    Now personally, I do not think she is a sensor at all. It drives me crazy how so much of the argument about her as an ISxJ, and being a dom. Si user, are really based on things that are very circumstantial and not personality.

    And I ask you this: can you honestly say she is happier when relying on the past? I doubt it…the only times we see her truly happier and more herself, even if they are temporary, are times when she has let go of the past and is focusing either on expressing her creative side (Ni through Se) or unrestrainedly engaging Fe.

    So sorry but calling her an ISxJ, especially an ISTJ, is far more an on-the-surface, lack-of-bigger-picture typing than is INFJ, which is what she is.

    As an ENFP I know said, she’s the most INFJ character ever to INFJ.

    Disney hasn’t given us many INFJs, she’s really the only even somewhat leading character. People seem to get so biased against supposedly “throwing around the INFJ type on characters,” which is ridiculous. For goodness sake, INFJs are also just people, and it’s not like some once-in-a-bluemoon event that a character can be an INFJ.


    • It’s not necessarily about what she’s ‘happier’ doing, it’s what she defaults to that is most comfortable. There’s functions we all default to regardless of whether it makes us happy or not.
      Her default function is ABSOLUTELY Si, there’s no way it’s anything else. Classic Si is past fixated but stores that info for future reference. That is Elsa to a damn T. She’s so fixated on the past and making sure potential future incidents never happen. Now I’m of the thought that her secondary function can be argued as to whether it’s Te or Fe. Yes she shows a lot of Fe in…THE SONG ;) but that’s not something we see often enough for us to say whether it’s her secondary function. We see Te also, but again not enough to determine which of the two are her secondary function.
      But that’s why I think whether she’s an ISTJ or ISFJ remains yet to be seen. Because she always in such a state of panic and what I believe is not mentally healthy, we don’t know who she really is so to speak. But that’s almost more of a bad casting of script and character writing than anything else…actor here lolz.

      As the old saying goes we all do and say things we normally wouldn’t when we’re angry, panicked, in anxiety, etc. so until that sequel comes I don’t believe she (or Hans if the rumors end up being true) is wholly typable in her (their) current state of fictional existence as how they’re written wasn’t exactly well thought out nor 3 dimensional.

      I’m an INTJ and as such, am an Ni dom user…I promise Elsa is NOT an INFJ as that type is my fellow Ni dom cousin. I know fellow Ni users when I come across them.
      And actually using the cognitive functions to type rather than the letters is actually more correct typing anyway. I’m still learning each function and what they actually mean and examples of them, but currently the two easiest for me personally to spot are mine (Ni) and Si, and Elsa EXUDES Si it hurts actually. She’s the most Si Disney character to ever Si.


    • Oh and keep in mind one of the FIRST things said in this article…even after she claims to have Let it Go…she’s still holding on to the past. She regresses almost immediately. VERY Si. Of course 13 years of a habit doesn’t just go away in one day either, regardless of your claim to have put it behind you, that’s psychology 101. But she’s on the way ;)


  4. Jennifer back…Ah yes…the ‘special snowflake’ that every types as INFJ due to that very same syndrome ;) OH YES she’s the most Si Disney character ever to Si for sure. I see one more post typing her as INFJ and I’ll scream. As an INTJ myself (at least the best I’ve been able to descern with my current but still somewhat lacking knowledge), I know a fellow Ni user when I see one, so INTJ hardly makes anymore sense than INFJ does.
    Now…granted she’s a she’s a hard one to type right…sort of. She’s Si Dom for sure, but I wonder if she would be if she weren’t TAUGHT this by her parents. If she weren’t taught to be afraid of herself, would she be Si? We’ll never know obviously, but I’ve always gotten the impression, who we see is not who she REALLY is, thanks parent caused irrational depression, and anxiety disorders.
    I’ve also never gotten the impression that she’s such a duty fulfiller, you even mention she uses these ‘duties and social graces’ merely to keep up her facade, not that she actually WANTS to. She’d rather be herself than rule if given the choice. Again, I’m sure is a stereotype, but, I’ve never seen her as all that comfortable with always following rules and duty fulfilling like the normal ISTJ would. She seems to make decision via emotions and feelings, rather than T.
    HOWEVER…another reason, why she’s harder to type than most people think, is that, to type correctly, we have to see how people are in a saner sense of mind. Elsa is in anything BUT a sane sense of mind almost the whole movie. She’s always in such a stage of high emotion, and we all know as the old saying goes, we all do and say things we normally wouldn’t in those states of mind, so how can we type correctly?
    Problem is, as a charatcer that isn’t fleshed out too well (let’s be real, the writing and character development is less than stellar, actor here) she’s open to quite a lot of interpretation…hence mistyping. But she’s totally Si Dom. That’s absolute for sure.


  5. LMAO everyone who types her as ISTJ are shallow idiots who can’t see past her outer shell and understand the caring, passionate woman that lies within.


  6. She must be an ISFJ then cause when the stressors are gone and her superego is relaxed in her ice palace, she turns into an ESFP.


  7. Thank you so much for not typing her as an INFJ. Many people seem to and it drives me crazy! Not a bit like an INFJ.


  8. Do you dislike the movie because of this miss-typing, or is there another reason for the phrase at the beginning of the footnote?


    • I find the movie rather annoying due to the fact that my little brothers and cousins forced me to watch it 10 million times in a row (slight exaggeration). It has nothing to do with miss-typings. If I didn’t like shows due to miss-typings, I probably wouldn’t enjoy any entertainment at all…




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