Enneagram of Personality

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**Enneagram figure** (click the numbers for type profiles)

In spirituality, the Enneagram of Personality (also known as The Enneagram) is an application of an enneagram geometric figure in relation to various personality issues. The term "enneagram" derives from two Greek words, ennea (nine) and grammos (something written or drawn). The enneagram figure consists of a nine-pointed diagram, usually depicted within a circle.

The Enneagram of Personality is mostly taught and understood as a psychospiritual typology (a model of personality types) but is also presented in ways intended to discover and develop higher states of being, essence and enlightenment. Each Enneagram personality type expresses a distinctive and habitual pattern of thinking and emotions. The behavioral characteristics of the personality types are less distinctive. It is claimed that by recognizing their personality pattern a person may be able to use the Enneagram as an effective method for self-understanding and self-development.

The term Enneatype rather than "Enneagram personality type" is used in some publications. The International Enneagram Association claims that the Enneagram of Personality is being applied in many varied fields including psychotherapy, health care, parenting, education, business, organizational development, career coaching, the arts, and spiritual growth.

Enneagram figure

The enneagram figure is usually composed of three parts, a circle, an inner triangle and a hexagonal "periodic figure". According to esoteric spiritual traditions, the circle symbolizes unity, the inner triangle symbolizes the "law of three" and the hexagon represents the "law of seven". These three elements constitute the enneagram figure.

Development

G. I. Gurdjieff

The enneagram figure used with the Enneagram of Personality was first brought to the attention of the modern world by G. I. Gurdjieff, though it was first published by P.D. Ouspensky, a student of Gurdjieff, in his 1947 book In Search of the Miraculous. Although Gurdjieff used the figure to describe possibilities of human development, his concept of it was principally related to the symbolic communication of ancient knowledge and the "self-work" process through which people may develop insight rather than the categorizing of personality styles.

Oscar Ichazo

The teachings of Oscar Ichazo are generally recognized as the principal source of the contemporary Enneagram of Personality. Ichazo assigned what he refers to as "ego fixations" to each of the nine points of the enneagram figure (which in his early teachings is usually called an "enneagon"). Ichazo's "Enneagon of Ego Fixations", together with a number of other dimensions of personality mapped on the enneagram figure, forms the basis of the Enneagram of Personality as it is now understood.

Originally from Bolivia, Ichazo began teaching programs of self-development in the 1950s. His teaching, which he calls "Protoanalysis", uses the enneagram figure among many other symbols and ideas. Ichazo founded the Arica Institute which was originally based in Chile before moving to the United States.

Claudio Naranjo

Claudio Naranjo, a Chilean-born psychiatrist who extensively explored the theories of personality, studied the Enneagram of Personality with Oscar Ichazo in Chile. He further developed Ichazo's teachings and articulated the nine personality types within contemporary Western psychological and psychiatric understandings. Naranjo began teaching his understanding of the Enneagram in the United States in the early 1970s. His initial teachings were in largely private programs of self-development work with his own students.

Based on material first taught by Claudio Naranjo, authors such as Helen Palmer, Don Richard Riso, Russ Hudson, Patrick O'Leary, Richard Rohr and Elizabeth Wagele began to publish the first widely read books on the Enneagram of Personality in the 1980s and 1990s.

Nine personality types

According to Enneagram of Personality theory, the points of the enneagram figure indicate a number of ways in which nine principal ego-archetypal forms or types of human personality ("Enneatypes") are psychologically connected.

People of each Enneatype are usually referred to after the number of the point on the enneagram figure (Eights, Fours, Sixes etc.) that indicates their particular psychological space and 'place' of connection to the other types. They are also often given names that suggest some of their more distinctive archetypal characteristics.

Brief descriptions of the nine Enneatypes are as follows:

Ones

Characteristic role: The Reformer
Ego Fixation: Resentment
Holy Idea: Perfection
Basic Fear: Being corrupt/evil, defective
Basic Desire: To be good, to have integrity, to be balanced
Temptation: To be hypocritical or hypercritical of others
Vice/Passion: Anger
Virtue: Serenity
Stress/Disintegration point: Four. Angry and critical Ones may become moody and irrational like unhealthy Fours
Security/Integration point: Seven. Objective and principled Ones may become more spontaneous and joyful like healthy Sevens

Twos

Characteristic role: The Helper
Ego Fixation: Flattery
Holy Idea: Freedom
Basic Fear: Being unworthy of being loved
Basic Desire: To be loved unconditionally
Temptation: To manipulate others in order to get positive responses
Vice/Passion: Pride (specifically, Vainglory, the love of one's own goodness)
Virtue: Altruism
Stress/Disintegration point: Eights. When Twos give without receiving back they become manipulative and angry like unhealthy Eights
Security/Integration point: Four. Helpful Twos may become emotionally strong, caring, and authentic like healthy Fours

Threes

Characteristic role: The Achiever
Ego fixation: Vanity
Holy idea: Hope
Basic Fear: Being worthless
Basic Desire: To be valuable
Temptation: To please everybody
Vice/Passion: Deceit
Virtue: Truthfulness
Stress/Disintegration point: Nine. Burnt-out Threes may begin to disengage from their relentless drive to success and behave like unhealthy Nines
Security/Integration point: Six. If Threes recognize that being on top of everything is not everything, they may become comfortable in being committed to others, like healthy Sixes. Commitment to relationships may enable them to explore their emotions

