SENTIENT TIMES • October/ November 2007
The Enneagram of Personality
By Carl Marsak, M.A.
The Enneagram is a psychology from sacred tradition that is based on nine personality types, which from the perspective of the true, or spiritual self, are nine illusions about life; that illusion is the natural starting place for both psychological and spiritual growth.” - Helen Palmer
The Enneagram is an ancient and sacred diagram that describes nine distinct and fundamentally different character types. “Ennea” is Greek for nine, and “gram” means point or letter. The study and practice of this profound system, which is a powerful tool for personal growth, provides insights into how our inner psychological and spiritual barriers can be overcome, our unique gifts and potentials realized, and our most appropriate directions in life discovered. As map and guide for a journey of Self-discovery, the Enneagram is suitable for anyone, regardless of religious affiliation, political persuasion, national or ethnic background, age, sex, or gender orientation. Further, because knowledge of the nine Enneatypes provides a transparent window into the underlying motivations, fears, interests, values, beliefs and habitual behaviors of others, it can also be used as a vehicle for social understanding and change. Because groups and countries, as well as individuals, have characteristic styles of perceiving and relating, when it comes to social activism and progressive, democratic change knowledge of these styles can be incredibly useful.
When studying the Enneagram it is important to remember that the diagram always stays the same, as do the number placements. However, the names for the nine types change slightly depending on the teacher and teaching tradition. Each type has a dominant trait structure, which is like the scaffolding upon which the personality is built, and in order to identify as a particular type the person must embody the entire structure of the type in question (although some individual traits will be more activated or central than others depending on personal history and genetic endowment). Most people can “come to type” relatively quickly through personal studies and self-observation. Sometimes the help of a qualified teacher quickens this process. The following are brief descriptions of the nine types:
Type One, “The Perfectionist” Believes you must be good and right to be worthy. Consequently, Perfectionists are conscientious, responsible, improvement-oriented, and self-controlled, but also can be critical, resentful, and self-judging.
Type Two, “The Giver” Believes you must give fully to others to be loved. Consequently, Givers are caring, helpful, supportive, and relationship-oriented, but also can be prideful, overly intrusive, and demanding.
Type Three, “The Performer” Believes you must accomplish and succeed to be loved. Consequently, Performers are industrious, fast-paced, goal focused, and efficiency-oriented, but also can be inattentive to feelings, impatient, and image-driven.
Type Four, “The Romantic” Believes you must obtain the longed for ideal relationship or situation to be loved. Consequently, Romantics are idealistic, deeply feeling, empathic, authentic to self, but also dramatic, moody, and sometimes self-absorbed.
Type Five, “The Observer” Believes you must protect yourself from a world that demands too much and gives too little to assure life. Consequently, Observers are self-sufficiency seeking, non-demanding, analytic/thoughtful, and unobstrusive, but also can be withholding, detached, and overly private.
Type Six, “The Loyal Skeptic” Believes you must gain protection and security in a hazardous world you just can’t trust. Consequently, Loyal Skeptics are themselves trustworthy, inquisitive, good friends, and questioning, but also can be overly doubtful, accusatory, and fearful.
Type Seven, “The Epicure” Believes you must keep life up and open to assure a good life. Consequently, Epicures are optimistic, upbeat, possibility- and pleasure-seeking, and adventurous, but also can be pain-avoidant, uncommitted, and self-serving.
Type Eight, “The Protector” Believes you must be strong and powerful to assure protection and regard in a tough world. Consequently, Protectors are justice-seeking, direct, strong, and action-oriented, but also can be overly impactful, excessive, and sometimes impulsive.
Type Nine, “The Mediator” Believes that to be loved and accepted you must blend in and go along to get along. Consequently, Mediators are self-forgetting, harmony- and comfort-seeking, and steady, but also can be conflict avoidant, lazy and sometimes stubborn.
The Enneagram is also divided into three Triads, each embodying a “Center of Intelligence” (mental, emotional and physical). The types in the Mental Triad (5, 6, 7) have issues and concerns around insecurity, anxiety, authority and direction; the types in the Emotional Triad (2, 3, 4) have to deal with grief, shame, feeling unseen and unloved; the types in the Body Triad (8, 9, 1) have to address problems with anger, resentment, boundaries, and the universal need to both individuate and stay connected to others. Obviously, we all have all these issues and concerns to some degree, but certain psychological and spiritual problems are central to and predominate in our personal character type.
What follows is a list of some general questions that as a professional Enneagram teacher I get asked most frequently in presentations and workshops. For more specific information on the nine types and how they interrelate, the reader is encouraged to go online or read some of the available literature.
Why should I study the Enneagram?
