Enneagram of Personality
The Enneagram of Personality, or simply the Enneagram, is a model of the human psyche which is principally understood and taught as a typology of nine interconnected personality types.
There has been limited formal psychometric analysis of the Enneagram, and the peer-reviewed research that has been done is not accepted within the relevant academic communities. Though the Enneagram integrates some concepts that parallel other theories of personality, it has been dismissed by personality assessment experts as pseudoscience.
History
The origins and historical development of the Enneagram of Personality are matters of dispute. Similar ideas to the Enneagram of Personality are found in the work of Evagrius Ponticus, a Christian mystic who lived in 4th-century Alexandria in Egypt. Evagrius identified eight logismoi ("deadly thoughts") plus an overarching thought he called "love of self." Evagrius wrote that "The first thought of all is that of love of self [philautia]; after this, [come] the eight." In addition to identifying eight deadly thoughts, Evagrius also identified "virtues" in opposition to those thoughts.
Modern development
Oscar Ichazo (1931–2020) is credited as the principal source of the contemporary Enneagram of Personality which is largely derived from parts of Ichazo's teachings, such as those on ego-fixations, holy ideas, passions, and virtues. The Bolivian-born Ichazo began teaching programs of self-development in the 1950s. His teaching, which he called "Protoanalysis," uses the enneagram figure among several other symbols and ideas.
Claudio Naranjo (1932–2019) learned the Enneagram of Personality from Ichazo in 1970 and then developed and taught his own understanding of the Enneagram in the United States, principally at the Esalen Institute and to his students in Berkeley, California. Two of his students were Jesuit priests who later adapted the Enneagram for use in Christian spirituality within programs at Loyola University in Chicago. Ichazo originally strongly objected to the Enneagram teachings of Naranjo and other teachers due to what he considered their misinterpretations and misuses of the Enneagram.
Naranjo's teachings became increasingly popular in the United States and elsewhere from the 1970s. Numerous other authors also published books on the Enneagram of Personality in the 1980s and 1990s.
Figure
The enneagram figure is composed of three parts; a circle, an inner triangle (connecting 3-6-9), and an irregular hexagonal "periodic figure" (connecting 1-4-2-8-5-7). According to esoteric spiritual traditions, the circle symbolizes unity, the inner triangle symbolizes the "law of three" and the hexagram represents the "law of seven" (because 1-4-2-8-5-7-1 is the repeating decimal created by dividing one by seven in base 10 arithmetic).
These three elements constitute the usual enneagram figure.
Nine types
The table below offers an outline of the principal characteristics of the nine types along with their basic relationships. This table expands upon Oscar Ichazo's ego fixations, holy ideas, passions, and virtues primarily using material from Understanding the Enneagram: The Practical Guide to Personality Types by Don Richard Riso and Russ Hudson as well as Charles Tart's Transpersonal Psychologies.
Other theorists may disagree on some aspects.
| Type | Characteristic role | Ego fixation | Holy idea | Trap | Basic fear | Basic desire | Temptation | Vice / Passion | Virtue | Stress/ Disintegration | Security/ Integration |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Reformer, Perfectionist | Resentment | Perfection | Perfection | Corruptness, imbalance, being bad | Goodness, integrity, balance | Hypocrisy, hypercriticism | Anger | Serenity | 4 | 7 |
| 2 | Helper, Giver | Flattery | Freedom, Will | Freedom | Being unlovable | To feel worthy of love | Deny own needs, manipulation | Pride | Humility | 8 | 4 |
| 3 | Achiever, Performer | Vanity | Hope, Law | Efficiency | Worthlessness | To feel valuable | Pushing self to always be "the best" | Deceit | Truthfulness | 9 | 6 |
| 4 | Individualist, Romantic | Melancholy | Origin | Authenticity | Having no identity or significance | To be uniquely themselves | To overuse imagination in search of self | Envy | Equanimity | 2 | 1 |
| 5 | Investigator, Observer | Stinginess | Omniscience, Transparency | Observer | Helplessness, incapability, incompetence | Mastery, understanding | Replacing direct experience with concepts | Avarice | Detachment | 7 | 8 |
| 6 | Loyalist, Loyal Skeptic | Cowardice | Faith | Security | Being without support or guidance | To have support and guidance | Indecision, doubt, seeking reassurance | Fear | Courage | 3 | 9 |
| 7 | Enthusiast, Epicure | Planning | Plan, Work, Wisdom | Idealism | Being unfulfilled, trapped, deprived | To be satisfied and content | Thinking fulfillment is somewhere else | Gluttony | Sobriety | 1 | 5 |
| 8 | Challenger, Protector | Vengeance | Truth | Justice | Being controlled, harmed, violated | To gain influence and be self-sufficient | Thinking they are completely self-sufficient | Lust | Innocence | 5 | 2 |
| 9 | Peacemaker, Mediator | Indolence | Love | Seeker | Loss, fragmentation, separation | Wholeness, peace of mind | Avoiding conflicts, avoiding self-assertion | Sloth | Action | 6 | 3 |
Triads of type patterns
The nine Enneagram personality type patterns are grouped into various triads of three types in which each of the types have multiple common personality issues. These three centers are traditionally known as the intellectual, emotional, and instinctual centers. Although each person is understood to always have all three centers active in their personality structure, certain personality issues are more associated with one of the centers depending on a person's dominant type pattern. In Enneagram of Personality teachings each of these centers has a more particular or stronger association with one of the triads of personality types as follows:
- The intellectual center is particularly associated with types 5, 6, and 7. People with one of these dominant type patterns are largely motivated by "thinking" issues related to fear.
- The emotional center is particularly associated with types 2, 3, and 4. People with one of these dominant type patterns are largely motivated by "feeling" and "image" issues related to anxiety and depression.
- The instinctual center is particularly associated with types 8, 9, and 1. People with one of these dominant type patterns are largely motivated by "gut" issues related to anger.
An individual's tritype is a three digit number where each digit corresponds to individual's dominant type in each of the three centers of intelligence.
Research and criticism
While Enneagram teachings have attained a degree of popularity, they have been categorized by many professionals as a pseudoscience due to their subjectivity and inability to be tested scientifically, and described as "an assessment method of no demonstrated reliability or validity." In 2011, the scientific skeptic Robert Todd Carroll included the Enneagram in a list of pseudoscientific theories that "can't be tested because they are so vague and malleable that anything relevant can be shoehorned to fit the theory."
A 2020 review of Enneagram empirical work found mixed results for the model's reliability and validity. The study noted that the ipsative version of the Riso-Hudson Enneagram Type Indicator (scores on one dimension decrease scores on another dimension) had troubles with validity, whereas the non-ipsative version of the test has been found to have better internal consistency and test-retest reliability. It was found that 87% of individuals were able to accurately predict their Enneagram type (before taking the test) by being read descriptions of each type.
In popular culture
The Enneagram of Personality was used in conjunction with astrology and the tarot in Alejandro Jodorowsky's 1973 film The Holy Mountain. Each type was utilized to create a character based on one of the planets.