Enneagram of Personality
The Enneagram of Personality is a typing system of nine connected types of personalities.
Today, Enneagram theories are mostly from Oscar Ichazo from the 1950s and Claudio Naranjo from the 1970s. Older history of ideas associated with the Enneagram of Personality are not agreed on.
The Enneagram of Personality is popular in business management and spirituality development using books and DVDs.[1][2] In business it is used to find out into how employees can work together. In spirituality it is shown as a path to self-improvement and enlightenment. Both say it can aid in self-awareness and self-understanding.
The Nine Types
[change | change source]| Type | Characteristic role | Basic fear | Basic desire | Temptation | Vice | Virtue | Stress | Security |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Perfectionist | Corruptness, imbalance, being bad | Goodness, integrity, balance | Hypocrisy, hypercriticism | Anger | Serenity | 4 | 7 |
| 2 | Helper | Being unloved | To feel love | Deny own needs, manipulation | Pride | Humility | 8 | 4 |
| 3 | Performer | Worthlessness | To feel valuable | Pushing self to always be "the best" | Deceit | Truthfulness, Authenticity | 9 | 6 |
| 4 | Individualist | Having no identity or significance | To be uniquely themselves | To overuse imagination in search of self | Envy | Equanimity (Emotional Balance) | 2 | 1 |
| 5 | Researcher | Helplessness, incapability, incompetence | Mastery, understanding | Replacing direct experience with concepts | Avarice | Non-Attachment | 7 | 8 |
| 6 | Skeptic | Being without support or guidance | To have support and guidance | Indecision, doubt, seeking reassurance | Fear | Courage | 3 | 9 |
| 7 | Enthusiast | Being unfulfilled, trapped, deprived | To be satisfied and content | Thinking fulfillment is somewhere else | Gluttony | Sobriety | 1 | 5 |
| 8 | Protector | Being controlled, harmed, violated | Self-protection | Thinking they are completely self-sufficient | Lust (Forcefulness) | Innocence | 5 | 2 |
| 9 | Peacemaker | Loss, fragmentation, separation | Wholeness, peace of mind | Avoiding conflicts, avoiding self-assertion | Sloth (Disengagement) | Action | 6 | 3 |
Nine types
[change | change source]
The nine types are normally referred to by their numbers. Sometimes their "characteristic roles" (as archetypes) are used instead.[3] Different different authors and teachers use different names.
The "stress" and "security" points (or "disintegration" and "integration" points) are the types connected by the lines of the enneagram shape. They are said to influence how a person behaves when they are stressed or relaxed. For example, someone who is a One type might start to feel like someone with a Four type when they are stressed or like a Seven type when they feel relaxed.
Three groups
[change | change source]The types are also grouped into three centres.
- 2, 3, 4 sit in the feeling centre
- 5, 6, 7 sit in the thinking group
- 8, 9, 1 sit in the instinctual, or gut, centre
A tritype is a 3-number combination of one of each from the centres, like 269 or 458.
Criticism
[change | change source]The Enneagram mixes ideas usually accepted in the theory of personality but it has been sent away and called pseudoscience by some personality assessment experts.[4] The Enneagram is criticised for having no basis in scientific fact.
The Enneagram is mildly popular. However some professionals call it pseudoscience. This is because the Enneagram is subjective and it can't be tested scientifically. Some describe it as a test that is not reliable or valid[5]
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".[6]
References
[change | change source]- ↑ Clarke, Peter (2004). Encyclopedia of new religious movements. Taylor & Francis. ISBN 0-203-48433-9.
- ↑ Kemp, Daren (2004). New age: a guide : alternative spiritualities from Aquarian conspiracy to Next Age. Edinburgh University Press. ISBN 978-0-7486-1532-2.
- ↑ Baron, Renee. What Type Am I: Discover Who You Really Are. p. 162.
- ↑ Sloat, Sarah. "Why one popular personality test is "pseudoscientific at best"". Inverse. Retrieved 2021-02-16.
- ↑ "Page 64". in Thyer, Dr Bruce A.; Pignotti, Monica (2015). "Pseudoscience in Clinical Assessment". Science and Pseudoscience in Social Work Practice. pp. 33–74. doi:10.1891/9780826177698.0002. ISBN 978-0-8261-7768-1.
- ↑ Carroll, Robert (11 January 2011). The Skeptic's Dictionary: A Collection of Strange Beliefs, Amusing Deceptions, and Dangerous Delusions. John Wiley & Sons. p. 306. ISBN 978-1-118-04563-3.