There are many reasons to study the Enneagram. Because the system provides us with a universal language, like geometry and mathematics, the wisdom encoded in the diagram and the language of type underlies race, religion, nationality, culture, sex and gender, and group identity in any form. This universality helps foster greater understanding of both what is common to all, and what makes us think, feel and behave differently. The system also connects the observable, psychological level of life to the higher spiritual levels, and then shows how to integrate the two.
The Enneagram dives below the surface of life into the level of core motivation. Each type has what we call a Basic Proposition about how life works and what is necessary for survival, and a corresponding habit or pattern of attention. Because the Enneagram is ultimately observationally and empirically based, it is self-verifiable, lending itself to scientific inquiry and testing.
Which type should I be in relationship with?
When it comes to intimate relationships, the general rule is the following: Rather than screen for a certain Enneatype, look for someone who is at about the same level of psychological health and spiritual understanding, and approximately the same level of willingness to engage in conscious personal work. The truth is that people have relationships with various types at different times in their lives, depending on circumstances and the lessons needing to be learned. We do notice, however, that very few people are in long-term committed relationships with someone of the exact same type—this would lead to too much narcissistic mirroring and psychological conflicts based on mutual projection.
Is the Enneagram a religion?
No. We have no hard evidence that the Enneagram originated within any one religious tradition, nor that it was ever used as a stand-alone spiritual practice. One of the selling points of the Enneagram—as a map and tool for the integration of psychology and spirituality and the development of higher states of consciousness—is that it can be usefully combined with established traditions such as Christianity, Judaism, Hinduism, Islam and Buddhism.
Where did the Enneagram come from?
The truth is we just don’t know, but many Enneagram teachers think that it originally was “revealed” from on high, so to speak. We have no archaeological evidence for the sacred diagram, as we would expect if it were known and used by the Egyptians, Chaldeans, ancient Indians, or the later Greco-Roman mystery schools. There is some speculative information in Ouspensky’s In Search of the Miraculous, where he quotes Gurdieff‘s opinions on the matter. If the student continues to be interested in origins there are several good articles published online by respected teachers such as Don Riso and Russ Hudson, but there is no evidence that the ancient world used the diagram as we do now, to map the integration of our deepest psychological insights with our most profound spiritual understandings, and on a broader scale to understand socio-cultural phenomena.
Do I need any special preparation to begin studying the Enneagram?
A relatively open mind, loving heart and relaxed body are all that is required. People are attracted to Enneagram studies when they are ready and willing to take a hard look at themselves, warts and all. Many come to the system in midlife, somewhere between 35 and 55 years of age, when old patterns are becoming frustrating and neuroses (what we call “fixations”) and interpersonal relationships are crying for transformation. In addition, we find people who have been on their spiritual paths for awhile and are beginning to wonder why they are not experiencing more embodied realization—in other words, why they find it difficult to actually live the spiritual teachings that they have been studying and practicing for years.
Is it better to be one Enneatype than another?
No, although the diagram is usually depicted in the vertical position, with Point 9 up at the top and Points 4 and 5 down at the bottom, there is actually no numerical hierarchy of value and function. It might be helpful to visualize the diagram in the horizontal position, and imagine King Arthur and the Knights of the Round Table, where everybody has their unique place and function in the realm. The world needs leaders, healers and educators. The world needs both visionaries and hard-headed realists. Likewise, it seems that the world needs all nine types of personality in order to function smoothly and effectively. Each type has its own gifts and challenges, and each type has its own “problem set,” and one of the goals of Enneagram work is to develop compassionate understanding of the other eight types.
Is it possible to change types?
Just as it is not really possible to change how we are sexed (male or female), nor body-type (tall or short, light or dark skinned, etc.) we believe that it is not possible to change Enneatype. Recent empirical and anecdotal research is demonstrating pretty convincingly that people are either born with type in place, or are strongly predisposed to develop a specific type by the time they have separated and individuated from the mother at about three years of age. What we can do however is become a more evolved version of ourselves. For example, one could speak of becoming an evolved, redeemed or conscious Enneatype Three or Seven or Nine.
How do I know that I have typed myself correctly?
The type that we actually are (or more properly from a spiritual perspective “have”) is the one that is most explanatory and useful in terms of helping us understand and transform our patterns of thoughts, feelings and behaviors. We can be helped to “come to type” by loving and knowledgeable others, but at the end of the day we have to recognize and validate our own type for the attribution to really hit home and affect our daily reality in any sort of deep and long lasting way. We find that many beginners would rather be an evolved exemplar of a type they are not, than an average or less evolved exemplar of the type they actually are. As a general rule of thumb, if the person initially has only or mostly positive thoughts and feelings about their type, then s/he is probably off track! This is because validation is usually accompanied by the realization that one has been overly identified with all or part of the character type in question, and that one has not been leading as deep and authentic (2, 3, 4), intelligent and directed (5, 6, 7) and individuated and personal (8, 9, 1) a life as possible, and that to a large extent one has been living through the corresponding Passion and Fixation (what Gurdieff called the “Chief Feature”) rather than one‘s Virtue and Holy Idea. On the positive side, one often experiences feelings of elation during the typing process because one has learned more about oneself, both in terms of what is unconsciously running the show from the angle of the personality, and the unique gifts of Spirit available when there has been some working through of type related issues.
