Grey's Anatomy Personality Types

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IZZIE: “Denny, please. You have to do this.”DENNY: “No, Izzie! I'm not about to steal a heart from another man's chest! Not to mention, this'll be the end of your medical career. “IZZIE: “I don't care about my medical career. “DENNY: “Izzie... I'm gonna be alright. Alright? You don't have to worry. “IZZIE: “[She's beginning to cry] No, I get it! Ok? I get it! You'll be ok, you'll be fine, but what about me? So don't do it for yourself, do it for me! Please! Please Denny! Please do this for me! Because if you die, oh God, you have to do this! You have to do this for me or I'll never be able to forgive you! “DENNY: “For dying? “IZZIE: “No! For making me love you!” (from Grey’s Anatomy)

Despite acquiring the stigma of being overly emotional for a surgeon, Izzie refuses to change this quality. In fact, she gives up her inheritance from Denny—her dead fiancé— in order to pay for a little girl’s surgery:

MIRANDA: “you spent three hundred grand so you could scrub in on this surgery?”

IZZIE: “No. Have you seen that girl? Her life is miserable. She’s desperate. She will never have a date. She will never wear high heels. She will never feel normal. I spent three hundred grand because it’s a good thing. “

MIRANDA: “I was hoping you would tell me you spent the money so you could scrub in” (from Grey’s Anatomy)

Izzie’s colleagues constantly criticize her for being too emotionally involved with her patients and warn her this quality won’t allow her to be a hardcore surgeon like Cristina. However, it is exactly this, Izzie’s emotional involvement with patients, that differentiates her from other doctors and makes the hospital a better place. Like Type Talk says, “when you have too many of one type, you lose something of value in your organization”. Cristina and Izzie also reflect their different types in the way they choose to teach their interns (see video). Cristina, a Judger, is very organized and knows exactly what she wants from each of her interns, while Izzie, a Perceiver, takes a laid back approach, waiting for a situation to present itself before making a decision. Their E and I types also show in this scene; Cristina, the introvert, doesn’t want a personal relationship with her interns choosing to not even learn their names, while Izzy, an extreme extrovert, is friendly towards them. Cristina’s and Izzie’s types affect how they work, as shown through their interactions with patients and their preferred teaching style; however, despite their very different approaches, they both are successful in their careers.

The respective success of Cristina and Izzie, who represent very different types, demonstrates that one is not better than the other. Even though Cristina is a cutthroat thinker who doesn’t allow relationships and emotion to affect her surgical practice, she is seemingly no better equipped to be a successful surgeon than is Izzie. It is Izzie’s feelings and personal connections to her patients and interns that make her such a good doctor and teacher. Similarly, even though Cristina lacks the imagination, hope, and emotion of Izzie, she is still an amazing friend and girlfriend. Type Talk would support this conclusion. In fact, it proposes that type-watching not be used to decide what is right or wrong or good or bad. It should not be used to change who people are. Rather, type-watching should be used to better understand and celebrate the personalities of your peers, co-workers, and partners in an effort to strengthen and improve these relationships.