The Enneagram


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    According to the the dictionary, an "Enneagram" is a nine-pointed star. The Enneagram of Personality has nine inter-related personality bases.

    The Enneagram is a personality model, derived from Sufi teachings and elaborated upon by George Gurdjieff, Oscar Ichazo, and Claudio Naranjo. It is unique amongst personality tests in that it doesn't try to pigeonhole you based on who you happen to be at this very second; it accounts for personal evolution, both in the past and in the future, and gives suggestions for how to improve. People could use this to identify from where their own subconscious impulses stem from, and unlock their true self.

    The underlying theory of the Enneagram is that each of the nine "Enneatypes" has a core "Vice," a single root insecurity that serves as the Freudian Excuse which the entire personality type is thereafter built on. This Vice must be let go for self-actualisation. This is also why the system doesn't try to pigeonhole you: as you read through the nine types and their vices, you'll note that you have all those fears. But one of them's probably strongest, and Enneagram theorists would assign you to that type. The types are:

    Feeling Triad (id)

    • Twos (super-ego) are kind, generous and often selfless, which is their backwards way of hoping that somebody will be nice to them and get their needs met. Their Basic Fear is to be unloved. They like feeling needed and can get possessive of the people they care about, and sometimes forget how to please themselves (can we say Looking for Love In All the Wrong Places?). On the other hand, a healthy Two is a model of altruism and unconditional love.
    • Threes (id) can be chameleonic in their pursuit of acceptance and status, becoming whatever they think will make them popular; Lucy Ricardo's willingness to do anything for fame was a major Three trait, as is the surface shine of a Stepford Smiler. Their Basic Fear is of being worthless. They are susceptible to public opinion, and can become so obsessed with pleasing everyone that they kind of forget what their actual personality is like. (Shooting oneself in the foot is another major theme of the Enneagram.) Paradoxically, a healthy Three is the most authentic and genuine person you will ever meet. David Foster Wallace's "Good Old Neon" is a pretty good example of what it's like to ride in the head of a Three.
    • Fours (ego) are the reason True Art Is Angsty. Their Basic Fear is that they have no identity or personal significance, that the world will forget them when they're gone. They are sensitive and self-aware, looking inwards for meaning, and express themselves with their prolific creative output... not to mention the stereotypical Mad Artist who thinks no one understands them and may be Driven to Suicide. When they aren't cutting off their own ears, they are luminary and visionary artists, helping make sense of the senseless world around them.

    Thinking Triad (super-ego)

    • Fives (ego) are the silent observer types. Their Basic Fear is to be helpless or unable to defend themselves, and as such they develop keen insight and an incredible awareness of how the world works; Fives are the type who can stop wars with a single well-placed remark. (Or start them.) Unhealthy Fives can become Freaky Loners or CloudCuckooLanders; the healthy ones revolutionize the way we see the world.
    • Sixes (super-ego) are one of the more confusing types, being an uneasy compromise between a creature-comforts person and a devil's advocate with an overactive Spider Sense. Both behaviors stem from their Basic Fear of lacking security, and from constantly expecting attack. They show Undying Loyalty at all times, even when it's a bad idea; the healthy ones aren't afraid of anything.
    • Sevens (id) are somewhere between the Genki Girl and the Manic Pixie Dream Girl. They love new experiences, as borne out of their Basic Fear of being deprived or in pain, and cannot be beat at living in the moment and being joyful. Having said that, they can get scatterbrained or impulsive, and sometimes even withdraw from life entirely, burying fear in an avalanche of experience which they are (in fact) too scared to actually partake in. (Also, despite the trope attributions, Sevens can be males; in fact, one of the common names for this type is The Peter Pan.)

    Asserting/Anger Triad (ego)

    • Eights (id) have a lot in common with the Mama Bear trope, except that the person they are trying to protect is themselves. The Eight's Basic Fear is of being harmed or controlled by others, and that has driven them to be brash, bold and confident in themselves. Of course, they can also get confrontational and domineering; they may have trouble controlling their tempers, and with being vulnerable to others. They make the best leaders, but also the best bullies, and are by far the most likely to try a Taking You with Me.
    • Nines (ego) just want everyone to get along. Their Basic Fear, of having to undergo separation and loss, causes them to have a lot of empathy and do whatever they can to promote harmony and well-being. At their worst, this turns them into a passive-aggressive Extreme Doormat who go into denial if anything goes wrong. However, they can also be The Pollyanna, accepting, trusting and refreshingly optimistic.
    • Ones (super-ego) are The Perfectionist, plain and simple. Their Basic Fear is to be corrupt. They have a little voice in the back of their heads which is constantly criticizing their behavior; they use this to try and stay moral and ascend beyond the criticism of others. They tend to shove under the bed anything they feel ashamed about, which can create all sorts of horrific repression problems. A healthy One leads by example and shows Incorruptible Pure Pureness; an unhealthy One can be a Broken Ace or hypocritical Knight Templar.

    These different types often are referred to with their own labels, but we have chosen not to include them here because names rarely mean the same thing to different people.

    Along with the whole "Freudian Excuse" thing, another major theme of the Enneagram is of shooting oneself in the foot: the defensive mechanisms that each type uses to keep themselves safe are also the ones most likely to alienate them from people, happiness and healthiness. An unhealthy person may realise their defense mechanism has taken them too far down to self-destruction: i.e. Fours, as one of the more self-aware of the types, tend to be extremely self-conscious, and at unhealthy levels their introspection results in self-hatred and depression rather than creative transformation.

    Obviously, every Type is numerically adjacent to two other types, and the more dominant of the adjacent type becomes a "Wing." Simply put, that wing is your secondary personality: an Eight with a Nine wing (8w9) tends to be more reserved and let anger build up in themselves, whereas an Eight with a Seven wing (8w7) is more gregarious and impulsive.

    The real complexity comes from the "Direction of Integration" and "Direction of Disintegration." This theory states that, when a person is under stress, they start displaying the negative traits of the type they "disintegrate" to. For instance, Ones fall to Four, meaning that a One who is having a bad day will start to brood, wallow in self-pity, and question their identity the way a Four does. Conversely, the Direction of Integration describes which type a happy person starts integrating the positive traits of. Ones rise to Seven; a One who has managed to make peace with his/her own flaws will not only feel joyful and optimistic, but give themselves permission to enjoy life more. The Direction of Disintegration is simply the Direction of Integration backwards. Thus the lines you see in the Enneagram circle diagram. Integration for each type is as follows (there are two circuits):

    • 2 > 4 > 1 > 7 > 5 > 8 > 2 ..
    • 3 > 6 > 9 > 3 ..

    A hallmark of the Enneagram is that it does not try to insist only one enneatype can achieve a certain type of interaction. In fact, every person has all nine enneatypes in play in varying degrees, with different facets coming out at different times, which may make it hard to figure out what type your base is besides taking a measuring test. Even worse, no one type has a monopoly on any given trait or facet. If you like to lead, for instance, the obvious answer is Eight (from their urge to show their strength), but Sixes and Ones can have their moments as well - Sixes out of their loyalty and confronting fear, and Ones for getting things done right. Fours are wildly creative, drawing from their introspection and self-awareness, but Fives have it too, from their perceptions of the world, and Nines from their idle, daydreaming imaginations.

    Finally, there's wide bunches of stuff we haven't talked about, like the "Instinctual Subtypes" (self-preservation, social and sexual), the directional scales, what your childhood was probably like, and other interesting-but-unwieldy trivia. More information can be found at:

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