Should I learn about the other eight Enneatypes?
Yes, absolutely. Most students begin by finding and learning all about their own place on the diagram. Down the road it is appropriate to understand the phenomenology, psychodynamics and spiritual gifts of the remaining Enneatypes, if for no other reason than that we have these other kinds of people in our families, circles of friends, and co-workers. Knowledge of another’s type bias can aid us in understanding and accounting for differing points of view, communicating more effectively and compassionately, and ultimately healing the divisions between people and nations that contribute to conditions of fear, anger and violence. Attending workshops, retreats and presentations (rather than just reading books and articles) is a very good way to become exposed to various type exemplars, especially to those who have become what we call “knowledgeable self-observers.”
How does one use knowledge of the Enneagram and one’s particular type to grow psychologically and spiritually?
First one learns about the system as a whole, and then one discovers his/her place on the diagram. But that is just the beginning. In the early 1900s Gurdieff used to talk about the need for self-study, self-observation and self-work, and we find that this is still the case in the 21st century. We learn about the phenomenology, psychodynamics and spiritual gifts of our own type structure. Then we engage in Attention Training Practices (ATP), otherwise known as cultivating the art of self-observation, the goal being to observe moment by moment our habits of mind, heart and behavior, and then to be able to drop non-useful habits of body, speech and mind “on the spot.” That way we reduce our own reactivity and can respond more appropriately to internal and external situations, rather than simply going on automatic one more time. Self-observation can be later supplemented with conscious work on self by having a teacher or group suggest type-related exercises custom tailored to the needs of the student. For example, an Enneagram teacher, either in a group setting or a private counseling session, might suggest that an Enneatype Two not offer help to anyone (unless asked first) for at least three months, in order to make conscious and work through the Passion of Pride and Fixation of Flattery that lies at the core of the type structure. An Enneatype Three might be asked if they are willing to not work more than thirty hours per week, bring absolutely no work home, and spend at least one day each week in an unstructured, goalless way. An Enneatype Five might be asked if they are willing to give up book reading for a short or long period of time, etc. In addition, a teacher or group can assist in providing short-term “interrupts,” for those times when type-related patterns surface.
Why is it important to integrate spiritual tradition and modern psychology?
Because without doing so, even if we have genuine and profound spiritual awakenings we may not be able to hang on to and integrate them deeply and permanently. Spiritual growth is like a triangle or pyramid that can only goes as high as the foundation is wide and strong. Otherwise, we may eventually suffer some measure of grandiosity and instability and topple over. At best we will oscillate between spiritual openings and limited and painful psychological states, and not make much growth on either front. A.H. Almaas, founder of the Ridhwan School and the Diamond Approach speaks to this point in several of his books, including The Inner Journey Home.
In his recent book Toward a Psychology of Awakening: Buddhism, Psychotherapy and the Path of Personal and Spiritual Transformation, psychologist and author John Welwood discusses a term that he invented in 1984, “spiritual bypassing.” He notes that starting in the 1970s he “began to perceive a disturbing tendency among many members of spiritual communities. Although many spiritual practitioners were doing good work on themselves, [he] noticed a widespread tendency to use spiritual practices to bypass or avoid dealing with certain personal or emotional ‘unfinished business.’” He calls this tendency to avoid or prematurely transcend basic human needs, feelings, and developmental tasks spiritual bypassing. He goes on to say that “involvement in spiritual teachings and practices can become a way to rationalize and reinforce old defenses.” The Enneagram is an excellent system and tool to help antidote these all-too-common tendencies. Some have even called the diagram “God’s Wisdom Mirror,” because once encountered it accurately mirrors back our greatest faults and failings as well as our greatest spiritual gifts and potentials, helping to keep us honest in our personal and collective journeys to greater wholeness and wisdom.
Carl Marsak, M.A. (Religious Studies and Cultural Anthropology) is a workshop leader, writer and spiritual counselor. He is the founder and director of The Enneagram Center of Mt. Shasta, and regularly teaches the Enneagram of Personality in Ashland. For more information about current and future events, please go to www.mtshastaenneagram.com, or call him at (530) 926-5750
SENTIENT TIMES
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