Fours

Characteristic role: The Individualist
Ego fixation: Melancholy
Holy idea: Origin
Basic Fear: Being commonplace
Basic Desire: To be unique and authentic
Temptation: To beat themselves up and withdraw
Vice/Passion: Envy
Virtue: Equanimity
Stress/Disintegration point: Two. Disintegrating Fours may become dissatisfied like unhealthy Twos
Security/Integration point: One. Self-actualized Fours may become idealistic and progressive like healthy Ones

Fives

Characteristic role: The Investigator
Ego Fixation: Stinginess
Holy Idea: Omniscience
Basic Fear: Being useless, helpless, or incapable
Basic Desire: To be capable and competent
Temptation: To keep the world at bay
Vice/Passion: Avarice
Virtue: Detachment
Stress/Disintegration point: Seven. Detached Fives may become hyperactive and scattered like unhealthy Sevens
Security/Integration point: Eight. Integrated Fives may become self-confident and decisive like healthy Eights

Sixes

Characteristic role: The Loyalist
Ego fixation: Cowardice
Holy idea: Faith
Basic Fear: To be without a support system in an unforgiving world
Basic Desire: To feel safe
Temptation: To question the intentions of everyone around them
Vice/Passion: Fear
Virtue: Courage
Stress/Disintegration point: Three. Paranoid and anxious Sixes may try to win over others, like unhealthy Threes, to cover up their anxiety
Security/Integration point: Nine. Positive Sixes may become more peaceful, open and receptive like healthy Nines

Sevens

Characteristic role: The Enthusiast
Ego fixation: Planning
Holy idea: Work
Basic Fear: Boredom
Basic Desire: To experience as much of the world as possible
Temptation: Moving too fast
Vice/Passion: Gluttony
Virtue: Sobriety
Stress/Disintegration point: One. When forced to stand still, Sevens may become irritable and impatient like unhealthy Ones
Security/Integration point: Five. Confident and experienced Sevens may bring a sense of calm to hectic situations like healthy Fives

Eights

Characteristic role: The Challenger
Ego fixation: Vengeance
Holy idea: Truth
Basic Fear: Of being harmed or controlled by others, of violation
Basic Desire: To protect themselves, to determine their own course in life
Temptation: To be too self-sufficient
Vice/Passion: Lust
Virtue: Magnanimity
Stress/Disintegration point: Five. Eights may become withdrawn and isolated like unhealthy Fives in their pursuit of control
Security/Integration point: Two. Proactive and forward-thinking Eights learn to become helpful and cooperative like healthy Twos

Nines

Characteristic role: The Peacemaker
Ego fixation: Indolence, self-forgetting
Holy idea: Love
Basic Fear: Loss and separation; of annihilation
Basic Desire: To maintain inner stability and peace of mind
Temptation: To go along to get along
Vice/Passion: Indifference
Virtue: Right action
Stress/Disintegration point: Six. Nines may become anxious, suspicious, and negative like unhealthy Sixes and may express more aggression
Security/Integration point: Three. Nines may begin to work at developing themselves and their potential and move into greater action in the world, like healthier Threes

Connections between types

Wings

Most, but not all, Enneagram of Personality theorists teach that a person's basic type is modified, at least to some extent, by the personality dynamics of the two adjacent types as indicated on the enneagram figure. These two types are often called "wings". A person of the Three personality type, for example, is understood to have points Two and Four as their wing types. The circle of the enneagram figure may indicate that the types or points exist on a spectrum rather than as distinct types or points unrelated to those adjacent to them. A person may be understood, therefore, to have a core type and one or two wing types that influence but do not change the core type.

Stress and security points

The lines between the points add further meaning to the information provided by the descriptions of the types. Sometimes called the "security" and "stress" points, or points of "integration" and "disintegration", these connected points also contribute to a person's overall personality. There are, therefore, at least four other points that can significantly affect a person's core personality; the two points connected by the lines to the core type and the two wing points.

Instinctual subtypes

Each of the personality types are usually understood as having three subtypes. These three subtypes are believed to be formed according to which one of three instinctual energies of a person is dominantly developed and expressed. The instinctual energies are usually called "self-preservation", "sexual" (also called "intimacy" or "one-to-one") and "social". On the instinctual level, people may internally stress and externally express the need to protect themselves (self-preservation), to connect with important others or partners (sexual), or to get along or succeed in groups (social). From this perspective, there are 27 distinct personality patterns, because people of each of the nine types also express themselves as one of the three subtypes. An alternative approach to the subtypes looks at them as three domains or clusters of instincts that result in increased probability of survival (the "preserving" domain), increased skill in navigating the social environment (the "navigating" domain) and increased likelihood of reproductive success (the "transmitting" domain). From this understanding the subtypes reflect individual differences in the presence of these three separate clusters of instincts.

