Raphael's DISC personality type and what it teaches us about ourselves

The Daily Drip

4 Part Series
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles
DISC Personality Types

RAPHAEL
DISC Type: D (Dominant)

Raphael is a classic D in the DISC assessment. He is primarily motivated by anger, which isn’t always a bad thing. It charges him up and prepares him to face challenges with intensity. It also means that Raphael is the most straightforward, blunt, and confident.

Of course, this doesn’t win him any friends, but it does make him an effective voice of reason (on occasion) since he can focus on the bottom line.

Raphael is focused more on the outcome of the situation than how he got there—which is where he needs help from his brothers. Even though he's fighting for good, he can rub people the wrong way with his consistently bad attitude. This means he relies on his brothers to recruit allies.

On the flip side, Raphael struggles with managing his anger. Anger is one of his primary motivators for fighting and improving, but he does not always effectively channel it. When he makes mistakes, Raphael turns his anger inward, causing him to separate himself from his brothers making him vulnerable to self-doubt, self-criticism, and external threats. He and Donatello seem to be the introverts of the bunch.

Our society worships this personality type. For some reason, it’s believed that the challenger is the most desirable. For men, especially, the anger of emotion is the most socially accepted and normalized of all the emotions.

The lesson here is that while anger can be a useful emotion, we can also easily lose our grip. We can lash out at others and we can beat ourselves up. Raphael reminds us to manage our anger and benevolently channel it.

Thanks for reading.

Tomorrow we'll talk about Michelangelo.