Classic Jung · ENFJ · Mallicknight64/100
Field Marshal Sam Manekshaw is a very interesting person to be analyzed in Jungian psychological terms. As per Jung, the dominant attitude of a person can be either introverted or extroverted. In case of Manekshaw, his profile leans towards extroversion for various reasons. He was very outwardly social, naturally tends to influence atmosphere through charm, stay positive with external optimism, and maintaining harmony among his man. That's where primarily his libido flowed towards. And as per Jung, extroversion means flow of libido towards the outward world, adjusting to external conditions, instead of having an internal standpoint to filter data from object, as in case of introversion. That means Manekshaw is clearly an E-type.
Now for selecting the function, while its slightly difficult to judge if the superior function is a perceiving or judging type, its for certain looking individually at sensing, intuition, thinking, and feeling, that his superior/dominant function appears to be a feeling type dominantly, making him a extroverted feeler. I will provide refutation for other types in last paragraph. Key quality and defining natural characteristic of Manekshaw was the influence of emotional field. Feeling is associated with abstract values over logical concepts (as in thinking), and extroversion makes it flow outward to external world instead of maintaining a coherent moral code or system. Manekshaw showed his emotional influence as per many records when he visited injured soldiers and inspiring them with personal stories, keeping men optimistic under all circumstances, and even in his most famous speech at Indian Military Academy with "if you loose, don't come back, you are a disgrace to the country" to spark an emotional level of responsibility, and motivate officers. This was what he frequently did for being his natural orientation. He genuinely like having rapport with people, and inspiring them.
For auxiliary function, its introverted as per the rules to balance and integrate the dominant function further. And in this case he appears to have an introverted intuition auxiliary. Reason being that ESFJs integrate their extroverted feeling with past sensory impressions, relying on their personal experiences. While Manekshaw as an ENFJ used known underlying meaning synthesized in psyche to join the impression and form singular conclusion. Evidence are his forward looking speech, using symbolism and underlying deeper themes in his speech and inspiration - "I had 9 bullets to my guts. Those weren't injury marks, they were symbol of national honour." While ESFJs on the contrary use introverted sensing to integrate their external value alignment and adjustment through revealing sensory impressions, their experiences, not abstract importance and meaning like Sam.
Why he is not extroverted thinking user? While his strategic skills display experience and competence, they aren't indicator of what he uses as his default function most of the time on natural pace. While there are hints for strategic prowess and logistical handling combined with military leadership, a superior function indicates where the libido flows. Manekshaw wasn't mostly concerned with objective results, external structuring, and strategizing (quantitatively, not qualitatively) as much as his involvement was in influencing emotional fields and mobilizing people towards the mission by matching their levels. Ofcourse, anyone could be "inspiring" or "charming", but their primary orientation reveals a lot about them. Extroverted thinkers would inspire more by explaining pragmatic, result-oriented outcomes to the involved people instead of adjusting to their values to influence them. Ability is not same as orientation, just like how adjusting is not same as adapting.