It is generally believed that people function in all three forms of instinctual energies but that one usually dominates. According to some theorists another instinct may also be well-developed and the third often markedly less developed.

Directional scales

The Enneagram types have also been mapped to Karen Horney's "Three Trends" (Moving Towards, Against, Away from), in two dimensions of "Surface Direction" and "Deep Direction" (which also are roughly similar to FIRO and other Two-factor models of personality). Each type, on the surface, moves one way but, underneath, can move a different way. This is claimed to determine both behavior and motivations.

Surface Direction→ Deep Direction↓	− Against (confronting)	0 Away (withdrawing)	+ Towards (embracing)
+ Towards (Approval Seeking)	3	9	6
0 Away (Ideal Seeking)	1	4	7
− Against (Power Seeking)	8	5	2

Psychometric tests

The Enneagram Institute states that is has developed a number of psychometric tests, with help by Jerome Wagner, David Daniels (with Virginia Price), and Don Richard Riso and Russ Hudson. According to the institute, independent researchers have sought to validate some of these tests.

References

Maitri, The Spiritual Dimension of the Enneagram
Riso, Personality Types
Naranjo, Transformation Through Insight
Daniels, The Essential Enneagram, p. 1
http://www.internationalenneagram.org/intro/index.html
Palmer, The Enneagram, p.36
Wagele, Enneagram Made Easy, pp.1–11
Palmer, The Enneagram, Understanding Yourself and the Others in Your Life, p.xii
Maitri, The Spiritual Dimension of the Enneagram, pp.4-5
Riso, Wisdom of the Enneagram, p.24
Daniels, The Essential Enneagram
Baron, Renee. What Type Am I: Discover Who You Really Are. p. 162.
^ Riso, Don (author) and Hudson, Russ. Understanding the Enneagram: The Practical Guide to Personality Types. p. 18. {{cite book}}: |first= has generic name (help)CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link) Revised edition
^ Riso, Don Richard (author) and Hudson, Ross (editor). Understanding the Enneagram: The Practical Guide to Personality Types. p. 39. {{cite book}}: |first= has generic name (help)CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link) Revised edition
^ Staff (1998). "Enneagram Type One". The Enneagram Institute. Retrieved 2009-08-19. From Wisdom of the Enneagram.
^ Riso, Don Richard (author) and Hudson, Ross (editor). Understanding the Enneagram: The Practical Guide to Personality Types. p. 38. {{cite book}}: |first= has generic name (help)CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link) Revised edition
^ Riso, Don Richard (author) and Hudson, Ross (editor). Understanding the Enneagram: The Practical Guide to Personality Types. p. 38. {{cite book}}: |first= has generic name (help)CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link) Revised edition.
^ Staff (1998). "Enneagram Type Two". The Enneagram Institute. Retrieved 2009-08-19. From Wisdom of the Enneagram.
^ Staff (1998). "Enneagram Type Three". The Enneagram Institute. Retrieved 2009-08-19. From Wisdom of the Enneagram.
^ Staff (1998). "Enneagram Type Four". The Enneagram Institute. Retrieved 2009-08-19. From Wisdom of the Enneagram.
^ Staff (1998). "Enneagram Type Five". The Enneagram Institute. Retrieved 2009-08-19. From Wisdom of the Enneagram.
^ Staff (1998). "Enneagram Type Six". The Enneagram Institute. Retrieved 2009-08-19. From Wisdom of the Enneagram.
^ Staff (1998). "Enneagram Type Seven". The Enneagram Institute. Retrieved 2009-08-19. From Wisdom of the Enneagram.
^ Staff (1998). "Enneagram Type Eight". The Enneagram Institute. Retrieved 2009-08-19. From Wisdom of the Enneagram.
^ Staff (1998). "Enneagram Type Nine". The Enneagram Institute. Retrieved 2009-08-19. From Wisdom of the Enneagram.
Riso, Wisdom of the Enneagram, p.19
Wagner, Wagner Enneagram Personality Style Scales, p.26
Riso, Wisdom of the Enneagram, p.87-88
Wagner, Wagner Enneagram Personality Style Scales, p.30
Palmer, The Enneagram in Love and Work, p. 29
Maitri, The Spiritual Dimension of the Enneagram, pp. 263-264
Sikora, M, "The Instincts: Taking a Broader View," The Enneagram Monthly, June 2007. http://www.awarenesstoaction.com/downloads/the_instincts.pdf
Riso, The Wisdom of the Enneagram, pp. 70-71
A Directional Theory of the Enneagram, originally published in Enneagram Monthly, January 2000.
Karen Horney's Three Trends, from Enneagram Spectrum of Personality Styles
Wagner Enneagram Personality Style Scales
Essential Enneagram Test
The RHETI Enneagram Test
The Enneagram Institute. "The RHETI (Version 2.5) has been Scientifically Validated". The Enneagram Institute. Retrieved December 23, 2010.
Newgent, Rebeca, Rebeca (January 2004), "The Riso-Hudson Enneagram Type Indicator: Estimates of Reliability and Validity" (PDF), Measurement and Evaluation in Counseling and Development, vol. 36, pp. 226–239, retrieved December 23, 2010

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