Mapping the Mind - Rita Carter 2010

Major—Minors
How Multiple Are You?
PART II

Major—Minors are probably the most common type of characterscape: the sort of people who have a well-recognisable major personality, but also a number of others that come out in different circumstances. (Major—Minors differ from the Major—Minor in that they have several minors rather than just one.) Providing their personalities complement each other this is rather a good formation: stable enough to allow the person to sustain long-term plans and relationships, but flexible enough to adapt to change.

Jonathan

Jonathan started his working life as a builder’s apprentice and worked his way up to establish his own small construction company. Even Martha, his wife, jokes that Jonathan’s first love is his company. That may or may not be true, but his business is certainly what sociologists would describe as Jonathan’s defining role. It is how most of the rest of the world that knows him, sees him — as a straight-arrow, hands-on contractor, a man who plays fair financially, who gets jobs done on time, and who consequently is rarely without customers.

But while Jonathan is dedicated to his business he is also a good, if frequently absent, husband and father, who tries to make up for his periods away from Martha and the children with occasional intense spells of excessive generosity and attention.

His employees would not altogether recognise this Jonathan, the doting family man, and even Martha is surprised when it appears. His foreman, who has worked for Jonathan for more than twenty years, was astonished when he first met this ’other’ personality.

’It’s a strictly working relationship between Jon and me. We don’t get together socially and I like it that way. He treats me well enough, but he’s a tough customer and sometimes he asks too much of the men… And he’s tight with the money — straight enough, but he doesn’t exactly throw it about. So I have to stand up for the lads, squeeze a bonus out of him if they’ve done particularly well — that sort of thing. I couldn’t do that if we were best mates, could I?

’Last year, though, his wife asked mine if we would go round for a celebration party — his oldest daughter was getting engaged. Bit of a surprise actually and I wasn’t too keen, but my wife insisted so we went along.

’Well, we walked in, and there among his family he was a different man. I mean, really different. He was welcoming and talkative and joking. And it turned out that for an engagement present he had bought his daughter a house — no kidding! It cost him more than the company had made him in the whole year. Now, how do you square that up with a man who won’t even buy his men a crate of beer at Christmas?’

The petty criminals in Jonathan’s neighbourhood see another Jonathan again. He is also a local magistrate and has spent a good deal of time studying both criminology and civil and criminal law. On the bench neither the quick-tempered, tight-fisted Jonathan nor the excessively generous one is to be seen. Instead he comes across as careful, considered, measured and reasonable.

And none of his male friends see much of any of these Jonathans. He used to play in a local football team and some of his former team-mates keep their sporting links in middle age by taking occasional golfing and fishing breaks. These ’weekends out’, as he calls them, consist of boisterous days and lively, alcohol-fuelled nights. He makes sure they take place a long way from home.

Five signs of a Major—Minors