Enneagram

A personality system that describes nine primary personality types and their interconnected
relationships.
It is a model that helps individuals understand their core motivations, fears, desires, and
behaviors.
 Each of the nine Enneagram types is associated with a number and has distinct characteristics,
strengths, and weaknesses.
The Enneagram is often used as a tool for self-discovery, personal growth, and interpersonal
relationships.
 Structure of the Enneagram
Draw a circle and mark nine equidistant points on its circumference.
Designate each point by a number from one to nine, with nine at the top.
Each point represents one of the nine basic personality types.
The nine points on the circumference are also connected with each other by the inner lines of
the Enneagram.
Note that points Three, Six, and Nine form an equilateral triangle.
The remaining six points are connected in the following order: One connects with Four, Four
with Two, Two with Eight, Eight with Five, Five with Seven, and Seven with One.
These six points form an irregular hexagram.
Your Basic Personality Type
Everyone emerges from childhood with one of the nine types dominating their personality, with
inborn temperament and other pre-natal factors being the main determinants of our type.
People do not change from one basic personality type to another.
The descriptions of the personality types are universal and apply equally to males and females,
since no type is inherently masculine or feminine.
Not everything in the description of your basic type will apply to you all the time because you
fluctuate constantly among the healthy, average, and unhealthy traits that make up your
personality type.
The Enneagram uses numbers to designate each of the types because numbers are value
neutral— they imply the whole range of attitudes and behaviors of each type without specifying
anything either positive or negative. T
The numerical ranking of the types is not significant. A larger number is no better than a smaller
number; it is not better to be a Nine than a Two because nine is a bigger number.
No type is inherently better or worse than any other. While all the personality types have unique
assets and liabilities, some types may be considered to be more desirable than others in any
given culture or group.
Type One is principled, purposeful, self-controlled, and perfectionistic.
Type Two is generous, demonstrative, people-pleasing, and possessive.
Type Three is adaptable, excelling, driven, and image-conscious.
Type Four is expressive, dramatic, self-absorbed, and temperamental.
Type Five is perceptive, innovative, secretive, and isolated.
Type Six is engaging, responsible, anxious, and suspicious.
Type Seven is spontaneous, versatile, acquisitive, and scattered.
Type Eight is self-confident, decisive, willful, and confrontational.
Type Nine is receptive, reassuring, complacent, and resigned.
 The Centers
The Enneagram is a 3 x 3 arrangement of nine personality types in three Centers. There are
three types in the Instinctive Center, three in the Feeling Center, and three in the Thinking
Center.
Each Center consists of three personality types that have in common the assets and liabilities of
that Center.
Dominant Emotion of Each center
Each type results from a particular relationship with a cluster of issues that characterize that
Center.
Most simply, these issues revolve around a powerful, largely unconscious emotional response to
the loss of contact with the core of the self. In the Instinctive Center, the emotion is Anger or
Rage.
In the Feeling Center, the emotion is Shame, and in the Thinking Center, it is Fear.
All nine types contain all three of these emotions, but in each Center, the personalities of the
types are particularly affected by that Center’s emotional theme.
 The nine types of the Enneagram are divided into Heart
Types, Head Types, and Body Types
Heart types depend on their emotional intelligence to understand their own reactions and
connect with others.
Head types depend on their intellectual intelligence to make sense of things and navigate the
world around them.
Body types depend on their instinctual intelligence to follow their "gut" and respond to threats
and opportunities.
 The Heart Types of the Enneagram
Heart types react with emotions first.
They connect with other people on an empathetic level and make sense of the world by
understanding their feelings about it.
These types are guided by the feelings connected to their emotional relationships with other
people.
They value things such as emotional support, recognition, and inclusion.
Types Two, Three and Four are the heart or feeling, centered Enneagram types.
 The Head Types of the Enneagram
Head types react with analysis first.
They connect with other people on an intellectual level and make sense of the world by
understanding the systems and theories that underlie what they observe.
These types are primarily focused on control, which they gain by maintaining stability, security,
and competence.
Types Five, Six, and Seven are the head-centred Enneagram types.
 The Body Types of the Enneagram
Body types react with an instinctive, gut feeling.
They connect with other people based on their physical sense of comfort and make sense of the
world by sensing their body's reaction to what is happening.
The primary drive for this triad is to maintain their independence and limit control from outside
influences.
They respond by being either overly controlling, overly passive, or overly perfectionistic. Types
Eight, Nine and One are the body or gut-centred Enneagram types.
 The Wings
No one is a pure personality type: everyone is a unique mixture of his or her basic type and
usually one of the two types adjacent to it on the circumference of the Enneagram.
One of the two types adjacent to your basic type is called your wing.
Your basic type dominates your overall personality, while the wing complements it and adds
important, sometimes contradictory, elements to your total personality.
Your wing is the “second side” of your personality, and it must be taken into consideration to
better understand yourself or someone else.
For example, if you are a personality type Nine, you will likely have either a One-wing or an
Eight-wing, and your personality as a whole can best be understood by considering the traits of
the Nine as they uniquely blend with the traits of either the One or the Eight.
 Levels of Development
Describe how individuals of that type may function and behave based on their psychological
health and maturity.
These levels of development provide insight into the progression from a healthy and balanced
state to an unhealthy and disintegrated state for each type.

Levels

1-2-3: 4-5-6: 7-8-9:

Healthy Average Unhealthy
 Healthy Levels

At the healthy levels, individuals of a specific Enneagram type are generally self-aware,
emotionally balanced, and able to utilize the positive traits associated with their type.
They are typically more adaptable, compassionate, and able to maintain harmonious
relationships.
They are in touch with their core motivations and can use their strengths to contribute
positively to their own lives and the lives of others.
 Average Levels

At the average levels, individuals exhibit a mix of their type's positive and negative traits.
They may become more preoccupied with their core fears and desires, which can lead to
behavior driven by ego defenses.
These individuals may experience a sense of internal conflict and may engage in repetitive
patterns of behavior that are not necessarily in their best interest.
 Unhealthy Levels

At the unhealthy levels, individuals are more deeply entrenched in their type's negative traits
and ego defenses.
They may exhibit extreme or dysfunctional behaviors that hinder their well-being and
relationships.
Their core fears and desires dominate their thoughts and actions, leading to emotional distress,
instability, and difficulties in relating to others.
Each Enneagram type can manifest these levels of development differently.
For example, a healthy Type 1 (The Reformer) may be principled and fair-minded, while an
unhealthy Type 1 might become overly critical and judgmental.
The levels of development are a way of understanding the spectrum of human behavior within
each personality type.
It's important to note that individuals may move up and down this continuum throughout their
lives, depending on various factors such as stress, personal growth, and life circumstances.
 Take the Enneagram Test
https://www.truity.com/test/enneagram-personality-test